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Apple Drops Prices on MacBook Air and Mac Mini SSD Upgrades, Lowers Cost of 64GB Mac Pro RAM Price
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HELLO, APPLE!
ANYBODY HOME?
ANYBODY THERE READING THESE POSTS AND OTHER SIMILAR FORUMS?
HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT WHAT USED TO BE A GATHERING OF FAN BOYS AND GIRLS HAS BECOME SLAM BOYS AND GIRLS?
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THAT?
DO YOU EVEN CARE?
ANYBODY HOME?
ANYBODY THERE READING THESE POSTS AND OTHER SIMILAR FORUMS?
HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT WHAT USED TO BE A GATHERING OF FAN BOYS AND GIRLS HAS BECOME SLAM BOYS AND GIRLS?
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THAT?
DO YOU EVEN CARE?
I don't own, and don't plan to buy a MacBook so the memory and SSD's aren't really of interest to me. But at least the price is dropping, and they are announcing new hardware- iPads and a potential iPod Touch at least some hardware is coming out and the prices aren't going through the roof.
I will look at the iPad when it's released next week and decide if I want to replace my current one. The price is about the same as my iPad air 2 and the battery life on that one is starting to fade quickly. Not sure if I like buying something just because its new and not because I have a real use for it though.
I will look at the iPad when it's released next week and decide if I want to replace my current one. The price is about the same as my iPad air 2 and the battery life on that one is starting to fade quickly. Not sure if I like buying something just because its new and not because I have a real use for it though.
I'm so tired of Apple charging insane amounts for upgraded storage, especially with the plummeting price of SSD's these days.
Here's the new iMac pricing on a 21.5" 6-core with 16gb of ram:
fusion drive - included (wtf who wants a mechanical HDD these days): $1700
512gb - +$300 ($2000)
1tb - +$700 ($2400)
That's right - $700 for an SSD upgrade, and you should technically subtract the cost of a 1tb fusion drive (maybe worth $70), so they are charge $770 for a part that should cost $200-$350.
Sample SSD from Tom's hardware's picks: Samsung 970 Pro 1tb (NVME) - $346
WD Black NVME: $230
Plenty of budget options as well. This is essentially a $500 hidden cost to the machine from their basic pricing because you can't use your own. I find that Apple is pricey but not too crazy on the mid-range of things, but once you need higher end, more storage, more RAM, etc, you end up paying nearly double the price of an equally configured PC.
Here's a quick pcpartpicker build for a 6-core desktop to compare to the $2400 price point:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/GMWv9J
$1400 equivalent, including OS, keyboard, mouse, monitor, so 40% cheaper. Obviously not exactly the same, but the Apple tax continues to grow.
Here's the new iMac pricing on a 21.5" 6-core with 16gb of ram:
fusion drive - included (wtf who wants a mechanical HDD these days): $1700
512gb - +$300 ($2000)
1tb - +$700 ($2400)
That's right - $700 for an SSD upgrade, and you should technically subtract the cost of a 1tb fusion drive (maybe worth $70), so they are charge $770 for a part that should cost $200-$350.
Sample SSD from Tom's hardware's picks: Samsung 970 Pro 1tb (NVME) - $346
WD Black NVME: $230
Plenty of budget options as well. This is essentially a $500 hidden cost to the machine from their basic pricing because you can't use your own. I find that Apple is pricey but not too crazy on the mid-range of things, but once you need higher end, more storage, more RAM, etc, you end up paying nearly double the price of an equally configured PC.
Here's a quick pcpartpicker build for a 6-core desktop to compare to the $2400 price point:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/GMWv9J
$1400 equivalent, including OS, keyboard, mouse, monitor, so 40% cheaper. Obviously not exactly the same, but the Apple tax continues to grow.
I bought a 512GB WD Black NVMe and threw it in my old desktop for $180 CAD. I get around 3300MB/sec read and 2500MB/sec write. My Asus laptop has a 512GB NVMe (not sure what brand) and is a bit slower at around 2400MB/sec read... can't really tell the difference though once you get a certain speed in day to day use. NVMe in the rest of the PC world are pretty cheap compared to what Apple charges. It should NOT cost $250 more to upgrade a MacBook air from 256GB to 512GB SSD, maybe $100 would be more realistic... even $150 at most.
"Dropped" is fairly the right word. "Reduced" would come closer, "slightly reduced in the top price tier" would be accurate.
I can buy a 2TB USB3 hard drive for $60, and I don’t even need to deal with opening up the computer. Don’t understand what’s your point.
Does Apple have that option to save $700? Which I could buy another laptop with that and comes with a ssd for that price.
Oh boy, I really hope I am wrong, but I have the feeling the upcoming MacPro if end up being modular and can upgrade storage, RAM and video cards, Apple will figure out a way to chain users to only use components from Apple at exorbitant prices.
I can't only hope, but I guess the writing is on the wall — what a shame.
I can't only hope, but I guess the writing is on the wall — what a shame.
Dropping the price of Ram for a 6 year out of date trash-can that nobody in their right mind wants to buy.
Yeah this is like putting lipstick on a pig. No change in price on the most popular sizes.
So either spend hundreds of dollars for more space on your machine for more stuff you hardly use or use that money to buy a much more spec'd out PC that can do about 90% of what the Mac would do. How can anyone thinking of such exorbitant upgrade pricing not be driven to buy a PC instead? Maybe if they didn't make their machines so hard to get into they wouldn't have to charge so much to do a simple hardware installation.
Why you even report this? $100 off on a $1200 upgrade is insulting. Especially cuz it costs not even 1/3 if you could buy it yourself
Get a SATA cable that plugs into the Mac mini - or into a hub that is plugged into the Thunderbolt port on the mini.
Since my display is connected through one go those ports, and other uses are made of the other ports, I have a hub plugged into one of the ports. A cable connects a SSD through the hub any time I need to back up data. The Time Machine uses one of the 4 drives in a 4-bay device.
Correcto mundo.
Really?
if you see the various price they are charging based on the models (base, high end 13"/15") it is pure evil.
they are not really charging for 256 GB, 512 GB SSD, 1TB but instead the charging for the configuration, not good especially now all of the Macs there is not upgrade able parts
of course no news sites or media will pick on them (they had courage when they did same with 16GB on idevices, that to after so many long years).
Reviews should point out this flawed pricing ... SSD prices changes based on the configuration!!! lolz.
they are not really charging for 256 GB, 512 GB SSD, 1TB but instead the charging for the configuration, not good especially now all of the Macs there is not upgrade able parts
of course no news sites or media will pick on them (they had courage when they did same with 16GB on idevices, that to after so many long years).
Reviews should point out this flawed pricing ... SSD prices changes based on the configuration!!! lolz.
Well if you don't get the difference between internal SSD and an external spinning HDD, then you're right, you don't understand.
I am sure you will enjoy endless inflow of firmware updates from MS, which also have a habit of breaking what working before, creating as many problems as they try to solve. Just google Surface problems
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So what is your point then?
[doublepost=1553054994][/doublepost]The bottom line is that no one is forced to buy any hardware, you can build a cheaper one, buy a cheaper one, DIY or just plain use any other media for storage. I have Macbook Pro 2013 and I have a pair of backup SSDs in USB3 enclosures and speed is as fast as I could need. RAM is adequate cause I don't do 4K video editing on it. If I did, I would buy a higher end Pro, thats end of it, cause it is not cost, but investment.
Even a cheaply upgraded 4,1 or 5,1 beats the Trashcan. What a joke.
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It's nice to have. It's not like the CPU where they truly don't benefit from it (their tasks are usually I/O-bound).