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Mac Pro in September 2009

2contagious

2contagious

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 29, 2008
755
0
UK
Hi,

I want to buy a Mac Pro with the 16% student discount in September 2009.
If I get it at the beginning of September, I can still get the Back to School reduction on an iPod Touch + Printer. Now, my question is: is it worth it going for the Back to School offer or will there probably be a new version of the Mac Pro some time in fall/end of 2009? Also, what new features could it have?

thanks,
chris.
 
2contagious said:
Hi,

I want to buy a Mac Pro with the 16% student discount in September 2009.
If I get it at the beginning of September, I can still get the Back to School reduction on an iPod Touch + Printer. Now, my question is: is it worth it going for the Back to School offer or will there probably be a new version of the Mac Pro some time in fall/end of 2009? Also, what new features could it have?

thanks,
chris.
Click to expand...

I highly recommend you buy a student developer account from ADC (Apple Developer Connection). Its $99 and the discount on Mac pros is somewhere between $500-600, far more than even the education discount.
 
It is impossible for a new Mac Pro to come out this year.

Black107 said:
I highly recommend you buy a student developer account from ADC (Apple Developer Connection). Its $99 and the discount on Mac pros is somewhere between $500-600, far more than even the education discount.
Click to expand...

Except you don't get a free iPod, or even a copy of the current OS anymore.
 
I would jump on the Back To School and sell the stuff you dont need, make some cash flow back. Better yet, if you want to save money now, I would look at eBay. You will get a better deal, plus 8%+ cashback at bing.com, and eBay currently has 8% off as well as double cash back. For me, if I were to buy a Mac Pro on eBay I would get this.

2.66GHz Quad Core
8GB RAM
2.5TB HDD
AppleCare
Total: $3199.00 NO TAX OR SHIPPING

Microsoft Bing: -$200
eBay: -$100
Double eBay Bucks: -$127.98
-------------------------------------
Total: $2771.02

That right there, is a DEAL!!

LINK: http://cgi.ebay.com/Mac-Pro-2-66Ghz-Quad-Core-8GB-RAM-and-2-5TB-Storage_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZ65Q3a12Q7c66Q3a2Q7c39Q3a1Q7c72Q3a1234Q7c240Q3a1318Q7c301Q3a0Q7c293Q3a1Q7c294Q3a50QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhashZitem2553ff018eQQitemZ160323010958QQptZAppleQ5fDesktopsQQsalenotsupported
 
I think that he was talking about the newest one. If i were you i would get the one in September with the Leopard Snow.
 
they configured the laptop lineup and lowered prices

there are rumors that iMac prices will drop...

here's hoping they can move some specs and prices on the Mac Pros later this year... they can't be strong sellers at these prices.
 
snouter said:
they configured the laptop lineup and lowered prices

there are rumors that iMac prices will drop...

here's hoping they can move some specs and prices on the Mac Pros later this year... they can't be strong sellers at these prices.
Click to expand...

Mac Pro's don't sell well at any price - keep in mind that OSX platforms account for 10% of the market and Mac Pro's are probably 0.001% of that.

Mac Pro's are targeted at creative professional shops that need rendering power. For these shops, $5K for a workstation is peanuts. These machines are not targeted at joe consumer... but if joe consumer wants to pay $5K for a machine, Apple will gladly take his money.

Apple won't lower prices unless their costs drop and since Intel makes up 80% of the cost in these boxes, you can only hope that the price of high-end Xeon chips drops significantly... which, as you can imagine, is extremely unlikely given the lack of competition from AMD.
 
2contagious said:
Now, my question is: is it worth it going for the Back to School offer or will there probably be a new version of the Mac Pro some time in fall/end of 2009? Also, what new features could it have
Click to expand...

There's always the new/fastest Mac Pro every 12/24 months, so if you need the machine now, you should get one or otherwise pick one up later in the year. Perhaps never! because there's going to be another upgrade, new case, new CPU.....
 
VirtualRain said:
Apple won't lower prices unless their costs drop and since Intel makes up 80% of the cost in these boxes, you can only hope that the price of high-end Xeon chips drops significantly... which, as you can imagine, is extremely unlikely given the lack of competition from AMD.
Click to expand...

I think that you're right that Apple won't drop prices, or make changes without a major new chip release by Intel because the Mac Pro is such a tiny part of their market it is simply not worth the executive's time to even think about it.

But I think you're a bit on the high side putting Intel's contribution to costs at 80%. As a rough calculation on the 2.26 Octo out of the £2.5k price (I'm leaving tax/VAT in on everything as it shouldn't affect the percentages) the cost of the two processors plus the chipset on the logic board can't be more than around £700 and assuming Apple's margin is 40% the Intel fraction of costs is less than 50% of the remaining amount.

Apple could easily drop prices by reducing their enormous margin but, as you say, they have little incentive to do so.
 
hehejames said:
... otherwise pick one up later in the year.
Click to expand...

That will be the exact same model.

snouter said:
They just reshuffled the entire laptop lineup based on Penryn CPUs?
Click to expand...

They changed clock speeds. The current Penryns are a speed bump from the last ones.

Apple has not kept the exact same hardware configuration and changed prices since 1995. That's close enough to be able to say that they don't do it.
 
Tallest Skil said:
That will be the exact same model.



They changed clock speeds. The current Penryns are a speed bump from the last ones.

Apple has not kept the exact same hardware configuration and changed prices since 1995. That's close enough to be able to say that they don't do it.
Click to expand...

Yes, but the recent reduction in MB and iMac prices could point to the Mac Pro line following suit couldn't it?
 
Gonk42 said:
I think that you're right that Apple won't drop prices, or make changes without a major new chip release by Intel because the Mac Pro is such a tiny part of their market it is simply not worth the executive's time to even think about it.

But I think you're a bit on the high side putting Intel's contribution to costs at 80%. As a rough calculation on the 2.26 Octo out of the £2.5k price (I'm leaving tax/VAT in on everything as it shouldn't affect the percentages) the cost of the two processors plus the chipset on the logic board can't be more than around £700 and assuming Apple's margin is 40% the Intel fraction of costs is less than 50% of the remaining amount.

Apple could easily drop prices by reducing their enormous margin but, as you say, they have little incentive to do so.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right... Intel probably represents the single largest cost in the Mac Pro... and it may approach 80% on the Octo 2.93 model, but not close on the lower-end machines.

I remember reading somewhere that the only companies really making money from PC's were Intel and Microsoft. Dell, HP and all the other participants in developing and selling a computer make peanuts in comparison. :eek:
 
Tallest Skil said:
Apple doesn't change prices without a chip change. There can be no chip change. Therefore...
Click to expand...

They've changed the price of a few machines in the past tho - without changing the hardware (or software) I mean. One time (about 10 years ago) they even apologized to everyone and gave away free laptops to make up the difference.
 
Tallest Skil said:
They changed hardware when they changed prices. My point still stands.
Click to expand...

I wish I found this thread earlier...

A good point, except the 2.93GHz CPU now sells on its own for $300. Doing the upgrade in a single quad core Pro, the cost is $500 (or $450 if you're a student. :eek: )

I also found my school discount lops off roughly $600 from the price of a dual quad @ 2.26 w/ATi card. Since a kitted single quad's price (plus 2.93 + 8GB + Ati) is on par for a stock 2.26 (with ATi), and the latest benchmarks I'd read, losing 600MHz between 2.93 and 2.26 is negligible in most apps, including Photoshop... http://www.barefeats.com/nehal04.html
 
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