Pricing ... WTH?

[doobybiggs]

Do people really pay these prices? I mean sure if these options are built into the motherboard then that is one thing, but when you can replace them yourselves ... WTH people?

I do come from the PC side of things where I have built my own PCs for the past 15 years ... So maybe Apple people are just not computer literate? I do not know but for me paying basically double the price for apple to put in it is insane.

I can get 32GB for what apple wants to charge me for 16GB

I can get basically 2 to 2 1/2 256GB SSD's for what apple wants for one 256GB

 

[hafr]

Do people really pay these prices? I mean sure if these options are built into the motherboard then that is one thing, but when you can replace them yourselves ... WTH people?

I do come from the PC side of things where I have built my own PCs for the past 15 years ... So maybe Apple people are just not computer literate? I do not know but for me paying basically double the price for apple to put in it is insane.

I can get 32GB for what apple wants to charge me for 16GB

I can get basically 2 to 2 1/2 256GB SSD's for what apple wants for one 256GB

Why are people buying expensive brand clothes when they could make their own clothes, or have someone else make them for less, or buy generic brand clothes?

 

[GGJstudios]

Do people really pay these prices? I mean sure if these options are built into the motherboard then that is one thing, but when you can replace them yourselves ... WTH people?

I think you'll find many, if not most of the people on this forum buy RAM and drives aftermarket, rather than buying from Apple. Some may consider Apple's prices worth it to avoid the hassle of doing the replacement themselves. To each their own.

 

[havokalien]

Yes

People are paying for uncompromising compatibility, assurance and ease of no mess that most techies don't bother with. Most people don't even realize that other than the boot process all the hardware is pretty much the same these days. So people pay the one time fee and get the warranty and forget it. When they have issues it's fixed for free and easily. If they take it to a genius bar even quicker. Just one of those peace of mind things I guess.

 

[92WardSenatorFE]

Don't assume all Apple owners are not computer literate. There are a lot of professionals that only use and trust Macs. Mac owners have their reasons for owning Macs, same way that PC owners have their own reasons for owning PC's.

Most people buy Mac's because they work and they don't want to fool with a bunch of upgrades. When you preorder that stuff from the Apple Store, Apple installs it so the user doesn't have to worry about installing or configuring the upgrades. Apple guarantees their work and products, so if something does end up going wrong (i.e., bad HDD, bad RAM), it's covered and they will fix it.

I can't speak for other websites.

 

[McGiord]

For the Macs that you actually can upgrade it is always better to buy in another store.

I buy most of it in OWC:
www.macsales.com

 

[doobybiggs]

For the Macs that you actually can upgrade it is always better to buy in another store.

I buy most of it in OWC:
www.macsales.com

yep that is where I get all my stuff. Great site that has everything 100% compatible with macs

 

[wiredup72]

For the Macs that you actually can upgrade it is always better to buy in another store.

I buy most of it in OWC:
www.macsales.com

Same here. I don't know a single person with a Mac that hasn't upgraded their memory on their own and I know a lot of people with Mac's.

I've upgraded my HD on my 2006 MBP twice already and now I have a SSD and it runs faster than it ever has.

The OP is such a non sequitor, because with the amount of windows users out in the world, I would bet there are a lot more people that don't upgrade things themselves. Probably more than there are even Mac users! Does that mean they are all stupid and illiterate?

 

[NMF]

Buying upgrades from OWC is only barely better than buying upgrades from Apple. OWC is overpriced as hell too. Unless you're upgrading the SSD in a MacBook Air there's no reason to buy anything from OWC. Overpriced nonsense.

 

[arogge]

The prices are delayed by three years. If you think that's bad, you should see the public prices for RAM from some other manufacturers like Sun and Panasonic. OEM prices are usually terrible, sometimes because they don't want to deal with custom builds that take parts out of the assembly line and necessitate irregular purchase orders for more parts.

The benefit is when you're dealing with certified systems. Paying twice the street price for RAM and other components doesn't seem so bad anymore, when you add up the cost of an internal certification and compare that to paying a premium price.

