Advice for saving money on a Mac Pro?

November 6, 2009 4:35 PM

Advice for buying a Mac Pro without paying top price?

I'm ready to buy one and I'm willing to drop a few grand on it, but I don't want to get ripped off and pay $4500 when I could get what I want for much less. I'm thinking the best plan is to get the least expensive one I can get from Apple, and then buy CPU upgrades and Memory/Hard Drive upgrades from a third party. Is that a good plan? Which upgrades are worth buying from apple? I don't qualify for a student discount -- are there any other ways to get discounts? I am friends with several Apple store employees -- is there anything they can do to get me a lower price?

posted by empath to computers & internet (20 comments total)

There is the Apple Developer Center hardware discount, which can be substantial if you plan to buy a high-end workstation. You would need to buy an ADC Premier or Select account, but the total savings could make it worthwhile.

Do you know anyone in higher education who would be willing to use their one-machine-discount-per-year allotment to buy a workstation on your behalf? That would get you the education discount.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:43 PM on November 6

That's Apple Developer Connection, not Center.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:44 PM on November 6

Buy Apple Care on ebay from a reputable dealer and you'll save 40-60%.
posted by furtive at 4:49 PM on November 6

What about a refurb with add-ons from a place like Powermax?
posted by jgirl at 5:01 PM on November 6

Are you comfortable shopping on ebay? If so the read on.

a) Find the macbook pro you want on the apple site. Grab the model #. This is the best way to ensure that you get the laptop you want and not something else based on a vague description. This will also ensure that you get a newer version, and not one that's been sitting around some warehouse since January.

b) Search ebay for the model # and only look at buy-it-now. Find a reputable seller, who is willing to ship free and sell you the laptop for ~$100 less than retail. Bookmark the lowest priced one.

c) Go to BING.com and search for macbook pro. In the sponsored results (you may have to turn off adblock for this), click on the link that says Get 8% off on ebay.

d) Go to ebates.com and get an account there. Then click through to ebay.

e) Now search the auction your bookmarked earlier (just enter the item # in the search bar).

You will now get 8% off on the retail price from the BING cashback program (will take 2 months to credit into your paypal account), 2% off from ebates, save on sales tax [make sure the auction does not add sales tax], + a base price less than retail. The bing cashback program only works if you use buy-it-now and pay with paypal.
posted by special-k at 5:02 PM on November 6 [10 favorites]

The route you are planning -- buy it naked and add third party memory and storage -- is the usual way to maximize dollars, since you can shop around for the best deals on each part. More work for you, of course.

But it might be easiest to just watch the Mac Pro refurb page at Apple's store, which changes often, sometimes several times per day. Apple treats its own refurbs as new, with the same free shipping and warranties and AppleCare and such. I've bought many things there.
posted by rokusan at 5:10 PM on November 6

You would need to buy an ADC Premier or Select account, but the total savings could make it worthwhile.

I bought my Mac Pro a couple years ago with the student account, which only cost $99. This seriously brought the cost way down, and was totally worth it.
posted by floam at 5:12 PM on November 6

Oh, and it's not actually one-machine-per-year for students. In our case, it's one ADC discount per LIFETIME. I can never do it again.
posted by floam at 5:13 PM on November 6

Since you're planning on gutting the thing and replacing about half the parts (video card too?) anyways, it might be better to just spend $2000 and build your own hackintosh w/ Snow Leopard.
posted by chalbe at 5:16 PM on November 6

Apple store employees can get you a "friends & family" discount of 15%. You can also find refurbished computers directly on the Apple website.

The biggest tip to keep in mind when trying to save money on a Mac is not overspending on hardware that you don't need. If you're not using the computer for high-end graphics, video or audio work then stick with the lower priced options.
posted by ISeemToBeAVerb at 5:19 PM on November 6

FWIW, I just bought a refurbished 17-inch Mackbook Pro from Apple's Refurbished Store and am very pleased with it. I was skeptical at first at buying a used Mac, but it looks and feels just like a new Mac, and coupled with AppleCare, I feel like I made the best decision both financially and technologically.
posted by invisible ink at 5:48 PM on November 6 [1 favorite]

These are all fine suggestions, and you should follow them, but in my opinion this is a bad time to buy a Mac Pro.

The new iMacs dropped - what, two weeks ago? And the high-end iMac features an Intel i7 processor, which means that, really, the processor in the high-end iMac is more advanced than the processor found in any of the Mac Pros... the Mac Pro has more cores, sure, but it's clear -

i5/i7 processors are bound for the Mac Pro, and soon. I wouldn't be surprised to see a significant refresh very, very soon. And, in fact, I'm not just crazy - the Mac Buyer's Guide agrees with me. (here)

A refresh to the Mac Pro will benefit you, I think, even if you're not planning on buying one. As people upgrade their equipment the used market will definitely change - for the better, I would think, as far as you're concerned.
posted by kbanas at 6:24 PM on November 6 [2 favorites]

Kbanas's point is excellent.
posted by rokusan at 6:40 PM on November 6

Forgot about the Mac Rumors buyer's guide. Definitely check this out before making any new Apple purchase — a Mac Pro refresh may indeed be around the corner.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:14 PM on November 6

I got my Pro in 2007 from the refurb section of apple.com, and I've been very happy with it. I was eligible for an educational discount, but if I recall correctly the retail price was $1999, educational discount $1699 or $1799 and refurb price $1599. Or something like that -- in other words, the refurb gave the most significant savings, even though the educational discount was already good.

I believe Apple Care was still available.
posted by Madamina at 8:58 PM on November 6

Thanks-- looks like an apple developer account is in my future (i could probably use one anyway, since I do program a bit).

Also, probably will wait on the refresh-- any guesses as to when that might be?
posted by empath at 9:28 PM on November 6

has good refurb prices as well. I buy there all the time and have never gotten a bum deal. my usual tactic is to buy the previous generation because mac people like the new stuff and prices on previous models drop fast. the resale stays solid, so you can keep recycling machines. I generally buy base RAM and stock up at crucial.
posted by patricking at 11:22 PM on November 6

er, my link got chopped. that should go to smalldog.
posted by patricking at 7:54 AM on November 7

>>i5/i7 processors are bound for the Mac Pro<>
I'd also suggest waiting, if you can, if only because refreshes and price changes happen, but as far as corei7 goes, you must buy xeons to get ECC support as the other i7 and i5 processor models do not support it.

We still have a 2nd generation (pcie) mac pro and @ 4 cores, it is plenty fast. I can't imagine what the current generation 8 core box is like.
posted by rr at 10:00 AM on November 7

BTW, unless you have a very, very specific need for a large # of directly connected internal harddrives, ECC and > 4 cores, I do not think buying a Mac Pro makes any kind of sense at all. It is a special-purpose machine.
posted by rr at 10:01 AM on November 7