iMac Pro is $1,000 Off at Micro Center Stores, Now $3,999 While Supplies Last

[kingtj]

Sure .... but just as many of us who are "power users" willing to buy a high end machine aren't served ideally by the AIO form factor. I agree with the people who said they really never used expansion slots. I finally did on my 2008 Mac Pro but only for things like adding more USB 3.0 ports or for an audio card that wound up working better as an external Firewire version (less likely to pick up RF noise from the innards of the computer). If the slots weren't there - it wouldn't have been much of a deal breaker.

For me, it's more about the monitor configuration. I absolutely want to run multiple monitors. But you can't just neatly put between 2 and 4 displays on a mounting pole with the iMac. You're stuck trying to place a couple of displays on each side of it, where they look mismatched and their stands probably don't even let them sit exactly lined up with the iMac's own screen.

I’m tickled pink with my 8 Core/32GB/2TB SSD. I have 0 interest in slots as I find I never used them after my base configuration. I buy a machine at a spec that will last for 5-9 years.

I think there is a significant subset of pro users (people making $$$ off their machines) where the AIO is the perfect option.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Doubt it. Houston is a huge city, they could easily sell 8 at that price.

Dallas is just as big I bought one early in the day yesterday. Went back later in the afternoon as I noticed the inner box was opened, so I exchanged it for a sealed one. They had not sold any more at that point. So, it just seems odd that they had a "run" on $4K computers in a few hours late in the day.
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Same thing noted with the Rockville, MD location. They had 8 in stock on Saturday, when I first found out about the sale. Now, Sunday night, it says only 1 left.

I have to admit, when I saw a full $1,000 off on this, it made me stop and think. I had no intentions of buying one before, but I still use a 2013 Mac Pro cylinder over here and I could probably get $2,500 reselling it on eBay. So $1,500 or so to put down to move to this new iMac Pro? Hmmmmm.....

Similar situation here, I have a (base) Late 2013 Mac Pro. I got $1500 today via eBay, and $400 for selling the Space Gray peripherals as well. So after tax, I'm out about $2500 to upgrade my Mac Pro. I have been itching for a higher resolution monitor than my Dell U2413, and had budgeted at least $500 for an upgrade. So, for about $2000, I've got a refreshed system that is going to last me quite a while. But I would have never spent $5K for it

High Sierra officially supports eGPU use, so upgrading the GPU is not an issue for standard or pro iMacs.

True, but there seems to lack of HEVC 8/10-bit GPU hardware accelerated encode/decode via eGPU. Plus, I was not really looking forward to adding the bulk of an eGPU in my home office.

 

[Clix Pix]

After seeing this thread yesterday I looked to see what my local Microcenter (near Fairfax Virginia) had in stock....and at the time they had ten available. I looked again early in the afternoon today and they were down to just one. Now? None. Zero. Zip. Obviously a few people in the immediate surrounding area headed to Microcenter and bought themselves a shiny new iMac Pro at a great price!

 

[kazmac]

Dang, that's a great price. If I was employed, I'd jump on that deal. There's a micro center a few towns away from me.

 

[BaltimoreMediaBlog]

After seeing this thread yesterday I looked to see what my local Microcenter (near Fairfax Virginia) had in stock....and at the time they had ten available. I looked again early in the afternoon today and they were down to just one. Now? None. Zero. Zip. Obviously a few people in the immediate surrounding area headed to Microcenter and bought themselves a shiny new iMac Pro at a great price!

The Towson/Baltimore store still lists them online, but doesn't show how many. How could you tell how many they had? Called?

 

[boomvader]

Oh I wasn't worried about trying to get my hands on one. I'm on record for not liking the AiO form factor. I was asking more out of curiosity at Pennypacker's turn of phrase. He said he ordered 2 as opposed to he bought 2. Ordered 2 would typically be an online process. When you walk in the store it's typically I bought 2 just like BeatCrazy said. Basically I'm doubting the truthfulness in what he said.
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No I don't think that's the case with Microcenter. There are 7 in my store Greater Atlanta/Duluth. There are 9 in the other store in my area Greater Atlanta/Marietta. @DrJohnnyN and @BeatCrazy confirm there are 7 in the Dallas store and I randomly checked about 6 other stores that carried inventory ranging from 5 to 9 in stock. Microcenter is a pretty darn good place to shop and they aren't known for the bait and switch. They keep fairly accurate inventory online.

Discovered the thread late this morning and decided to head down to Duluth from Western North Carolina to pick one up. Inventory for the store showed 6 in stock. By the time I arrived, 3 remained. When I got back home 3 hours later, both Duluth and Marietta stores were sold out. I suspect MacRumors inadvertently helped Micro Center blow these out!

I also think this sale was a one-off and not indicative of overall IMac Pro sales. Not a bad way to advertise, IMHO. I had not heard of the chain before today. As a transplant from Arizona, I much preferred it over Fry’s.

