Mac Pro Build-to-Order Upgrade Pricing Revealed

[Spinland]

I'm thinking a 256 GB flash drive is enough for apps.

I'd like to think that but I'm leaning more to the 512GB option. I already have my home and other directories redirected to external USB3 drives, as well as all my work files, but I really don't want to come up on any issues down the road if I lock myself into 256GB.

 

[69650]

It's the 16th and still no sign of the Mac Pro. Can I suggest that instead of spending your time giving speeches and chatting to The First Selfie (nice touch Mr P after all it was only a memorial service for one of the 20th centuries greatest leaders) you get back to your office and do some actual work. You know like getting the Mac Pro out of the door before we all die of boredom waiting.

 

[naborneo]

Considering the whole point of the AMD choice is to kill CUDA the way iOS killed Flash, no.

HTML5 killed Flash not iOS.
With GPU render engines popping up for 3D software rendering and raytracing being used in after effects, all of these are CUDA enabled solutions. So either AMD needs to make some friends with these software vendors, or the remaining 3D and motion graphics artist might be moving to Windows... Or at least the downgrading to 2012 Mac Pro

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It's the 16th and still no sign of the Mac Pro. Can I suggest that instead of spending your time giving speeches and chatting to The First Selfie (nice touch Mr P after all it was only a memorial service for one of the 20th centuries greatest leaders) you get back to your office and do some actual work. You know like getting the Mac Pro out of the door before we all die of boredom waiting.

Doesn't apple usually release on Tuesday. Isn't tomorrow, a more likely date for all of this?

 

[Cory Bauer]

So what's it gonna cost to start with the 4-core/12GB RAM/Dual D300s model for $2,999 and upgrade to 8-core/32GB RAM? $5,299?

 

[69650]

Doesn't apple usually release on Tuesday. Isn't tomorrow, a more likely date for all of this?

Let's hope so as next Tuesday is Christmas Eve and one after is New Year's Eve. Not traditional big shopping days where I live but quite frankly the way they've bungled this I would not be at all surprised if it launched at one minute to midnight on 31 Dec so nobody notices.

 

[rjbenson83]

Is it crazy that I only want the base model with the GPU upgrade? I wonder how much that will be?

 

[Spinland]

So what's it gonna cost to start with the 4-core/12GB RAM/Dual D300s model for $2,999 and upgrade to 8-core/32GB RAM? $5,299?

Bear in mind this is a total WAG based on the original post and some speculation in this thread...

I'd start with the base 6 core model at $3999, subtract $500 (speculation based on posts here) to downgrade the video to D300. Now we're at $3499. Add $1900 for the 8 core upgrade from 6 core and the 32GB RAM upgrade from 16GB (based on the OP), and that puts us at $5399.

Wasn't that fun?

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Is it crazy that I only want the base model with the GPU upgrade? I wonder how much that will be?

Based on a speculative post in this thread going from D300 to D500 would be around $500. Based on the original post going from D500 to D700 would be $600. Figure with some slop factor you're looking at around $1000 for that upgrade, give or take a couple hundred.

 

[calaverasgrande]

Wow, they are expensive. But then again, these are standard workstation parts that is always meant for 24/7 operations. I always hear people who say that their i7 processors and GTX 780s can destroy a Mac Pro for 1/4 the price. True story is, while I and most other people would not need this level of reliability, to those who need a reliable computer that cannot afford any errors and mistakes, these parts are well worth the extra 3/4 cost over an i7.

exactly.
Another thing that hackintosh fans pave over in the exuberance is that you aren't paying $2999 for a pile of parts. You are paying for an engineered system. In broadcast we buy/rent stuff that we could probably engineer ourselves, if we had the time. We use a Dejero box for some of our remote shots. It's basically an ITX motherboard in a Pelican case with bunch of Cell modems (think MyFi or mobile hotspot). The parts involved total less than $2k easily. But we paid several times that because it is an engineered system.
Point being that it is supposed to work in mission critical situations where you can't just "try again".
I don't think Macs are perfect by any means, but they certainly are better engineered than what you get if you just mash together parts in your newegg shopping cart.

 

[phoenixsan]

I want to.....

praise the MacRumors team by the intelligence-gathering and effort put on make these calculations and present them to us.....

Well done....!

 

[Spinland]

I don't think Macs are perfect by any means, but they certainly are better engineered than what you get if you just mash together parts in your newegg shopping cart.

Which also seems to be what you get when you purchase your typical PC.

 

[TennisandMusic]

exactly.
Another thing that hackintosh fans pave over in the exuberance is that you aren't paying $2999 for a pile of parts. You are paying for an engineered system. In broadcast we buy/rent stuff that we could probably engineer ourselves, if we had the time. We use a Dejero box for some of our remote shots. It's basically an ITX motherboard in a Pelican case with bunch of Cell modems (think MyFi or mobile hotspot). The parts involved total less than $2k easily. But we paid several times that because it is an engineered system.
Point being that it is supposed to work in mission critical situations where you can't just "try again".
I don't think Macs are perfect by any means, but they certainly are better engineered than what you get if you just mash together parts in your newegg shopping cart.

Except for that that no, they aren't better than custom parts PCs you can build from NewEgg.

I don't think you realize how good "parts pcs" can be, and I would certainly trust one far more than any Apple (or other) OEM computer I could buy. The reason being that Apple uses the cheapest components it can. Hynix RAM anyone?

The top of the line motherboards you can get from NewEgg are extremely overbuilt and quite impressive.

