Has anyone actually bought a maxed-out $24,000 Mac Pro?

[maclover001]

I went to Apple's site to see how much a Mac Pro would be configured with the most expensive components. It's over $24,000!!!
Just curious if anyone actually spent this much on their Mac Pro.

[Tallest Skil]

I can imagine that there are some people out there who are dumb enough to buy RAM, HDDs, and optical drives from Apple.

So maybe.

[Samarium]

I don't think someone has bought it for personal use, but maybe as a server.

[Rmafive]

NO!

Anyone with that kind of money would be smart enough to upgrade ram and hd's after the purchase. Apple charges way too much for that stuff! :D

[nick9191]

Most people buy their RAM and their hard drives third party.

[synth3tik]

24,000 is nothing. Check this out.
Also for some real "who could afford it" fun try SGI or Sun

[Umbongo]

NO!

Anyone with that kind of money would be smart enough to upgrade ram and hd's after the purchase. Apple charges way too much for that stuff! :D

You'd think so, but: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=559749

[wallstreetcrash]

24,000 is nothing. Check this out.
Also for some real "who could afford it" fun try SGI or Sun

Why pdf :o

[UltraNEO*]

Corporates often buy 'maxed out' systems from Apple without a thought about it's cost, but generally the user or the department won't be paying for them. I'm sure for those kinda of companies a $24,000 system would only be a tip of their toe in their huge pond! Get my drift?

I've seen and read of users right on those pages who've paid a small fortune for a semi upgraded out system as a BTO.
I'll keep my comments to myself.. though a supermodel has more grey matter! :D

[maclover001]

You'd think so, but: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=559749

That dude needs a good whipping.

[mperkins37]

Got my 3.2 wiht the 2nd optical bay, Airport, Upgraded the ram & Hd's Myself for massive savings. Still only have 8GB ram...

[ntrigue]

Thanks for the link. I was wondering about that conclusion.

Consumers aren't gonna buy this configuration. It's better for companies that can depreciate it over 5 years.

[MAC-PRO-DEMON]

I have 2 mac pros, one for my home use and on which I have at my work. The work on was bought in July and has a spec as followed

Processer: 2x 3.2ghz quad
Ram: 16gb (although not bought from apple)
Raid: Standard Mac Pro Raid card
Hard Drive: 4x 300gb SAS Drives
Graphics: nVidia Quadro FX 1.56gb
DVD: 2x Superdrive
Display: 1x 23ins Apple Display for viewing
desktop and osirix and 2x apple 30ins
display for viewing dicom images
Fibre Channel: Quad 4gb
Mouse & Keyboard: Apple Wireless
The computer was bought In the uk, but the
equivelant item without moniters in the us is
Around $14,000

[KítscheñÇinqµe]

I went to Apple's site to see how much a Mac Pro would be configured with the most expensive components. It's over $24,000!!!
Just curious if anyone actually spent this much on their Mac Pro. nah, steve jobs doesn't have to actually buy his macs. ;)

[Pixellated]

I have 2 mac pros, one for my home use and on which I have at my work. The work on was bought in July and has a spec as followed

Processer: 2x 3.2ghz quad
Ram: 16gb (although not bought from apple)
Raid: Standard Mac Pro Raid card
Hard Drive: 4x 300gb SAS Drives
Graphics: nVidia Quadro FX 1.56gb
DVD: 2x Superdrive
Display: 1x 23ins Apple Display for viewing
desktop and osirix and 2x apple 30ins
display for viewing dicom images
Fibre Channel: Quad 4gb
Mouse & Keyboard: Apple Wireless
The computer was bought In the uk, but the
equivelant item without moniters in the us is
Around $14,000

Picture of monitor setup?

[sash]

24,000 is nothing. Check this out.
Also for some real "who could afford it" fun try SGI or Sun

That's insane (I mean the price tag).

Although, for a (post)production studio that could be perfectly justified.

Therefor, that's not insane (I mean the price tag).

