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Current mac pro refurb price

K

kaufman

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
34
0
I've been sat pondering between an i7 imac refurb or the current mac pro which will be replaced by the new model next week.

I just wondered if any of you can give me a rough idea of how much the current mac pro quad core will come down in price in the refurb store once the new model is shown in the apple store. It's showing just under £2000 at the moment.

I'm still torn between the i7 and the mac pro. If the mac pro is only going to come down £100 or so then I'll have to go with the Imac i think unless someone can put a case for me forking out the extra cash

thanks
 
kaufman said:
I've been sat pondering between an i7 imac refurb or the current mac pro which will be replaced by the new model next week.

I just wondered if any of you can give me a rough idea of how much the current mac pro quad core will come down in price in the refurb store once the new model is shown in the apple store. It's showing just under £2000 at the moment.

I'm still torn between the i7 and the mac pro. If the mac pro is only going to come down £100 or so then I'll have to go with the Imac i think unless someone can put a case for me forking out the extra cash

thanks
Click to expand...

TBH if its £100 your pondering over its a no brainer for me, the pro is the way to go, ive had my pro for 2 years now and honest to god best purchase ive ever made. Although the iMac will generally have no problems because of the thorough testing of apple refurb models (so no tinting, low frequency noise etc.) generally the refurbs are tested 3-4 times more thoughaly than a new model.

Anyway problems with imac -
No upgradability, hdd, graphics most important factors for me.
Yes you can upgrade the HDD but i would hate to get even a slight bit of dust behind that screen! and the graphics card obviously is a massive thing. I got my mac pro the same time the 24" imac's started going into the refurb store. My cousin bought one, and he wishes he got a pro, the 8800gt is only 2 years old (in apple terms) and is already well out of its league!

Dont get me wrong its an awesome machine, but at the time i managed to buy a discounted mac pro 2008 8 core for £1500 from john lewis with a 4 year warranty, the newer mac pro 2.26 is only slightly quicker and in some cases not faster at all and that price went up to £2400 so with the £1000 i saved i got some pretty awesome upgrades (check the sig)

Depends on your situation obviously the pro comes with no screen, and although its lovely i cant stand the glossy screen, i use a 20" imac at work and it drives me mad. But i already had the 23" ACD, also the time scale of the computers the pro has a much longer lifetime because of its upgradability and the imac less so. The 24" of my cousin is really starting to show its age and although there is nothing wrong with it, it struggles with the newest steam games, and is generaly alot slower than the new showings from apple, and every 6 months its upgraded its not a long span for the money you spend. As soon as you buy it you know youl be able to buy it dicounted 6-8 months down the line which is kinda a kick in the teeth when your spending £1500.

I benched my mac pro with all its upgrades last nite the 2008 model and it benched at 12090, now the new i7 benches at 9500 and the quad 2009 about the same and mine is a 2 year old machine....

You would probably be looking at the £1400-1600 price bracket, check john lewis see if they have any ex display models, they were going cheaper than the apple refurbs.

Hope this helps! :apple:
 
tomscott1988 said:
.

You would probably be looking at the £1400-1600 price bracket, check john lewis see if they have any ex display models, they were going cheaper than the apple refurbs.

Hope this helps! :apple:
Click to expand...


Really helpful, If they are to be around that price i will opt for the mac pro for sure, I'll be using it for logic, recording audio and syncing up with animation.
Will mean i have to do without a nicer monitor (have a cheap acer one at the moment) but I'm finally and rightfully convincing myself it's about the machine not the screen
 
kaufman said:
Really helpful, If they are to be around that price i will opt for the mac pro for sure, I'll be using it for logic, recording audio and syncing up with animation.
Will mean i have to do without a nicer monitor (have a cheap acer one at the moment) but I'm finally and rightfully convincing myself it's about the machine not the screen
Click to expand...

There is always a compromise between these things, and although from the forums it would seem that everyone buys everything at once, generally its not like that at all. I am a graphic designer and photographer and bought the pro for my purposes and started with the basic config, 320gb drive 2 gig of ram and the 2600xt, all of those specs are bottle necks. The first thing i did was buy a 1tb HDD for £100 and i bought a discounted 1900xt and this did me for 6 months, then i bought 2x4gb sticks of ram which was about £380, then bought more drives as i needed them. That is the beauty of the pro because you can upgrade it as you need too. It doesn't need to be massively specced right away. It depends on your needs and your situation and whether the job you are doing warrants the upgrade.

Now i bought the 285 im looking for another 23" hoping to find one cheaper as i dont like any of the new displays from apple. There are lots of screens out there and you can buy good ones for about £200-400. just depends what you want. But my Pro isnt fully kitted out yet, it has two extra sata ports on the board hoping to add an ssd at some point, looking to ad a blu ray drive for storage, and it has the capacity of 32gbs of ram. When usb 3 or lightpeak comes along il just stick in a port for it, i can see this machine powering me for a good few years to come. Money well spent cheap(er) longevity, and tbh the fun and satisfaction of owning one of the best made, beautifully designed and speedy machines out there! :)
 
tomscott1988 said:
. When usb 3 or lightpeak comes along il just stick in a port for it, i can see this machine powering me for a good few years to come. Money well spent cheap(er) longevity, and tbh the fun and satisfaction of owning one of the best made, beautifully designed and speedy machines out there! :)
Click to expand...


