Or it will be expensive but still a pretty good bang for the buck, all things considered. You know, like basically everything else Apple makes or has made. YMMV, of course.
They're still selling the 2013 "nMP" at slightly less than 2013 prices, so I'd say that throws a wrench in "bang for the buck." Ignoring that, I'll point out though that while the whole "compare it to PC prices!" thing often comes out not looking too bad, it's mainly because Apple's "high end" stuff often includes parts with absolutely abysmal price to performance ratios.
In the nMP, the main bomb dropped on the price tag was the inclusion of supposed "fire pro" cards. Of course, a real W9000 fire pro includes on-site support, a real warranty, and the ability to swap out a failed card and continue working within minutes to hours as opposed to the days or weeks it takes to do it with Apple. More importantly: As far as an actual Mac OS user is concerned, there was almost no difference between the D700 "Fire Pro" and a Radeon 7970 (consumer card) released in
2011. The fire pros
only advantage are in apps that are
only available in windows.
That's why a jerry-rigged 2010 mac pro with dual 7970 performed almost identically to a nMP costing twice as much (now probably 3-4 times as much ?? ) in GPU tasks. Of course the nMP will use like 2/3 the wattage, but how many years of running it would it take to have it cost more on your power bill?
But the fanboys at the time went ape over the "screaming deal" they were getting by the inclusion of hardware features
they literally could never use.
It's like buying a house with a non-removable mail box which attached to a 10 foot tall bronze statue of Jerry Lewis' old wrinkly butt, valued at million dollars yet you get it at a mere $500k more. You have to keep it covered with a tarp because it makes your kids cry ... Yes, technically a good deal, but probably not something to brag about.
