Given these scores are comparing 2010 laptops with 2021 laptops, and the 2010 laptop wins (and can be bought at around the same price!), certainly if comparing a 15 year old workstation with cheapest available machine today, yes, the 15 year old Dell will exceed the performance of at least some new machines.
Note:
- Xeon in Mac Pro in 2010 rated 611 single, 6280 multi
By comparison, in 2008 Mac Pro workstation:
- Intel Xeon E5462 2800 MHz (8 cores) rated 420 single and 2540 multi
Dell workstations at that time supported 5400 series Xeons.
The current version of the Liva has a bit more generous specs, at up to 8 GB of RAM and up to 128 GB of internal storage. A Raspberry Pi (if you can find one) or one of the Rockchip SBCs could also be a low-end desktop. I think the point is made, though, that when I mention the true low end of desktop machines the Mac Mini is not even part of the same conversation.
Of course not, because the M1 Mac Mini is not a low end desktop. That's the whole point multiple people have missed here, and I'm glad you're not one of them.
The fact that there are even lower-end options doesn't mean that that it isn't a low-end machine. It is a very large spectrum, from a Raspberry Pi on one end to dual-cpu 2x64-core Threadrippers with gigabytes of RAM on the other. The Mac Mini is certainly on the lower end of this spectrum.
Let's pretend we're Slashdot for a second and use a car analogy. The least expensive part of Alfa Romeo's line or Ferrari's line is not a low-end car. Even Porsche with the Cayenne, much lower-tier than the rest of their stable, is not selling a low-end vehicle.
There's a very large spectrum, yes. Apple's least expensive system is maybe near the bottom of middle tier with no options but can be ordered in a configuration pushing $2000. Their most expensive machines are near the top of the middle tier or the bottom of the top tier. I think you meant to mention terabytes of RAM for the high end rather than gigabytes. I think of things like the Talos II as top-end workstations - something that starts around $9k and can easily be configured to close in on $40k for a single desktop workstation.
None of this suggests that because Apple doesn't sell a less expensive machine that they cater a product to the low end. They actually, truth be told, sell a less expensive machine that the Mini, because the Air includes a screen, keyboard, pointing device, and battery in its price. If you compare an M1 Air to the low end of laptops and other mid-tier laptops, you'll see it's closer to mid-tier than low-end in pretty much every way.
I very specifically do not think they do. I asked if the parent post, by implying the Mac Mini is an entry level desktop, intended to compare them. Context is fundamental to reading threaded discussions.
I’m not following what you are saying if my interpretation was wrong then, and this comment didn’t really clear it up for me. But I guess we can just agree to disagree?
I think you might be agreeing. They are saying that the M1 Mac Mini is far more powerful than these low end devices, hence "Apple doesn't make low end devices".
