How much do Mac parts really cost?

[neufuse Veteran]

you are WAY off on the motherboard... you cant just slap a generic one in there thats an EFI motherboard which you cant even buy right now as a stand alone part... its a custom Intel EFI board based on the 945 or 975 chipset, dependent on if you are buying now or last year and what tier you buy at aka mac or mac pro, xserve...etc ... it costs apple about $350 a board from Intel...

Apple doesn't sell individual components to build their computers, they just sell computers, like Dell and HP. Why would you compare a bunch of parts to a fully assembled car, then claim the parts are a better buy?

I'm pretty sure the Mac Pro's motherboard uses an Intel 945 chipset. It's not as proprietory as you think.

its more then you think, its a custom made EFI board that intel and apple designed together, it's not a standard off the shelf OEM board

[HistoricalNeowin]

My two pennies: The comparison is flawed in many ways, the only possible outcome of this thread was yet another 'war' between mac people, windows people, and the apparent unbiased outsiders.

Damn you....Damn you!

[Simon Veteran]

You bring up one or two good points, but if you watch the revelation of the Mac Pro, you'll notice that the specs are clearly designed to be able to let you customize the computer in a lot of different ways. Many of the items that you use in your computer do not match up to the Mac hardware, for example Xeon vs. Core 2 Duo, and IDE vs. SATA. The Mac hardware uses higher standard hardware and manufacturing; while the average user could use your computer and be quite happy with it, the average user is not a "pro". Try and do a little more research if you do a revised copy, and I'll be able to agree with you. I use a Mac because I like the hardware and higher standard of it, and because Mac Os X is, in my personal opinion, better than Windows XP. Windows Vista might give it some good competition.

Please, take my advice and use it; you won't convince me to go back to a PC, but with more factual information, you could easily convince me that Macs cost more.

Nice try.

[Churma]

Well Apple has to make money somehow. If its too pricey don't buy it. Welcome to capitalism. To me Apple is way overpriced for the hardware that you get. Thats why I run OSX 10.4.8 on my Compaq Presario V2000 . I rather buy my own hardware and install OSX on it.

[instant.human]

heres a nice deal for you:

you know... companys make profit. thats how everything here works. if you dont like it, you do have an option:

build a time machine (see the "haha"?) and go back to the 50s. travel to the sovjet union and there you go.

no, sorry, that was bad.

of course apple hardware is expensive. but there is one thing you should never forget:

the hardware is built around the OS and not vice versa, you dont put the OS on a prebuilt hardware.

with an apple you get the all-in-one-package. you get the support, you get 110% supported hardware,

you get design (which of course it a matter of taste), you get the OS, which runs, as implied by something said before,

110% supported by the hardware and you get, if you decide to go pro, the option of upgrading.

people who buy macs, sorry for the bit of black and white painting, usually actually HAVE the money to afford

something all-in-one like this, because they need something that really works 100% flawlessly for their work

or something.

and all the people out there owning a mac where willing to pay a bit more for what actually is offered by the

apple corp.

but thats just my pov.

[markwolfe Veteran]

...and the apparent unbiased outsiders.

I never said I wan't biased. :p :shiftyninja:

[jamend]

Kingston 2x512 MB kit DDR2 667 MHz FB-DIMM - $173.99

2x Intel Xeon 5150 dual-core 2.66 GHz - $1,419.98

Seagate 250 GB 7200.10 SATA 2.0 - $74.99

Geforce 7300GT 256 MB - $89.99

LG DVD?RW 18x - $29.99

Logitech MX5000 keyboard + mouse - $115.99

Windows XP Pro OEM - $139.99

Tyan S2692ANR motherboard - $349.99

Antec Titan - $171.99

Grand total:$2,566.90>

Mac Pro default configuration (identical specs):$2,499.00>

PS: I'm pretty sure the Mac Pro uses a 5000-series chipset, not some 945 junk.

Edited January 3, 2007 by Cephas

[SnowRanger13]

* Two 2GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon "Woodcrest" processors

* 1GB memory (667MHz DDR2 fully-buffered DIMM ECC)

* NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 256MB memory

* 160GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200-rpm hard drive1

* 16x double-layer SuperDrive

ummm 1st. its Two 2GHz Dual Core Intel Xeons. You only have one, 2nd the memory cost so much more because its fully buffered + ECC. There is always money made on computers. Go price out a basic Dell Quad Core workstation. I'm sure it will cost you about the same as a entry Mac Pro.

[SnowRanger13]

Well Apple has to make money somehow. If its too pricey don't buy it. Welcome to capitalism. To me Apple is way overpriced for the hardware that you get. Thats why I run OSX 10.4.8 on my Compaq Presario V2000 . I rather buy my own hardware and install OSX on it.

you probaly soulden't talk about running OS X on PC's, pretty sure its against the rules here because it's against Apples agreements.

[stadsport]

PS: I'm pretty sure the Mac Pro uses a 5000-series chipset, not some 945 junk.

You're probably right, I just remember hearing about how the 945 mobos support EFI and are running on a BIOS layer, I don't remember where I heard the connection to current Macs.

[PyX]

It's not hard to notice he chose the cheapest PC components ever, and then he says that the Mac is more expensive... Ok..

Cephas comparison is A LOT more accurate, but you still cannot really compare apples and oranges, they both have different components. Some, like the processor and maybe the DVD write are the same though.

[the evn show]

Grab Apple's 10-Q or 10-K filing that they turn an average of 30% profit on their hardware. If they're sacrificing margin on the low-price gear it will have to be made up by selling more expensive kit with a higher margin in order to maintain that gross margin.

No need for all the fancy guess work and approximating to work out how much Apple is taking above-and-beyond the cost of sales for every system sold.

It's not that I don't know I'm paying a premium, it's just that I don't care. I bought a computer as a solution to a collection of problems, I value the quality of that solution, not the little bits of metal and plastic that from the most obvious part of it. Saving a few bucks (even a few hundred) isn't worth the hassle of hobbling together a PC from pieces out of the parts bin, getting an OS—that doesn't run the software I want to use—on it, and then playing tech support for the whole mess if anything goes wrong.

There's also something to be said about not having an eye-sore in the office.

[mastamase]

its like comparing Ferrari's (Mac) to Honda's (PC) even though they may get the same job done the Ferrari is hell of alot better... :whistle:

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

mind you the CD reading and writing (R not RW) on the "SuperDrive" is only 32X instead of the standard for the past half decade of 48-52X but that?s ok

We have had 48x-52x cd burning for half a decade?, my cd burner i got 2 years ago maxes out at 32x (although it can read at 48x)

Must have been a old burner when i brought it:rolleyes:s:

[SIE]

There's also something to be said about not having an eye-sore in the office.

This ain't the 90's m8, the old "mac's look better than pc's" argument died a long time ago.

[[bear]]

Vote for worst thread ever 2007.

[PyX]

Vote for worst thread ever 2007.

Where can I vote?

[acies]

Kingston 2x512 MB kit DDR2 667 MHz FB-DIMM - $173.99

2x Intel Xeon 5150 dual-core 2.66 GHz - $1,419.98

Seagate 250 GB 7200.10 SATA 2.0 - $74.99

Geforce 7300GT 256 MB - $89.99

LG DVD?RW 18x - $29.99

Logitech MX5000 keyboard + mouse - $115.99

Windows XP Pro OEM - $139.99

Tyan S2692ANR motherboard - $349.99

Antec Titan - $171.99

Grand total:$2,566.90>

Mac Pro default configuration (identical specs):$2,499.00>

PS: I'm pretty sure the Mac Pro uses a 5000-series chipset, not some 945 junk.

(Y))