Comments on: ZDNet’s Ou: Clone an 8-Core Mac Pro for $2300

By: Create Digital Motion » Apple: We’ll Build Our Own Cheaper, Faster 8-Core Mac Pro

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:21:49 +0000

[...] I spoke too soon. Just one day after a ZDNet blogger announced he could build a cheaper version of Apple’s high-end Mac Pro, Apple themselves have announced they can make their Mac Pro [...]

By: vade

vade — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:57:17 +0000

Problem with these sorts of things - New Mac Pros announced today, 1600 fsb, Serial Attached Scsi 15k optional storage, PCI express 2.0, better graphics cards, etc etc. 8 Core Standard at $2800. Delta is now $500. Ha.

By: grigori

grigori — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:58:11 +0000

For some reason I had thought of the scene from the movie “Forrest Gump”. Anyone recall his memory flashback when he was able to reassemble his weapon and put it back together in some record time. Bang bang bang and its done. Same I feel goes for George Ou, who is probably just as gifted in his area of expertise, except while you buy commercial product from Apple and Dell with a warranty, he would put 3 systems of stronger value instead. The beauty is that anyone has a choice, pick what suits you best.

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 01:03:49 +0000

You could build a Mac Pro comparable system processing power wise easily for 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of the Mac Pro, but not if you build it with nearly identical hardware.

If you go for Core 2 Duo’s and Quads rather than the Xeon you can build a box that is “nearly” identical in benchmarks to the Mac Pro or better if you overclock.

The other benefit to sticking with Intel hardware is you can easily make a system that will run OS X.

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:09:30 +0000

@Douglas — well, I hear you. (And by the same token, you get some of the same things with a Dell.) At the same time, presumably this is better *for him* as someone who routinely builds systems. So in that case, his own support — plus the warranty support for components, should he need to replace faulty parts — may be a better value. And that just illustrates that the math for people is different … Apple isn’t always best for everyone, but it is for some.

By: Douglas Rouxel

Douglas Rouxel — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:03:38 +0000

Sorry to go on, but, I didn’t even mention re-sale value…

By: Douglas Rouxel

Douglas Rouxel — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:59:42 +0000

I for one, didn’t fork out the money I did for a mac just for the box and software, I bought it because it had a proper warranty, proper support and the dedicated string of shops worldwide who will (very quickly in my experience) deal with all the sill computer geekery whilst I get on with doing my music/pretty pictures geekery. So the idea that it’s ‘1/3′ of the price is to my ears at least, risible - because he has only really specified half of what you pay for with a mac there.