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I'm aware of the value for money with Macs, but so many PC users look at their fugly beige box add up the sum of their components and declare Macs as underpowered and grosely overpriced. These people seriously need to get out of their basements and go see a Mac to relise firsthand that there exists nothing in the PC market that comes even close to the quality of a G5 case, or the overall build quality of an iMac.

"..there exists nothing in the PC market that comes even close to the quality of a G5 case, or the overall build quality of an iMac".
See your point, but there are quality cases for pcs too, and since there are countless pc-makers thats kind of an overstatement, dont you think?

"These people seriously need to get out of their basements and go see a Mac to relise firsthand that there exists nothing in the PC market that comes even close to the quality of a G5 case, or the overall build quality of an iMac."

This is typically part of the Apple problem. People who use other sorts of machines are not living in their basements, the contemptuous reference is, at best, pure snobbery, and often borders on something even less attractive. And if you have actually looked at modern SFF stuff from the same Far Eastern manufacturers that Apple uses, you would see that it is just as well built, and in fact rather better designed.

Look for instance at the Antec 180. In cooling and quiet it far exceeds a PowerMac. Look at Shuttle, or the Asus small form factor machines. They are well built, quiet and cool.

This sort of random abuse of the rest of the world is the most unattractive aspect of the Apple culture.

All the same, it remains true that the particular model Thom was reviewing, though a bit more expensive, is not outlandishly so for what you get. But that's as far as you can go.

Is there really nothing that comes close in quality to the PowerMac build?

This is the usual nonsense of course. If you read Rayiners very careful review of the design, you see that it is not particularly good quality. It is very heavy. Its case is made of very thick plate. But this is actually, however appealing it may be aesthetically, not functionally good design. It makes it noisier. Again, read Rayiners review about fans. In the interests apparently of an aesthetically pleasing interior layout, you find that air flow has been serverely damaged and thus noise raised. You can tell this just by reading the Mac newsgroups, also, where the real story is published. If you want to see good design in cases, you have to look at Antec. Form totally subordinated to function, with the result that performance is outstanding.

Then, nothing coming close to the iMac.

I'm not knocking it, its fine. But if you want quality in a screen hardware wise, look at some of the glass fronted ones that are coming from major suppliers now. The build quality is definitely higher. If you want a really nice compact system, a Formac 19 or 20 inch screen with a good Shuttle will be at least as well built, and better performing. The glass screens now being sold under the Xerox brand in Europe are also better.

Unlike the fanatics, I do not say that anyone who buys a Mac is an idiot or must have various undesirable personal characteristics, or shop at some store I feel is ridiculous, or.....a whole host of other perfectly ordinary characteristics they seem to regard as insults.

Its a perfectly reasonable thing to do with your money.

But, no, it is not second to none in quality or performance, and its more expensive. Sometimes a bit, sometimes a lot.

Define "quality"? The G5 case is horrible where it counts (expandability, ergonomics, hell transportability). There are several other cases in the PC world that I'd rank above the G5's.