 

[69Mustang]

Discovered the thread late this morning and decided to head down to Duluth from Western North Carolina to pick one up. Inventory for the store showed 6 in stock. By the time I arrived, 3 remained. When I got back home 3 hours later, both Duluth and Marietta stores were sold out. I suspect MacRumors inadvertently helped Micro Center blow these out!

I also think this sale was a one-off and not indicative of overall IMac Pro sales. Not a bad way to advertise, IMHO. I had not heard of the chain before today. As a transplant from Arizona, I much preferred it over Fry’s.

That is a super sweet deal. I hope you enjoy it for many years to come.
[doublepost=1515985226][/doublepost]

The Towson/Baltimore store still lists them online, but doesn't show how many. How could you tell how many they had? Called?

Shows online. Just go to site, change "My Store" to Baltimore/Towson and search for iMac Pro. Baltimore has 6 available.

 

[Jetfire]

You can no more say this isn't one of the models most creative professionals are buying any more than I can definitively say this is proof of a problem with the iMac Pro.

With that said if it was done to spur sales and it is doing just that then I would take that as a sign the $5K entry price is too high.

However you slice it, lacking some special reason for the discount, a 20% reduction in price within 30 days of a systems release doesn't speak well to sales. I can't think of another time in Apple history where a brand new model has received a 20% discount within 30 days of its release.
[doublepost=1515954642][/doublepost]
I've purchased a lot of Apple stuff from Microcenter with some pretty amazing deals on it. However none has even approached this level of discount on a product which was released less than 30 days ago. I've purchased open box at a significant discount. I've purchased older stock at a significant discount. I've purchased refurbished stuff at a significant discount. Never have I purchased brand new stuff at such a discount. But you are correct in that we have no way of knowing the reason behind it. Maybe I should stop by and ask.

Ok from talking to the Mac Department salesman and the store manager at the Cincinnati store. They have no idea what is going on. They were surprised that they received so many iMac Pros, until they saw the sale price. They seem to not stock many of these normally. They only have 1 each of the MAC Pros they carry. Which they don’t move allot of. The Cincinnati MicroCenter's Apple Department is also getting smaller.

 

[tkukoc]

Please show us a better price for a similar setup. Most of the tech sites have tried and shown that you can't come close to the price unless you make a system without a 5k monitor included.

Pretty sure you missed the point.

 

[Chopper9]

Brilliant move, overprice a machine no one asked for to the sky, then overprice it a bit lower later and people will be like wow what a discount, Tim playing the game like a pro. Coming up next $29 heat-sink repair program.

Except Apple doesn’t have anything to do with this. MicroCenter already purchased the machines from Apple at whatever wholesale price they normally pay.

 

[rizzo41999]

Micro Center is the real deal, live not too far from one. They literally have everything you can imagine. It’s a PC builder paradise

 

[fairuz]

Yeah... not buying any new CPUs for a bit. I wonder how many people are waiting for Meltdown and such to be properly fixed.

 

[gijoeinla]

High Sierra officially supports eGPU use, so upgrading the GPU is not an issue for standard or pro iMacs.

Thank you.

 

[anticipate]

If I got an iMac Pro, I really wouldn't want the base model either. Not so worried about a better CPU but definitely would want a better video card, since that can't be upgraded later and tends to become the weak spot on these workstations. (My 2013 Mac Pro with the D500 video isn't as powerful as the 1080GTX nVidia video in my gaming laptop over here, which is kind of sad when you think about it.)

Aside from RAM (and 8GB is a lot, 16GB is a LOT), the Vega 64 is only a little faster than the 56. It's not a big difference, around 10-15%.
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I’m tickled pink with my 8 Core/32GB/2TB SSD. I have 0 interest in slots as I find I never used them after my base configuration. I buy a machine at a spec that will last for 5-9 years.

I think there is a significant subset of pro users (people making $$$ off their machines) where the AIO is the perfect option.

I know plenty of video/film professionals (who work for large clients like Intel, Discovery Channel, Apple, etc) who edit on iMacs. It seems as if many of the people in these forums really don't understand the professional video market. We don't really want to tinker with our machines... we just want them fast and to work.

I am currently editing a huge 4K project for a major client on a deadline... and the machine is smooth as butter. I have not been missing anything, waiting for anything really. That is why I bought it. Not so I can put a glowing tube of neon in it and stare at the colors.
[doublepost=1516000398][/doublepost]

Remember that this is just the lowest end model. This isn't the one most creative professionals are buying.

Not really true at all. I am a creative professional and the base model is significantly faster than any otherwise current Mac. So....

This "pros" need the 10 core Vega 64 model is a myth. For a Mac, the base model is very very good for creative work.

 

[fairuz]

High Sierra officially supports eGPU use, so upgrading the GPU is not an issue for standard or pro iMacs.

