Poll: how much did you Mac cost?

[Andrey84]

Hello,

I want to know how much money has an average MacRumors Forums user (or their employer) spent on their main Mac-based system. Either for professional or personal use.

- Displays & peripherals (e.g. mouse, keyboard) are included.
- If an iPad is your main system, it's included.
- Any specialized (audio, video, printing, etc.) equipment is not included.
- iPhones are not included, even if you use it for work.
- Any other Apple devices you own, like Apple TV, are not included.

Examples:
1. Mac Studio + Studio Display(s) + peripherals
2. MacBook Pro + Third-Party External Display(s) + peripherals
3. MacBook Air
4. iPad + peripherals
...

The results are anonymous.

------

UPDATE. Thanks so much for the votes and comments, feel free to keep them coming.
I'll be updating the number below while this post is alive.

Based on the 61 votes cast so far, with some assumptions and rounding:

the average cost of a MacRumors Forums member's Mac-based system is $3,200.

 

[Andrey84]

I own a 2015 MacBook Pro 15" i7/16/512, personal use, purchased on eBay for £630 in 2019.

My wife has a 2020 iMac 27" i9/128/2TB, professional use, purchased on eBay for £2,270 in 2023 (the price was quite high, but it's the absolute top spec with nano-coating, and with 2TB it was hard to find). Two external displays, keyboard, Wacom, mic, mouse, making the grand total spent roughly £3,200. I'm the "admin" and I help her choose which Mac to buy, hence my interest in these forums.

 

[Heindijs]

Hmm I don't really have a 'main' Mac. Mini at home, MBP on the go. But I also use my MBP at home when I don't have want to sit at my desk. Ah the brillance of Handoff

 

[rm5]

$1200 M1 MacBook Air - for personal and professional use.
$700 2019 iMac - for personal and professional use. I got it at a ridiculous discount of 50% off, so I only spent $350, (that's the ONLY reason why I bought it), but that's how much it's worth just based on an eBay search.
$350 LG Ultrafine monitor.
$150 mechanical keyboard (which I don't have on me at the moment, unfortunately).
~$100 worth of adapters for the MacBook.

 

[Andrey84]

$1200 M1 MacBook Air - for personal and professional use.
$700 2019 iMac - for personal and professional use. I got it at a ridiculous discount of 50% off, so I only spent $350, (that's the ONLY reason why I bought it), but that's how much it's worth just based on an eBay search.
$350 LG Ultrafine monitor.
$150 mechanical keyboard (which I don't have on me at the moment, unfortunately).
~$100 worth of adapters for the MacBook.

Wow, this is some great value there! Prices in the US are great.

 

[Paul Deemer]

$3500 for 16" M3 Max base and $300 for Final Cut Pro.

 

[staypuftforums]

$700 Canadian for a sealed 2019 4K iMac that I got off eBay from a local seller in December of 2022.

 

[Andrey84]

Thanks for the 18 votes! Please keep them coming, ideally I'd like 30-40.

Based on these, with some assumptions and rounding, the average Mac-based system cost of a MacRumors Forum member is $2,500.

 

[Kotsos81]

€3,500 for a MBP 16" M3 Pro 12C 36GB/512GB, which, based on the currency conversion rate, is a little more than $3,800.

 

[Mr.Fox]

Hello,

I want to know how much money has an average MacRumors Forums user (or their employer) spent on their main Mac-based system. Either for professional or personal use.

- Displays & electronic peripherals are included.
- If an iPad is your main system, it's included.
- iPhones are not included, even if you use it for work.
- Any other Apple devices you own, like Apple TV, are not included.

Examples:
1. Mac Studio + Studio Display(s) + peripherals
2. MacBook Pro + Third-Party External Display(s) + peripherals
3. MacBook Air
4. iPad + peripherals
...

The results are anonymous.

