News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

August 6, 2008

hardware

Build your own Mac Pro and save nothing

Posted Aug. 6, ’08, 6:00 PM PT by Scott McNulty
Category | Hardware
Mac Pro

There are a few truths that we all find self evident: all men are created equal, only even numbered Star Trek movies are any good, and home built PCs are always cheaper than anything Apple has to offer.

Gird your loins, fellows, because what I am about to tell you will shock you. Make sure that no children can see the screen, because this news is not for the faint of heart: Tom’s Hardware has found that assembling your very own home-brew version of the baseline Mac Pro configuration, using comparable parts, will save you about twenty bucks. When you add a license for OS X, the cost of iLife, and the time and frustration you’ll spend getting all that software and hardware working together, you actually would be better off just buying a Mac Pro. Tom’s also compares a few Macs to machines from other vendors with similar specs, and finds that they are competitively priced.

All is not well in the land of Apple pricing, lest you think that we Mac users can call this a victory. Tom’s Hardware rightly points out that while Apple’s baseline configuration is well-priced, things change dramatically when you start to upgrade options. RAM is a great example of Apple’s need to mark up options. If you want your Mac Pro to ship from Apple with 4 gigs of RAM (that’s 4 one gig sticks) it’ll cost you $500 more. A quick Google search found me the same 4 gigs of RAM, from a source I trust, for $216. I could go on and on about how Apple marks up their prices on hard drives, and video cards as well—but I won’t.

Long story short: when buying from Apple, get the base configuration and upgrade it yourself. You’ll save money and get to put your hands in the guts of your Mac. If that doesn’t sound like fun to you, then I feel sorry for you.


9 Comments

krye said:

Proof once again that Macs are not more expensive than PCs. They are just more expensive than the usual junk PC manufacturers offer.

August 6, 2008 6:24 PM
Dave Barnes Author Profile Page said:

A link to the Tom's Hardware article would be nice/appreciated/appropriate.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/apple-mac-leopard-windows-vista,review-31192-2.html

Which I read yesterday. It would be better to create original content and not just regurgitate.

August 6, 2008 7:11 PM
David said:

Hey Dave,

The article is linked above ("found").

I think this was a well-written piece that added value.

August 6, 2008 7:31 PM
Dave Barnes Author Profile Page said:

I apologize.
I did not see the link as it was a darker color as I already been to Tom's Hardware.

August 7, 2008 7:41 AM
Bob said:

My guess is that Apple doesn't want to be bothered building custom systems and that's onr reason the price is so high.

If you can get a fully packed box from the factory floor and hand it straight off to the FedEx guy without even opening the box that saves a lot of time/money, energy/money and money/money vs. taking the equipment out, installing stuff, then TESTING the unit to make sure it works, packing it back up (all without scratching it or getting even 1 fingerprint on it), THEN handing it to the FedEx guy.

Also, Apple is charging for UPGRADING (parts and labor) where the online places are just selling parts. Plus, if Apple charged the same as the others the 3rd party places would go out of business.

August 7, 2008 7:58 AM
Ghostlight Author Profile Page said:

I agree. I bought my Quad 2.66Mhz Pro last year with the base 2Gb of memory and a 500Gb hard disk.

In the last month I have added a second Sony DVD drive, which cost me £9.99 from an online store here in Blighty, and this week I fitted a Western Digital 500Gb hard disk that I bought from eBay for a shade over £30! All I need now is to upgrade my pitiful memory...

August 7, 2008 8:38 AM
toddgarvin Author Profile Page said:

I'm not sure I completely agree with this assessment. I recently built my own Mac Pro (see specs below). The total system was $1600. A basic MacPro was at least $1000 more than this total system. Am I missing something here??