You've convinced me sir!
Looks like i can put another 4gb ram in the pro for just over £100 which will take it up to 7gb. the hard drive will be be enough for me for although getting another internal hard drive put in there will be great for me to record and store my audio when using logic.
 
kaufman said:
You've convinced me sir!
Looks like i can put another 4gb ram in the pro for just over £100 which will take it up to 7gb. the hard drive will be be enough for me for although getting another internal hard drive put in there will be great for me to record and store my audio when using logic.
Click to expand...

That sounds great! If you are going to use a machine for those purposes then you have definitely made the right choice!
 
tomscott1988 said:
That sounds great! If you are going to use a machine for those purposes then you have definitely made the right choice!
Click to expand...

Thanks, and am i right in thinking the Mac Pro 2.93GHz quad core can have up to 32gb put in it?

It's annoying that on the refurb site you don't get as much info as you would as when they are selling it on the main store page.

Whats the best site to grab all the spec and info on this model?
 
AnimaLeo said:
Don't quad cores only go up to 16gb of ram?
Click to expand...

I'd not need more than that anyway but would be nice to know.

TheBritishBloke said:
Remember with the imac you get a 27" LED screen. With the Mac Pro you would have to pay another £700 to get the new 27" display.
Click to expand...

Yep that was one of the things that was swaying me but the screen i have is good enough, i may even be able to get another on the cheap from a friend which is exactly the same monitor so i could have a dual set up.

If the screen on the imac goes wrong I'd be in trouble with it being an all in one machine.
I want something that will last for years, work flawlessly and can be upgraded and even though those screens are beautiful things, I'm more interested in something that is quiet and keeps cool when recording as i have a tiny studio.
 
It is possible to put 32gbs into the quad, but they would have to be the very expensive 8gb modules, because the quad only has four slots, whereas the octo has eight.

Yes it doesnt come with a screen but not many pros will opt for the 27" just because of the glossy finish, there are better screens out there. Just because apple only offer one display doesnt mean you have to go for it!! There are many 23" 24" screens of significant quality you could buy, and in many cases two for the same price as one 27" ACD. In my opinion I think it is pathetic apple only offer the 27" and in its current form factor. Basically a money spinner for apple, making only one display that uses the same dreaded 27" panel the iMac uses, the only reason is because it makes monetary sense to apple! Its a good competitive price but anyone looking at a screen for 8+ hours a day doesnt want to look at glossy displays. It is down to preference, but no pro i know would buy one.

Also in my opinion 2 23"-24" screens are always better than one big screen, working with 2 makes workflow quicker. Just my opinion but i like the 23"-24" its a nice sweet-spot when using multiple displays. :)
 
tomscott1988 said:
It is possible to put 32gbs into the quad, but they would have to be the very expensive 8gb modules, because the quad only has four slots, whereas the octo has eight.
Click to expand...

That makes sense, I'll get 6gb then if i buy 2 x 4gb slots then. That will more than do more for starters.
I read something about logic 9 not being able to recognise more than 4gb.
Could be wrong on that though.
 
kaufman said:
That makes sense, I'll get 6gb then if i buy 2 x 4gb slots then. That will more than do more for starters.
I read something about logic 9 not being able to recognise more than 4gb.
Could be wrong on that though.
Click to expand...

32bit programs can only use 4gbs of ram, but most mac programs are being re-written to work with 64bit making them faster and being able to take advantage of pretty much unlimited ram (by todays terms) Logic 9.1 has a switch to take advantage of the workstations 64bit (by disabling 32bit)

heres the link

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3989

well you have 4 slots so i would try and buy the largest module you can afford, the pro's currently come with 3 1gb sticks so you only have one slot left but 2 modules will run at dual channel so you could just remove one. Generaly ram should be doubled up in pairs (dual channel) so 2x4gb modules and 2x1gb modules would give you 10gbs or you could buy 2x2gb and use 2x1gb to make 6gbs. I think the new pros use tripple channel which is why you get three, but it only has four slots, and tripple channel over double channel really wont make any difference in real terms only in massive configurations.
:)
 
tomscott1988 said:
32bit programs can only use 4gbs of ram, but most mac programs are being re-written to work with 64bit making them faster and being able to take advantage of pretty much unlimited ram (by todays terms) Logic 9.1 has a switch to take advantage of the workstations 64bit (by disabling 32bit)

heres the link

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3989
Click to expand...

Once again thank you that all makes sense
 
AnimaLeo said:
Don't quad cores only go up to 16gb of ram?
Click to expand...
8GB sticks are out, which allows for 32GB. 16GB sticks will release at some point, doubling it to 64GB.

