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"Cheap" Mac Pro? ($1500)
- Thread starter upsguy27
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Yeah AlienWare blows!
Same thing happened to me years ago.
I went Mac and never looked back.
Maybe somebody selling a stolen one. You'll have to wait about another year before MacPros start getting into that price range.
Don't waste a single penny trying to build or buy a Hackintrash piece of cr@p.
Right. Because you'll just end up with something that costs less and performs better.
Just throwing out a "glass is half full post":
I think it is a positive thing that it is hard to find a mac pro for $1500. I think I have talked myself into ordering a refurb and glad to know that even the January 2007 2.66 Mac Pro is holding a strong value.
I think it is a positive thing that it is hard to find a mac pro for $1500. I think I have talked myself into ordering a refurb and glad to know that even the January 2007 2.66 Mac Pro is holding a strong value.
He never said anything about Mhz. He said that Intels are faster than G5s, which is true.
Yikes.
Why so much hate? If you really want an authentic Mac Pro and you have the money then you are perfectly entitled to an authentic Mac Pro. You'll get a very capable computer, with great service, in a nice looking package.But, if money is an issue then a Hack is a pretty darn good alternative these days. Or, even if money is not an issue it's simply a fact that if you're willing to piece together your own machine and service it, then you can get system for significantly less than a Mac Pro that performs the same, or if you spend the same amount of money you can get a system that performs significantly better.
So, it is true that Hacks are cheaper than Macs. But it's not true that a properly configured Hack is a "paperweight." Mine sure isn't. I've been building and running Hacks since early Intel Mac days and I've never had show stopping issues, the systems have never died on me (and become "paperweights"), and they've always performed the same or better than similarly configured Macs for significantly less. Hell, it cost me roughly $800 to build my wife a system with specs higher than the highest configured iMac Apple currently offers. That's including a 24" LCD. I've never had any problems with any of the Apps I use which includes just about every Adobe product, Final Cut Studio Pro, Parallels, Office, iWork, iLife, iTunes, Quicktime, and the list goes on.
Maybe some people build poorly configured Hacks and don't have the know how (and it takes very little know how to set up and maintain a Hack these days). However, that's not been my experience. In fact, every time I've installed OSX (Tiger and Leopard) on one of my Hacks it's taken less time to install and completely setup than Vista or even XP. Additionally, putting the system together from parts takes about an hour.
In my situation, since I've been building computers all my life, the option is just too attractive economically and with respect to performance. For the record, I buy retail copies of OSX for my installs.
That being said, I'm interested in your argument as to why all Hacks are pieces of crap and paperweights.
getting back to the original question posed by the thread starter, I would recommend waiting till 2009 when they upgrade the Mac Pro (maybe January?). After they upgrade the Mac Pro, I would guess an older used quad core model might go for around $1400 and a used 8 core model for around $1800.
Do not go older than the quad core intel Mac Pro, you'll already be obsolete.
Do not go older than the quad core intel Mac Pro, you'll already be obsolete.
Do you mean the single chip quads or the 2x2 quads? IMO, if you're dead set on getting a Mac Pro, I'd go no older than the single chip quads. A bare bones single chip quad Mac Pro goes for $2300 right now. I suppose you'd be able to find them for close to $1500 after a refresh. The problem, as I see it, would be actually finding a single chip quad core Mac Pro. I've never even seen one "in the wild." I know people have them but they seem rare. It took me quite a long time to find one on Geekbench to bench against.
I seen a guy selling one for $1900 a couple of weeks ago the system didn't last over night, when I got up in the morning it was already sold. As to the $1500 after the refresh good luck with that just about every quad 2.66 I have seen go was at around $2000+ level, the newer quads I imagine will not be going lower than that either..
You can get used 20" ACDs for ~$350 and 2.7GHz G5s for under $900. Just bare in mind that a dual 2.7 G5 might be 3 and a half years old.
Looking at completed searches on eBay I see several Mac Pros that have gone for $1500-$1650 in the past couple of weeks (to be fair I didn't check shipping prices, but it's $100 on the G5). You just need to monitor eBay often and try find a buy it now. A 2.0GHz Mac Pro will be around the same speed as the 2.7, but with more cores offers more processing power, 2.66GHz will be 33% fastergive or take. I really wouldn't buy a G5 with Snow Leopard being Intel only.
Yeah, but $1500 is all I have. I don't know where I'll get a monitor if I buy a $1500 Mac Pro >_>
There was a 2.66 quad sold here locally a few weeks ago for $1,200 (not kidding). so, the deals are out there. You just have to be ready to take advantage of them.
-mx
-mx
Wow.
That probably happens like once a year, though. Someone on the first page of this thread said they were selling a few Mac Pros for $1500, so if that works out, then . But if not, I'll have to hound eBay till someone lists a $1500 Mac Pro. I still don't know where I'll get a monitor. What's a good, but cheap 20-22" LCD monitor?
Good for you that is a bargain considering it has 8gb of ram in it that has to be worth 400-500 all on its own, wireless n card... I'd say you made out pretty good there.
Yeah, I'd say I was pretty lucky to get that deal. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't bid on one that I was watching; it sold for only $1450.
Yeah, I'd say I was pretty lucky to get that deal. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't bid on one that I was watching; it sold for only $1450.
Well you really don't know what the other person max bid was so there is no way to know how much extra you would have paid over $1450 no need to regret not getting it.
What?? There is nothing in that auction that said as is for parts.
What? Here's the description:
You are bidding on an Apple Mac Pro with Quad 2.0GHz Xeon cores. It was used for studio work and was kept in excellent condition.
The Mac Pro has the following features:
* 8 GB RAM (4 x 2GB)
* 4 Hard Drives - 2x 500GB, 1x 250GB, 1x160GB, a total of 1410 GB (1.41TB)
* 802.11n wireless installed
* Superdrive DVD R/W
* Dual DVI ports
* Dual Gigabit Ethernet
* Keyboard and Mouse included
* OS X 10.5 Leopard installed
Buyer pays $35 shipping to the continental U.S., insurance included.
That's true.
I posted my 2Ghz mac pro on macnn.. http://forums.macnn.com/marketplace . I use the same name over there. Been over there for years but haven't posted much over here. You can look at it and PM me if interested.
Thanks for this thread. I just got a Canon XH-A1 so I wanted to get more serious about working with video editing. I currently have a 15" 2.2ghz MacBook Pro w/ 4gb of RAM so I think I can be good with that. But I'd like to have something powerful at home to work with. Prior to this, my at home computer was a 1.42ghz Mac Mini I bought used off of Craigslist back in Spring 2006 (never had any intention of working w/ my XH-A1 on that). But we had a fire at my house recently and I'm pretty sure that comp might be bad now so now I have my excuse to get a powerful replacement.
I would like to of course get the Mac Pro as cheap as possible though and the $1500 price range seems pretty good. I'm comfortable going the used route, especially if I can get one with Applecare. There seems to be some good advice on here on where to find the right price and what to look for to get most bang for buck.
I would like to of course get the Mac Pro as cheap as possible though and the $1500 price range seems pretty good. I'm comfortable going the used route, especially if I can get one with Applecare. There seems to be some good advice on here on where to find the right price and what to look for to get most bang for buck.