It's almost time to buy a bunch of new hardware for my research group. We're increasingly doing things that require desktop machines with a lot of memory, so I need beefy machines.

In the one corner, we have the latest iMac 27" with 3.4GHz quad-core Intel i7. Fully optioned up (16GB of RAM, 2TB hard drive, 256GB SSD, three year AppleCare). We don't need the extra uber graphics. The standard graphics are fine. Price? $3418 list, $3143 with our Rice discount.

In the other corner, we have the latest Dell Alienware X51 with (the same?) 3.4GHz quad-core i7, 16GB of RAM, 2TB hard drive. 27" monitor (the latest Dell U2713HM), NVidia GeForce GTX 555, and three year warranty. No SSD, webcam, or speakers, but those are cheap to add aftermarket. Dell price, before I even call up a salescritter and negotiate? $2197.

This Alienware configuration also seems to be supported by the Hackintosh community, which is almost certainly how I'd want to run it. It's even cheaper than attempting to configure something close with a Mac Mini (which can't take as much RAM and has a much slower CPU). The downsides of the Alienware box are its lack of internal expansion room, its absence of Firewire (although it does have USB 3.0), and its external power supply.

Lastly, I wanted to see what I could do with truly generic PC builders. I went to CyberPowerPC.com (oh, the pain) and tried to configure something akin to the iMac above. They don't offer a comparable 27" monitor (2560x1600), but otherwise I ended up with a configuration costing $1238. Add in the same Dell monitor, and the total system price is around $2000.

The temptation is to buy a bunch of generic PCs from somebody who understands how to burn them in and make sure everything really works, with parts carefully chosen to maximize the odds that a Hackintosh will work, then make my people happy with shiny awesome 27" super monitors, which will also stick around past the next round of PC upgrades.

Thoughts?