German Retailer Begins Taking Mac Pro Pre-Orders, Claims December 16 Availability [Updated]

[pgiguere1]

I have a feeling people complaining about price have no idea how much components in that thing cost.

Here's a little challenge:

Try to do a virtual build of a workstation with components that are as close as possible. Don't come up with unrelated components like i7s or GeForce cards that you personnally consider "good enough". Use actual workstation components that are technically as close as possible as what the Mac Pro offers.

You can even not match the fancy aluminium case, 6 Thunderbolt 2 ports and "Assembled in USA" factor, let's assume all of those things have absolutely no value to you and you only want equivalent internal components.

Post the price you come up with and see how that compares to the Mac Pro.

 

[theSeb]

Ouch. Gotta love that Apple markup for what is fairly standard desktop spec nowadays.

Please elaborate on how the Mac Pro is fairly standard desktop spec. You are welcome to use real world examples from competitors.

 

[patent10021]

Mac Mini and TBD would be grand.

I'm actually more interested in the redesign and specs of the MM more than the MP.

€ 4,000? ($ 5,435) Holy F. That's atrocious. Hackintosh community will be looking forward to this.


.

 

[osx11]

Oooh, Im so looking forward to the BTO prices. THough Im not gonna buy a Mac pro for a year or so

Apple should serously sell a matching thunderbold 2 HDD to attach to it. THere´s no other available HDD that runs silent, which is a shame when the Mac Pro is ultra silent.

The Mac Pro has SSD storage, why should Apple release an external HDD that will be louder than the whole Mac Pro?????

 

[Xerotech]

And so it begins.

 

[osx11]

While Apple seems like it is going to get its 2013 launch that it promised at the beginning of the year. They look like they are just going to make it. Presumably there have been unforeseen delays. I wonder how much of that is due to them trying to do US manufacturing.

I'm never really sure with Apple and their shortages. I mean they have had YEARS to develop this thing. I just have a hard time understanding how a company can assemble tens of millions of iPhones a year but have trouble building a thin iMac etc......

 

[HannKett]

Are the US prices including VAT? (2,999 & 3,999?)

If the prices are including VAT I will board a plane and take a two week holiday in Las Vegas and stay at the MGM Grand for the savings I did on the highest end BTO.

Question: Can I go into a Apple store and order BTO? And then Pay it there and have it delivered there?

(Here they are 4000 & 5500 USD)

 

[theSeb]

I don't want to come across as the "typical Apple apologist", but I do sometimes wonder if my fellow Europeans live on the same continent as I do.

I don't know if you guys noticed, but we pay more for pretty much everything when compared to the US, so I don't really get the rage and shock on these forums whenever Apple releases any new products.


Xbox One?

How did $499 in the US (£305 pounds) become £429 in the UK? Obviously you would never get that exchange rate and you would have to add in the overseas transaction charge and so forth (around £12-14 for this sort of amount).

Dell U2713hm - £425. In the US? $600 (£366) in the US.

I can keep going like this. This is true for nearly everything and especially electronics. Have you checked the prices of new European cars in the US versus their prices in Europe?

Also, don't forget that in Europe we actually get a better/longer warranty without Applecare than the guys in the US do, even though Apple tries to pretend it does not exist.

http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/



To the guy from Sweden complaining about his local prices: have you seen the prices of alcohol in Sweden? I would rather be complaining about that.

----------

Are the US prices including VAT? (2,999 & 3,999?)

If the prices are including VAT I will board a plane and take a two week holiday in Las Vegas and stay at the MGM Grand for the savings I did on the highest end BTO.

Question: Can I go into a Apple store and order BTO? And then Pay it there and have it delivered there?

(Here they are 4000 & 5500 USD)

No, they do not have VAT in the US, but they do have sales tax (in some states). These prices do not include sales tax, however you can buy in some states that do not have sales tax. I believe Texas is one of them for example.

For those complaining about prices in the US, or anywhere for that matter, I would challenge you to spec a computer with a PCIe SSD capable of around 1250 MB/s, a Xeon e5-1620 v2 CPU (or the e5-1650 v2 for the 6 core model) and 1866 MHz ECC RAM. The comparison becomes difficult since we don't know exactly what the D300/D500 and D700 is. We can only guess based on the specifications that Apple gave us.

 

[wizard]

No such thing in the USA. Some states have sales tax some don't. Even within a state sales tax can vary with location. In a nasty state like NY you could expect to pay between 8 & 12% sales tax.

Are the US prices including VAT? (2,999 & 3,999?)

If the prices are including VAT I will board a plane and take a two week holiday in Las Vegas and stay at the MGM Grand for the savings I did on the highest end BTO.

I can't remember what Nevadas sales tax rate is, I'm thinking around 8%.

Question: Can I go into a Apple store and order BTO? And then Pay it there and have it delivered there?

(Here they are 4000 & 5500 USD)

That is a good question. You could always have it delivered to your hotel. You might be able to rent a mail box at a package/shipping store also. The big problem with these approaches is timing.

