Block diagram of the Mac Pro

dmosc · Joined: Jun 23, 2003 Posts: 298

here are the mac's specs and US price:

$2,499 + $0 shipping = $2,499
2x 2.66ghz woodcrest processors
Intel mobo
1gb (2x512mb) 667mhz ECC DDR2
250GB SATA HD
Geforce 7300GT 256mb
16x DVD
case/psu

$2,041.62 + $$30.84 shipping = $2,072.46
2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819117089
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813151023
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141018
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144417
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814139006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827136088
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129150

so you pay about $400 for the 1 year warrantee (most of the individual parts have that anyway), the OS, somebody to have built it for you, and the MAC logo.

Now, if you were to change the default equipment any at all, the price difference jumps. Most PC producers make most of their money in "upgrades" or "downgrades" off of a speced system. The base price difference is:

$2499 - $2,072.46 = $426.54

Lets say you decide you like those 3.0Ghz processors instead of the 2.66s. Now the mac price goes to $3299 and the PC price remains a more rational $2,434.46 raising the difference in price to $864.54!! Similarly, lets say you felt 2.0GHZ was enough. Well, apple will save you $300 taking it down to $2199 for you, aren't they nice? The PC drops to $1,340.48 making the difference a similarly nausiating $858.52. I hate to do the math, but that's a 64% markup!

[edit - changed 36% to 64% at dmosc's request. --mosc]

It gets much much worse if you start throwing in more ram (I can't imagine wanting only 1gb of ram in your workstation/server anyway) or more hard drives. Doubling the ram costs $300 but carrys a parts cost of about $90. Similarly, somebody might want to tell apple that you can get SATA hard drives for a lot less than $400 a pop. They're actually less than half that much:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136014

Bottom line, $2,499 is not that bad a price but if you start adding options like ram, HDs, etc or even changing the processor clock, they're really taking you to the cleaners. If you don't want to build it yourself, you can always call somebody like monarchpc up, they're great and the markups they charge are usually closer to 10% which is much more reasonable. Course, if your application is MAC-only, you don't have much choice on economics.

elektro80 · Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 1:37 pm Post subject:

Right, this means we agree on the base systems being pretty decently priced. Very Happy

off topic: http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisemac/archives/2006/09/intel_endorses.html

Eggotrip · Joined: Sep 19, 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Atlanta

There really isn't any reason to buy things like ram or extra hdd's from apple. The case design makes adding those very easy and cheaper.

Part of the idea of getting a MP for me was for long-term upgrades. In the long run I expect to get 2x Core 2 Quads after they've had significant price drops. Shortly I plan to buy two 250 gigs to create a striped raid. So the best comparison really is that base system like you've detailed.

Kassen · Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:14 pm Post subject:

BobTheDog · Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 8:47 am Post subject:

Hi,

My time to make the machine would be much more than $400 thats for sure!

Also it looks rather nice, It is well engineered and nearly silent. Does you price include a silent case and fans?

Cheers

Andy

mosc · Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:15 am Post subject:

The article says: "After all, among first tier OEMs in the U.S., Apple is the only one remaining that buys CPUs exclusively from Intel. "

Considering how long it tool Apple to get to Intel, how long before an AMD Mac?

Eggotrip · Joined: Sep 19, 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Atlanta

I've been an AMD fan - but this is the first time in years where Intel actually has the better chips on both laptop and desktop fronts. When that changes, it might matter to me about Apple using AMD. But if it was a neck and neck competition, such as Nvidia vs. ATI - then its a mute point to me.

Dell only started offering AMD recently, which is funny that this happened only AFTER the shift of best in price/power/performance went to Intel.