Really?
You are talking about "building something like a Mac Pro but cheaper. First: Your components don't match those from the Mac Pro, your processor , an ES -1650 is 3.2 G, and the one at the $2,999 Mac Pro is 3.7; you talk about 256gb SSD at $140, and yes, that's the price you can get that kind of memory... for mSATA; for PCI Express, the one the Mac Pro Uses, and much faster than mSATA is more expensive. You talk about a motherboard for $160, but... what kind of motherboard?? Because that's the part that will do the components, and the architecture to bring all the performance of the computer, and that price: 160, well, that's the price for motherboards that support i5, i7, but motherboards that support Ivy Bridge and can use thunderbolt are about double the price.
finally: yo make the math for those components, but... you're not even talking about the gabinet, the connectors, all the additional hardware you need to build the computer, and yes, there's been already comparisons between the Mac Pro and other servers that use the same processor and very similar configurations, and they are about the same price, some of them even more expensive and are bigger and even slower, so THERE'S the innovation factor for the Mac Pro: to have a good price-performance ratio and to be very small, silent and efficient. So no: it's not very easy to make a custom-made computer that will be similar in performance to a Mac Pro and will be cheaper.
E5-1650 - $550
2 Firepro D500 - $490 a piece ($980)
12 GB DDR3 1866 ECC - $180
Motherboard - $160
PSU - $90
256 GB SSD - $140
= $2,100~
Apple Mac Pro cost - $2,999
I don't even pay the prices mentioned above, anyone with Google does. I pay even less, probably $1,900. So $1,000 off. I didn't include a case or any 'innovation' though.
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"It is. Period.."
That's not how you make a point. If fitting already existing components into a smaller case is innovative to you then Apple has a fan for life and doesn't have to do much.
The retina displays are innovative. Touch ID as well. Motion co-processor. They are plenty innovative, but shrinking a tower is not new. They shrunk the iMac a while back if you heard. They shrink things all the time.
You are talking about "building something like a Mac Pro but cheaper. First: Your components don't match those from the Mac Pro, your processor , an ES -1650 is 3.2 G, and the one at the $2,999 Mac Pro is 3.7; you talk about 256gb SSD at $140, and yes, that's the price you can get that kind of memory... for mSATA; for PCI Express, the one the Mac Pro Uses, and much faster than mSATA is more expensive. You talk about a motherboard for $160, but... what kind of motherboard?? Because that's the part that will do the components, and the architecture to bring all the performance of the computer, and that price: 160, well, that's the price for motherboards that support i5, i7, but motherboards that support Ivy Bridge and can use thunderbolt are about double the price.
finally: yo make the math for those components, but... you're not even talking about the gabinet, the connectors, all the additional hardware you need to build the computer, and yes, there's been already comparisons between the Mac Pro and other servers that use the same processor and very similar configurations, and they are about the same price, some of them even more expensive and are bigger and even slower, so THERE'S the innovation factor for the Mac Pro: to have a good price-performance ratio and to be very small, silent and efficient. So no: it's not very easy to make a custom-made computer that will be similar in performance to a Mac Pro and will be cheaper.