That's not really the case. Your mileage may vary depending on what GPU you use.
"Officially the Radeon RX 580 is the only supported GPU in High Sierra for external graphics use."
https://egpu.io/macos-high-sierra-official-external-gpu/

 

[Wanted797]

I sent this tip into MacRumors. No credit?

Or the MacRumors writer follows DetroitBorg...

 

[blackcrayon]

Aside from RAM (and 8GB is a lot, 16GB is a LOT), the Vega 64 is only a little faster than the 56. It's not a big difference, around 10-15%.
[doublepost=1516000092][/doublepost]

I know plenty of video/film professionals (who work for large clients like Intel, Discovery Channel, Apple, etc) who edit on iMacs. It seems as if many of the people in these forums really don't understand the professional video market. We don't really want to tinker with our machines... we just want them fast and to work.

I am currently editing a huge 4K project for a major client on a deadline... and the machine is smooth as butter. I have not been missing anything, waiting for anything really. That is why I bought it. Not so I can put a glowing tube of neon in it and stare at the colors.
[doublepost=1516000398][/doublepost]

Not really true at all. I am a creative professional and the base model is significantly faster than any otherwise current Mac. So....

This "pros" need the 10 core Vega 64 model is a myth. For a Mac, the base model is very very good for creative work.

Exactly.
People don't realize Pros billing $350 or more per hour will quickly recoup the cost of a machine like this, and having to deal with anything that ever stops them from billing (say, building their own Hackintosh with questionable stability) just isn't worth it. Of course, I would prefer to have the 10 core model, but the difference is not very large and with this microcenter deal, the cost difference is huge, enough for another computer entirely (or an external case with a top of the line video card).
These are excellent machines with excellent displays, and when they become significantly behind the times in 4+ years pros will write them off/sell them and purchase new ones.
Of course, it isn't as if these machines *aren't* upgradable at all- they'll work just great with external GPUs, and it won't be surprising if some service providers will even upgrade the CPUs in a couple years.

 

[Smartass]

So brand new iMac's already discounted due to nobody wanting to pay a small car's price for a PC that is laready technologicaly behind 1 year. Meanwhile, nobody's buying iPhone X and sprint has to offer them for lease for 25$/month, iPhone 6 users are going to storm Apple for new cheap batteries... oh yes, this quarter will be really great for Apple

 

[apolloa]

Have to say a hell of a bargain for anyone wanting to purchase one! Don’t get many offers like that..

 

[DrJohnnyN]

Or the MacRumors writer follows DetroitBorg...

Maybe, but my submission ended up getting the credit. Thanks for your insight.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Brilliant move, overprice a machine no one asked for to the sky, then overprice it a bit lower later and people will be like wow what a discount, Tim playing the game like a pro. Coming up next $29 heat-sink repair program.

Except Apple sets the MSRP, not MicroCenter. If what you were saying was true then every Apple retailer would be selling for $1000 off. But if you look at a price guide like Appleinsider organizes no other major reseller is selling at any discount much less 20% off. So your theory is a bit off.

Also people buying any product have to impute value for the money to the product or they won't buy it. In this case $4,000 after a $1K discount is still no bargain unless the user can easily recoup that $4K and then some with the work it can do. It's not a consumer machine and any business that does not do at least a simplistic cost/benefit analysis on each piece of equipment it buys will soon not be a business. A company, regardless of size, is not going to "jump" on a deal just because it's $1K off. In fact, many will skip over this model for a faster, more expensive, non-sale model because this entry model isn't efficient enough for job.

 

[gnipgnop]

That's not really the case. Your mileage may vary depending on what GPU you use.
"Officially the Radeon RX 580 is the only supported GPU in High Sierra for external graphics use."
https://egpu.io/macos-high-sierra-official-external-gpu/

That article actually states that the RX 580/570/480/470 are currently supported as well as Radeon RX Vega cards.

 

[itguy06]

It’s gonna be a while before computers are sold that aren’t vulnerable (from a hardware perspective) to Spectre and Meltdown. (With Intel chips, that is.)

So don't buy Intel chips then. AMD's stuff is a bit less vulnerable, cheaper, and performs just as well and in many workloads better than the Intel junk.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Once the price goes back up, I would never consider paying that price again.

 

[intz2nu]

From reading this thread it really sucks for the folks who purchased a pre-configured model on release and also given what folks are saying here that MicroCenter is definitely selling these things in decent numbers I somewhat suspect or guess that it could be Scalpers buying this looking to make a $500 profit or maybe a few dollars shy if they sold it on eBay due to fees. So if this is in fact the case its highly likely that these scalpers have the large sum of cash to put out all at once for a pretty decent turn around in profit.

Heck if you did sell it and made a profit of $500 all you would need to do is buy two and that would be a $1000, and if being sold on eBay after fees maybe $700 ish or so? Wish I had a MicroCenter where I'm at as I'd pickup two just for that purpose.