Predicting Mac Pro upgrades

[kfranc9]

So I'm interested in buying a Mac Pro Quad-core Leopard driving machine but I'm curious...how often does Apple bring down its prices on the Mac Pro or upgrade components and leave the system at the same price? any predictions?

 

[timswim78]

Well, it looks like MacPro's will have to wait their turns behind the new iMacs.
http://www.macrumors.com/2007/...mac-os-10-4-10-update/

The MacRumor's buyer guide suggests that a MacPro update is not due for a while, since it was recently updated to Octo-Core.
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Pro

 

[randomlinh]

they usually upgrade the components leaving the price the same, or close enough to the same. I'd like to see some refurbs at like 40% off though when the next refresh happens but other than that, you won't see lowering mac pro prices.

 

[Kaido]

Didn't the Mac Pro just get an update a month or two ago? I don't even think Intel has any Quad-Core processors faster than 3ghz out right now lol. I'm definitely waiting until Leopard comes out to pick up a Mac Pro though...Tiger can't handle the multiple cores and huge amount of memory as well as it could. 8 x 3ghz cores + 32gb ram ftw!

 

[kfranc9]

Actually on May 22nd they released an article about Intel slashing its prices.

Source : Mac Rumors


Some further googling shows that it might be this summer (specifically July 22nd). Any thoughts?

Source: Mega Games

 

[randomlinh]

Intel Slashing prices won't lead to lower mac pro prices. most likely we'll just see speed bumps.

Kaido, the mac pro got an addition, those dual quad cores on the high end. Actually, i think there was a small price drop, but nothing really of significance IMO considering the price of the damn thing to begin with.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
Intel Slashing prices won't lead to lower mac pro prices. most likely we'll just see speed bumps.

Kaido, the mac pro got an addition, those dual quad cores on the high end. Actually, i think there was a small price drop, but nothing really of significance IMO considering the price of the damn thing to begin with.

I still think we need a mid-range Mac Pro "Lite" tower, even if it means axing my favorite Mac (the Mini). Even a new Cube would be more than welcome

 

[AmigaMan]

Originally posted by: kfranc9
Actually on May 22nd they released an article about Intel slashing its prices.

Source : Mac Rumors


Some further googling shows that it might be this summer (specifically July 22nd). Any thoughts?

Source: Mega Games

thoughts? Yeah, if Intel slashes their prices, Apple's margins go up. Apple won't lower it's prices because it gets the components cheaper. If anything they may bump up some other spec like HD capacity or RAM. But not lower the price.

 

[AmigaMan]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: randomlinh
Intel Slashing prices won't lead to lower mac pro prices. most likely we'll just see speed bumps.

Kaido, the mac pro got an addition, those dual quad cores on the high end. Actually, i think there was a small price drop, but nothing really of significance IMO considering the price of the damn thing to begin with.

I still think we need a mid-range Mac Pro "Lite" tower, even if it means axing my favorite Mac (the Mini). Even a new Cube would be more than welcome

While it would be nice for us as enthusiasts (we are on AT after all), I doubt Apple would do that. They don't really cater to this crowd. You have the mini, the iMac, and the Mac Pro which fits into their focused markets, the cheap bastards, the cheap bastards who got a pay raise, and the rich bastards who have too much money to burn

Yes, I am bitter. My MBP is getting long in the toof and I want a Mac Pro

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: AmigaMan

While it would be nice for us as enthusiasts (we are on AT after all), I doubt Apple would do that. They don't really cater to this crowd. You have the mini, the iMac, and the Mac Pro which fits into their focused markets, the cheap bastards, the cheap bastards who got a pay raise, and the rich bastards who have too much money to burn

Yes, I am bitter. My MBP is getting long in the toof and I want a Mac Pro

I'm really starting to wonder if we'll see some kind of mid-range machine come out. There was a heavy focus on gaming at the last WWDC...buying an iMac for gaming is pretty dumb because you can't upgrade the video card in it, it's as bad as buying a laptop for gaming! And not many gamers I know can afford a Mac pro...for the $2500 price tag you can buy a Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and still have money leftover to buy a MacBook.

