Exactly. I'm seriously considering a hackintosh now to replace my 2006 Mac Pro. I just can't justify paying for a new Mac Pro the way Apple is going.
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Apple Quietly Adds 3.33 GHz Quad-Core Option to Mac Pro
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Exactly. I'm seriously considering a hackintosh now to replace my 2006 Mac Pro. I just can't justify paying for a new Mac Pro the way Apple is going.
You're not ripped off unless you buy and find better for cheaper later. Apple can offer a $1million 2TB hard drive, you're only ripped off if you buy it and find better for cheaper later.
Why do some of you always say Apple is ripping people off? If the customer chooses to buy then who's to blame?
regarding the drive, yes 550 is alot, but does "DELL (used here to represent all other drives mentioned)" do a 24/7-test on all their drives and processors?
Holy smokes, me too. I'm actually going to have to start transitioning my software to windows. It's going to hurt.
A corei7 machine from cyberpowerpc (Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme Edition 3.33 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366) with the same specs is $1714. (Granted, their computers look like a giant, cheap toy with lights all over the place).
Time to start learning how to build computers.
Is it just intel's pricing that's killing the MacPro line? The previous gen Xeons from Apple were pretty darn competitive, especially in dual quads- where they had a fairly large margin of savings over Dell and HP. Is the ridiculous jump in price not entirely Apple's fault?
nudge nudge, Mac Pro prices have always been high... a $500 markup on a processor and ~$200 markup on a HDD seems very normal for Apple, especially on a "Pro" product.
Waiting for a "Core i9" Mac Pro would probably be wiser than buying this 1.2k$ upgrade. The Core i9 will be $1.5k in 1000s, but will have two extra cores (50% performance gain in early benchmarks).
Waiting for a "Core i9" Mac Pro would probably be wiser than buying this 1.2k$ upgrade. The Core i9 will be $1.5k in 1000s, but will have two extra cores (50% performance gain in early benchmarks).
I'd love to be able to justify getting a Mac Pro. If I were to do that some day, I'd get minimum hard drive and RAM and upgrade those from Newegg or something.
I don't think that's it. These are pro machines and businesses that use these kinds of computers and can afford it buy them to order for the convenience and just expense the extra cost. Smaller shops and individuals, of course, would buy 3rd party.
I would think that logic like "bigger companies can spend more money on computers" wouldn't hold up well in large purchase orders, or in this economy. I wonder how well the current Mac Pro is actually selling.
I agree with this. Most large companies that "can spend more money on computers" also have negotiated discounts with their vendors. They will get the prices that are more inline with reality (not build it yourself reality, but not nearly as painful). In the end, it is small business and the individual consumer that is hurt by moves like these.
Hickman
VERY easy. I did it! Buy a 3.33 GHz W3580 ($1,089 @ Newegg or less on eBay), some Arctic Silver thermal compound and a long-neck (at least 4-5" length) 3mm allen wrench, and follow the instructions in this thread. The only difference is that the thread discusses using a Core i7 975 Extreme, but just use the W3580 instead. Physically the chips are identical and all the same procedures apply. AnandTech also has an article on making a similar upgrade to the 8-core 2009 Mac Pro. You can then sell your used 2.66 on eBay for about $200. It's the exact same upgrade from Apple at a net cost that is 25% less.
Good luck!
The availability of the next generation of Xeons (3600 and 5600) is what will determine the release of the next Mac Pro.
Hum...anyone know if someone has tried to install OS X on one of those Dells?
My first hard drive was 10 Mb (yes ten megabytes) and it sold for $600. It was what they called back then a "full height" drive. Todays current drives are half height devices.
The 10MB drive were what came standard with the IBM XT. I think the XT, with no monitor or keyboard sold for about $4,200. It was a 4Mhz 8-bit machine with 1/4MB RAM. I still have one of these in my "computer museum" Also have a couple "all-in-one" Macs. I think they are the "Fat Mac"
It that is bad I have some early 32-bit Sun SPARC workstaions. The "lunch box" style "IPC" model that still has the $6,500 invoice.
Don't complain about Apple's current prices.
