Damn you Apple

[batmanuel]

They are still being way too stingy on the RAM. Even the $3200 Quad G5 comes with a measly pair of 256MB sticks, which is useless since you have to toss those tiny sticks in order to upgrade to a decent amount of RAM. They add isnult to injury by overcharging for the upgrade to a decent amount ($200 for a 2x512 ECC DDR2 kit upgrade is just sad).

It would be a lot easier to swallow if they just put decent RAM configurations in the machines to begin with and repriced the machines accordingly. It just seems easier to stomach a $3699 starting price for a G5 and 2GB of RAM than buying the machine at $3299 and getting hit with a couple hundred more dollars extra in order to get a decent memory configuration.

Apple's pricing just seems smarmy, like those car dealers that advertise a really cheap deal that winds up being without AC or a radio once you get to the lot. Their upgrade pricing doesn't make any sense, anyway. Why does a 2x512 RAM upgrade cost $100 extra, but a 4x512 upgrade will set you back $300. I know that the value of the 2x256 stock memory configuration is included in the upgrade price, but how exactly does a pair of 256MB PC4200 DDR2 sticks wind up costing you $100? The going price right now is around $50 or so, tops. Even with the typical Apple Tax added in, that's a really high price.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: batmanuel
They are still being way too stingy on the RAM. Even the $3200 Quad G5 comes with a measly pair of 256MB sticks, which is useless since you have to toss those tiny sticks in order to upgrade to a decent amount of RAM. They add isnult to injury by overcharging for the upgrade to a decent amount ($200 for a 2x512 ECC DDR2 kit upgrade is just sad).

It would be a lot easier to swallow if they just put decent RAM configurations in the machines to begin with and repriced the machines accordingly. It just seems easier to stomach a $3699 starting price for a G5 and 2GB of RAM than buying the machine at $3299 and getting hit with a couple hundred more dollars extra in order to get a decent memory configuration.

Apple's pricing just seems smarmy, like those car dealers that advertise a really cheap deal that winds up being without AC or a radio once you get to the lot. Their upgrade pricing doesn't make any sense, anyway. Why does a 2x512 RAM upgrade cost $100 extra, but a 4x512 upgrade will set you back $300. I know that the value of the 2x256 stock memory configuration is included in the upgrade price, but how exactly does a pair of 256MB PC4200 DDR2 sticks wind up costing you $100? The going price right now is around $50 or so, tops. Even with the typical Apple Tax added in, that's a really high price.

So... Buy your ram from some place else?

With 8 or so memory slots, I don't think you'll have to toss the 256ers.

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

So... Buy your ram from some place else?

With 8 or so memory slots, I don't think you'll have to toss the 256ers.

But doesn't Apple always have weird SPD settings that keep you from using cheap generic RAM most of the time. I was looking into getting an iMac G5 last year and the G5 compatible RAM that I found at Crucial was almost as much as the Apple modules.

 

[manly]

Apple's desktop RAM prices have actually gone down a lot with the new iMac and Power Mac updates.

Was I imagining things or was there a GeForce 7800 upgrade possible upon release? Now it's GeForce 6600 or Quadro FX 4500 only. ATI will be more than happy to fill the gap with a Radeon X1800 card in the future.

There's one other PCI-E upgrade available: the Airport Extreme/Bluetooth 2.0 option.

 

[Hacp]

ddr2 means like 10 more minutes of battery life! Woot!

 

[eflat]

Originally posted by: Mickey Eye
Not quite as dissapointing as the Powerbooks. I need a laptop for I have none and I was going to make a foray into the world of Mac by purchasing a 15" Powerbook. Now I'm going to end up getting something else and it's a bit sad because I can't wait on it and I'm not the kind of person to resell later when something decent turns up.

Yeah I don't think it is going to make much sense to buy an Apple until they switch to Intel. Those motorola or whoever makes them chips are really holding them back.

 

[Mickey Eye]

I believe it's IBMs Power PC behind the G4 and G5, could be wrong though.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: batmanuel

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

So... Buy your ram from some place else?

With 8 or so memory slots, I don't think you'll have to toss the 256ers.

But doesn't Apple always have weird SPD settings that keep you from using cheap generic RAM most of the time. I was looking into getting an iMac G5 last year and the G5 compatible RAM that I found at Crucial was almost as much as the Apple modules.

www.crucial.com

Originally posted by: Mickey Eye
I believe it's IBMs Power PC behind the G4 and G5, could be wrong though.

Motorola makes the G4 class CPU's, IBM makes the G5(970) class.

 

[Mickey Eye]

I happily stand corrected, now I know where to target my anger.