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Real Mac Pro Price Comparison

G

GotPro

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 29, 2007
382
0
I'm starting a new thread :)

My buddy ALMOST got it right with the components... here you go... another comparo ;-)

2 XEON E5462 CPUs, 2.8Ghz Each, 12 Meg Cache, 1600Mhz FSB = $940.14 x 2 = $1880.28 @ PCCONNECTION.COM

2 Gigs Fully Buffered 800Mhz FB-DIMMS $130 @ Memory Labs

Server Motherboard... SuperMicro X7DWA-N $504.46 @ PCSuperstore

Server Case LIAN LI ATX XEON $214.99 @ CrazyPC.com

1000 Watt Power Supply $259 @ Dell.com

SATA 320gb SEAGATE SATA $84.99 @ newegg.com

DVDRW = Pioneer DVD115 $79 @ BestBuy.com

ATI HD2600XT $225.05 @ bottomline.com

FW800 LACIE Card $61.71 @ opentip.com

XEON HEAT SINKS / FANS $73.60 for 2

Apple Keyboard $49.99 @ Best Buy

Windows XP PRO or OS X $129 @ anywhere

TOTAL PRICE = $3692

Apple Standard 2.8 Octo w/ Education Discount = $2599 (Anyone can get)

TOTAL DISCOUNT = $1093.07

It's almost $1100 CHEAPER to buy the MAC PRO in STANDARD CONFIG than to BUILD the same WORKSTATION CLASS MACHINE!!!

Put THAT in your pipe and SMOKE IT ;-)

And I didn't even include the price for the Apple mouse (because it SUCKS lol)... or SHIPPING for each of the above components. And THEN you still are left without a single source for warranty, OR an incredibly SILENT, BEAUTIFUL, ELEGANT machine!

:)
 
It is wrong to use the educational discount if you aren't a student.

That said, even without it, the Mac Pro is still significantly cheaper.
 
Tallest Skil said:
So you're saying "Take a chance and cheat Apple on the Education Discount"?
Click to expand...

I didn't say that... but everyone surely knows either a student or a teacher or someone in some school somewhere.

Apple does NOT forbid you buying a machine through someone else. They only get so many educational purchases a year... if they choose to blow it buying a machine for you... Apple doesn't forbid it :)

Oh, and what Pastry Chef said... lol
 
Thanks for your post, that's closer to the real costs (although, it may not be fair to have the edu discount as you can't get that when building a PC)

I didn't update my post with your specs because I just wanted to show that the apple tax doesn't come from the base config and that an equivalent PC is more expensive.

With your findings of the savings totaling $1000, I wouldn't be surprised if you were called a troll, even though you linked everything :rolleyes:
 
Don't forget, you get 1 year of support with the MP pricetag, which I think should be factored in for whatever it might be worth (piece of mind?).

While you do get warranty service and maybe phone/email support with individual products, you can't return the computer as a whole should the computer wind up to be a dud because of some unforseen compatibility nightmare (for example, the Mac Pro reboot from sleep issue). Something I learned building my own PCs for the better half of a decade.

I still build them when required, and enjoy doing so, but I won't go over the $1,500 pricetag combined and appreciate the "full service" I'm entitled to when I buy a full PC from a single manufacturer.

I personally think the Mac Pro is perfectly priced, provided no additional Apple upgrades; such as hard drives, or RAM.

While they're pricetag has gotten a little more reasonable, it's the iMacs and Mac Minis that are overpriced in comparison to their Windows counterparts. Please don't start a thread about that. It's true. If you know how to configure/buy them, you can get them for next to nothing.


EDIT:
On the flip side - I'd probably give it all up for dual 3.2Ghz Quad Core Intel Extreme processors at $1500 a piece. The system in total would cost at least 1.5 times the price of a MP, for starters; but if you're going to be spending what you'd normally reserve for the purchase of a car, you might as well go all the way, right? :)

Damn Newegg and their electronic advertisements.
 
Tallest Skil said:
That's like breaking a rule and then giving it back all wound up in Scotch tape.

Anyway, I'll just 1-up you.

Standard 2.8 Mac Pro: $2,239 in the Developer Store. :D
Click to expand...

