MacPro 2008 is Dead, Is There A Market For It?

[theIdealist]

My MacPro 2008 (2.66/ghz dual quad core) died this week. I did as much troubleshooting as I can w/o any success. I finally had a MacGenius look @ it and he concluded it was the logic board. I don't have AppleCare, so my MP was no longer under warranty. The cost to replace the board, according to the MacGenius, is ~800 + tax. I have opted to go another route and just sell it.

Does anyone think there's a market for it? What would be a fair market value for just the MacPro (minus any harddrives, airport card, keyboard, and mouse)?

 

[aibo]

My MacPro 2008 (2.66/ghz dual quad core) died this week.

The 2008 Mac Pro started at 2.8GHz. Yours sounds like a 2006.

 

[theIdealist]

The 2008 Mac Pro started at 2.8GHz. Yours sounds like a 2006.

I think it's 2.8Ghz. I was just quoting off the top of my head, w/o having to dig out the full specs. But I did buy it from Apple in early 2008.

 

[tobyg]

There is a market for the used chewing gum I found under my shoe. Even more so if it's in the shape of the Virgin Mary!

The point is, yes there is a market for it. There is a market for everything, as long as it's... marketed... properly. I've seen busted Mac Pro's go for hundreds of dollars on eBay. Although, just because an auction is completed on eBay doesn't mean it was actually sold.

But yes, someone would love a chance to tinker with that and maybe find a used Mac Pro motherboard somewhere and do the swap. Or you will find some people who want to gut the case and try to create a hackintosh out of it. Or maybe someone else needs a power supply or a good case.

Your best best, honestly, is to put it on eBay with no reserve and a low starting bid. Most of the bidding will come in the last 60 seconds, but you'll probably fetch at least a few hundred.

Hopefully you have the original box. Shipping a Mac Pro in anything but the original box usually leads to bent handles and unhappy buyers.

 

[alphaod]

Yes there is a market value for it. Unfortunately we can't give quotes since that would violate the Marketplace forum rules.

As with the computer itself, is the motherboard the only thing that is broken?

 

[pkoch1]

The same thing happened to me, but luckily I work in an apple-authorized repair center so we were able to order the Logic Board for only $375 and I am going to do the repair myself to save labor costs. I bet people who have access to parts would be interested in buying in order to resell. Good luck!

 

[nanofrog]

If it's an '08, it would be worth more to you to go ahead and replace the logic board. You can't buy or build an equivalent system for that.

If you're dead set on selling it, you could consider offering it up in pieces. i.e. Pull the CPU's,... and sell them off separately. CPU's and the case would be desirable for sure, and the PSU would have a good chance as well, as Apple's replacement parts are expensive as you've discovered.

 

[velocityg4]

If it's an '08, it would be worth more to you to go ahead and replace the logic board. You can't buy or build an equivalent system for that.

If you're dead set on selling it, you could consider offering it up in pieces. i.e. Pull the CPU's,... and sell them off separately. CPU's and the case would be desirable for sure, and the PSU would have a good chance as well, as Apple's replacement parts are expensive as you've discovered.

Though unless the OP has another machine to test the CPU's in they would have to be listed as unknown condition. Though they are likely fine there is always the chance they are not.

Personally I would just list it as "as is" "parts only". Then list the specs and the known problem in the auction. Otherwise for each of the parts you would need to either accept returns or list as unknown condition as you can not verify their functionality.

 

[yanquis]

i dont get it -- whats wrong w/ $800+? i mean, it obv blows, & it sucks you dont have apple care (which only wouldve saved you about 500 anyway), but it seems like that would be making the best of crapy situation.

an 8 x 2.8 ghz is probably equiv in processor power for most tasks (perhaps better in some) as the 8x 2.26 nehalem mac pro selling now...& that costs what, 4K? more? your model isnt exactly dated, & maybe you could even upgrade the MB & get some nehalem chips (no idea what im talking about here tho). just seems selling it in pieces, then buying a new system, isnt really going to recoup the investment & would be more trouble, to me.

 

[Tesselator]

I know this may sound unethical on the surface but it's really not IMHO. If you sell as parts offer them up as good parts so you can get the going rate. Then after the transaction don't spend any of the money for about a month and be ready to refund the buyer if in fact they are not good.

If you sell over e-bay or another auction site you will get about twice (or better) the price you will by selling them to a shop that does used parts/machines. Shops typically offer 30% of the going rate. Auction sites give you the full going rate or close to it.

Again however, if you're intending to replace it with another Mac Pro then get it fixed instead. The 2008 machines are better than the 2009 machines in almost every way.

 

[theIdealist]

The State

There is a possibility that the logic board could be hosed again after the warranty on the new board runs out in 90 days. The cause of the board's failure was never definitively determined. So, I would find myself down $700-$800 and have to repeat.

Yes, I still have the box.

I was thinking of going with an MBP.

Thanks to all who replied; you've given me things to think about.

 

[hugodrax]

I would spend 800 bucks to fix mines if it ever breaks.

