I'm pretty sure the Core 2 Duo Macs use mobile CPUs, also. The only desktop chips Apple uses are Xeon.

All hardware considered, the iMac is the best bargain of the three.

I looked for the available ports on the Dell, but couldn't find them on the site. Does it have FW 800? What about 1000 BASE-T Gigabit ethernet? Lack of either of those things would be big disadvantages compared to the iMac. That's a LOT of network and peripheral bandwidth to give up.

I did like that the Dell is available with BluRay. The TV tuner would be a nice option, too. I think integrated card readers are generally a waste of space, considering how ridiculously inexpensive external models are. Of course the only card I use is used as a flash drive, so the portable card reader is a necessity for me, making an integrated version redundant. YMMV.

To look a little deeper at pricing...

If you take the "entry level" Dell XPS One and compare that with the "entry level" iMac, they turn out about the same price AFTER you have configured the iMac to be more in line with what comes with the Dell version (Dell appears to be taking an Apple playbook and keeping the options simple). The "entry level" Dell XPS One is $1500. If you configure the "entry level" iMac to have as close as possible set of features (i.e. configure it for 2 gb of RAM, go to the wireless keyboard and mouse options, and add iWork to "equate" to Micro$oft Works), then it will cost about $1478. The iMac will have better graphics (it has the ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128 mb of VRAM where the Dell only has integrated graphics at that level) and more powerful productivity apps (iWork is much more feature rich than Micro$oft Works), but the Dell XPS One will have the integrated tuner, more ports, a more feature rich keyboard (i.e. more multimedia and other controls and a numeric keypad), slightly faster processor (the Dell has a 2.2 GHz E4500, while hte iMac has a 2.0 GHz processor), a faster DVD burner (the Dell has 16x, while the iMac has 8x) and a card reader. Both have a 250 gb hard drive, a 20 inch screen, built-in WiFi, and built-in Bluetooth. The Dell has Vista compared to the Mac OS for the iMac (I consider that a win for the iMac...and based upon the griping about Vista by many, I would say that many Windoze PeeCee users might agree). Overall, seems some like a wash to me.

If you take the "performance level" Dell XPS One and compare that with the second to top iMac, then again it comes out fairly close. The Dell costs $2000 and the iMac (with similar type configuration...upgrade to 2gb, add iWork, and add wireless mouse/keyboard) costs about $2080. This time both have a 320 gb hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, and now both have the same graphics card. The differences are largely the same, except the iMac has a 24 in screen compared to the 20 in screen for the Dell...and this time the iMac has a slightly faster processor (2.4 GHz vs the Dell's 2.33 GHz), but the Dell has a longer warranty (2 yrs vs. 1 for the iMac) and the Dell now has Office 2007 Home and Student (which is more feature rich than iWork to a large degree...but then you are limited to non-commercial use for that version of Office which is NOT the case for iWork). Still largely a wash with maybe a slight edge to the iMac because of the larger screen.

If you take the "top of the line", then the Dell costs $2400, while the iMac costs $2430. The differences are largely the same as the previous version discussed, but now the Dell has the Blueray optical drive while the iMac is stuck at a standard DVD burner, but the iMac has a 2.8 GHz processor compared to the 2.33 GHz processor of the Dell. I would say again largely a wash...unless you value the larger screen, in which case the iMac gets the edge, or unless you value a HiDef optical drive, in which case the Dell would get the edge.

Overall, I think they are pretty well in line price-wise at all levels. Depending on what a person considers important, then one could have the advantage over the other.

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[soapbox] Backup good...no backup bad!! [/soap box]

I found the price disparity to be much greater with the Gateway One and the iMac.

Without knowing the ethernet speed of the Dell, I can't comment, because for my needs no gigabit or no 802.11n means the computer is outdated already. I've been spoiled by an extensive gigabit ethernet home network. 100 Mb/s connections seem slow and crippled by comparison. But the ethernet notwithstanding, I did find the prices much more comparable between the Dell and the Apple. (I found that surprising, since an equivalent Dell laptop was significantly more expensive than my MacBook, by about 50%+, IIRC, more than any other manufacturer I checked.) It would also be interesting to know the screen resolution of the Dell.

I'm not sure I agree that Office student edition is more feature rich than iWork. MS strips down their student versions pretty well. At any rate, for the overwhelming majority of users, either package has all the necessary functionality. I can get iWork for only $39 (full version, student price), though, while the student edition of Office costs $150.

The Office Home and Student is also authorized for three PC's, whereas the Office Standard is only good for one. I am not sure how this works with a pre-installed version of Office, which is why I did not order it installed on my new laptop, but ordered it separately from Newegg. It was slightly more that $120, and when spread over 3 machines, is not a bad deal.

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I am of the opinion that all WYSIWYG word processor apps are inferior to LATEX for any substantial writing project. I can write far more productively when I don't have to worry about formatting at the same time. All too often I find myself fighting inconsistencies in Word's formatting, especially its tendency to keep "correcting" my formatting "errors." Every new version seems to get a little worse about such small, time consuming annoyances. (I've been using Word since 1992.) Maybe Office 2008 will improve things, or maybe it will be worse.

Almost any desktop word processing application works well for small projects, including Word, Pages, or a host of free options. Typically I turn to TextEdit, due to the streamlined design and nearly instantaneous launch times, but could use pretty much anything.

I agree in many ways...the various "auto" things annoy the crap out of me in Word and I usually turn them off. I dislike the "auto" word select (rather than allowing you to select just parts of a word). I dislike the auto capitalize function. And so on.

I doubt that Office 2008 will eliminate such "auto" stuff. I just turn them off, however.

While there are things that I don't like about Word (not the least of which is that it is a Micro$oft product), I still use it. Like it or not, it is basically an "industry" standard. And while it is getting easier to use other non-standard word processors, it is still easier to just use Word, especially if you have to share files with others.

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[soapbox] Backup good...no backup bad!! [/soap box]