How would the comparison change? For the base model, the article did compare the cost to off the shelf components and it was only ~1/3 of the Apple price. At th

How would the comparison change? For the base model, the article did compare the cost to off the shelf components and it was only ~1/3 of the Apple price. At the high end, while the Intel tax eats into the Apple tax (price only goes up $7000 while Intel's listed price is $7500, etc.), it still can't out perform commodity hardware because Intel itself is in 2nd place currently. Really there is nothing new here. Some business run MacOS only software so they will have to pay the premium. Nearly everyone else using a Mac would be better off, on paper, using something else but a lot of people just like Apple computers so they too pay the price.