Apple's latest hardware offerings were not greeted with much enthusiasm, because everyone was expecting them and there was nothing announced that people had not seen coming for quite some time. However, the new top of the line workstation and server offerings from Apple did have their own little surprises.

The biggest thing to write home about is the price of the new systems. One of the most commonly perpetuated Mac myths is that the hardware costs more than the one from PC manufacturers. However, with the new Mac Pro, there is nobody that could argue such a thing, as the machine is cheaper than even the Dell equivalent, in certain configurations significantly so.

Priced at $2,499, Apple's Mac Pro is 28% less than the comparable system from Dell (Precision Workstation 690) which is priced at $3,471. Similarly, the Xserve, priced at $2,999 for the base model, is 10% less than the comparable system from DELL (PowerEdge 1950) which is priced at $3,333. And this does not even take into account factors such as the unlimited client edition of Mac OS X Tiger, which ships with the new Xserves, while Dell's Microsoft Server 2003 edition is limited to 5 client seats.

When it comes to the upper range models, Apple's offerings are cheaper, even when you include a display. This totally blows the Macs since these are expensive myths out of the water.