Mac Mini Haswell CPU pricing

[YKdvd]

Not an overclocking question, but I was wondering if there's any useful information out there on the pricing of the Haswell CPUs Apple uses in the 2014 Mac mini line? These apparently are the i5-4260U (1.4GHZ, Turbo 2.7Ghz), i5-4278U (2.6/3.1), i5-4308U(2.8/3.1) and i7-4578U (3.0/3.5). The 4260U shows a tray price (nominal wholesale per/thousand) of $315, the same as the 2.6Ghz 4278U even though it has lesser clock and GPU (the sacrifice for the lower TDP).

I was wondering if there is any general ballpark sense of what Apple might be paying for these chips given their volume and sway with Intel? And if not, whether they are likely getting a lower price on the 4260U than the 4278U, despite having the same nominal price? The mid-range mini with the 4278U is effectively charging $50 for the CPU upgrade, which given Apple's margins on RAM/storage items hints at a $20-$25 cheaper price for the 4260U.

Also, the premium for an i7 mini seems to be about $300, although the difference in the i7 and i5 tray prices is around $100. This is a bit much even by Apple standards - would they be getting substantially higher discounts on the i5 than the i7?

 

[Enigmoid]

Its very hard to say. If you look on Newegg. You can generally get a J1900 for example with a motherboard for less than the listed ARK prices of the J1900.

I would guess anywhere from about 50%-75% of the ark price when you buy a couple million chips (also looking at microcenter discounts). I may be completely wrong.

 

[YKdvd]

The reason I'm curious is I've been trying to get a sense of Apple's profit margins on the mini. Apple's RAM and storage add-ons all seem to run at 100-200% markup over their likely cost. If you strip an entry-level 4260U Mini of RAM and storage, and assign it a somewhat arbitrary cost of $300, then the $499 model is something like at least 35% profit, and the $699 and $999 models 50% and 75%, with some of the fully loaded configurations even higher.

I don't know if Apple can really make a "stripped" mini for $300, but since a similar 4250U NUC from Intel seems to have a street price of $350, which would include some retail margins, I suspect they can.