[xraydoc]

24,000 is nothing. Check this out.
Also for some real "who could afford it" fun try SGI or Sun

Hey, at least shipping is free!

[CaptainChunk]

Yep, Losenrout bought one of those uber-expensive BTO Mac Pros a few weeks back because he was "blessed" to be able to afford one. And from everything I can tell from his thread, he's mostly a casual user who dabbles in high-end programs from time to time.

But he's also one of those guys who can probably buy a Bentley Arnage without blinking...

24,000 is nothing. Check this out.
Also for some real "who could afford it" fun try SGI or Sun



Or a full-blown Avid workstation. ;)

[zmttoxics]

You'd think so, but: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=559749

Not surprising. Larger storage storage arrays get into the 6 figures easy. At those costs you are willing to pay someone else to build it because then they can fix it under warranty when your new green sys admin breaks it. :D

Good example: http://www.sun.com/storagetek/disk_systems/data_center/9990v/

[nanofrog]

Good example: http://www.sun.com/storagetek/disk_systems/data_center/9990v/
You do realize this qualifies as torture don't you?
I'd think a human being is only capable of so much drooling. :D :p

[Sehnsucht]

OK, I know, I know...as a 20-year-old out of high school I should be SAVING MY MONEY. And be content with the 1-month old aluminum iMac that I've got. :rolleyes: I know it sounds crazy but, if I had $25,000, I'd configure a Mac Pro for $19,000 and buy a car with the rest. :D Why? Well, maybe I'm just showing my ignorance but upgrading a basic system with third-party HDs, RAM and graphics cards sounds like such a huge pain in the ass...having to cajole with hunting them down and finding reputable sources...and then who knows...after all that trouble, what if the new components decide to take a humongous s!@# on me anyway? I know upgrading the Mac Pro is pretty easy but I really just wouldn't want to mess with it. So I guess what I'm saying is, IF I had the money, ordering an almost-maxed-out Mac Pro would be simply a matter of extremely pricey convenience. (And let's face it, by the time I have $25,000, the Mac Pro will ship with 8 10.5GHz processors and twelve trillion terabytes of RAM standard!) :D

[Sehnsucht]

You do realize this qualifies as torture don't you?
I'd think a human being is only capable of so much drooling. :D :p

LOL, that should be the next iPod classic :D

[Exman]

If my daddy owns an oil company, I'd get a couple plus a couple of the best Eizo monitors available. It'd get great for facebook :rolleyes:

[zmttoxics]

You do realize this qualifies as torture don't you?
I'd think a human being is only capable of so much drooling. :D :p

What would you do with a petabyte anyways! I know you don't have that man songs on iTunes. :cool::D

[pwn247]

I don't think I would ever spend over $4000 for a computer. :eek: $4000 is my very, very, very maximum.

I spent $1,999 on my Mac Pro, and I love it to death. Just don't buy any hardware components from Apple (other than the video card, of course). I upgraded the RAM an extra 2GB, and added a 500GB HD. Both of these would've cost me at least $400-500 from Apple, I managed to do it for under $200 from NewEgg.com :D

[mickbab]

if I had $25,000, I'd configure a Mac Pro for $19,000 and buy a car with the rest. :D

Umm, wouldnt a $19,000 car and a Mac Pro with the rest be more sensible?

:confused:

[Umbongo]

Umm, wouldnt a $19,000 car and a Mac Pro with the rest be more sensible?

:confused:

Cars depreciate faster than Mac Pros ;)

[pixelbird]

One thing to consider: If you order everything built from the factory, you're pretty much assured of care and warranty issues remaining intact. That's important to me.

Being a Mac person for more than 20 years, I prefer to stick with Macs, but I'm looking to get a Mac Pro maxed out for both video and audio. It will be used everyday for work in my studio, and occasionally wrung out in 3D animation and MIDI for the development of enableware using onscreen instruments with specialized controllers.

Therefore, I want fast rendering times for everything, but I'm a one-man operation (at least for now).

I'm on SS Disability. Any advice on how to get the gear paid for?

