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I think if you want an idea of what the new Mac Pro will cost go to the Boxx site and price out what a similarly specced system might cost. You can pick the same processors, same video cards, similar ram and an SSD drive (although the Apple flash drive will probably cost a little more). That should get you in the ball park of what the Mac Pro will cost. Boxx is a premium company, but then so is Apple.
 
I think if you want an idea of what the new Mac Pro will cost go to the Boxx site and price out what a similarly specced system might cost. You can pick the same processors, same video cards, similar ram and an SSD drive (although the Apple flash drive will probably cost a little more). That should get you in the ball park of what the Mac Pro will cost. Boxx is a premium company, but then so is Apple.

isnt't boxx using xeon ES?
 
I wonder how the base model processor (IE: likely the 1620v2?) would fare against the haswell i7 in the current iMacs. Does anybody know where i can find the benchmark data comparing the two CPUs?

I want this computer for everything from daily tasks to music production. Im not pro, but it is much more pleasant working on music when you dont get bottle neck from the CPU from multiple virtual instruments running.


Ive always dreamed of owning a Mac Pro, ever since the Power Mac g5 casing. I saw it running with the 30" Cinema display and I was like :eek:. Almost ten years later and finally have a job that I can sort of afford the low end mac pro.
 
I think for apple to have mass market appeal with the nMP it will need to have a massive price range. The base starting at sub $2500 the way some ppl talk (get an imac). It will not have appealing performance/value at that price point unless you have ancient hardware. $4K for the mid - a somewhat useful spec to professionals, and the high is probably in the 6-$8K ball park. The Mac pro is an investment, that should pay for itself (dozens) many times over in environments where time = money. So performance directly equals more money can be made. Thats who the mac pro is targeted at, people that want the best experience possible with their multi-thousand dollar software.
 
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The Mac pro is an investment, that should pay for it self (dozens) many times over in environments where time = money. So performance directly equals more money can be made.

Definitely think they will be targeting people who make money off their systems (which was always the point of the Mac Pro). Agree that anyone shopping in the $2500-$3K range would be better off with a maxed out iMac. I imagine it will start around $3500 and max out over $10K with top of the line processor and video cards.
 
I think if you want an idea of what the new Mac Pro will cost go to the Boxx site and price out what a similarly specced system might cost. You can pick the same processors, same video cards, similar ram and an SSD drive (although the Apple flash drive will probably cost a little more). That should get you in the ball park of what the Mac Pro will cost. Boxx is a premium company, but then so is Apple.

I would say look at HP or Dell rather than Boxx simply because they sell in larger volumes l like Apple. Boxx, to me, is more of a boutique shop. You're also basically paying for that 3 years of warranty/support that's "included."

Regardless, it's still tough to use any of them for comparison because of the new design of the Mac Pro. For example, Apple's not using off the shelf cards for their GPUs.
 
I wonder how the base model processor (IE: likely the 1620v2?) would fare against the haswell i7 in the current iMacs. Does anybody know where i can find the benchmark data comparing the two CPUs?

The 1620s probably aren't all that fast. In terms of haswell, to pick up the i7, you will be over $2k once configured. They're probably relatively close, but Haswell isn't a major improvement over the ivy imacs.

I would say look at HP or Dell rather than Boxx simply because they sell in larger volumes l like Apple. Boxx, to me, is more of a boutique shop. You're also basically paying for that 3 years of warranty/support that's "included."

Regardless, it's still tough to use any of them for comparison because of the new design of the Mac Pro. For example, Apple's not using off the shelf cards for their GPUs.

Actually 3 year warranties are basically the norm among workstation class machines. Many of them have upgraded support which costs extra, but the warranty length is good. Warranty service on those units is not necessarily identical to what you would get on boxes aimed at the broader market.
 
Regardless, it's still tough to use any of them for comparison because of the new design of the Mac Pro. For example, Apple's not using off the shelf cards for their GPUs.

