Buying a Mac Pro, Is This Price Right? Help.

[SIRmisterD]

Hello,

I found a 2009 Mac Pro for sale and I would like to know what you would put as the highest price to pay if you were in my situation. Here are the specs:

Apple Mac Pro 4.1 A1298 Xeon 64-bit Workstation (March, 2009)
1x Quad Core 2.66 Intel Xeon
4 X 2 GB total 8 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz Memory
128 GB SSD
1.0TB WD HDD
500GB WD HDD
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1.0 GB Video Card (I will be replacing this part genre if I do indeed purchase)
Airport Extreme BCM94322MC Wifi Card installed
Original Apple SuperDrive (CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL)
Bluetooth enabled
The aluminum case is in very nice shape, very small scratches, if any.

Please be honest with your prices, and any questions you may have I will answer ASAP.

Thanks for any help!

 

[GGJstudios]

As a starting point, you can check Mac2Sell, eBay (including completed sales), and Amazon for prices of similar models, to get an idea of what a reasonable price may be. Then adjust the price to account for condition, configuration, remaining AppleCare coverage (if any), etc. You can also check the Apple refurbished store to see what similar models are selling for.

 

[SIRmisterD]

As a starting point, you can check Mac2Sell, eBay (including completed sales), and Amazon for prices of similar models, to get an idea of what a reasonable price may be. Then adjust the price to account for condition, configuration, remaining AppleCare coverage (if any), etc. You can also check the Apple refurbished store to see what similar models are selling for.

I've tried to find similar comparisons on eBay, however there aren't that many with similar configurations. I will try the other sources now. Personally, what would you put if you had to guess?

 

[GGJstudios]

I've tried to find similar comparisons on eBay, however there aren't that many with similar configurations. I will try the other sources now. Personally, what would you put if you had to guess?

Inevitably, when someone suggests a value, others will quote higher or lower, so I find individual recommendations pretty meaningless. I prefer to provide sources and let others make their own assumptions about specific pricing.

 

[Celedral]

Bought mine very similar for $540 on CL. I've seen these a few months back for about $700-$800 tops in good condition. Recently there has been a huge demand in current Mac Pros after the initial price reveal made by apple.

 

[chris.k]

I'd say $800 seems about right. It has an SSD which is a plus.

But as noted, be prepared to put another $800 into the system to get it to a 3.33/3.46 Hexacore (W3680/W3690 @ $600) and replacing the RAM for 24Gb of 1333 DDR3 for another $200.

My 0.02$

 

[MassMacMan]

...Recently there has been a huge demand in current Mac Pros after the initial price reveal made by apple.

Based on this observation, I'd guess that the Mac you described could sell for $900-1200. Pluses are the SSD, extra HD, and Airport card.

If it were up to me, I'd set a max price of $1K and work my way down from there.

 

[phoenixsan]

I would say.....

$1050-1200, provided the equipment dont have any functional or cosmetic issue. Valuable parts for me are the extra RAM, SSD and extra HDD....

 

[ybz90]

Definitely <$800. The dual CPU versions can be hand in excellent condition for $1200-1300 on eBay. As another user mentioned, be prepared to invest in upgrades.

 

[deconstruct60]

I'd say $800 seems about right. It has an SSD which is a plus.

The SSD isn't particularly a plus if it has seen high wear and is several years old. A relatively new one sure, but an older system and a relatively smaller capacity size suggest otherwise.

 

[SIRmisterD]

Thank you all for your replies. I am now just going to have to make a judgement call.

 

[adam9c1]

I think the main question to ask is this:
- Will my work / play benefit from multiple cores. If so how crucial is it?
- How much RAM do you require? the single socket units have 4 ram slots, and the dual socket units have 8 slots.

I think the 4 slots units max out at 48 or 64 RAM.
Go to everymac.com and look up the specs what people see is unsupported by Apple but works.

It is doable to upgrade to a faster quad processor or a hex core.
Now if you need two sockets you will see that the future upgrade to that will be pretty expensive as you need to change the CPU doughterboard / tray and those are expensive (as well as the 2nd heatsink and hardware).

I think that's the issue with 4,1 units on eBay and their pricing.