TIA,
Ken N.

[nanofrog]

I'm on SS Disability. Any advice on how to get the gear paid for?

TIA,
Ken N.
Have you looked into government grants?
Other than that, I'd think a small business loan would be the most likely source of funds, but not sure now due to the current financial markets. :confused:

Sorry, I don't have any other ideas. :o

Good luck. :)

[OneHump]

I'm certainly nowhere near the $24K guy, but I just ordered a pretty tricked out Mac Pro. Mine is 2x 3.2Ghz Quad, 16GB Ram, 2x Optical, 2x WD VelociRaptor, 2x WD Caviar Black, ACD 30" and 8800GT.

Needless to say I bought the RAM and HDs from NewEgg and saved a ton. I also bought the hardware through work at a substantial vendor discount. The total cost is around $7,500 and is going to be legitimately written off as a business expense.

Now the question is, do I need this much power? I doubt it, but I don't plan to have it all go to waste. I do a lot of video transcoding and we all know that more cores is better if you don't want to wait. I went with 16GB of RAM because it's so darn cheap. If Chris Pirillo can pimp a 32G USB Flash Drive for $80, then I can certainly drop 16GB of DDR2 into a MAC Pro.

While I agree that the linked poster with $24K to burn is a moron, we all know that, as enthusiasts, we have a lot of gadgets, gizmos and horsepower that we don't *need*. Just have a look at the 9x SSD RAID 0's out there (http://www.nextlevelhardware.com/storage/battleship/), or those on the Futuremark forums with triple-SLI GeForce 280's (http://service.futuremark.com/resultComparison.action?compareResultId=399229&compareResultType=19) and nitrogen cooled PCs (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/5-ghz-project,731.html).

Anyway, looking forward to moving from a PC to a MAC and am sure I'll get as much value as can be had from my tricked out Mac Pro.

[Sehnsucht]

I'm certainly nowhere near the $24K guy, but I just ordered a pretty tricked out Mac Pro. Mine is 2x 3.2Ghz Quad, 16GB Ram, 2x Optical, 2x WD VelociRaptor, 2x WD Caviar Black, ACD 30" and 8800GT.

I'd tap that. :D Be sure to post a few photos when it arrives. :apple:

[synth3tik]

A lot of people don't think people would buy RAM and the like from Apple. I am fairly sure that a few firms have. Companies pay a higher price for convenience.

[zer0tails]

For me personally, i would never spend 24k on a mac pro even if i had it as spare change.

reason being, i love the idea of starting with the base configuration and then being able to customize it the way i want as time goes by. Fixing new cards, adding more ram, getting more HDs.

Call me silly, but that was a major part of the appeal and i find it fun.

[sash]

I'm on SS Disability

I'm terribly sorry, but what's the 'SS Disability'?

sash

[IgnatiusTheKing]

One thing to consider: If you order everything built from the factory, you're pretty much assured of care and warranty issues remaining intact. That's important to me.

Being a Mac person for more than 20 years, I prefer to stick with Macs, but I'm looking to get a Mac Pro maxed out for both video and audio. It will be used everyday for work in my studio, and occasionally wrung out in 3D animation and MIDI for the development of enableware using onscreen instruments with specialized controllers.

Therefore, I want fast rendering times for everything, but I'm a one-man operation (at least for now).

I'm on SS Disability. Any advice on how to get the gear paid for?

TIA,
Ken N.

If you are receiving Social Security Disability benefits (for sash), why do you need a maxed-out machine for audio and video production? Do you make money off these projects?

[Sesshi]

I can imagine that there are some people out there who are dumb enough to buy RAM, HDDs, and optical drives from Apple.

So maybe.

Or maybe some people who care more about getting stuff done than troubleshooting individual components.

I haven't ordered a $24,000 Pro, but we have a small number of the currently $15,198 (minus monitors) spec at work, as well as more (apparently) usual-for-here specs. I used to have three 3.2/8-16Gb/FX5600/SAS RAIDed (once again, no third party stuff) examples at home but two are now awaiting disposal, having been supplanted by Dell Precisions.