The downside, is that the larger capacity DIMM's are more expensive in terms of cost/GB, as there's less demand for it. :(

But if 4GB sticks (16GB total) will suffice, which it should for the usage described, the Quad is fine (or a SP Hex core 2010 if you decide you want one and have sufficent funds for it).
 
nanofrog said:
8GB sticks are out, which allows for 32GB. 16GB sticks will release at some point, doubling it to 64GB.
Click to expand...

Yes realistically 16gb is the top anyone will put in there.
I've only just realised that the 2009 mac pro does not have wifi built in. :eek:
still learning about the mac pro's as I've only had a macbook for the past 3 years or so.

I'm torn now between buying a refurb 2009 model or the new model next week.
Refurb is still winning the battle purely on value for money

I'd love to know what people think, should i buy the new base model or should i buy refurb of the 2009 and then put a wifi card and upgrade the ram and hard drive.

Is the new model going to be faster out of the box?
 
Do what you feel is right for your budget

kaufman said:
Yes realistically 16gb is the top anyone will put in there.
I've only just realised that the 2009 mac pro does not have wifi built in. :eek:
still learning about the mac pro's as I've only had a macbook for the past 3 years or so.

I'm torn now between buying a refurb 2009 model or the new model next week.
Refurb is still winning the battle purely on value for money

I'd love to know what people think, should i buy the new base model or should i buy refurb of the 2009 and then put a wifi card and upgrade the ram and hard drive.

Is the new model going to be faster out of the box?
Click to expand...

Do what you think is best, the money you will save by buying a refurb will alow you to buy ram and hdd's. Probably around a £1000 saving which will buy you 8gb of ram probs 4tb of hdds and a new screen/graphics card, also mine didnt come with a wi-fi card but I bought one for £40 off ebay and installed it myself, there are loads of guides ifixit.com and on here its not hard just very fiddly!

The new quad cores are not going to scream past the 2.93 you are after the performance is very similar, because the chips are basically the same just different clock speeds, the new systems dont offer really any new offerings than the previous 2009 model unless you want a 6, 8 or 12 core and spend over 5k. That is where the improvement is not really in the lower mac pro spectrum.
 
tomscott1988 said:
Do what you think is best, the money you will save by buying a refurb will alow you to buy ram and hdd's. Probably around a £1000 saving which will buy you 8gb of ram probs 4tb of hdds and a new screen/graphics card, also mine didnt come with a wi-fi card but I bought one for £40 off ebay and installed it myself, there are loads of guides ifixit.com and on here its not hard just very fiddly!

.
Click to expand...

thanks, is it an official apple wifi card? something like this?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mac-Pro-Intel-iMac-WiFi-Airport-Wireless-020-4894-A-/330426233060?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ceef030e4#ht_500wt_723
 
kaufman said:
thanks, is it an official apple wifi card? something like this?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mac-Pro-Intel-iMac-WiFi-Airport-Wireless-020-4894-A-/330426233060?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ceef030e4#ht_500wt_723
Click to expand...

Yes like that but im not sure that is an apple official product they usually have an apple logo on them, hence the price. I would go on the apple website see if you can find the newest product number. You want to make sure the card has the newest 802.11 technology. Apple have been making these for years now and they all look the same. So to get the best out of it you should try and buy the newest one. On my lunch il have a look and see if i can find an official one. One tip tho, keep away from the cheap ones, they are usually too good to be true.
 
this gives an idea

This shows the installation, not the best pics. But as you can see form the pics the card is very small, it is also blue and has a logo on the top left better to get an apple one.

http://meanderingpassage.com/2007/0...-an-airport-extreme-card-in-an-intel-mac-pro/

Also one tip is that getting it in is very fiddly, best way to do it is to take the fan assembly out, just comes out all as on part, there is two screws one at the bottom and one at the top where drive bay one is, then it just comes out on its runners. means you have plenty of room to put the arial cables in, they are fiddly because they are small. But a pretty easy install.

I love this about the pro, you can remove everything because its designed to do it, because its designed to come out and anyone can do it, its really easy to put back together and everything is very accessible.

I had to take out the fan assembly last week to get to the on board sata ports to test putting a 2.5" drive in the optical drive bay before i bought an SSD, make sure it all goes smoothly! and it was very easy!
 
It's possible (likely) that Apple will "dump" a bunch of new 09's into the refurb stores as soon as the 2010's are available for sale.

The US refurb store only has one overpriced 8 core listed a few days before the release. Could be some decent deals next week. ???

cheers
JohnG
 
johnnymg said:
It's possible (likely) that Apple will "dump" a bunch of new 09's into the refurb stores as soon as the 2010's are available for sale.

The US refurb store only has one overpriced 8 core listed a few days before the release. Could be some decent deals next week. ???

cheers
JohnG
Click to expand...

I can't remember if they waited a week or two before they filled it with 08 models last year, but they had all 4 processor configs when they did.
 
Umbongo said:
I can't remember if they waited a week or two before they filled it with 08 models last year, but they had all 4 processor configs when they did.
Click to expand...

Good point: Holding back old stock would make sense from a marketing perspective. Apple is somewhat interested in profit. :p
 
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