George Ou, hats off to you. The ZDnet blogger assembles a very nice workstation, equivalent to a US$6800 Mac Pro, for a measly $2311. No Mac OS X, meaning Final Cut Studio is out, but I figure you can use your savings for a basic copy of CS3 or go the Sony Vegas route. Not to mention, if you’ve got strong arms and a car, you could create a great luggable live visual machine. I’d love to hear from someone who actually does video, 3D, etc., and not just George, if they’ve done something similar to this. Not only is it 1/3 of the cost of an Apple, but it’s quite a lot less than a Dell, too.

Build a Mac Pro equivalent workstation for 1/3 the cost

I will say, Mac Pro comparison or no, you could do some serious damage with a system of these specs. The plummeting costs of CPUs from Intel and other components is making high-end workstations more of a reality.

Thoughts? Any Apple fans want to call BS?