Quad Mac Pro not too expensive?

[storage]

I did some thinking (hooray!) about the price of the (probably) upcoming Quad Mac Pro.

How expensive do you think it's going to be? Myself, I don't think it will be all that expensive (ie $3000).

Let's take a look at what it costs, if you would build one yourself (Mac Pro specs are assumed ).

$695 2x Intel Xeon 5120 1.87 GHz Dual-Core, 4MB Cache
$566 ASUS DSBF-D/SAS, I5000P chipset, dual Socket 771
$102 Samsung SpinPoint P120S 250GB SATA2 8MB 7200RPM
$204 ATI Radeon X1600XT 256MB GDDR3
$274 Kingston FB-DIMM 1024MB
$350 Stuff I missed (case, PSU, DVD-RW etc)
$2191 Total

There is also cheaper memory and motherboards out there, and the extra $350 might be smaller than $350!

But storage, what about the "Apple Premium" which they add to everything!

Let's see how big this "Apple Premium" is on the 17" iMac compared to a PC you'd build yourself.

$308 Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83 GHz, 2MB Cache
$253 MSI 945GT-Speedster-A4R, I945GT chipset, Socket 479
$75 Samsung SpinPoint P80SD 160GB SATA2 8MB 7200RPM
$204 ATI Radeon X1600XT 256MB GDDR3 (better than 17" iMac, couldn't find the one used)
$68 Kingston DDR2 667 512MB
$341 Samsung 17" LCD Syncmaster 730BF TCO-99 600:1, DVI-D, 4ms, 1280x1024
$300 Stuff I missed (case, PSU, DVD-RW, iSight etc)
$1549 Total

"Apple Premium" = $1753 (stock 17" iMac in Sweden) / $1549 = 13%.

So, adding the Apple Premium of 13% to the price of the homebuilt "Mac Pro", gives us a price of ~$2475!

(Also remember, all these prices are WITH Swedish tax, 25%, and also remember the student discount of 10%!).

Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I won't give up hope!

(this is probably a product of boredom and lack of sleep, excuse me ).

 

[poppe]

I think what should be kept in mind is their Premium is about 50 percent.... I think your figures are a little low... I see a 1999 price for lowest model but not quad.

 

[xfiftyfour]

you put a lot of thought into this! lol

but i'm going to have to agree with the poster above me - Apple charges a much higher premium than 13%, especially on their highest machine (quad mac pro). also, they've already established the trend of pricing new technology at the same price points as old, so my best guess (but of course, only Steve himself knows!) is that the quad mac pros will be the same price as the quad G5s, unfortunately.

but oh boy can you just imagine how cheap the quad G5's will go for if the new mac pro's come out at $2500 (which, actually, makes you rethink their entire pricing line-up - if someone could get a quad mac pro for 2500, how many people are going to pay $2800 for a 17" MBP, and so on and so on?)

 

[bloodycape]

but oh boy can you just imagine how cheap the quad G5's will go for if the new mac pro's come out at $2500 (which, actually, makes you rethink their entire pricing line-up - if someone could get a quad mac pro for 2500, how many people are going to pay $2800 for a 17" MBP, and so on and so on?)

People who need a large laptop for portability and easy but yet need something large enough to do their work on.

 

[Platform]

I did some thinking (hooray!) about the price of the (probably) upcoming Quad Mac Pro.

How expensive do you think it's going to be? Myself, I don't think it will be all that expensive (ie $3000).

Let's take a look at what it costs, if you would build one yourself (Mac Pro specs are assumed ).

$695 2x Intel Xeon 5120 1.87 GHz Dual-Core, 4MB Cache
$566 ASUS DSBF-D/SAS, I5000P chipset, dual Socket 771
$102 Samsung SpinPoint P120S 250GB SATA2 8MB 7200RPM
$204 ATI Radeon X1600XT 256MB GDDR3
$274 Kingston FB-DIMM 1024MB
$350 Stuff I missed (case, PSU, DVD-RW etc)
$2191 Total

There is also cheaper memory and motherboards out there, and the extra $350 might be smaller than $350!

But storage, what about the "Apple Premium" which they add to everything!

Let's see how big this "Apple Premium" is on the 17" iMac compared to a PC you'd build yourself.

