Mac Pro options?

[srwatters]

So I'm going for the gusto and buying a Mac Pro. Maybe on black Friday if the Apple Store has any decent discount (I'm not holding my breath). Question is should I just buy the off the shelf version and upgrade the ram myself or get a build to order from Apple?

Options:

1. Off the shelf from Apple - $2499 + $300 ram upgrade + tax - in stock
2. Build to order from Apple - $2499 + $300 ram + $249 video +tax - 3-4 days
3. Off the shelf from B&H or MacMall - $2449 + $300 ram - in stock (no tax!)

The only advantage to the Apple store is I can get 90 days same as cash (which I have to make the purchase now). I'm also picking up a 23" Cinema Display

What would you do?

[photosbysergio]

FYI, RAM at Apple is super expensive. You can order it from Crucial.com at about 1/2 the price. I did this for both my iMac and my MacBook Pro. You will totally enjoy the Cinema Display. I have the 30 inch. Let me know how the Mac Pro works for you. It's on my list for sometime next year. If you get the Mac from B&H, as you mentioned there is no tax and Apple products ship for free. B&H also has the 'bill me later' option. You will surely have a grea XMas.

[billbunton]

FWIW, I think with B&H you can get configurations with the upgraded video (which, as I mentioned before, I'd do if I thought there was ever a chance of running Aperture (my X1900G5 arrives Friday!)). As for RAM, in general with Apple you are better off ordering from Crucial (or one of the other good dealers). However, for MacPro memory there doesn't seem to be much very much of a price difference, at least the configurations I was looking at.

Congrats, BTW!

[srwatters]

It looks like I'll be going with the bundle from B&H.

2.66GHz, 1GB, 500GB, ATI X1900XT w/512MB, BT&802.11
2x512MB additional RAM
23" Apple Cinema display

Free shipping, no tax. I should have it early next week

[Tim-in-TX]

If you join The National Association of Photoshop Users (http://www.photoshopuser.com), you can get pretty good discounts from both B&H and Apple. The membership is $99 a year, but you get access to a great web site, including video tips and tutorials, PLUS, the MacPro is only $2299 with membership discount. So, even with the cost of membership, you will still save money on the Mac. I'm not sure how good the discounts are with B&H.

Just a heads up.

[ChuckW]

The bundle from B&H looks like a good deal. They will stand behind the extra ram if it does not work. Macs seem to be fussier about ram than PC's. I once tried cheep third party ram in a G4 (ram that on paper met all of the proper specs) and it worked very poorly. You don't need to get the Apple ram but, if you go third party, it should be one of the sources that guarantee Apple ram equivalency.

[Spec A!]

Apple Ram is definitely more expensive than other's out there. However the FB-DIMMs that the MacPro takes made by Apple have gigantic heatsinks on the chips. I'm fairly certain 3rd party ram will not have these heatsinks. I can't comment on what will happen running ram in the MacPro w/o them, but Apple includes them on their ram for a reason. I'd want to make sure that the 3rd party ram has some sort of warranty if it does not have those heatsinks on the chips.

That p-shop member discount matches the education discount, interesting! :)

Nice choice Scott, you will be very happy (especially when CS3 comes out!).

[Gordon]

I heard a 10% off black Friday rumour. I'm currently working on getting a loaner mac book pro to evaluate it. We'll see how that goes.

[srwatters]

Originally Posted by Tim-in-TX

If you join The National Association of Photoshop Users (http://www.photoshopuser.com), you can get pretty good discounts from both B&H and Apple. The membership is $99 a year, but you get access to a great web site, including video tips and tutorials, PLUS, the MacPro is only $2299 with membership discount. So, even with the cost of membership, you will still save money on the Mac. I'm not sure how good the discounts are with B&H.

Just a heads up.

I was a member and used the discount to buy my PowerBook, but with the Mac Pro the tax savings of $300 makes up for the $200 discount + $99 membership fee. I just don't buy enough equipment anymore to make it worth my while to join. Plus I wanted the upgraded HDD and video card which you can't get from the vendor that sells the discounted Apple gear if I remember correctly. The B&H savings on the Mac + Cinema Display was about $100 total + free shipping + no tax.

In any case it's a wash and B&H got the sale... UPS tracking says by end of day Wednesday

[mongoose777]

Is there any notable difference between the 2.16 vs 2.33ghz macbook pro laptops.
I have a chance to buy a 2.16 17" macbook pro with 2-gigs ram and the 100 gig hd(7200rpm) 3-year extened warranty, also comes with photoshop cs2, office, aperture, studio 7, final cut-pro and several other programs for $2300. It appears the laptop was bought in may of this year. Tell me if you think this is a good or average deal.

Thanks

[srwatters]

It's a core duo and not the current core 2 duo so you'll see a pretty hefty difference in power consumption and performance. If all of the software if legal, you're getting a really great deal given CS2 is $600 and the Apple suite comes at a hefty price. I'd make sure there are full licenses, then go for it. It all depends on how long you plan to keep the system and if it's your main computer. I'm still keeping my PowerBook for another year before going all Intel. YMMV.

[Gordon]

Just happened to look at this again. Aperture uses OpenGL extensions to accelerate RAW file processing - so a better graphics card will actually make a difference to the performance.

[srwatters]

I upgraded to the ATI 1900. Zoom-zoom

[Gordon]

Originally Posted by srwatters

I upgraded to the ATI 1900. Zoom-zoom

You bought a Mazda ?

[Detonate]

Originally Posted by Spec A!

Apple Ram is definitely more expensive than other's out there. However the FB-DIMMs that the MacPro takes made by Apple have gigantic heatsinks on the chips. I'm fairly certain 3rd party ram will not have these heatsinks. I can't comment on what will happen running ram in the MacPro w/o them, but Apple includes them on their ram for a reason. I'd want to make sure that the 3rd party ram has some sort of warranty if it does not have those heatsinks on the chips.

FB-DIMMs are crazy hot!

Running Idle I have a probe on one of the heatsinks and it's currently 50 degrees celius.