Mac Studio M2 Ultra (24-core CPU, 76-core GPU, and 32-core Neural Engine)+ 192GB Ram+ 8TB SSD - $8,500.
Benq monitor - $1,500.
hyper mouse - $200
Mouse pad - 80$
HDMI 3 meters-60$
Card readers - 150$
Apple keyboard -155$ + custom engraving of buttons for program functions (+70$)
tablet for photo editing - 500$
Software - 1000$
Laser printer for printing a3 format for home photo lab - 2500$
Photo equipment - over 40000$
Before that I had a Mac Pro (cheese grater), I don't remember the parameters - it was given to me by the company for my birthday where I worked. When it became obsolete, I successfully sold it and bought a mac studio to replace it. In fact, mac studio was given to me for free

 

[Andrey84]

Mac Studio M2 Ultra (24-core CPU, 76-core GPU, and 32-core Neural Engine)+ 192GB Ram+ 8TB SSD - $8,500.
Benq monitor - $1,500.
hyper mouse - $200
Mouse pad - 80$
HDMI 3 meters-60$
Card readers - 150$
Apple keyboard -155$ + custom engraving of buttons for program functions (+70$)
tablet for photo editing - 500$
Software - 1000$
Laser printer for printing a3 format for home photo lab - 2500$
Photo equipment - over 40000$
Before that I had a Mac Pro (cheese grater), I don't remember the parameters - it was given to me by the company for my birthday where I worked. When it became obsolete, I successfully sold it and bought a mac studio to replace it. In fact, mac studio was given to me for free

Very impressive! Also, you broke the average just now

 

[Mr.Fox]

Very impressive! Also, you broke the average just now

Thank you! I think I have the usual indicator - I do not update for a long time, waiting when the computer is no longer physically unable to fulfill all the load. During this time people have time to change more than one generation of computers

 

[Ben J.]

The mac is the hub in my living room for almost everything I do.
Entertainment, communication, music creation, photo scanning/editing/printing, daily management.

I have a 55" OLED LG and a 32" Benq.
Studio monitors (audio).
Topping DAC.
Epson P600 and P800 photo printers.
Plustek slidescanner.
Three sets of magic mouse/keyboard at different positions in the room.
MIDI keyboard. 2 Avid Artist Mix and SSL UC1 controllers for mixing.

I clicked the >$7000.

 

[MacCheetah3]

Mac mini M1 - $850 USD (from the MR marketplace)
Magic KB with keypad - $138 USD
Magic Trackpad 2 - $126 USD
Acer monitor - $200 USD
Anker Soundcore Life Q35 headphones - $80 USD
* I do have some orb shaped portable speakers connected to the headphone output for use when I don’t feel like putting headphones on. They maybe cost $20 USD.

 

[Andrey84]

The mac is the hub in my living room for almost everything I do.
Entertainment, communication, music creation, photo scanning/editing/printing, daily management.

I have a 55" OLED LG and a 32" Benq.
Studio monitors (audio).
Topping DAC.
Epson P600 and P800 photo printers.
Plustek slidescanner.
Three sets of magic mouse/keyboard at different positions in the room.
MIDI keyboard. 2 Avid Artist Mix and SSL UC1 controllers for mixing.

I clicked the >$7000.

Thank you for answering.

By peripherals I meant monitor, mouse, keyboard - this kind of stuff. No specialized audio/video equipment please.

If you could please add up the cost of your Mac and the 2 main displays, plus all mice and keyboards, and change your vote, that would be great.

 

[Ben J.]

Thank you for answering.

By peripherals I meant monitor, mouse, keyboard - this kind of stuff. No specialized audio/video equipment please.

If you could please add up the cost of your Mac and the 2 main displays, plus all mice and keyboards, and change your vote, that would be great.

Forget it.

 

[padams35]

I initially spent ~$1900+tax on my 2018 mini setup: 2018 mini, 24" 4K monitor, mouse, keyboard, USB hub, webcam, DIY RAM upgrade, external SSD, and a cheap eGPU.

If mid-life upgrades are supposed to be included then add an extra $400 for a GPU upgrade I purchased at the 3.5 year mark and mentally bump my vote from [$1-2K] up to [2-3K].

