So what do we make of these specs: Mac Pro - Apple for $2499?
Anyone know how Core 2 Duo chips compare to Xeon Dual Core?
Xeon 5100 and Core 2 Duo (or Core 2 Extreme) are very nearly the same–both are Core Microarchitecture chips (not like the old Pentium-4-based Xeons).
But the Xeons (Woodcrest) can be used in pairs, for a total of quad cores.
Bottom line: they are the fastest desktop chips on planet Earth.
And if Apple’s claims are true, the same specs from Dell will cost you $1000 more!
I like the new machines–especially the all-new interior design.
I went and priced a Dell Precision immediately after the announcement and the price quickly got above $3K.
3ghz, 2tb storage, 16gb ram, 2 super drives and a quadro fx 4500, no monitor or wirless etc…
$12,149… :shock: such teases!
Can 64 bit apps access 16 GB of RAM? Why would you want two Superdrives in a machine? You could probably lower the price $100 or so. :lol:
I’m guessing that the second optical drive bay is there for two reasons:
-
There was space, so why not? Some people want dual opticals.
-
People can then add Blu-Ray when it’s available, and not have to wait on the computer itself
- There was space, so why not? Some people want dual opticals.
- People can then add Blu-Ray when it’s available, and not have to wait on >>the computer itself
yes! and just this weekend i had to dupe 16gb of shtuff that i had to copy to my hd then burn. sure would have been nice to just dupe a dvd. took like 5+ hours. ok mostly because my machine is lame but still it would have saved a bunch of time…
So you can read from one and burn from another. Duplicating discs is pain for me.
Dunno if I would spring for it, but it is nice to know I could put a Blu-Ray and HD-DVD burner in the new MacPros if I needed to.
(I do a lot of DVD work).
sweet, now i can scarf a g5 quad on the cheap…
A nice machine except again the gfx-card. Can anyone explain to me what a 90€ low mainstream gfx-card has to search in such a machine? Next built-to-order relevant step is just too far away. Why is there nothing between the 7300gt and a x1900xt?
i heard a rumor that any PCI-E pc gfx card can be used in the new macpros… I guess time will tell.
cheers.
Yup this would be nice.
And then offering the system with a built to order option where there is no ram and no gfx-card included. I mean 300$ for another 1 GB of RAM… ;O) Or 350$ for the jump to the x1900xt. I can get the card alone for that without counting in the 7300gt.
I like this machine but it’s sad to see that Apple still tries to rip you in their online store.
So much for the myth…
Well, as i’ve read it doesn’t seem to be able to use current pci-e cards from the pc in da mac due to the efi firmware. But maybe we’ll see new cards which will take this into account and work on both systems.
Hi,
it is not a myth. In my eyes, it’s a fact that Macs aren’t more expensive. The actual cost of a computer is its price minus the money you get back when you sell it.
I’ve just sold my Dual G5 (original price 2700€) after almost 3 years. At ebay I got 1300€ for it. So I just lost approx. 50% of it’s original value.
Please don’t try to get 50% for a 3 years old PC. I guarantee you you won’t succeed.
Bye,
Martin
P.S. Apple RAM is dam expensive. That’s true. But who cares. Just go to the next electronic retailer and buy some cheap PC RAM. Absolutely no problem and works perfectly. That’s like buying motor oil directly at Mercedes or BMW.
Hi,
now this is really a subjective definition of what a price is! :O) I prefer going with the standard definition that the price actually is what i have to pay for when buying something as you have no idea what happens to the computer in the meantime and so on. What if you computer get’s broken, stolen, the market alters…nah…
Hey mum look at this porsche. It’s really cheap. You only have to think of what i might be able to get for it when i might sell it. What you don’t have the money right now? Come on it’s so cheap if you think of… ;O)
Anyway obviously you don’t buy your RAM in the Apple store but why is it such a drag? What’s the strategy behind selling a RAM at almost 300% of the normal price? Don’t you think this might piss off new customers who aren’t familiar with this? I think it’s a cheap behaviour from Apple. Same with the gfx card, although it’s not such a large difference.
Hmmm when i think about it i still miss the mac You which is smaller, less powerful version of the mac Pro. Imagine a smaller mac Pro chassis, less space, less slots, a normal core due (maybe two of them) and selling this in a pricerange of the iMac. This would be machine i would consider buying, as i would have reasonable performance, i would be able to upgrade the system to my needs and plugin a new gfx card once i need a better one for instance. Actually this would be so much better than the iMac, where you can’t updgrade such components and where you’re also tied to the monitor. There for sure are enough customers who want something like the iMac but looking at the PC market there also is a large userbase who would favor a system like the the mac You.