Nice one :)

But seriously... the only reason I know that they don't care is two fold:

1) That I originally ordered mine through the education store. They called for verification and I told them that I didn't (at the time) actually work for a school... but would be soon. APPLE asked me if I knew anyone that did... and my girlfriends DAD works at a school... we saved the order... HE called in with his credit card... and they shipped it to MY address.

Trust me... Apple doesn't care. They just want to sell machines.

and

2) In the Willow Bend Store years ago my ex wife was a teacher... and had just quit her job. At check out, they asked US if we were affiliated with any school or anything.. we told them she used to be... the cashier replied "eh, close enough"... swiped her drivers license... and sold us the laptop at EDU price.

So... I'm not trying to cheat Apple. They truly are good when it comes to that stuff!!!

:)
 
Recently, I was assigned to a new position and department. I pointed out to my new department manager that my Dell Precision Mobile Workstation has been having hardware problems for several years and that it needed to be replaced. I, also, noted that there was a Mac Pro sitting unused downstairs since the Technical Publications Department was closed down last November.

He insisted that I had to have a laptop running Windows but was willing to buy the workstation as Windows didn't provide the tools that I needed. He insisted that I look at the corporate standard workstation, a Dell Precision 690, as an alternative to the Mac Pro. This is Dell's equivalent to the original Mac Pro.

The Dell Precision 690 is $3697.00 in our corporate standard configuration. It does have a nVidia Quattro graphics card but with only 1 GB of FB-DIMM memory. Not much different from the custom system posted at the beginning of this thread.

In January, I bought a new Mac Pro for home. The only upgrades to Apple's standard configuration was the selection of the nVidia GeForce 8800 GT graphics option, the WiFi option, and a 3 year warranty. I purchased 6 GB of additional memory from Other World Computing for $380.00. Including sales tax, the total cost of the system was $2959.00.

Apple employees are permitted to extend their employee discounts to family members. The cost of my Mac Pro system reflects that I was able to take advantage of my son-in-law's employee discount.

However, were I to purchase the same Mac Pro configuration at list price, it would still be less expensive than the Dell Precision 690 Workstation. By the way, the 690 only has two dual-core processors instead of the two quad-core processors that are, now, standard on the Mac Pro.

I think Apple has managed to hit the "sweet spot" in terms of price for an engineering workstation. It's hard to build an equivalent system from components that costs less and equivalent systems from Dell and HP cost significantly more.
 
GotPro said:
I'm starting a new thread :)

My buddy ALMOST got it right with the components... here you go... another comparo ;-)
2 XEON E5462 CPUs, 2.8Ghz Each, 12 Meg Cache, 1600Mhz FSB = $940.14 x 2 = $1880.28 @ PCCONNECTION.COM
2 Gigs Fully Buffered 800Mhz FB-DIMMS $130 @ Memory Labs
Server Motherboard... SuperMicro X7DWA-N $504.46 @ PCSuperstore
Server Case LIAN LI ATX XEON $214.99 @ CrazyPC.com
1000 Watt Power Supply $259 @ Dell.com
SATA 320gb SEAGATE SATA $84.99 @ newegg.com
DVDRW = Pioneer DVD115 $79 @ BestBuy.com
ATI HD2600XT $225.05 @ bottomline.com
FW800 LACIE Card $61.71 @ opentip.com
XEON HEAT SINKS / FANS $73.60 for 2
Apple Keyboard $49.99 @ Best Buy
Windows XP PRO or OS X $129 @ anywhere

TOTAL PRICE = $3692
Click to expand...

Sorry, but some of those items are WAY off in terms of price point.

Anyone buying a 2600xt for $225 needs their head examined.......twice.

I found some disparities in several prices you mention. This is more realistic:

Intel Xeon E5462 2.8Ghz Quad $860.62 x 2 = $1721.24 PC Nation (no tax, free shipping)
ATI 2600xt - $89.00 mWave
MSI 1000 watt PSU 209.99 newegg
320 gig Western Digital HDD - $69.99 newegg
Pioneer DVD burner - 29.00 newegg
Lian Li Case - $174.99 xpcgear (you can go MUCH cheaper on a case if you had to, but since you picked a Lian Li I stuck with it)

According to my calculations, you overestimated by $449.03.

Your total, using realistic prices, would then come to $3242.97

;)
 
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