 

[ShivneelSingh]

2023 M2 Mac mini - 8GB of RAM - 512GB SSD - ~$4,000
Dual Apple Studio Displays
Magic Keyboard & Trackpad

2021 16" MacBook Pro M1 Max - 32GB RAM - 1TB - ~$4,000
I LOVE this machine, hasn't let me down. I use it as my main machine since it's portable and the battery lasts for days. Battery is currently at 88%.

2022 M2 iPad Pro 12.9" 1TB - Used for bedside or couch, mostly for Lightroom or quick video editing.


Previous machines:
2020 13" MacBook Pro M1 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD
2020 11" iPad Pro 1TB

Before that:
2017 MacBook Pro Touchbar- Worst machine ever

2012 MacBook Air 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD - Most loved machine so far.

2008 MacBook Aluminum - First Mac and I still have it. It came with Leopard installed, upgraded to Snow Leopard.

 

[Nermal]

My wife has a 2020 iMac 27" i9/128/2TB, professional use, purchased on eBay for £2,270 in 2023 (the price was quite high, but it's the absolute top spec with nano-coating, and with 2TB it was hard to find). Two external displays, keyboard, Wacom, mouse, making the grand total spent roughly £3,200. I'm the "admin" and I help her choose which Mac to buy, hence my interest in these forums.

I have one of these, albeit i9/32/1TB, bought on launch day. Alas, it's beginning to slow down now as it gradually fills with dust (at least I assume that's what's happening) and they don't make them easy to clean!

 

[dmr727]

I have an M1 MBA 16GB/1TB. Can't remember the exact amount - maybe $1800 after tax? I also have an iPad mini 6, but that pretty much acts as a Kindle these days.

 

[Andrey84]

I have one of these, albeit i9/32/1TB, bought on launch day. Alas, it's beginning to slow down now as it gradually fills with dust (at least I assume that's what's happening) and they don't make them easy to clean!

That is an incredible machine, designed by the Steve Jobs' team. The last and the best of the epic 27" iMac.
I'm vacuuming it every 4 months from the outside, both the air intakes and the ram door, so that the dust doesn't build up.

Mac OSs seem to slow down after 3 years of continuous use. Maybe it's the incremental patches not cleaning up after themselves, maybe it's the ever-growing numbers of apps, maybe it's caches getting out of control, new OSs being more demanding; unclear to me why. Assuming this was indeed how long has passed since your last clean install, formatting the disk and installing a fresh Sonoma might give you a good performance boost. However, you obviously need to assess it against time taken to reinstall everything

 

[Feek]

I want to know how much money has an average MacRumors Forums user (or their employer) spent on their main Mac-based system. Either for professional or personal use.

My 'main' Mac.

Mac Studio Ultra with a 2Tb SSD
2 x Studio Displays
1 Magic Keyboard
1 Magic Trackpad

Approximately £8,400, so, what, $10,500? I have voted accordingly.

 

[Nermal]

formatting the disk and installing a fresh Sonoma might give you a good performance boost

It's definitely heat-related rather than OS-related. It's the height of summer here and it slows down when playing games. I've actually moved the computer into the same room as the heat pump and that's helped a fair bit, although it's definitely not like it was when it was new.

 

[TechRunner]

M1 Mini 8/256, 24" Lenovo 2560X1440 monitor, Logitech mouse, keyboard, and speakers. Came in just under $1K.

 

[Andrey84]

It's definitely heat-related rather than OS-related. It's the height of summer here and it slows down when playing games. I've actually moved the computer into the same room as the heat pump and that's helped a fair bit, although it's definitely not like it was when it was new.

Understood.

What I've done for my wife's iMac was to disable the Turbo Boost when Zoom is opened. Sharing the 5K screen of with a massive project opened in Adobe XD would heat the iMac to 95C during the English winter.

Assuming your slowdown happens because of the CPU thermal throttling, you might want to consider using TurboBoost Switcher. You could disable the boost when the average core temperature hits 95C. Disabling TurboBoost might be less of a performance impact compared to thermal throttling. But I might be wrong.