[sash]

Social Security Disability benefits (for sash)

Thanks!

Sales rap may drop some percentage for you, but only 'may', it's entirely up to him, there are no special programs...

sash

[Michael73]

The *only* reason I could dropping this much coin is for warranty purposes. Now, I don't doubt there are some pros out there that need a machine spec'd like this but to buy a base machine and then buy third-party RAM, HDDs, Video Cards, etc. means that if for some reason there is a massive failure of a third-party part that impacts another part of the MP then Apple isn't going to cover it with AppleCare. Having said that, the MASSIVE cost of Apple RAM, premium on HDDs and other parts is a pretty steep price to pay just to make sure you're covered by AppleCare. In fact, the money you save by buying third-party stuff could be enough to buy a replacement machine should there ever be a failure of that nature.

[sprice25]

I purchased two $16,000 Mac Pro's last year for my business.

[upsguy27]

Haha, 25,000 is nothing. Try this:

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w24/upsguy272/untitled-1.jpg

[Firefly2002]

That dude needs a good whipping.

And then a flaying =]

[Sehnsucht]

Well I dragged my mom to the Apple store last Friday...she was impressed with the Mac Pro especially...it had a (piano) keyboard hooked up along with Logic Pro and a 30" cinema display. She almost died when me and the Apple store guys told her that it can be configured to cost as much as $24,000. (Actually, it gets worse: on the way home, she called my 77-year-old grandmother, who also happens to be getting a new computer soon, and told her jokingly that we got her a maxed-out Mac Pro. :eek: )

But (and I was very surprised) my mom did say that if it wasn't for the Mac Pro's "obscene price tag", it'd be the one she'd get, because she likes the cinema displays and the "cheese grater" look. I told her it's probably going to be done away with soon so she'd better grab one quick before they're all gone. :D :apple: :apple:

[azdude]

Not *maxed*, per say, but close:

Just purchased for me at work:

8 x 3.2 GHz
32 GB RAM
2 x 300GB Velociraptor 10,000 RPM drives, striped in RAID0
2 x 1.5TB
30" ACD

Oh, and... we bought 4 of these. :)

[Mr.PS]

I can imagine that there are some people out there who are dumb enough to buy RAM, HDDs, and optical drives from Apple.

So maybe.

I wouldn't say dumb. There are people that just do not want to touch anything. They want to open the box and turn it on, nothing more. I'm sure many studios have ordered a fully configured MP before - with ram and HDD's.

[Digital Skunk]

Never seen a receipt for $25,000 on one computer... but my university comms department did drop 2.5 million on updating the building's labs with 23" ACDs and pretty high end Mac Pros.

Configuring a Mac Pro, then adding 98 more of the same configuration, then adding 99 vTraks isn't a big deal everyone.

The only thing good about buying the parts directly from Apple is that they will be covered under Apple Care, after that, it's nothing else. I still wouldn't buy from Apple but it does have it's advantages for some people.... I guess.

[MattZani]

I Have a plan for when i go to Uni.

Other than Ram & HDD's, buy a fully spec'd Pro, and one ****ing big lock lol. I decided that i would run it for atleast 4 years, so the £4,000 would be worth it (Atm would get me 2 30" ACD's, 16Gb Ram and 4Tb, god knows what in 2 years.... :D And a nice fat HE Discount....

Not needed? Maybe, but i'll probably be doing alot of rendering, so saving a few hours over the rest of the class :apple:

[slughead]

I can imagine that there are some people out there who are dumb enough to buy RAM, HDDs, and optical drives from Apple.

So maybe.

Seconded.

I heard Rush Limbaugh (the conservative radio show host) dumped $14,000 into his Mac Pro in 2006. I'm guessing the only way to do that is to buy Apple RAM/hard drives (which are CRAP a lot of the time... my first mac pro hard drive was a Maxtor (FAIL), the RAM was cheap too)

[kastenbrust]

I have one in my business for doing video work, its great however it uses more electricty than my oven haha, its a case of turning it off as much as possible.

