Apple's iMac Pro model number pegged as 'A1862' ahead of expected Dec. launch

AppleInsider · December 7, 2017 3:18PM

While little else solid is known about the iMac Pro's shipping configuration with only a matter of days before it ships, it appears that a regulatory filing associated with the device calls it model A1862.

The Eurasian Economic Commission filing was first spotted by Consomac on Thursday morning. The filing, calls the device a Mac desktop computer running macOS 10.13 labeling it with model number A1862.

The filing date for the computer was November 23. The same agency heralded most of the 2017 WWDC announcements in a similar fashion in the days before the event.

The iMac Pro made a brief appearance at the 2017 WWDC. It will feature a 5K display, Vega Graphics, up to 18-core Xeon processors, up to 4TB of SSD storage, and will start at $4,999 when it ships this month, before the end of the calendar year.

A pair of developers expect that there will be an A10X fusion processor in the iMac Pro to facilitate "Hey Siri" and other boot-related tasks.

racerhomiex · December 7, 2017 3:24PM

A10X or A10 ?

randominternetperson · December 7, 2017 3:50PM

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

ksec · December 7, 2017 3:57PM

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

It is actually not in the case of iMac, because no one can price the Display. If you are just using any TN / E-IPS or even IPS Display price then it wouldn't be fair comparison.

The only 5K monitor you will find is actually the one LG partner with Apple. Dell said they would ship one long ago but nothing has happen. Many guess it was simply a problem of price and market fit.

And when you factor in the all in one, metal casing, and Keyboard and mouse, it is actually fairly attractively priced.

The problem is, do you value the screen and Display? Do you value the high machines Aluminium casing? The speakers, the keyboard, etc.

The problem with iMac is not many wanted to pay the premium for the screen. That is llke not everyone are willing to spend 2K+ on a OLED TV.

I for one wanted the same two side cooling system for an high end CPU and GPU without going into server and workstation parts, and 2K 21" Screen will do me fine.

Unfortunately, Apple doesn't offer much choice for Desktop.

edited December 2017

macxpress · December 7, 2017 4:14PM

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

Many have tried to build a similar PC and have failed to do a fair comparison. The graphics cards in them are brand new (I think the reason for the Dec availability) as well as the Xeon processors are also new. Those alone are quite expensive. Since people cannot get their hands on these new AMD Vega/Vega Pro graphics they're trying to compare a PC with dual 1080TI graphics cards and thats not really a fair comparison in the end. Same goes for the CPU...many are just comparing the highest end current Core i7 which again, isn't a fair comparison. Even then, they come to about $4500 if I remember correctly. Again, that doesn't count in the design costs, assembly, shipping, sales costs, support costs, etc.

Apple did one during the keynote with an HP Workstation and it was over $7,000. I think we'll have to wait a little bit when the parts become fully available for the public.

What many fail to factor in when calculating a cost is the R&D, engineering, making the software all work efficiently, the OS, and any apps included, assembly, shipping, retail, support costs, etc. These are all factored into the cost of any product, yet people just go on PC Part Picker and price out the parts and think thats a fair comparison when its not.

edited December 2017

eightzero · December 7, 2017 4:22PM

Anyone taking book on whether or not one of these appears in a consumers possession in 2017?

lkrupp · December 7, 2017 4:23PM

At this level price comparisons are pretty close. Top of the line hardware commands top of the line prices.

gmgravytrain · December 7, 2017 4:24PM

I believe anyone who is going to haggle and whine over the price of the iMac Pro should simply buy something else they think is more reasonably priced. All the Macs I've had over the years have been super-reliable and long-lasting, so I'm happy to pay a premium for that. My extra wish for the iMac Pro is that it doesn't thermal throttle while I'm encoding videos. I don't even care if it's loud because I can go elsewhere while the iMac is doing its thing. I might not be happy with not being able to upgrade it after I buy it but I'll just have to plunk down the extra cash if I think I need more memory than the base model can provide. I'll go as high as $6000. If it lasts me six years running 24/7 as my last iMac has, I'll consider it a bargain.

bloggerblog · December 7, 2017 4:34PM

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money...

It has to do with the Aloominieeom!

edited December 2017

sflocal · December 7, 2017 4:51PM

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

There are countless of articles when the iMac Pro was first announced that did a breakdown of components. You'd be best reading one of those.

