-
Mac Pro Pricing
The current Sandy Bridge Xeon E5 processor (8 core, 3.1Ghz) is $1934.
An AMD FIrePro S10000 card (dual GPU) with 6GB of memory is $3099.
32GB of DDR3-1600 is about $300, but adding 32GB to an iMac is $600.
Adding a 768GB SSD to an iMac is $900…surely the Mac Pro will have a 1TB SSD for even more.
So with currently available hardware/specs alone, we’re looking at (just the guts) costing around $6533. Now, how exactly is the Mac Pro going to clock in at significantly less than that? One GPU? An Ivy Bridge Xeon with just 6 or 8 cores instead of 12?
Remember, there’s still the margins and “Made in the U.S.A.” as well.
-
66 Replies
-
Plus motherboard, power supply, custom water cooling and the funky tube…..
-
If you think Apple are going to be paying retail prices for components you’re umm… probably wrong. 🙂
————————————————————-
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
Apple will surely charge retail + prices so the comparison is valid
-
You’ve said it right there. Less RAM, lower-end processor, smaller SSD. Maybe the bottom is $3,999. Maybe $4,999.
With all media storage theoretically outbound, depending on the breadth of software the workstation runs, you might be able to configure it with as little as 256 or 500 GB HD.
But if you’re trying to prove that a maxed out MacPro could run North of 6K, that would be no surprise to me. If you config an iMac maxed out with the SSD that already runs you $4,500. Take off a grand for the monitor and it’s still $3,500.
Once you buy the displays, the 4K setup they pictured would probably be 20K. But for what you can do- that sounds cheap to me when I think about what an SD AVID setup cost only 15 years ago.
As a multi-year business expenditure, it’s a easy decision for me.
* edited to add- when I started my business in 2006. I spent just north of 10K on my MacPro setup.
-
RAM will actually be more expensive because it is ECC at very fast speeds Also it does not use an SSD but flash storage via the PCIe bus which is why it is so fast. This type of storage is currently more expensive than SSD…
I’m certain there will be various BTO models and options like other current machines.
Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 -
[Gary Huff] “So with currently available hardware/specs alone, we’re looking at (just the guts) costing around $6533. Now, how exactly is the Mac Pro going to clock in at significantly less than that? One GPU? An Ivy Bridge Xeon with just 6 or 8 cores instead of 12? “
With a 6 core CPU, 8 GB of RAM, a 256 GB SSD and two mid-range GPUs they could probably hit a $2999 base price, especially if they’ve cut a deal with AMD that lets them get workstation GPUs without the full gratuitous price markup vs. similar high-end gaming GPUs.
They could hypothetically use 6 core i7 CPUs (which are also Socket 2011, so they wouldn’t need a second version of the motherboard) and non-ECC RAM and probably get even lower on the base model, but I’d consider that pretty unlikely.
—
Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
-
Given the democratisation of FCP with FCPX and with the new MacPro already being promoted within the FCPX advertising I’d be very surprised to see the very high figures that have been speculated in this thread.
Obviously this speculation is going to continue until a price is announced but I would see an entry level machine coming in at around $2.5K matching a moderately high specification 27″ iMac.
I think that Apple would rather sell a lot of machines to the wide user base established by FCPX than a few machines to the very picky top end users.
The other speculation is when this computer is going to go on sale, could it be as early as this Autumn, now only a few months away or will it go up against the wire and be released in December? – that would be a long wait.
-
I agree with Mark Dobson. $6K base? No way.
There are a ton of people out there (like me) hanging on to legacy MacPros running FCPX that have been waiting for apple to offer a new MacPro. If they price the new model at $5-6K out of the box – they will loose a ton of potential buyers.
I realize what has been noted regarding the retail prices of the high end components. I’m sure apple has worked out deals with the chip makers. I also think apple dropped the price of FCPX to $300 in order to make it accessible to a much wider user base. If they optimize the MacPro to run X, it would make sense to at least offer BTO options and keep things reasonable.
I’m betting you will see a base model that will blow away my 2006 MacPro checking in at the $3K range. I’ll be happy with that …
-paul.
-
[Paul Figgiani] ” If they optimize the MacPro to run X, it would make sense to at least offer BTO options and keep things reasonable.”
There’s the iMac for that. The Mac Pro is for people who want serious speed.
For serious money.
-
[Chris Kenny] “With a 6 core CPU, 8 GB of RAM, a 256 GB SSD and two mid-range GPUs they could probably hit a $2999 base price, especially if they’ve cut a deal with AMD that lets them get workstation GPUs without the full gratuitous price markup vs. similar high-end gaming GPUs.”
I don’t see Apple offering that configuration at all. If you’re going that low, you might as well get an iMac.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up