===
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS4
Processor: Intel Q9450 Core 2 Quad 2.6 GHz
Video: nVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
Memory: G.Skill 8GB (4 x 2GB) SDRAM DDR2 800
Hard Drive: 2TB Western Digital Caviar (4 x 500GB) SATA 3.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: Pioneer 20X DVD+R
Wireless N: D-Link DWA-556 802.11n
Bluetooth: Cirago BTA-6210Micro USB Bluetooth Dongle
Case: NZXT Lexa
Power Supply: Corsair 750W
===

August 7, 2008 9:52 AM
Loki said:

@toddgarvin
Yes, you are missing something. You changed the rules, you aren't comparing a Mac Pro to 2x quad core Xeon workstation. You did not build something equivalent to a Mac Pro. You built a Hackintosh. I have built something similar, but I wish I could go back now and put the dough into a Mac Pro, because I have invested a lot of time and energy in making it run over the last 6-7 months, and I finally realized my time is worth something - a lot more than the money I saved.

August 7, 2008 11:34 AM
Eric said:

I realize this is a bit late, but that isn't really true at all, as you'll see in the comparison below. Aside from their CPUs (70%-35% cheaper, I suspect a deal with Intel,) Apple's prices are about 25%-335% more expensive (excepting RAM, which is 284%-1180% too much!).

The flipside of this is, oddly enough, that when I checked Apple's prices against other pre-built brands (HP, Dell, IBM...) their prices were virtually identical (didn't write that down, ho-hum.) I guess the lesson is "Don't buy pre-built, and buy as few parts as possible if you must."

I wrote the following notes back in April for an earlier discussion I had on a somewhat different topic. Note that I didn't even shop around, so any amount of real effort would obviously yield far lower prices, plus these are RETAIL, so wholesale buyers like Apple are REALLY ripping people off:

Mac Pro: $2299
2.8GHz Quad Core Xeon E5462 CPU
Dual 1.6GHz 64-bit FSBs (1/CPU) (8 slots)
2GB EEC PC2-6400 FB-DIMMs
2x 4-lane PCIe 1.0 slots
2x 16-lane PCIe 2.0 slots
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB
6x 3Gbps SATA
2x ATA100
4x 3.5" drive bays
320GB 7200RPM SATA HDD
2x 5.25" drive bays
16x DVD±RW DL drive
5x USB 2.0 ports (8 busses, some internal)
2x FW800 ports
2x FW400 ports
980W PSU (300W max for PCIe)

Parts from Apple:
Apple keyboard (USB): $49.95
Apple Mighty Mouse (USB): $49.95
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB: $129
2x 1GB EEC PC2-6400 FB-DIMMs: $499
320GB 7200RPM SATA HDD: $150
16x DVD±RW DL drive: $100
980W PSU (300W max for PCIe): $299.95
Motherboard: $779.95
2.8GHz Xeon E5462 CPU: $500
3GHz Xeon E5472 CPU (not included in above configuration): $900
3.2GHz Xeon E5482 CPU (not included in above configuration): $1300
20" LCD (not included in above configuration): $599

Parts from NewEgg:
Keyboard (USB): $19.99
5-button tiltwheel mouse (USB): $25.99
SAPPHIRE 100208L Radeon HD 2600XT 256MB: $74.99
2x 1GB PC2-6400 DIMMs: $38.99
2GB EEC PC2-6400 FB-DIMM: $94.99
2x 1GB EEC PC2-6400 FB-DIMMs: $129.99
320GB 7200RPM SATA HDD: $69.99
20x DVD±RW DL drive: $22.99
1kW ATX PSU: $179.99
Skulltrail motherboard (nearly identical to Apple MB, except for less RAM & faster PCIe): $619.99
2.8GHz Quad Core Xeon E5440 CPU: $719.99
20" LCD: $189.99

Parts from MemoryLabs:
2.8GHz Quad Core Xeon E5462 CPU: $850
3GHz Quad Core Xeon E5472 CPU: $1090
3.2GHz Quad Core Xeon E5482 CPU: $1399

Price of literally replaceable Apple components: $977.90
Price of comparable components from NewEgg: $343.94 ($633.96 savings)
Price with trickier Apple components: $2357.75 ($1079.90 extra)
Price with trickier components from NewEgg: $1143.92 ($1213.83 savings)


Eric,

August 26, 2008 2:05 AM

Leave a comment

 



Visit other IDG sites: