£2000 Mac pro killer?

Mark719

Mark719

Mark719

Associate
Joined
4 Jan 2013
Posts
151
Hey, was looking at the spec for the Mac pro that is out in December and thought it is very pricey (like most Apple products) for what it was, so I thought I would see and try and make something that kills it for about £500 less, I am basing this of the lowest £2499 model.

So I here is my go, and would love to see other peoples goes, if you don't know what the Mac pro is like check it out on the apple website (won't link it in case not allowed)

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD FirePro W7000 Professional Graphics Card - 4GB - GDDR5 SDRAM £649.99
1 x Asus Rampage IV Formula Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £287.99
1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE500BW) £279.95
1 x Intel 4820K 3.70GHz (Ivybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - OEM (CM8063301292805) £233.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K2/16X) £169.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 850W Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (0-761345-06225-1) £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £99.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £78.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
Total : £1,982.88 (includes shipping : £11.75).




I know this isn't the best but just a bit of fun.

So what is your attempt?
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel 4930K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail (BX80633I74930K) £419.99
2 x Asus HD 7970 Matrix Platinum 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **FREE SHIPPING** £239.99 (£479.98)
1 x Gigabyte X79-UP4 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £209.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova 1000W '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply (220-P2-1000-XR) £149.99
2 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £83.99 (£167.98)
1 x BitFenix Ghost Silent Tower Case - Black £77.95
2 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £71.99 (£143.98)
1 x Thermalright Archon SB-E X2 CPU Cooler £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.95
Total : £1,770.77 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
Let's not get into unfounded fanboy-ism... I run Windows, OS X and various distros of Linux and they all have their place in the world. "It's crap because it's Apple" helps nobody.

Windows is king for gaming, OSX matches it in everything else I've found. Apple hardware is a little expensive but, as with cars, clothes and anything else in life, we pay for brands and the quality from them. I find my apple hardware better than any other brand hardware - eg my 2 year old iPhone which runs like new, and my 3 year old MacBook that looks like new.

That said, personally I think the Mac desktops are a bit of a waste because the hardware quality/style isn't as important for non-mobile gadgets - so a Hackintosh gives you the same machine for less money. A HackBook wouldn't quite have the same effect, though, as it missed out on the quality hardware.

There's also something to be said for the fact that Apple only support a very limited sub-set of hardware, meaning there are far fewer computability issues and you can predict performance more accurately.

I'd never trade my Mac laptop for a windows one, I'd never trade my Windows PC for a Mac one, and I'd never trade my Debian server for anything.

OP, be aware that you have to carefully match the hardware to make sure everything is on the compatible list - most intel hardware will work but you may lose things like TRIM support, virtualisation on the CPU, sound or similar.
 
^ I like you. You make sense. Unbiased sense. :p

That seems to be an increasingly rare trait. :rolleyes:
 
Audigex said:
Let's not get into unfounded fanboy-ism... I run Windows, OS X and various distros of Linux and they all have their place in the world. "It's crap because it's Apple" helps nobody.

Windows is king for gaming, OSX matches it in everything else I've found. Apple hardware is a little expensive but, as with cars, clothes and anything else in life, we pay for brands and the quality from them. I find my apple hardware better than any other brand hardware - eg my 2 year old iPhone which runs like new, and my 3 year old MacBook that looks like new.

That said, personally I think the Mac desktops are a bit of a waste because the hardware quality/style isn't as important for non-mobile gadgets - so a Hackintosh gives you the same machine for less money. A HackBook wouldn't quite have the same effect, though, as it missed out on the quality hardware.

There's also something to be said for the fact that Apple only support a very limited sub-set of hardware, meaning there are far fewer computability issues and you can predict performance more accurately.

I'd never trade my Mac laptop for a windows one, I'd never trade my Windows PC for a Mac one, and I'd never trade my Debian server for anything.

OP, be aware that you have to carefully match the hardware to make sure everything is on the compatible list - most intel hardware will work but you may lose things like TRIM support, virtualisation on the CPU, sound or similar.
Click to expand...

+100
 
I tried following the Mac Pro's spec list as closely as possible, now the D300's have less VRAM but they're the same as the W7000 everywhere else, so you *have* to have two of them to have comparable performance if you're not limited by VRAM. PCI-E SSDs are also very expensive. You do get 4GB more RAM with this build though, however the Mac Pro isn't as bad a deal as people make it out to be when you follow it spec by spec (no Thunderbolt though). Plus you get the advantage of having a single point of contact for repairs/warranty stuff should anything go wrong. On the other hand, with a PC build you do get the option of dual CPUs (which were present in the old Mac Pro) and far more expandability, which makes up for the lack of Thunderbolt. So it really depends on what your use is and what ecosystem it'll fit into, since at this performance point either option will be in the same ballpark price wise.