 

[numbersyx]

Buying upgrades from OWC is only barely better than buying upgrades from Apple. OWC is overpriced as hell too. Unless you're upgrading the SSD in a MacBook Air there's no reason to buy anything from OWC. Overpriced nonsense.

Don't know why you say this. I have bought plenty from OWC after doing the research on prices over the internet. Can't see why you would call their stuff overpriced. Great prices and service IMHO...

 

[McGiord]

Buying upgrades from OWC is only barely better than buying upgrades from Apple. OWC is overpriced as hell too. Unless you're upgrading the SSD in a MacBook Air there's no reason to buy anything from OWC. Overpriced nonsense.

And where do you recommend then? Apple? Or somewhere else?
Can you post an example?

OWC works fine for me, and many people in other countries (not in the US) that can buy them online and have it shipped to their preferred location.

 

[NMF]

And where do you recommend then? Apple? Or somewhere else?
Can you post an example?

For RAM? Crucial, Corsair, Mushkin, etc. Any of the major brands that are known for quality. I'm partial to Corsair due to their long history of making bleeding-edge PC memory.

For SSD's it depends on the generation, but currently the Samsung 830 controllers work excellently with Macs and are some of the fastest drives on the market. Crucial M4's are pretty popular too. Both are way cheaper than OWC.

For external hard drives, Western Digital. I've had bad experiences with Seagate in the past so I don't recommend them. LaCie is also overpriced junk.

A good rule of thumb is if you're looking for a Mac upgrade, check a PC forum rather than a Mac one. The Mac community is partial to all these weird companies (OWC, LaCie, etc) that get away with selling overpriced stuff to an ignorant user base. There are so many products out there that perform far better for way less money.

I can understand the appeal of OWC for overseas though. I live in the continental U.S. so I can't begin to imagine the market in other parts of the world.

 

[CWallace]

So maybe Apple people are just not computer literate? I do not know but for me paying basically double the price for apple to put in it is insane.

Clearly, if one is comfortable upgrading and swapping parts as necessary for warranty work, then as you noted, one can save a significant bit of cash.

But plenty of PC owners pay what would be considered exorbitant prices for upgrades from the OEM of their box, as arogge noted, so I expect it is not a lack of computer literacy in all cases, and perhaps not in most.

92WardSenatorFE stated it well - buying everything from the OEM, even at a significant price premium - offers piece of mind and one-vendor warranty support. If you encounter a problem, you take it to an OEM-authorized repair facility and they fix it for you. No need to first troubleshoot to see if it's the third-party item you put in. No need to pull any third-party items out of the machine and replace them to ensure that your warranty claim is not rejected for third-party parts or the repair shop removing that part (like an HDD or SSD) and replacing it with something of less quality / performance.

Having all OEM parts can help resale value, as well, as buyers might feel more confident purchasing something that is entirely under one warranty.

 

[McGiord]

For RAM? Crucial, Corsair, Mushkin, etc. Any of the major brands that are known for quality. I'm partial to Corsair due to their long history of making bleeding-edge PC memory.

For SSD's it depends on the generation, but currently the Samsung 830 controllers work excellent with Macs and are some of the fastest drives on the market. Crucial M4's are pretty popular too. Both are way cheaper than OWC.

For external hard drives, Western Digital. I've had bad experiences with Seagate in the past so I don't recommend them. LaCie is also overpriced junk.

A good rule of thumb is if you're looking for a Mac upgrade, check a PC forum rather than a Mac one. The Mac community is partial to all these weird companies (OWC, LaCie, etc) that get away with selling overpriced stuff to an ignorant user base. There are so many products out there that perform far better for way less money.

What store you buy from?

I agree about LaCie, also bad experience with them. And Western Digital are good.

 

[NMF]

What store you buy from?

I agree about LaCie, also bad experience with them. And Western Digital are good.

Newegg most of the time. MicroCenter has some amazing deals too, but they don't have physical stores everywhere. If you have one then GREAT! If not...

