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Umm... sorry... *how* much for that BTO?!

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bri1212 said:
I guess I am going to be the first to disagree with you. Well, not really. No one is going to be able to tell you that perhaps you don't pay a bit more for BTO units.
what i disagree with is that you keep saying the math doesn't work.
I as a prosumer with little time, bought my MBP with an SD drive from Apple. Technically I am proficient enough to do it. I could have ordered it from any of a number of places and installed myself.
The reason I chose not to is twofold. One, I don't have the time to waste on it. and although i might have saved as much as 250.00 USD, I got my computer complete without the hassle, and I only have one vendor to go back to when there is a problem. Two, when I got my computer I turned it on and it was ready to go to work. I installed the programs I needed and am using it. Did I pay a premium for that? Yes. Am I a happy customer? Yes
Now thats not me being a "fanboy". Thats me being a business man.
Maybe you have the time, or maybe it isn't worth it to you. Thats fine, and more power to you. but it is worth it to me
Click to expand...

This guy gets it. I cannot find 7200 2 TB drives for less than £75. The non-enterprise versions go for £75-£100+.

So I buy the £75 drive and then spend an hour+ trying to fit it? To save £45 ?(plus possibly the proceeds of the sale of the 1 TB but who buys 2nd hand HDDs. I don't have the time nor the patience to be trying to peddle an item like that). You must be joking.

My time is far more valuable than that. I would rather spend it with my family or working. I suppose if you are at school or University, it's ok since you have plenty of free time, but I finished University 10 years ago and my time is important. Actually even if I was still a student I would rather be drinking, looking for girls and getting involved in other debauchery than trying to save £45 by taking apart an iMac. I cannot fathom the logic.
 
dh2005 said:
Sure, everything you say is right. And nobody is forced to buy them. I didn't say they were. But the prices make no sense. "Where are the numbers coming from?", is my underlying question. Because, honestly, they look completely made-up, from here.
Click to expand...

They are completely made up. They take a base price, and then slap on a premium for the profit. They are set by various departments of Apple. And yes, I also think they are too high. And therefore I agree with others that it's better to upgrade these things yourself.
 
One thing I think people are forgetting is that Apple doesn't build its computers in the same way that, for example, Dell does. With Dell you place an order, that order is sent to the production line and is then put together according to your spec.

Apple pre-builds most of its iMacs to one of four specifications (well maybe five depending on whether stores are carrying the i7 'BTO' 27" as standard). While they obviously have a BTO process it's effectively a seperate supply channel and requires more work on the part of Apple. Other items like shipping costs are probably also higher as Apple can't ship in the same large quantities they do with standard machines. It might not sound like much but all of those additional costs go into the BTO prices.

Don't get me wrong, the BTO prices are definately on the high side but when you add in the extra cost to Apple for each BTO machine they're not as bad as you may think.
 
bri1212 said:
I guess I am going to be the first to disagree with you. Well, not really. No one is going to be able to tell you that perhaps you don't pay a bit more for BTO units.
what i disagree with is that you keep saying the math doesn't work.
I as a prosumer with little time, bought my MBP with an SD drive from Apple. Technically I am proficient enough to do it. I could have ordered it from any of a number of places and installed myself.
The reason I chose not to is twofold. One, I don't have the time to waste on it. and although i might have saved as much as 250.00 USD, I got my computer complete without the hassle, and I only have one vendor to go back to when there is a problem. Two, when I got my computer I turned it on and it was ready to go to work. I installed the programs I needed and am using it. Did I pay a premium for that? Yes. Am I a happy customer? Yes
Now thats not me being a "fanboy". Thats me being a business man.
Maybe you have the time, or maybe it isn't worth it to you. Thats fine, and more power to you. but it is worth it to me
Click to expand...

Sure. And I didn't call anybody a "fanboy". Everybody's entitled to their opinion.

If I were earning decent money through the use of my Mac (and particularly if it were tax-deductable), that would be a different story. I can certainly see where, for you, it makes perfect sense to have it done. Even if the prices themselves don't make perfect sense.


There's another point I want to address:

theSeb said:
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This guy gets it. I cannot find 7200 2 TB drives for less than £75. The non-enterprise versions go for £75-£100+.

So I buy the £75 drive and then spend an hour+ trying to fit it? To save £45 ?(plus possibly the proceeds of the sale of the 1 TB but who buys 2nd hand HDDs. I don't have the time nor the patience to be trying to peddle an item like that). You must be joking.

My time is far more valuable than that. I would rather spend it with my family or working. I suppose if you are at school or University, it's ok since you have plenty of free time, but I finished University 10 years ago and my time is important. Actually even if I was still a student I would rather be drinking, looking for girls and getting involved in other debauchery than trying to save £45 by taking apart an iMac. I cannot fathom the logic.
Click to expand...


So, when you were a student, an hour of your spare time was worth £45? Unless you were selling weed as a sideline, I seriously doubt that.


But to tackle the greater point: I bought a 7,200rpm 2TB Samsung drive from Scan for £62 a couple of weeks ago. It was probably on special, if you tell me that you can't find one for less than £75. I believe you... however, Apple's net gain on the transaction is greater than any of these numbers, as I'm sure you appreciate, because a). there's already margin on that, and b). they recover the 1TB drive.


Apple, perhaps, bank on most of their BTO customers being either a). loaded, so don't care, b). ignorant, so don't know, or c). neither, but resigned to inevitability. Maybe it's a business model that works for them, right now. But market research shows that sales of Macs are on the up, proportionately, as against PCs. As Apple continue to capture customers from the PC market (as they've done with me), perhaps they'll need to factor in a slightly more savvy demographic who, yes, would like a larger hard drive pre-installed... but not for £120.

To return to my earlier point about graphics systems: clearly, the penny dropped at Apple HQ that gamers were buying Macs, and policies changed.
 
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No, I only started selling weed at 24.

I checked scan this morning and the cheapest 7200 drive was £75 - it is a hitachi.
 
Well, better late than never. Don't beat yourself up about it.
 
theSeb said:
I checked scan this morning and the cheapest 7200 drive was £75 - it is a hitachi.
Click to expand...

Did you look in their one-day-only specials section? "Hot Deals", or something...? They don't put those prices in with the regular stock.

Not that I'm saying you'd find a cheaper one. But, I assure you, I did.
 
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