Question about Mac Pro value... (depreciation)

[BG-Mac]

Until the end of April I have the opportunity to get a significant discount on a near maxed out 2009 8 Core Mac Pro. Obviously there are several variables, but is there a general rule of thumb of average depreciation for a machine like this after 1, 2, or possibly 3 years? If I decide to go ahead with the purchase I'll more than likely upgrade in 2 years, possibly 3. Thanks for any insight...

....I know this is a pretty general question, but I'm looking to retain about 50% of the retail value in 2 years. If I could do that it would be financially worth it to me for the added convenience of working from home (from time to time).

 

[bozz2006]

depreciation on mac pros is pretty minimal. I got my 2006 mac pro for $2400 and they're still going for ~$1900. Not bad.

 

[thagomizer]

I've looked into this myself. You're looking at about 20% depreciation per year for the low-end or mid-range Mac Pros. For example, the $2800 8-core 2.8 from last year is going for about $2200 used on eBay now (on average).

Somewhat higher percentage depreciation on the top-of-the-line models. Reason is that you have a smaller potential market for these machines, and also that if someone could afford an older used top-of-the-line Mac Pro, many of them would rather get a newer midrange model. For example, it's probably hard for an owner of the first 8-core 3.0 Mac (clovertown?) to dump it at anything approaching its original price. And that's a machine that's barely two years old (Wikipedia says "The 3.0 GHz X5365 arrived in July 2007, and became available in the Apple Mac Pro [6] on 4 April 2007").

I've based this mostly on eBay transactions, my own as well as observing others. I've always bought the middle of the line machine and sell it after 12-18 months, and I don't lose out much.

Anyway, get what you need especially if your income depends on it. But avoid getting the top of the line machine unless it's going to add to your bottom line. Today's 8-core Mac Pros cost significantly more "per core" than last year's models, and there's no guarantee they'll keep those fat premiums when new chips come out.