Apple using their own custom cards doesn't give me a lot of hope for a lower price. Generally, it seems their proprietary hardware comes at a premium. Believe me, I'd be ecstatic if Apple prices this on the low end but given their history, I'm not holding my breath.
 
Apple using their own custom cards doesn't give me a lot of hope for a lower price. Generally, it seems their proprietary hardware comes at a premium. Believe me, I'd be ecstatic if Apple prices this on the low end but given their history, I'm not holding my breath.

Custom cards are a lot cheaper than buying 2 FirePro cards from AMD as an OEM. Apple will probably be paying what others would pay for Radeon cards of the same hardware specifications. This contract is a major boon for AMD as the FirePro brand is weak and their marketshare for workstation addin cards is less than 15%, this could increase that a lot.
 
I wonder how the base model processor (IE: likely the 1620v2?) would fare against the haswell i7 in the current iMacs. Does anybody know where i can find the benchmark data comparing the two CPUs?

a bit of noise because of different baselines but...

Looking for E5-1620

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/search?utf8=✓&q=xeon+e5-1620+

There is a E5 1620 v2 entry there for a Dell Precision 3610

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/99517

Single 3239 Multiple 13367

For an iMac I didn't find a 2013 entry ( no i7-4770 or i7-4771 Top end 2012 models are i7-3770

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/search?utf8=✓&q=iMac+i7-3770

generally single 3200 multiple 12500

Which is the trend will likely see with update to Haswell. Probably around a 6-10% bump so approximately single 3392-3520 multiple 13250-13750


For multiple cores and high I/O pressure the E5 1620 does better with its higher memory I/O bandwidth than the mainstream desktop models. If just trying to do single core drag racing then the mainstream models have a marginal edge.

There is no huge gap and at a system performance level, the PCIe SSD by default in the Mac Pro probably will lead to a generally faster "feel" compared to the iMacs default HDD. The CPUs are close enough that the other components in the deployed system that will probably give the winning edge in overall system performance as oppose to just CPU drag racing.


I want this computer for everything from daily tasks to music production. Im not pro, but it is much more pleasant working on music when you dont get bottle neck from the CPU from multiple virtual instruments running.

Instruments in RAM probably make more of a difference than CPU. The Mac Pro will go higher.

Almost ten years later and finally have a job that I can sort of afford the low end mac pro.

If they keep the prices approximately the same. Seems likely, but a small chance they'll get too greedy. If budget is a problem then a refurb Mac Pro may work also.
 
No, I think the guy you're arguing with is right. They're advertising in movie theatres.

Are they still advertising in theaters after the Steve Jobs movie isn't there?

They want to sell a LOT of these.

Or simply preaching to the choir ? Apple would be goofy not to run ads for the company in the same context as pragmatically a 1 hour long ad for the company since Jobs is merged in many folks minds with Apple ( Jobs == Apple ). There is a very real blowback that Apple has at the moment because with Jobs dead now and they have to detach. Is Apple (and innovation dead) because Jobs is dead? That ad addresses that as much as the Mac Pro.

Apple probably does have a watch and a TV in the hopper but they just aren't going to make it this year. Right now they are engaged in a Jobs like showmanship to take folks eyes off of those expectation delay mismatches.

Apple probably does want to sell around 60-90K of these. That's is alot for most folks but not normalized against other Macs or the overall PC (or even workstation) markets.

you're left with a striking monolithic design that people will want whether they need it or not. I think Apple is thinking wide market with these.

Few folks blow approximately $3000 on something whether they need it or not. And frankly as a desktop showpiece there is little to no motivation to buy another one in 3-5 years. It will still look the same. Apple needs folks to buy the Mac Pro because what it does has value; not as window dressing.

If Apple even runs a wide spread billboard or mainstream media campaign after it ships I'll be shocked. The ads are going to be iPhone and iPad once they are out on the market. Those actually have wide markets so they are advertised in wide markets.