Newegg and Amazon are my vendors of choice.

 

[roxxette]

For RAM? Crucial, Corsair, Mushkin, etc. Any of the major brands that are known for quality. I'm partial to Corsair due to their long history of making bleeding-edge PC memory.

For SSD's it depends on the generation, but currently the Samsung 830 controllers work excellently with Macs and are some of the fastest drives on the market. Crucial M4's are pretty popular too. Both are way cheaper than OWC.

For external hard drives, Western Digital. I've had bad experiences with Seagate in the past so I don't recommend them. LaCie is also overpriced junk.

A good rule of thumb is if you're looking for a Mac upgrade, check a PC forum rather than a Mac one. The Mac community is partial to all these weird companies (OWC, LaCie, etc) that get away with selling overpriced stuff to an ignorant user base. There are so many products out there that perform far better for way less money.

I can understand the appeal of OWC for overseas though. I live in the continental U.S. so I can't begin to imagine the market in other parts of the world.

Nice post mate !

 

[cosmicjoke]

Why are people buying expensive brand clothes when they could make their own clothes, or have someone else make them for less, or buy generic brand clothes?

Except in the case of Apple RAM and SSD/HDDs, it is generic clothes rebranded as Apple clothes.... same clothes, one just costs exponentially more. If you like giving Apple your money (I personally can think of more charitable causes), you're free to do so... but the WTH question has its merit... If the hardware is user replaceable, exercise your right to do so.

 

[doobybiggs]

I see both sides of the coin here, but my point is ... If you can spend 5 minutes changing something out, then why not?

There are hundreds of videos out there on how to do it, they basically will hold your hand while doing it.

When I first started messing with hardware I read up on things and watched videos of how to do stuff. When it comes to saving hundreds of dollars and taking maybe like an hour out of your day, why not?

I just do not understand some people. Yes you can say you are not tech savvy, I understand that and know I ton of people who are not. BUT can you really not follow directions? Take 10 screws off, pull silver tab back so ram slots come up, pull out ram, stick in ram, push down, put screws back in. If you have a job today, no matter what it is, I would assume you could follow those directions. No?

I know some people do not want to risk it and all the, but that is what warranty is for. Computer hardware is really like riding a bike, once you do it you can repeat it as much as you need.


Maybe the question should be, why do they not want to self educate themselves on little things like this and prefer to spend hundreds extra for being - I don't want to say lazy - but it is close.

 

[hafr]

I see both sides of the coin here, but my point is ... If you can spend 5 minutes changing something out, then why not?

There are hundreds of videos out there on how to do it, they basically will hold your hand while doing it.

When I first started messing with hardware I read up on things and watched videos of how to do stuff. When it comes to saving hundreds of dollars and taking maybe like an hour out of your day, why not?

I just do not understand some people. Yes you can say you are not tech savvy, I understand that and know I ton of people who are not. BUT can you really not follow directions? Take 10 screws off, pull silver tab back so ram slots come up, pull out ram, stick in ram, push down, put screws back in. If you have a job today, no matter what it is, I would assume you could follow those directions. No?

I know some people do not want to risk it and all the, but that is what warranty is for. Computer hardware is really like riding a bike, once you do it you can repeat it as much as you need.


Maybe the question should be, why do they not want to self educate themselves on little things like this and prefer to spend hundreds extra for being - I don't want to say lazy - but it is close.

You need to be interested enough to read up on what to buy, where to buy it, get the tools, wanting to take the risk of damaging your >1 000 dollar new investment, have steady hands, good enough vision or the aid needed... In short, don't assume everyone are young, able and interested in learning.

For instance, I have no problems cleaning my own house. Yet I pay a woman to come here several times a month to do it. Why? Because I feel the money I spend is worth it to have it done.

I don't think the money is worth it when we're talking about SSD or RAM upgrade from Apple. On the other hand, some people think I'm an idiot for having someone clean my house, so who am I to say that A is okay, but B isn't? It's all about preference.