Regards,
taumel
You are right my definition probably was more the cost. Nevertheless I’m still sure that my Macs didn’t cost me so much more than PCs. And that is what counts. The actual price of the Mac might be a little bit irritating on that point. Even although the Mac Pro compares very well against a DELL for example.
OK that could happen to all your goods. What is if someone makes a hit-and-run with your car. Life is not risk free. A solution might be a 15 years old car with zero value 
Also please don’t understand my few Macs buys and sells as a statistic. It is just my own experience which makes me a happy Apple customer.
Funny example, but true of course.
Some for sure. I also don’t understand that. But as I said it is not a argument not to buy a Mac. I can tell you a dozend of other companies which do the same.
For example why is Espon inc so much more expensive than no name inc. ?
Why does the original Canon Accu for my digital camera costs 49€ while I can get it for 7€ from a no name company.
They just try it and it looks like that it works. That’s sad but it seems to be a quite common practice. Not just evil Apple.
The price for the grafix card is ok if you consider that it was tested from Apple. And that Apple might also test future OS’s on it. A few extra dollars for a solution which actually works.
I’ve updated just once the grafix card of my windows PC (some years ago) and I had the biggest problems. The unbelievable work around the support offered me was to remove my sound card, which surprisingly worked. Now I had nice graphics but no sound. Cool. 
Once again that it no static just my experience. You might have never encountered a comparable problem with your PC.
I think that is just a business decision. They are probably just worried to cannibalize the iMac and Mac Pro sales.
In general I think it is better to have just a few profitable product lines instead of many unprofitable or less profitable ones.
Bye,
Martin
Regarding
Okay agreed, other try this as well but they do it a little bit more subtile in my opinion.
For instance they would buy standard RAMs and brand them with their own logo. My Sony accu also isn’t worth it’s money but they at least try to cheat me the way that they put it into some sony design and put it into a large package (not that i need that at all). I just can see a little bit of effort trying to blend me… ;O)
The way Apples does it scares me more away and i think of if they do this with the RAM maybe they also do this with the other components as well. Result is that i less trust them. Now how much marketing does it cost to get the lost confidence back?
Regarding
Hmm what are they testing there? Actually every computer is tested for certain things when running through the manufacturing process. This is standard…
As for your graphics card experience. I’ve never encountered such problems and i suspect that nowadays these things aren’t a big issue anymore. I’ve heard such stories in earlier days but not the last years anymore. Get a reasonable pc and everything is fine - hopefully! ;O)
Regarding the
This depends on where you see more market potential. Personally i see a lot of potential if they would offer a open system for a reasonable price. They could still sell the Pro to those who really need the power of the xeons. But at the moment there does not exist a sensible solution between the mini and the pro and if i’m ever again to get a mac then i will probably go for a new mini due to this. Otherwise i would prefer the mac You. I know some other people beside of me who would like such a system as well and if they wanna fish in the pc market than this would be a good way to do.
Anyway Apple for sure knows what they are doing, right?! ;O)
Regards,
taumel
I have not read the thread in detail, but I wanted to offer 2 things.
- RAM pricing - On reason to price the RAM, or any addon more is that you can This is actually considered good business in that helps maximize your profit. However, a more common reason for a business to price something substantially more is that they do not really want to provide that product or service. Why wouldn’t a business want to carry as much as possible? Simply focus. Companies focus on different things, and off load the non-focus areas to other supporting businesses. This allows the business to optimize for their focus area. For complex products with multiple, upgradable components, the market often “forces” companies to provide options. However, the providing of options can cause an overall innefficiency. The solution is to charge an amount that will encourage consumers to use other supplies for that non-standard part. This also makes the business attractive as a partner for other businesses. There is more but I will stop my rambling on this point.
- On the graphics card testing - I think what Martin was getting at was that Apple in essence guarantees that the card will work with future OS versions. Although there is standard testing, focus is given to those paths that are deemed most important by the company. In the case of a stock graphics card, Apple would have substantial service issues if something was released which caused problems with that standard card. However, if some off-brand card is used then only a few users are impacted and the problem can be pointed at the off-brand card. Replacing that card fixes the problem. Easy to demonstrate, easy to solve. Perhaps not what that consumer wanted, but that consumer assumed certain risks by going nonstandard. Good thing about the Internet is that communities spring up that, in effect, support the more popular nonstandard options.
I’ve never bought Apple RAM in my life. Granted, I’ve only bought three Macs in my life. (Occasionally the math works out to Apple RAM being cheaper, because 3rd-party RAM can mean “wasting” an Apple module.)
Apparently the Apple Mac Pro RAM has really big heat sinks, causing better cooling, lower fan speed, and less noise. But you’re free to use cheaper RAM, and if it doesn’t meet the same cooling standards, the fan simply runs more.
I’ll be watching for reports of 3rd-party RAM than can provide the same fan/noise performance as Apple’s modules.