Finally Apple has pissed alot of folks off. EU countries are still on Mac Pro locked out. It has been 9 months since they got locked out. Apple is way behind the curve on default graphics right now. There probably will be more "hey look at us and give us an eval" work that Apple does after release than is higher than historic Mac Pro promotion levels. But that is more so going after folks who walked away more so that broad mainstream appeals. The Mac Pro does need to get out of the A/V ghetto folks commonly pigeonhole it into. But movie ads or generic billboards aren't going to help with that very effectively

.
 
Are they still advertising in theaters after the Steve Jobs movie isn't there?

Well, technically "Jobs" is still in theatres. 84 locations in North America at this moment. I saw the Mac Pro ad two weeks ago, playing before a new release. "Jobs" wasn't even playing in the same multiplex. I don't know if the "Jobs" timing was entirely deliberate, but either way, the ad buy has far outlived any discussion about the film.

Few folks blow approximately $3000 on something whether they need it or not. And frankly as a desktop showpiece there is little to no motivation to buy another one in 3-5 years. It will still look the same. Apple needs folks to buy the Mac Pro because what it does has value; not as window dressing.

Lots of folks do. All the kids who want to go to film school will get one if their parents can afford it. All the wealthy art schoolers. All the amateur creative content people who don't realize they're not even maxing out their iMacs and like to spend money and look cool. And also, the people who really need them: the huge number of current Mac Pro users with 3-7 year old machines who are almost ready to update.
 
I don't know if the "Jobs" timing was entirely deliberate, but either way, the ad buy has far outlived any discussion about the film.

Ads show up about Mac Pro movie ads 8/16/2013

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1623890/

'Jobs' releases 8/16/2013

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=jobs.htm

Yeah that looks entirely like a coincidental event.

The ad buy isn't about promoting the film. The ad buy is about crafting Apple's image. The film and the ads are out in part driven by

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1649731/

If the death was a non issue there probably wouldn't be corporate wide internal memos on it.

The window for the ad buy is probably driven more so by the minimal lengths the theaters demand (for the breadth that Apple probably wanted) and by need to fill the gap until the new iPads and iPhones roll out to fill the vacuum in their absence. As I said we'll see once both the Mac Pro and iOS devices are both new which one Apple is going to spend ad dollars promoting.


Lots of folks do. All the kids who want to go to film school will get one if their parents can afford it. All the wealthy art schoolers.

My "few" was relative to folks period. What you are doing to finding select much smaller pools of folks and saying there is a higher percentage in those. It is a smaller pieces of already a small set. That amounts to few.
Not all art schoolers are wealthy. Not all film school parents are wealthy. Probably not even a majority.

Besides , in the "back to school" quarter Mac sales down -2.3%

https://www.macrumors.com/2013/10/0...ter-as-tablets-continue-to-eat-into-pc-sales/

You can spin that is primarily driven because there is a huge group all waiting on the new Mac Pro. Missing update on MBP is probably big contributor to that. However, additionally, far more likely that record school loan debt and marginal job market growth along with highly depressed school buying budgets result in folks being more frugal about what they buy. "Not sure we can afford it but it looks cool" probably doesn't fly so well in those contexts.

All the amateur creative content people who don't realize they're not even maxing out their iMacs and like to spend money and look cool.

They overspent on a iMac so will turn around and overspend even more on a Mac Pro ? "Oh snap, I'm not giving away enough of my money to Apple (who is swimming in money). I got to deplete my bank account even more. " Apple doesn't need to spend any advertising money trying to recruit folks with that mindset. That is just wasted money since they already are guzzling kool-aid.

Personally I don't think Apple spends alot of time trying to create products specifically for those people. Nor do they many folks to go "two levels higher" than their needs. The expectation would far more be that they either go "one level up" or move 1-2 levels up through BTO mods on the level they are actually targeted at ( e.g., Mac Mini with max memory and max SSD from Apple. ). Their focus is on user experience leading to additional product buys not user ogling leading to more user ogling.


And also, the people who really need them: the huge number of current Mac Pro users with 3-7 year old machines who are almost ready to update.