 

[j2048b]

There is a possibility that the logic board could be hosed again after the warranty on the new board runs out in 90 days. The cause of the board's failure was never definitively determined. So, I would find myself down $700-$800 and have to repeat.

Yes, I still have the box.

I was thinking of going with an MBP.

Thanks to all who replied; you've given me things to think about.

Pm me, I would not mind takin it off yer hands!!

 

[benguild]

There is a possibility that the logic board could be hosed again after the warranty on the new board runs out in 90 days. The cause of the board's failure was never definitively determined. So, I would find myself down $700-$800 and have to repeat.

Yes, I still have the box.

I was thinking of going with an MBP.

Thanks to all who replied; you've given me things to think about.

That seems highly unlikely unless you were making hardware modifications in the first place.

 

[gugucom]

The 2008 machines are better than the 2009 machines in almost every way.

That seems to be a strange way of seeing it. I would very much like you to elaborate on it. I see at least four improvements which I would recognize:

• ODs booting from SATA making the boot drive fit for Blu-Ray play back
• Improved bandwidth by QPI instead of FSB
• Faster memory
• More graphic card choices

 

[nullx86]

Personally, i would go and either buy a new logic board or part the Mac Pro out. Its got Dual Xeon's? $800USD Right there (a guess of my head, but Xeons do go for good prices), if they're the high end ones. Good graphics? Hard drives? etc.

 

[Tesselator]

That seems to be a strange way of seeing it. I would very much like you to elaborate on it. I see at least four improvements which I would recognize:

1. ODs booting from SATA making the boot drive fit for Blu-Ray play back
2. Improved bandwidth by QPI instead of FSB
3. Faster memory
4. More graphic card choices

1. ODD in the 2009 wastes an SATA port. The 2008 can use the SATA if needed and still have two IDE ports available. Or you can look at it like the 2008 machines have 2 IDE ports and 6 SATA ports whereas the 2009 machines have ONLY 6 SATA ports. So that's not an advantage but rather a disadvantage.
   
   
2. Number two,
3. and three combined are the only advantage of the 2009 machines but in real world applications this seems to make such a small difference it's barely measurable. The most pronounced result of this advantage is in drive I/O speed and more often than not it will be the drives themselves which are the bottleneck. With an SSD RAID it IS noticeable tho. Mostly this is not noticeable because of the price-point and marketing of the respective machines. If Apple would sell the 2.93 at the same price point as the 2008 3.0 and additionally offer a Nehalem 3.2 to match the 2008 3.2 (again at the same price point) then I would be here saying very different things. As it is the 2009 2.93 is TWO THOUSAND and THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS more than the 2008 3.0 and ONE THOUSAND and FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS more than the 2008 3.2. And at the majority of daily operations the 2009 2.93 is the exact same speed as the 2008 3.0 and the 2008 3.2 is faster than the 2009 2.93 - again at the majority of daily operations. So we can either look at textbook technologies or we can compare real-world performance on a price-point basis like normal people do. If the later then the 2009 machines lose almost every time in almost every way over the 2008 models! It's a terrible shame but it's true.
   
   Although number three may also be considered a disadvantage as the prices of this memory are very much higher with almost no real speed advantage. There are many blog entries and benchtests on-line showing this to be the case.
   
   
4. The graphics card choices are identical. There's no difference there - at all - afaik.
   
   
5. Also you forgot to mention turbo-boost which is another actual advantage. But not worth the price difference and not user controllable under Apple's operating system.

Prices as new:

• 2008
  Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz (2008) $2,799
  Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (2008) $3,599
  Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz (2008) $4,399
  
  
• 2009
  Mac Pro 8-core 2.26GHz $3,299 - WTF??
  Mac Pro 8-core 2.66GHz $4,699
  Mac Pro 8-core 2.93GHz $5,899

Something really STINKS here and everyone but the willfully blind can see it IMHO.


.

 

[nanofrog]

Though unless the OP has another machine to test the CPU's in they would have to be listed as unknown condition. Though they are likely fine there is always the chance they are not.

The post was based on the presumption the board is all that's gone, given the system's been through diagnostics (origin of assumption; diagnostics are accurate).

Statistically speaking, the board is more likely to go than the CPU's. If they're actually shot, then the PSU becomes a suspect part as well.

Personally I would just list it as "as is" "parts only". Then list the specs and the known problem in the auction. Otherwise for each of the parts you would need to either accept returns or list as unknown condition as you can not verify their functionality.

If the diagnostics weren't accurate/complete, then this would be the way to go. But as Tesselator mentioned, being prepared to accept returns would likely be best for financial reasons.

There is a possibility that the logic board could be hosed again after the warranty on the new board runs out in 90 days. The cause of the board's failure was never definitively determined. So, I would find myself down $700-$800 and have to repeat.

Assuming the board is all that's wrong, not that likely. If the PSU is hosed, then yes.

...

Yep. Unless there's some specific usage that can actually use the architectural differences to their full extent (for example, memory bandwidth use exceeds FSB at max), then the '09's won't be worth it given the prices.

Then there's the ease and lower cost of internal hardware RAID if desired on the '08's as well.