Local Apple Mac Pro pricing announced

Skeptik said:
For that price you would expect a decent graphics card instead of a cost-cutting piece of cr*p. Typical Apple attitude. Do you know how many of these they could shift if only they had a decent graphics card.. Silly Mr. Jobs again..
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I would hazard a guess that the marketing department in Cupertino probably has a better grasp of their customer base than you do. But its just a guess, perhaps you are some sort of marketing savant.
 
icyrus said:
I would hazard a guess that the marketing department in Cupertino probably has a better grasp of their customer base than you do. But its just a guess, perhaps you are some sort of marketing savant.
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There are a lot of people like me. Let's have a poll if you disagree.

You don't have to be a genius to appreciate the problem. As it happens I do have a degree with Marketing (as a subcourse). That doesn't make me a savant or an expert sadly.

If you had researched anything about Apple, you would realise that this is what Steve Jobs is about - dressing up mutton as lamb so to speak. Putting mediocre hardware into a shiny box and calling it 'sexy'.

What he could not do is sort out the graphics card, because there is no-one left at Apple with the expertise to do that. He most likely set a budget of $50 - $100 for the card last year and stuck with it. That is his way. It is this stubborn determination that 'he is right' that drove his workmates crazy and caused a great deal of upheavel in Apple.

I strongly believe that by ignoring graphics (a legacy of the PowerPC), he is ignoring a big market. The value-for-money is completely missing from this box.
 
Skeptik said:
Putting mediocre hardware into a shiny box and calling it 'sexy'.
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Have you even looked at the specs of that box? What's mediocre about it? The graphics card? Or does 8 Xeon cores just not cut it for you?

He most likely set a budget of $50 - $100 for the card last year and stuck with it. That is his way. It is this stubborn determination that
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$50-$100? You know, you get a choice with it:

ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB - $95+
NVIDIA "GeForce 8800 GT" with 512MB of GDDR3 - $227+
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 1.5GB - $2599+

Have you ever done any graphics intensive work? Have you ever compared how you top of the range super duper gamer gfx card stacks up to even a mid-range Quadro or FireGL card in something like Autocad?

Say after me:

It's not a gamer box.

It's not a gamer box.

It's not a gamer box.

Get it?

The value-for-money is completely missing from this box.
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No, it's the wrong box for you, quite clearly.
 
Keith said:
Is it just me, or this a fairly large chunk of change to fork out on the dual Quad machine with fairly run of the mill graphics (ATI X1900XT), low memory (1GB), low storage (250GB SATA) and NO monitor???
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Those specs are for the now obsolete model. AppleZA - www.zastore.co.za - does not list the new range yet (apparently they will next week). You'll see the new standard model comes with:

- ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT (or for a nominal increase you can opt for the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT. Granted, both aren't cutting edge from a gamers perspective but they're more than adequate for most other applications.)
- 320 gig HD (x4 HD slots)
- 2 Gig RAM 800MHz DDR2 (Server grade, upgradable to 32 Gig)
- x2 2.8ghz Quad Core Xeon chips (Server Grade)

For 20k+ you could purchase the highest end PC hardware currently available, Apple are insane. This whole idea of the "lifestyle" , no a gaming machine at all, not one bit, anyone care to price a pc in the same price region?
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There are no PC's I'm aware of that currently have dual Quad Core Xeon chips each running on a 1600Mhz FSB. If a windows PC was to be built with comparable specs you could easily pay the same, probably more.

Besides, there are many more advantages with this machine that make it a preferred professional choice, where 'lifestyle' doesn't generally come in to the equation.

Then again, if you're a gamer and can afford a Mac Pro with a good graphics kit, running Windows natively through BootCamp, it would likely blitz any PC out there.

Talking about price, that's a gut churning fact we have with most high value imported items in SA. There's no need to be angry with the machine, rather the fat cats distributing it, even with high taxes and import tariffs, their margins are very healthy.
 
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