 

[wizard]

Check this out: http://taxes.about.com/od/statetaxes/a/States-Without-A-Sales-Tax.htm, five states are sales tax free.

I don't want to come across as the "typical Apple apologist", but I do sometimes wonder if my fellow Europeans live on the same continent as I do.

I don't know if you guys noticed, but we pay more for pretty much everything when compared to the US, so I don't really get the rage and shock on these forums whenever Apple releases any new products.


Xbox One?

How did $499 in the US (£305 pounds) become £429 in the UK? Obviously you would never get that exchange rate and you would have to add in the overseas transaction charge and so forth (around £12-14 for this sort of amount).

Dell U2713hm - £425. In the US? $600 (£366) in the US.

I can keep going like this. This is true for nearly everything and especially electronics. Have you checked the prices of new European cars in the US versus their prices in Europe?

Also, don't forget that in Europe we actually get a better/longer warranty without Applecare than the guys in the US do, even though Apple tries to pretend it does not exist.

http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/



To the guy from Sweden complaining about his local prices: have you seen the prices of alcohol in Sweden? I would rather be complaining about that.

----------


No, they do not have VAT in the US, but they do have sales tax (in some states). These prices do not include sales tax, however you can buy in some states that do not have sales tax. I believe Texas is one of them for example.

For those complaining about prices in the US, or anywhere for that matter, I would challenge you to spec a computer with a PCIe SSD capable of around 1250 MB/s, a Xeon e5-1620 v2 CPU (or the e5-1650 v2 for the 6 core model) and 1866 MHz ECC RAM. The comparison becomes difficult since we don't know exactly what the D300/D500 and D700 is. We can only guess based on the specifications that Apple gave us.

 

[iPadPublisher]

Jeez... when they said "sometime in 2013" they sure weren't kidding. At this point, I expect the Mac Pro to release on 12/31 around 10pm PST. ha ha.

 

[BrockC]

Hoping the new Thunderbolt Display(s) will also be released December 16th.

I would actually scream

 

[person s]

Check this out: http://taxes.about.com/od/statetaxes/a/States-Without-A-Sales-Tax.htm, five states are sales tax free.

People in Germany and Sweden get publicly-funded health care among other things that Americans can only dream about.
A few things cost more as a result.

 

[HannKett]

People in Germany and Sweden get publicly-funded health care among other things that Americans can only dream about.
A few things cost more as a result.

Not really true. Germany has private insurance and the swedes have this:
http://www.thelocal.se/20131204/swedens-health-system-worst-in-the-nordics



I think it is cute when American marxists use our scandinavian countries as some kind of model of how life should be.

A bonus what 30 years of socialism will do:
http://www.thelocal.se/20131203/sweden-slides-in-global-education-rank-pisa-students-schools



ON topic again:

Thanks for the info! I will call the App Store in LV tomorrow and ask

 

[\-V-/]

Ouch. Gotta love that Apple markup for what is fairly standard desktop spec nowadays.

You seriously haven't a clue what you're talking about. There is nothing standard about the Mac Pro specs. There also really isn't any markup on it either. If you were to build yourself something similar it would cost about the same... if not more.

But... the markup in other countries outside the US... now THAT'S an issue.

 

[kwikdeth]

why do people make such a big deal out of the FirePro video cards? anybody who knows about this stuff knows that the only difference between firepro and regular radeon cards is firmware, and higher spec'd ram. Is that really worth $400 over the comparable product? half the reason for that firmware is to support advanced features of cad and 3d applications - most of which are not available on OSX anyway.

you need to keep that in mind when figuring your costs. the D300 is effectively the same thing as a 7870, with higher spec'd ram. Newegg was selling a 7870 this morning on special for $140.

ages ago i bought a FireGL X3 off ebay for $130 for my G5, and flashed it with the X800 firmware. saved $370 over what apple would have charged me for literally the same card. some things never change.


edit - this thread has more info, and basically says the same thing - "D300 is a gimmick"
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1657362/

 

[Wahlstrm]

VAT is for non-pros

The cheapest Mac Pro costs 3,000 USD in the US, but comes at a revolutionary high price of 4,300 USD (28,000 SEK) in Sweden. Yay!

I'm glad that Germany doesn't have it much better, though.

This is a PRO maschine and PROs don't pay VAT in Sweden.
The price w/o VAT is $3409.

If you buy a Mac pro at Apple store in NYC you pay about $3300 incl. Sales tax.
Still cheaper but not that much.

 

[Spiritgreywolf]

Wonder what a maxed out beast is...

I just want to see what the maximum config with 12 core, max mem, max SSD and dual D700's will cost.

If my back of the napkin calculations are correct, unless one of those isn't tied down with cables and VHB tape to a steel desk, the lure for those things to sprout feet and run away will be insanely huge...

