Which MacPro options can be purchased aftermarket for less?

[stuuke]

I was configuring a Mac Pro and was wondering which options are best purchased from places other than Apple? I've heard that the airport card and bluetooth have to be installed by a professional so I would probably opt to purchase those with the computer. Would it make sense to get another superdrive from another vendor? Where is the best place to get a hard drive right now for the MacPro? I would also be interested in the wireless keyboard and mouse.

I've seen Applecare on ebay and most people recommend getting memory from Crucial or OWC.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I was configuring a Mac Pro and was wondering which options are best purchased from places other than Apple? I've heard that the airport card and bluetooth have to be installed by a professional so I would probably opt to purchase those with the computer. Would it make sense to get another superdrive from another vendor? Where is the best place to get a hard drive right now for the MacPro? I would also be interested in the wireless keyboard and mouse.

I've seen Applecare on ebay and most people recommend getting memory from Crucial or OWC.

Superdrives and Hard Drives are a sure bet to be cheaper aftermarket. RAM's a bit of a funny one at the moment, as you may have guessed by half the threads on here. I'd still get it aftermarket though. Applecare I don't know about. Applecare tends to cost loads if you buy it separately from the system but if you buy it at the same time then its quite a bit cheaper I think. I'm guessing if you buy it with the Mac, it'll be cheaper than on eBay. The wireless keyboard and mouse are a deal if you get it at the same time as the computer because you don't have to get a standard keyboard and mouse as well (you pay less to upgrade to the wireless kit than it would cost for a wireless kit afterwards). Bluetooth and Wireless should be available as aftermarket kits if the salesman from Apple who's dealing with my order is telling the truth.

 

[technicolor]

I was configuring a Mac Pro and was wondering which options are best purchased from places other than Apple? I've heard that the airport card and bluetooth have to be installed by a professional so I would probably opt to purchase those with the computer. Would it make sense to get another superdrive from another vendor? Where is the best place to get a hard drive right now for the MacPro? I would also be interested in the wireless keyboard and mouse.

I've seen Applecare on ebay and most people recommend getting memory from Crucial or OWC.

Hard drive
RAM
Video Card
Applecare
Keyboard/mouse

sidenote:
In another thread on this forum a user claims that the APE/Bluetooth will come as a user installable kit in a few weeks.

 

[suneohair]

I am selling an AppleCare for just $140! It is sealed and unregistered. It will also cover an Apple Display if you buy it at the same time.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/234956/

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Hard drive
RAM
Video Card
Applecare
Keyboard/mouse

sidenote:
In another thread on this forum a user claims that the APE/Bluetooth will come as a user installable kit in a few weeks.

Be careful about the video card right now, there aren't any cards that have been flashed yet so 3rd party cards are mainly for BootCamp only. There has been some success in getting 3rd party cards working in OS X after a bit of a fix but its not a very good option right now and involves swapping cables around.
My sales rep definitely said that APE and Bluetooth would be available as user installable kits in a few weeks for not much more than it would cost on the models as they stand.

 

[Silentwave]

Be careful about the video card right now, there aren't any cards that have been flashed yet so 3rd party cards are mainly for BootCamp only. There has been some success in getting 3rd party cards working in OS X after a bit of a fix but its not a very good option right now and involves swapping cables around.
My sales rep definitely said that APE and Bluetooth would be available as user installable kits in a few weeks for not much more than it would cost on the models as they stand.

The X1900XT is offered from apple as an aftermarket upgrade kit though... so that can be upgraded.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

The X1900XT is offered from apple as an aftermarket upgrade kit though... so that can be upgraded.

Yeah that's very true, I forgot about that! However, its not available for cheaper than it would be at buy time for the Mac Pro. I think the original poster wanted the most cost saving way of getting what he wants.

 

[stuuke]

If I purchased from the Apple store I would go with 2.66, base graphics card, BT and airport, wireless keyboard and mouse and the second drive. There are some other vendors that sell for less than Apple but don't allow the customization. With the graphics card I thought I would get the base model now and maybe upgrade in the future. For hard drives I figured I could probably find a 400-500 gb drive for the price of upgrading the 250 and then I would have two drives. Memory seems to be about the same price everywhere. It looks like the BT/Airport and wireless mouse/keyboard would be the only thing I would miss out on and it was mentioned that user installed BT is on the way.

Does anyone have recommendations for hard drives or superdrives?

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

If I purchased from the Apple store I would go with 2.66, base graphics card, BT and airport, wireless keyboard and mouse and the second drive. There are some other vendors that sell for less than Apple but don't allow the customization. With the graphics card I thought I would get the base model now and maybe upgrade in the future. For hard drives I figured I could probably find a 400-500 gb drive for the price of upgrading the 250 and then I would have two drives. Memory seems to be about the same price everywhere. It looks like the BT/Airport and wireless mouse/keyboard would be the only thing I would miss out on and it was mentioned that user installed BT is on the way.

Does anyone have recommendations for hard drives or superdrives?

That's the spec I wanted to go for as well. However, when I spoke to them to order it, it turned out that getting AE+BT would give it a 2-3 week build time. BT on its own or AE on its own gave a build time of 3 days but together no dice. Even the sales rep was surprised about that one. I wanted the BT for the wireless keyboard and mouse and I won't need wireless for another few months anyway so I figured I'd put that in later. It'll only cost maybe $10-$15 extra to put it in afterwards and I don't particularly mind paying that much extra to get my Mac 2 weeks quicker.
I went for the stock graphics as well but bought a second 7300GT from topgunn on here for $100 shipped. I didn't want to wait 4 weeks for the X1900XT. I figure I can always sell the two 7300GTs to fund a 1900XT in the future or whatever other cards end up working. SLI in boot camp should be enough for me for now.

 

[stuuke]

For those that are interested it looks like you can get an aftermarket superdrive for $42 at OWC.

 

[Mackeyser]

those dates don't sound right

I just ordered a Mac Pro 2.66, 1GB RAM, 250GB HD, X1900 XT, 2 Superdrives, BT/AE.

The ship time was 2-4 days. Considering I ordered it late Friday, that makes Thursday, the 21st my ship date. Under optimal conditions, I could potentially get it by Sept. the 20th or as late as the 28th.

So, I didn't get 2-4 weeks.

Of course, with how strange some of this is, I have a feeling that when you order it, the order goes to the nearest assembly facility. Some facilities are behind others, it seems. I dunno.

Anyway, that didn't happen to me on Friday. Now, with all the stuff going on, who knows when anyone is gonna get their machines. I just hope and pray that mine comes as scheduled and working properly.

The rest? I dunno.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I just ordered a Mac Pro 2.66, 1GB RAM, 250GB HD, X1900 XT, 2 Superdrives, BT/AE.

The ship time was 2-4 days. Considering I ordered it late Friday, that makes Thursday, the 21st my ship date. Under optimal conditions, I could potentially get it by Sept. the 20th or as late as the 28th.

So, I didn't get 2-4 weeks.

Of course, with how strange some of this is, I have a feeling that when you order it, the order goes to the nearest assembly facility. Some facilities are behind others, it seems. I dunno.

Anyway, that didn't happen to me on Friday. Now, with all the stuff going on, who knows when anyone is gonna get their machines. I just hope and pray that mine comes as scheduled and working properly.

The rest? I dunno.

I ordered mine in the UK so you're probably looking at different assembly facilities. Oh crap. On the UK store the X1900 XT now gives a 3 day ship date. AE+BT are the same. Holy cow, that was *very* different just three days ago when I ordered. I'll have to get AE added on sharpish then. I'm not too bothered about the X1900 XT now since I've already bought another 7300 GT as stated above.