 

[AmigaMan]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: AmigaMan

While it would be nice for us as enthusiasts (we are on AT after all), I doubt Apple would do that. They don't really cater to this crowd. You have the mini, the iMac, and the Mac Pro which fits into their focused markets, the cheap bastards, the cheap bastards who got a pay raise, and the rich bastards who have too much money to burn

Yes, I am bitter. My MBP is getting long in the toof and I want a Mac Pro

it's as bad as buying a laptop for gaming!

<hides head in shame>
Although to be fair, I was able to play some pretty demanding games in Bootcamp on my MBP (FEAR, Oblivion). Although I am going to miss out on the DX10 games. But I knew that when I bought it. It's mainly for doing work stuff, although now that I have a company-provided MBP, I kinda wished I could sell it and get a Mac Pro...hrmmm...

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: AmigaMan

While it would be nice for us as enthusiasts (we are on AT after all), I doubt Apple would do that. They don't really cater to this crowd. You have the mini, the iMac, and the Mac Pro which fits into their focused markets, the cheap bastards, the cheap bastards who got a pay raise, and the rich bastards who have too much money to burn

Yes, I am bitter. My MBP is getting long in the toof and I want a Mac Pro

I'm really starting to wonder if we'll see some kind of mid-range machine come out. There was a heavy focus on gaming at the last WWDC...buying an iMac for gaming is pretty dumb because you can't upgrade the video card in it, it's as bad as buying a laptop for gaming! And not many gamers I know can afford a Mac pro...for the $2500 price tag you can buy a Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and still have money leftover to buy a MacBook.

I've been wishing for a midrange system for a while... I caved and got an iMac. starting to wish I just held out longer.. but my system died, I needed a new one. I've been contemplating selling it.. but I want to run aperture.. that's not going to fly well on a mini, heh.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: AmigaMan

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: AmigaMan

While it would be nice for us as enthusiasts (we are on AT after all), I doubt Apple would do that. They don't really cater to this crowd. You have the mini, the iMac, and the Mac Pro which fits into their focused markets, the cheap bastards, the cheap bastards who got a pay raise, and the rich bastards who have too much money to burn

Yes, I am bitter. My MBP is getting long in the toof and I want a Mac Pro

it's as bad as buying a laptop for gaming!

<hides head in shame>
Although to be fair, I was able to play some pretty demanding games in Bootcamp on my MBP (FEAR, Oblivion). Although I am going to miss out on the DX10 games. But I knew that when I bought it. It's mainly for doing work stuff, although now that I have a company-provided MBP, I kinda wished I could sell it and get a Mac Pro...hrmmm...

Nah nah nah, I wasn't attacking you or anything The point being you can't (easily) upgrade an all-in-one machine. If Apple wants to appeal to gamers then they need to release something cheaper than the Mac Pro that you can switch out video cards on. Plus EA only announced like four games at WWDC, versus the 10 million that Windows has. Meh.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

I've been wishing for a midrange system for a while... I caved and got an iMac. starting to wish I just held out longer.. but my system died, I needed a new one. I've been contemplating selling it.. but I want to run aperture.. that's not going to fly well on a mini, heh.

Eh give us hackers some time...progress is slow mainly because of a lack of funds. The IDE and SATA ports have already been hacked, the processor and ram upgrade are easy, the PSU is in the process of being hacked, and there are people working on the graphics card issue. The two options for the video part are (1) hack the EFI to allow the GMA950 to run a full 224mb on 2gb ram or (2) use a specialty adapter to run a 1x PCI-Express card. Thread on that is here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=297040

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: randomlinh

I've been wishing for a midrange system for a while... I caved and got an iMac. starting to wish I just held out longer.. but my system died, I needed a new one. I've been contemplating selling it.. but I want to run aperture.. that's not going to fly well on a mini, heh.

Eh give us hackers some time...progress is slow mainly because of a lack of funds. The IDE and SATA ports have already been hacked, the processor and ram upgrade are easy, the PSU is in the process of being hacked, and there are people working on the graphics card issue. The two options for the video part are (1) hack the EFI to allow the GMA950 to run a full 224mb on 2gb ram or (2) use a specialty adapter to run a 1x PCI-Express card. Thread on that is here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=297040

I'm too lazy to hack though