If Apple had been highly successful at growing the base over the last 3-4 years wouldn't have needed a radically new Mac Pro. A sizable fraction of those 4-7 year old machines are going to get replaced by 1-3 year old machines. Risk adverse and primarily focused on the rear-view-mirror folks aren't going to follow on the Mac Pro this iteration.
 
Custom cards are a lot cheaper than buying 2 FirePro cards from AMD as an OEM. Apple will probably be paying what others would pay for Radeon cards of the same hardware specifications. This contract is a major boon for AMD as the FirePro brand is weak and their marketshare for workstation addin cards is less than 15%, this could increase that a lot.

Not sure I agree with this as Apple will have to set up their own manufacturing pipeline as well as pay a royalty to ATI. But regardless, even if it is cheaper, I wouldn't expect Apple to pass the savings on to us (Compare the price of Apple branded ram to third party ram). Mac Pro is a workstation targeted at professional users who are willing to pay a premium for a reliable system. I would expect it to be priced out of the reach of most casual home users.
 
Not sure I agree with this as Apple will have to set up their own manufacturing pipeline as well as pay a royalty to ATI. But regardless, even if it is cheaper, I wouldn't expect Apple to pass the savings on to us (Compare the price of Apple branded ram to third party ram). Mac Pro is a workstation targeted at professional users who are willing to pay a premium for a reliable system. I would expect it to be priced out of the reach of most casual home users.

So very true. Take you ideal price and then double it and you'll be getting close.

High margins are their MO.
 
Not sure I agree with this as Apple will have to set up their own manufacturing pipeline as well as pay a royalty to ATI. But regardless, even if it is cheaper, I wouldn't expect Apple to pass the savings on to us (Compare the price of Apple branded ram to third party ram). Mac Pro is a workstation targeted at professional users who are willing to pay a premium for a reliable system. I would expect it to be priced out of the reach of most casual home users.

Sure, like how they charged $2,500 for a sub $1,400 workstation from 2009.
 
I'm scared to see the price. The monitor itself will put a hefty price tag on top of the workstation. I can't imagine someone buying the mac pro and not getting that 4k monitor. :)
 
The Mac Pro has been neglected for a long time. Much of that must have been because the low volumes didn't justify spending more on development. To expend this much effort on a completely new model must mean they expect to expand the sales considerably. And that points to a lower entry price.

And while the SSD and second graphics card are likely to raise costs, there are a lot of components that are gone. While those pieces were not individually expensive, they do add up. And likely much more of a consideration is the lower productions costs of not having to fit all those components.
 
Ads show up about Mac Pro movie ads 8/16/2013

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1623890/

'Jobs' releases 8/16/2013

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=jobs.htm

Yeah that looks entirely like a coincidental event.

The ad buy isn't about promoting the film. The ad buy is about crafting Apple's image. The film and the ads are out in part driven by

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1649731/

If the death was a non issue there probably wouldn't be corporate wide internal memos on it.

The window for the ad buy is probably driven more so by the minimal lengths the theaters demand (for the breadth that Apple probably wanted) and by need to fill the gap until the new iPads and iPhones roll out to fill the vacuum in their absence. As I said we'll see once both the Mac Pro and iOS devices are both new which one Apple is going to spend ad dollars promoting.

The ads screened for probably millions of people, before hundreds of different movies. They could have advertised any product in those ads. They chose the Mac Pro. This isn't just some "ain't we cool" campaign... they want people to buy it.

As usual you overstate your case - I say "Mac Pro will sell a lot" and you say "oh yeah, well Apple's going to spend more money promoting iOs devices." No *****!
 
I'm scared to see the price. The monitor itself will put a hefty price tag on top of the workstation. I can't imagine someone buying the mac pro and not getting that 4k monitor. :)

A reason why the Mac Pro appeals over an iMac. I can add the nice monitor later. And the monitor could last multiple computer upgrades.
 
could they kill the mini and lowball the price to less than 1k ? not likely but would be nice:D:D
 
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