I agree about paying for an "engineered system", but to then try and throw the custom stuff under the bus is way way off the mark.

 

[mk_in_mke]

A decision has been reached here

Mac Pro 6 cores @ $3,999
2 d700
16 go ram
512gb hd

Should take me to $5k....

All this to do Photoshop, InDesign, FCP, Aperture.... Not a pro by all means, but a prosumer for sure. I need now to focus on finding external storage (Promise Pegasus 2 R4 is the front runner now)

Anyone has an advice on best way to transfer from old mac to nMP?

 

[NewbieCanada]

$400 to bump to 32GB of Apple RAM doesn't sound so bad -vs- spending $400 on 3rd-party RAM and tossing the OEM RAM in the junk drawer.
--

I was thinking that too, but they're using 4x8 and Crucial is using 2*16, which is better if you might want to upgrade to 64 some day.

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$9,999 for a fully loaded MP is a steal. *sigh* I wish my company used Macs. I'd have one of those sitting on my desk instead of something the size of a house.

And equally well heated.

As Australia is all ready into the 17th December, Apple's website http://store.apple.com/au/buy-mac/mac-pro it has not been updated, to sell the Mac Pro. So I doubt it will be coming tomorrow.

Might not be a simultaneous worldwide release, especially with it being assembled in the USA (not their usual distribution routes)

 

[9000]

Apple charging a nominal amount for RAM? Thanks, I needed a chuckle.

And always some stupid "special" RAM that's hard to find. EDIT: Sorry, I mean that it's not as common. You can easily find it, just only in a few places.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

I recall pointing out the prices will be much higher than folks imagined. Get out your CCs and pay up if you really were a perspective buyer.

 

[9000]

These prices are very reasonable. My Dell workstation (T7610) cost my office $12,216 before tax, and with a HEAVY corporate discount.

$9,999 for a fully loaded MP is a steal. *sigh* I wish my company used Macs. I'd have one of those sitting on my desk instead of something the size of a house.

So my suspicions that the new Mac Pro is actually cheap for its hardware specs confirmed by at least one person....

 

[Spinland]

I recall pointing out the prices will be much higher than folks imagined. Get out your CCs and pay up if you really were a perspective buyer.

Heh. I have the cash on hand burning a hole in my end-of-year hardware budget. I really need Apple to come through so I can spend it before year's end rather than paying taxes on it.

 

[milo]

And always some stupid "special" RAM that's hard to find.

Not sure what you mean by that, pretty much all macs have used the same standard ram as PC for years now. Not hard to find at all, you just need to know which specifically to get.

 

[puckhead193]

So crucial is charging more for the RAM upgrade (32 gig) then through apple or am I missing something...
http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Mac Pro (Late 2013)&pl=Apple

edit its only 2 gig...

 

[Spinland]

Not sure what you mean by that, pretty much all macs have used the same standard ram as PC for years now. Not hard to find at all, you just need to know which specifically to get.

Indeed. Crucial and OWC have already stepped up to the plate to provide memory for the new Mac Pro, just to name two sources.

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So crucial is charging more for the RAM upgrade (32 gig) then through apple or am I missing something...
http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Mac Pro (Late 2013)&pl=Apple

edit its only 2 gig...

Maybe the higher cost is because Crucial is offering 2x16 instead of 4x8? Seems a better route to take so you can go to 64 without having to start over.

 

[9000]

Not sure what you mean by that, pretty much all macs have used the same standard ram as PC for years now. Not hard to find at all, you just need to know which specifically to get.

Apple states:
"PC3-10600E, 1333 MHz, DDR3 SDRAM UDIMMs
Error-correcting code (ECC)
72-bit wide, 240-pin ECC modules
36 ICs maximum per ECC UDIMM".
Not very common.

 

[Spinland]

Apple states:
"PC3-10600E, 1333 MHz, DDR3 SDRAM UDIMMs
Error-correcting code (ECC)
72-bit wide, 240-pin ECC modules
36 ICs maximum per ECC UDIMM".
Not very common.

You can get it from Crucial right now, and OWC advertises it's coming soon, probably right after the nMP is released. That doesn't seem very hard to find to me.

 

[9000]

You can get it from Crucial right now, and OWC advertises it's coming soon, probably right after the nMP is released. That doesn't seem very hard to find to me.

Not hard to find, just low in supply. I should have been more specific. You can't buy it from so many places, so it's more expensive.

 

[td2243]

Soooo..... the $2999 model kicked up to 6-core should be $3499-ish, correct? Does that change it from D300s to D500s? What I'm asking is there a 6-core D300 model, or does 6-core automatically bump the D300 to D500?

Whatever I get will have the 512SSD. 256 is too small. I only have a 150 on my vintage MBP and I'm shuffling around files to external drives all the time. Even with only apps on the internal, it's almost full. AND there are a bunch more BIG apps I plan to get, which come with a wealth of loops and sounds as part of the software. 256 is a joke for me.

 

[Spinland]

Not hard to find, just low in supply. You can't buy it from so many places, so it's more expensive.

Fair enough. Those are the only two places I've ever looked for add-on RAM in my decades of doing geek stuff, so if those have it then in my book that's all you need. Not sure how the prices will compare yet because the official Apple price points are still speculation. We'll have to see. If those two sources come in cheaper, then I'll do my usual stunt of ordering my Mac with minimal memory and upgrading it third party. The current price speculations on this thread confuse that issue thus far.