In article <hf8t2k$7k4$1@posting2.glorb.com>, WindsorFox
<windsor.fox.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:

> Well let's see, it has a faster CPU, more RAM and a bigger hard
> drive. It came with a monitor that is the same size as the iMac had at
> the time and was just over $500. Care to elaborate on what I'm missing
> there?

you don't list the full specs of the acer, so i have to guess at some
of it.

the imac display is an ips panel and your unnamed display with the acer
is more than likely a cheap tn panel. the imac display has 1920x1080
pixels, and it's fairly likely that your display has fewer pixels, even
if it is the same size in inches. the imac can also drive a second
external display, up to a 30" panel with 2560x1600 pixels, while the
acer is limited to only one display.

the imac has an nvidia 9400m with 256 meg of vram, or optionally, an
ati radeon hd 4670 with 256 meg of vram. i'm going to guess that the
acer has a less capable gpu. a lot of software, as well as the
operating system itself, takes advantage of a gpu, and this is becoming
increasingly more important.

the imac also has firewire 800, gigabit ethernet, 802.11 a/b/g/n,
bluetooth 2.1+edr, an isight camera, built-in stereo speakers, built-in
microphone, sd card slot and optical digital audio in/out. i'm going to
guess that the acer lacks most or all of that, and probably only has
100 base-t for networking and a single speaker.

the imac comes with a bluetooth wireless multitouch mouse with gesture
support. the acer no doubt has a usb mouse, which you already said only
has two buttons.

the imac comes with os x, which is equivalent to windows ultimate, but
the acer no doubt has windows home. the imac also includes the full
ilife suite, while the acer probably has a bunch of demoware.

there are many differences, and that's why one is $500 and the other is
$1199.

and if that's not enough, i'll also point out that the mac mini server
is just $999 for unlimited users, which is slightly less than what
windows server costs *without* a computer at all, and limited to 5
users.