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What's perhaps even more amazing is that a PowerMac with a single
dual-core chip really just isn't much cheaper than a similarly
configured PowerMac with 2 single-core chips in it.
I'm not sure why you would expect the box to be priced all that much
differently. Though, I'm not sure why there is a choice either.
OTOH, there *is* a difference in the chipsets.
Well, in the PC world a system with a single dual-core chip tends to
be quite a bit cheaper than one with a pair of single-core chips. I
would have expected Apple to at least make an effort at lowering their
costs, but they really haven't at all.
For example, if you compare a Dell Precision 380 with a single
dual-core Pentium D chip to a Precision 470 with a pair of single-core
Xeon chips you get a savings of almost $400.
Precision 380 with 1 dual-core Pentium D 840 (3.2GHz): $2,251
Precision 470 with 2 single-core Xeon 3.2GHz: $2,642
Yawn.
Now obviously there's more too it than just that. However the basic
fact is that it SHOULD be a lot easier/cheaper to build a system with
a single dual-core chip than an otherwise similar system with a pair
of single-core chips.
With Apple's pricing though their system with a single dual-core chip is
basically the same as an equal clock speed pair of single-core chips.
Sure they've made some improvements from the old system to the new one,
but they're fairly few and far between.