And cost-to-weight ratio probably would put it close to solid gold - or Plutonium on the black market

 

[Pakaku]

Here's a little challenge:

Try to do a virtual build of a workstation with components that are as close as possible. Don't come up with unrelated components like i7s or GeForce cards that you personnally consider "good enough". Use actual workstation components that are technically as close as possible as what the Mac Pro offers.

What's the list of the parts?

 

[kwikdeth]

I have a feeling people complaining about price have no idea how much components in that thing cost.

Here's a little challenge:

Try to do a virtual build of a workstation with components that are as close as possible. Don't come up with unrelated components like i7s or GeForce cards that you personnally consider "good enough". Use actual workstation components that are technically as close as possible as what the Mac Pro offers.

You can even not match the fancy aluminium case, 8 Thunderbolt 2 ports and "Assembled in USA" factor, let's assume all of those things have absolutely no value to you and you only want equivalent internal components.

Post the price you come up with and see how that compares to the Mac Pro.

why would that matter? there is almost zero internal difference between an 1XXX E5 and a 4xxx i7 CPU. The only real difference is when you get into the 2xxx series E5s because they support multiple physical processors, which the new mac pro doesnt even have.

where do you get 8 thunderbolt ports from? there's only six. and even then, they are likely in a 3x2 configuration since E5 CPUs dont have enough physical PCI Express lanes to handle 6x thunderbolt channels.

same thing with the video cards. fireGL cards are generally the same as the desktop cards, except with more and/or highly specced ram. you're basically saying its worth more because apple tells you its nicer.

 

[aloshka]

What's the list of the parts?

Actually most of the parts you cannot buy from newegg, etc. Still can't find a thirdparty that does 1866 ECC that doesn't cost $1000.

I think the build you can do is HP Z620 (Decent machine), but again, no PCI-ex SSD's because they don't exist, outside of OCZ ones, which are awful crashing non-enterprise pieces of crap. Accesslior from OWC comes close, but for 950gb it's 1300 vs 1000 on the current imac (I assume mac pro pricing will be similar).

The HP comes out to around the same price as the Mac Pro with similar video cards (again, the ones used in Mac Pro are not available in PCIex format).

So I'm going to wait and buy the Mac Pro, since the costs are virtually the same anyway.

----------

why would that matter? there is almost zero internal difference between an 1XXX E5 and a 4xxx i7 CPU. The only real difference is when you get into the 2xxx series E5s because they support multiple physical processors, which the new mac pro doesnt even have.

where do you get 8 thunderbolt ports from? there's only six. and even then, they are likely in a 3x2 configuration since E5 CPUs dont have enough physical PCI Express lanes to handle 6x thunderbolt channels.

same thing with the video cards. fireGL cards are generally the same as the desktop cards, except with more and/or highly specced ram.

We haven't confirmed that the Mac Pro uses 1XXX and not 2XXX. For the 4 and 6 core, maybe. But there is no 1XXX processor for 8 or 12. While yes, it doesn't support dual-procs, there is a HUGE difference between 2XXX and a 4XXX i7. One of which is stability, (although some of that is attributed to ECC memory). Not to mention 4xxx i7 is capped at a quad core. I7 is probably clocked higher, but the second you come to needing more cores (virtual machines, rendering, etc) the I7 immediately feels like a personal gaming rig.

 

[phoenixsan]

Nice to know.....

because all the expectation surrounding the new Pro. Not planning in buying one. About the logistics and supplies, I suppose Apple can have a gross estimate of needs. And stick to that, based in projections and availability of the chips used and another components.If there are not important quality issues, maybe demand can ramp up faster.

I really wishes this new Pro success. And to Apple. But the days with overtinkering with hadware are numbered. And I will miss them. Not saying nothing about if that is bad or good.........

 

[aloshka]

because all the expectation surrounding the new Pro. Not planning in buying one. About the logistics and supplies, I suppose Apple can have a gross estimate of needs. And stick to that, based in projections and availability of the chips used and another components.If there are not important quality issues, maybe demand can ramp up faster.

I really wishes this new Pro success. And to Apple. But the days with overtinkering with hadware are numbered. And I will miss them. Not saying nothing about if that is bad or good.........

But isn't that the point of the new Mac Pro? No tinkering anymore. Outside memory, and at most the SSD, nothing else is changeable? Unless I missed something.

 

[seetext]

The school I work at has been delayed on buying a bunch of these for the coming Spring semester but supposedly someone was told that we could put our order in starting December 7th. Weird that it'd be a Saturday, but maybe that has something to do with buying such a large number preceding an actual launch day. Kinda works out with the December 10th date.

 

[aloshka]

The school I work at has been delayed on buying a bunch of these for the coming Spring semester but supposedly someone was told that we could put our order in starting December 7th. Weird that it'd be a Saturday, but maybe that has something to do with buying such a large number preceding an actual launch day. Kinda works out with the December 10th date.

I am wondering about demand though. Is it going to be like the 5s and within days skip to 3-4 weeks for delivery? I know the target audience is smaller for these, but I'm assuming so is the inventory.