$308 Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83 GHz, 2MB Cache
$253 MSI 945GT-Speedster-A4R, I945GT chipset, Socket 479
$75 Samsung SpinPoint P80SD 160GB SATA2 8MB 7200RPM
$204 ATI Radeon X1600XT 256MB GDDR3 (better than 17" iMac, couldn't find the one used)
$68 Kingston DDR2 667 512MB
$341 Samsung 17" LCD Syncmaster 730BF TCO-99 600:1, DVI-D, 4ms, 1280x1024
$300 Stuff I missed (case, PSU, DVD-RW, iSight etc)
$1549 Total

"Apple Premium" = $1753 (stock 17" iMac in Sweden) / $1549 = 13%.

So, adding the Apple Premium of 13% to the price of the homebuilt "Mac Pro", gives us a price of ~$2475!

(Also remember, all these prices are WITH Swedish tax, 25%, and also remember the student discount of 10%!).

Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I won't give up hope!

(this is probably a product of boredom and lack of sleep, excuse me ).

I hope the top of the line Mac Pro is going to have more than a 1.87Ghz CPU....
I think the "missed stuff" is going to cost a bit more, with the kind of specs apple uses these days...the case etc. The prices will proberly stay about the same I think.

 

[ipacmm]

I really do not think we will see a Quad Mac Pro for $2,500, maybe around $3,300+ because I really do not see the prices coming since all the other Intel Mac's have gone up in price with the change, I don't know why it would be any different for the Mac Pro's...

 

[solvs]

Nowhere close. An Apple computer is more than the sum of it's parts. It could cost less in raw parts since they get bulk discounts on pieces, but you have to factor in other things. Labor and production, wherehousing, advertising, design, R&D, software, support, salary, benefits, pensions, etc. It'll be ~$3000. I wouldn't be surprised to see it at $3500. I've built my own cheapy PCs, but this will be nothing like some DIY.

 

[Sun Baked]

Apple fluctuates prices on the Pro towers a couple/hundred dollars every now and then.

$1799 wouldn't be out of the question for a low end, nor would $1999

as $2999 to $3499 for the top end.

Buying parts and slapping them together won't cut it, since Apple is designing their own boards and they are not something that you can point to being $99 or $999.

Like the MacBooks expect a standard Intel chipset to be inside the box with Apple's standard I/O surrounding it.

Plus we may see the Atheros XSPAN (802.11n) and possibly the introduction of Broadcom's 10gigabit ethernet making the rounds with the Pro and XServe.

---

No matter what, you won't be able to build a Mac with off-the-shelf parts, since Apple isn't using standard Intel I/O -- even though Intel is helping put the board together.

 

[generik]

I hope the top of the line Mac Pro is going to have more than a 1.87Ghz CPU....
I think the "missed stuff" is going to cost a bit more, with the kind of specs apple uses these days...the case etc. The prices will proberly stay about the same I think.

The sad thing is that we are not sure if Apple will be offering quad throughout the entire line, or just restrict it to the top model again. Anyhow a single socket Xeon workstation is an absolute oxymoron to me, no way it will ever sell.

 

[poppe]

The sad thing is that we are not sure if Apple will be offering quad throughout the entire line, or just restrict it to the top model again. Anyhow a single socket Xeon workstation is an absolute oxymoron to me, no way it will ever sell.

I would buy it since my car costs more than the top of the line Mac Pro (most likely).

I would by the bottom of the line with a Xeon slot and left open slot. That way when I get paid 4 times I could go out and Buy another Xeon and Bam I have a quad with out Apple Premium, but I dont know if Apple would let that happen.

 

[Pressure]

The sad thing is that we are not sure if Apple will be offering quad throughout the entire line, or just restrict it to the top model again. Anyhow a single socket Xeon workstation is an absolute oxymoron to me, no way it will ever sell.

It will still have two cores. Kentsfield will fit in the same socket and enable 4-way SMP with a single processor upgrade.

 

[storage]

Well well, my prophecy was around $25 off. Fear me!

 

[triotary]

Well well, my prophecy was around $25 off. Fear me!

Yeah pretty impressive! This is why I started this thread

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/222398/