Those who criticize the Mac Pro for being too expensive usually don’t realize how much Intel charges for their high-end Xeons, but Apple’s margin is bigger here than it needs to be. (Usually, the single-socket model uses the same motherboard and power supply, but with the second socket and RAM riser slot empty.) Also, keep in mind that for dual-socket models, Apple incurs additional costs in having a second CPU heatsink, another RAM riser, and any additional power circuitry and capacity needed.
** The 8 GB RAM upgrade is $225 cheaper on dual-socket models, which has been figured in here. Apple gets better pricing, but probably not by enough to matter for this comparison. * Once again, these are approximate, based on current retail pricing for OEM-packaged chips. Intel’s CPU price* over base model’s CPU (single W3530) This time, Apple is taking a much bigger slice for themselves:
Usually, most of the premium for higher-end CPUs goes to Intel. The 27” iMac with the Core i7 is still a great value up front, although high-end needs make it a worse value over time. It cost $3,400 new, or about $4,900 when equipped like these. Fun fact, for a longevity example: my 2.5-year-old Mac Pro (8-core, 2.8 GHz Harpertown, 8 RAM slots) gets about an 10,000 Geekbench CPU score. Not to be taken literally, but meant as a likely ballpark. ** These are GeekBench CPU-score estimates based on the scores that GeekBench already has listed within the same CPU families and similar configurations. * Prices are with 8 GB RAM and a 27” Cinema Display for parity across the lines. Sorry, Dashboard/RSS viewers, this is a big table! Click here to view on the site. This also increases the cost of future upgrades, since you need to buy higher-capacity modules and you’ll probably need to discard the older, smaller ones to make room for the new ones. This halves the max supported RAM, which may reduce its useful lifespan depending on what you need in the future (although the 16 GB ceiling is pretty high, and may potentially be 32 GB later with high-capacity aftermarket modules). If you go with a single-socket option (4 or 6 cores), you’ll only have 4 RAM slots instead of the 8 offered by dual-socket models. Now that I’ve convinced you to get a Mac Pro instead of an iMac, it’s time to decide which Mac Pro to get. A programmer, writer, podcaster, geek, and coffee enthusiast.