YOUR BASKET
2 x AMD FirePro W7000 Professional Graphics Card - 4GB - GDDR5 SDRAM £649.99 (£1.00)
1 x OCZ RevoDrive3 X2 240GB PCI-E SSD - (RVD3X2-FHPX4-240G) £499.99
1 x Intel 4820K 3.70GHz (Ivybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail (BX80633I74820K) £259.99
1 x Asus P9X79 PRO Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £209.95
1 x Lian Li PC-A75X Full Tower Aluminium Case - Black £199.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GLC-01844) £139.99
1 x OCZ ZX Series 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £129.95
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (PV316G160C9QK) £119.99
1 x Noctua NH-D14-2011 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler with PWM Fans £64.99
3 x Noctua NF-S12A PWM Fan - 120mm £17.99 (£53.97)
Total : £2,992.30 (includes shipping : £11.25).

 
Your setup is missing the ECC memory that the new Mac Pro has. Of course, if you don't know what it's for (So yo don't need it) that's ok.

Also, you are matching the pro in hardware but not on size or silence :P

I am not an Apple fan but occasionally people forget what the Pro is for.. non-home environments, hence the high price for what it is. (Luckily there has been no such bashing in this thread..but waiting for it :p)
 
Make said:
Your setup is missing the ECC memory that the new Mac Pro has. Of course, if you don't know what it's for (So yo don't need it) that's ok.

Also, you are matching the pro in hardware but not on size or silence :P

I am not an Apple fan but occasionally people forget what the Pro is for.. non-home environments, hence the high price for what it is. (Luckily there has been no such bashing in this thread..but waiting for it :p)
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this guy!

If you want a Mac (or something like a mac) buy a Mac.
 
acme15 said:
I'll take the pair of AMD FirePro W7000's for £1.00 please. :D
Click to expand...

I believe that's the quantity discount being applied! :p

Make said:
Your setup is missing the ECC memory that the new Mac Pro has. Of course, if you don't know what it's for (So yo don't need it) that's ok.

Also, you are matching the pro in hardware but not on size or silence :P

I am not an Apple fan but occasionally people forget what the Pro is for.. non-home environments, hence the high price for what it is. (Luckily there has been no such bashing in this thread..but waiting for it :p)
Click to expand...

I don't think OcUK sell ECC mem, at least from what I checked earlier this morning - I do know that a 12GB kit is about the same price as the one I specced. You're right about everything else though, there's some amazing packaging going on inside Apple's stuff. And if I were a working pro I'd rather have the convenience of being able to walk into a store and pick a machine up, rather than spending an entire day putting a machine together and making sure everything plays nice with each other.
 
Audigex said:
Let's not get into unfounded fanboy-ism... I run Windows, OS X and various distros of Linux and they all have their place in the world. "It's crap because it's Apple" helps nobody.

Windows is king for gaming, OSX matches it in everything else I've found. Apple hardware is a little expensive but, as with cars, clothes and anything else in life, we pay for brands and the quality from them. I find my apple hardware better than any other brand hardware - eg my 2 year old iPhone which runs like new, and my 3 year old MacBook that looks like new.

That said, personally I think the Mac desktops are a bit of a waste because the hardware quality/style isn't as important for non-mobile gadgets - so a Hackintosh gives you the same machine for less money. A HackBook wouldn't quite have the same effect, though, as it missed out on the quality hardware.

There's also something to be said for the fact that Apple only support a very limited sub-set of hardware, meaning there are far fewer computability issues and you can predict performance more accurately.

I'd never trade my Mac laptop for a windows one, I'd never trade my Windows PC for a Mac one, and I'd never trade my Debian server for anything.

OP, be aware that you have to carefully match the hardware to make sure everything is on the compatible list - most intel hardware will work but you may lose things like TRIM support, virtualisation on the CPU, sound or similar.
Click to expand...
+101 ;)

I run a rMBP and a Windows deskptop and I wouldn't trade either :P
 
Let's not get into unfounded fanboy-ism... I run Windows, OS X and various distros of Linux and they all have their place in the world. "It's crap because it's Apple" helps nobody.

Windows is king for gaming, OSX matches it in everything else I've found. Apple hardware is a little expensive but, as with cars, clothes and anything else in life, we pay for brands and the quality from them. I find my apple hardware better than any other brand hardware - eg my 2 year old iPhone which runs like new, and my 3 year old MacBook that looks like new.

That said, personally I think the Mac desktops are a bit of a waste because the hardware quality/style isn't as important for non-mobile gadgets - so a Hackintosh gives you the same machine for less money. A HackBook wouldn't quite have the same effect, though, as it missed out on the quality hardware.

There's also something to be said for the fact that Apple only support a very limited sub-set of hardware, meaning there are far fewer computability issues and you can predict performance more accurately.

I'd never trade my Mac laptop for a windows one, I'd never trade my Windows PC for a Mac one, and I'd never trade my Debian server for anything.

OP, be aware that you have to carefully match the hardware to make sure everything is on the compatible list - most intel hardware will work but you may lose things like TRIM support, virtualisation on the CPU, sound or similar.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this guy!

If you want a Mac (or something like a mac) buy a Mac.
Click to expand...

Got to agree with this, i love my macbook pro and it still feels new after 2 years of daily use. But my home desktop which i use for gaming (windows) could never be a mac as i just prefer windows for gaming.
 
Ah the Mac vs PC thread, personnaly i never got on with the mac OS as it was different and i had limited exposure so returned to the safety of Windows.
 
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