[m1stake]

Seconded.

I heard Rush Limbaugh (the conservative radio show host) dumped $14,000 into his Mac Pro in 2006. I'm guessing the only way to do that is to buy Apple RAM/hard drives (which are CRAP a lot of the time... my first mac pro hard drive was a Maxtor (FAIL), the RAM was cheap too)

Definitive proof that conservatives are technologically illiterate and out of touch (And really rich). :D:D:D:D

[jjahshik32]

I don't think I would ever spend over $4000 for a computer. :eek: $4000 is my very, very, very maximum.

I spent $1,999 on my Mac Pro, and I love it to death. Just don't buy any hardware components from Apple (other than the video card, of course). I upgraded the RAM an extra 2GB, and added a 500GB HD. Both of these would've cost me at least $400-500 from Apple, I managed to do it for under $200 from NewEgg.com :D

Yea I agree with you, usually I'd like to spend $2500 for a nice notebook or desktop and my usual maximum is around $3500 but $4000 is my absolute maximum and I have a feeling the only way I'll spend that much is probably on the new upcoming Gainstown Mac Pro.

[Sesshi]

Never seen a receipt for $25,000 on one computer... but my university comms department did drop 2.5 million on updating the building's labs with 23" ACDs and pretty high end Mac Pros.

Configuring a Mac Pro, then adding 98 more of the same configuration, then adding 99 vTraks isn't a big deal everyone.

The only thing good about buying the parts directly from Apple is that they will be covered under Apple Care, after that, it's nothing else. I still wouldn't buy from Apple but it does have it's advantages for some people.... I guess.

The advantages are debatable given the comparative level/quality of expertise of many AASPs and Apple service itself (well, the fact that it's crap is not debatable), but it's something that as a business it's best to do from a cover standpoint. We've never maxed out a Pro but most of our recent ones have the full complement of SAS drives, RAID and the FX5600. Unless it's external, we don't buy third-party storage or memory.

[xraydoc]

When I was (much) younger, I worked in sales for a local computer store chain. This was back in the days of the Apple //c, IBM PC XT and the original Macintosh. Anyway, this guy comes in and wants to buy the most expensive computer we sell. "Just set me up," he says. We're plenty happy to do so, but we try asking him questions about how he'll use it, what he needs, etc. He stops us and says that he's getting a divorce and just wants the computer so his wife doesn't get too much cash.

Kinda funny.

Left with a Mac 512K, a Hard Disk 20, an ImageWriter, a modem, some software and various boxes of cables, paper, disks, etc. Spent like $7000 or so - in 1985 dollars.

[Sehnsucht]

Definitive proof that conservatives are technologically illiterate and out of touch (And really rich). :D:D:D:D

Wait, I thought all conservatives are ultra-low-income rednecks who buy PCs at Wal-Mart. :confused:

[jjahshik32]

Wait, I thought all conservatives are ultra-low-income rednecks who buy PCs at Wal-Mart. :confused:

No those are the conservatives from the movies.

But real conservatives are the people that goes to church and are real "christians" and own legitimate businesses and make good money or people that are wealthy that have traditions and legacies in their families that are considered old money.

[jjahshik32]

When I was (much) younger, I worked in sales for a local computer store chain. This was back in the days of the Apple //c, IBM PC XT and the original Macintosh. Anyway, this guy comes in and wants to buy the most expensive computer we sell. "Just set me up," he says. We're plenty happy to do so, but we try asking him questions about how he'll use it, what he needs, etc. He stops us and says that he's getting a divorce and just wants the computer so his wife doesn't get too much cash.

Kinda funny.

Left with a Mac 512K, a Hard Disk 20, an ImageWriter, a modem, some software and various boxes of cables, paper, disks, etc. Spent like $7000 or so - in 1985 dollars.

LOL. :D

[RC24]

http://silverado.cc/shop/home.php

These guys can hook you up with a $40k mac pro..