Hehe, in another thread, I was called "too cheap" for not wanting to spend >$3000 on a current Mac Pro. I work at a small company (about 20 people) and I also pursue other work on my own (individual).
I guess I'm the perfect demographic to double stomped by these prices.
But at that time, was there a SPARC alternative that was equal or better in performance for 40% of the price?
5%
The number for Apple's Business team is 1-866-277-3967. Account managers are available from 6am - 6pm (Pacific Standard Time), Monday - Friday.
When you order via that number, the standard discount on Mac Pros (new, not refurbished) is 5%. As I live in NYC, I actually get greater savings by buying from a third party, like B&H, and having the product shipped out of state (to avoid the 8+% sales tax. YUCK.
The number for Apple's Business team is 1-866-277-3967. Account managers are available from 6am - 6pm (Pacific Standard Time), Monday - Friday.
When you order via that number, the standard discount on Mac Pros (new, not refurbished) is 5%. As I live in NYC, I actually get greater savings by buying from a third party, like B&H, and having the product shipped out of state (to avoid the 8+% sales tax. YUCK.
I can't post the discount that our company receives, but it is MUCH higher than 5%.
Hickman
It would likely be pretty easy using the current tools in the hackintosh community. It is incredibly similar to the Mac Pro hardware wise anyway. Thing is though, most people - even pros, have little to no need for ECC memory, which is basically all that Dell and Mac Pro have over an i7 system. You need Xeons for dual CPUs, i.e. 8 cores but for quad core you don't. If I buy a new computer it'll be a hackintosh i7. I don't want the 27" i7 iMac because, as nice as it is, I already have a 30" ACD and I would like the flexibility of upgradeable graphics. There comes a time when the price differential for Apple's "it just works" hardware over a bit more maintenance just becomes too big.
Apple have also reduced the prices for the Mac Pros on the Australian store.
http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro?mco=MTAyNTQzNDQ
Used to be $4499 and $5899. They're now $3599 and $4799. Nice
http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro?mco=MTAyNTQzNDQ
Used to be $4499 and $5899. They're now $3599 and $4799. Nice
Nobody can convince me that a $1200 cpu "upgrade" is worth it on a full-blown machine that already costs $2500+. You might as well buy a 2nd full system.
Yes, maybe there is 1% of the Mac Pro user base that has an unlimited amount of money and will buy it for bragging rights...or the ability to run some extremely specialized software 4% faster than the 2nd fastest chip...but I stand by the claim that you might as well buy a 2nd full machine and get a lot more future-bang-for-your-buck than a tiny chip.
Yes, maybe there is 1% of the Mac Pro user base that has an unlimited amount of money and will buy it for bragging rights...or the ability to run some extremely specialized software 4% faster than the 2nd fastest chip...but I stand by the claim that you might as well buy a 2nd full machine and get a lot more future-bang-for-your-buck than a tiny chip.
This month I added a couple 2TB Seagate drives to my Mac Pro for $130 each.
Apple is charging 4 times as much.
Let's say I'm working on assembling twenty 5GB panorama; I need to get it done quickly for argument's sake.
How would a second system help me in this case?
Apple have also reduced the prices for the Mac Pros on the Australian store.
http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro?mco=MTAyNTQzNDQ
Used to be $4499 and $5899. They're now $3599 and $4799. Nice
nice .. i wonder if they will reduce the prices on the US store now
I talked myself into getting the 2009 Quad 2.66 because it was on sale for $2,200 on Amazon back in March. At the time there were no Quad iMacs so it seemed like an okay deal. Add some WD Black 1TB drives, 8GB memory it came to about $2,500 total.
But today it is a complete joke! The base i5 iMac has 1GB more ram, larger standard hard drive and a built in IPS screen for $500 less than the standard MP? Would it kill Apple to load up the base to the 2.93 Quad with 6GB and a 1TB hard drive to make it try and look competitive?
I fear this will be my last non-AIO purchase for my work if this trend keeps up as well. Lets all hope in 3yrs they figure out how to put 8 Core chips, 16GB of memory and 2x hard drives into an ultra thin macbook pro so I don't have to worry about paying 4x more than a system is worth.