Apple’s top spec Mac Pro will likely cost at least $35,000
That’s before you count the GPUs or a Pro Display XDR screen
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbre...pro-how-much-top-spec-price-estimate-ballpark
Apple announced today that its
new Mac Pro starts at an already pricey $6,000, but the company neglected to mention how much the top-of-the-line model will cost. So we shopped around for equivalent parts to the top-end spec that Apple’s promising. As it turns out: $33,720.88 is likely the
bare minimum — and that’s before factoring in the four GPUs, which could easily jack that price up to around $45,000.
For all that dough, big-budget video editors and other creative types get a lot of firepower: a 28-core Intel Xeon W processor, an almost-impossible-to-comprehend 1.5TB of RAM, 4TB of SSD storage, and four AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo GPUs — assuming you can afford one.
Make no mistake, these will be nice machines in the upper echelon of configuration... machines for REAL professional workflows or serious server loading. That's part of the problem. No common man will be able to afford this, but likely will not need it either. Real professionals and businesses that need this kind of power in the $35-$40K range are going to be looking at actual professional datacenter machines, and get more bang and support for their buck.
The base model is lack-luster. The Video card sucks... a radeon pro 580x competes with GTX 970 in terms of performance. (!?) The Radeon RX 580 is faster.
The Mac's Xeon(Base Version will likely be similar to this Mac-only Intel part,
Xeon W-2140B
Similarly, the PC side has the slightly better than new mac(3.7GHz), Xeon W-2145.
The Mac Xeon W-2140B can be had for
$600-
$800
The PC Xeon W-2145 is
$1100
So, let's split the diff. and say the Xeon is $950
Crucial 32GB 2666MHz ECC DDR4 -
$160
Radeon RX 580 -
$179.99 (Not the pro card, yes, but is faster than the pro card, higher wattage; Apple needs thermals and low Watts)
Samsung SSD MZVLW256HEHP PM961 256GB M.2 NVMe PCIe -
$49
As for motherboards, the Apple board can only accept 2 PCIe graphics cards.. so lets assume that it has a limited PCIe stack like this C422 Xeon board:
and NOT like this C422 Xeon board:
So, take your pick of boards:
Supermicro MBD-X11SRA-F-B Xeon Skylake-W C422 - $319.47
Supermicro X11SRA-RF - $322.30
Supermicro X11SRA-F - $340
ASUS WS C422 PRO/SE ATX Server Motherboard Socket 2066 - $350
Lets call it $340
We'll even splurge on a nice Corsair 650W Gold modular PSU (The Apple comes with a 300W!) -
$89.99
So far, we're at a grand total of $1767
How is this a good deal?
For the extra $4232, you can figure out which cooler, case and additional connectivity options you want and not skimp at all on any of it, and have all the extra trimmings.
$5,999 for that!? Garbage!