In the end, building one's own PC with similar parts got within a few hundred dollars of a iMac Pro, assuming one's time assembling/configuring/testing the machine was not factored in, in addition to not having a warranty like Apple would have.

iHaters claiming an "Apple Tax" just have zero cred to debate with. This machine is going to sell like crazy.

macseeker · December 7, 2017 6:07PM

bloggerblog said:

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money...

It has to do with the Aloominieeom!

A fan of Jony Ive I see. Hehe.

philboogie · December 7, 2017 6:22PM

sflocal said:

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

There are countless of articles when the iMac Pro was first announced that did a breakdown of components. You'd be best reading one of those.

In the end, building one's own PC with similar parts got within a few hundred dollars of a iMac Pro, assuming one's time assembling/configuring/testing the machine was not factored in, in addition to not having a warranty like Apple would have.

iHaters claiming an "Apple Tax" just have zero cred to debate with. This machine is going to sell like crazy.

Computers never been this cheap. $5k is nothing for this kind of tech. Sure, maxing out will no doubt top it to, or over, $10k. Still, computers have become dirt cheap. I guess the poster is younger than I am...

As for a breakdown of components in order to calculate the price; you sir are spot on.

focher · December 7, 2017 6:49PM

I’m ordering one of these even faster than my iPhone X. Just wondering about the “getting” part.

vring · December 7, 2017 7:06PM

macxpress said:

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

Many have tried to build a similar PC and have failed to do a fair comparison. The graphics cards in them are brand new (I think the reason for the Dec availability) as well as the Xeon processors are also new. Those alone are quite expensive. Since people cannot get their hands on these new AMD Vega/Vega Pro graphics they're trying to compare a PC with dual 1080TI graphics cards and thats not really a fair comparison in the end. Same goes for the CPU...many are just comparing the highest end current Core i7 which again, isn't a fair comparison. Even then, they come to about $4500 if I remember correctly. Again, that doesn't count in the design costs, assembly, shipping, sales costs, support costs, etc.

Apple did one during the keynote with an HP Workstation and it was over $7,000. I think we'll have to wait a little bit when the parts become fully available for the public.

What many fail to factor in when calculating a cost is the R&D, engineering, making the software all work efficiently, the OS, and any apps included, assembly, shipping, retail, support costs, etc. These are all factored into the cost of any product, yet people just go on PC Part Picker and price out the parts and think thats a fair comparison when its not.

Apple iMac Pro ($5000)

Intel Xeon (8 core / 16 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2666 ECC
1TB SSD
Radeon Pro Vega 56 - 8 GB HBM2

DIY PC ($3090 - everything except for a monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS)

AMD Threadripper 1950X (16 core / 32 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2133 ECC
1TB Samsung 960 EVO
Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (Vega 64) - 16 GB HBM2

pcpartpicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NGV9sJ

The DIY build has a better CPU and GPU than the iMac Pro.

By the time the iMac Pro launches, there will be even more price drops and other new products only a month or so away (look to CES).

toddzrx · December 7, 2017 7:23PM

VRing said:

macxpress said:

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

Many have tried to build a similar PC and have failed to do a fair comparison. The graphics cards in them are brand new (I think the reason for the Dec availability) as well as the Xeon processors are also new. Those alone are quite expensive. Since people cannot get their hands on these new AMD Vega/Vega Pro graphics they're trying to compare a PC with dual 1080TI graphics cards and thats not really a fair comparison in the end. Same goes for the CPU...many are just comparing the highest end current Core i7 which again, isn't a fair comparison. Even then, they come to about $4500 if I remember correctly. Again, that doesn't count in the design costs, assembly, shipping, sales costs, support costs, etc.

Apple did one during the keynote with an HP Workstation and it was over $7,000. I think we'll have to wait a little bit when the parts become fully available for the public.

What many fail to factor in when calculating a cost is the R&D, engineering, making the software all work efficiently, the OS, and any apps included, assembly, shipping, retail, support costs, etc. These are all factored into the cost of any product, yet people just go on PC Part Picker and price out the parts and think thats a fair comparison when its not.

Apple iMac Pro ($5000)

Intel Xeon (8 core / 16 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2666 ECC
1TB SSD
Radeon Pro Vega 56 - 8 GB HBM2

DIY PC ($3090 - everything except for a monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS)

AMD Threadripper 1950X (16 core / 32 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2133 ECC
1TB Samsung 960 EVO
Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (Vega 64) - 16 GB HBM2

pcpartpicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NGV9sJ

The DIY build has a better CPU and GPU than the iMac Pro.

By the time the iMac Pro launches, there will be even more price drops and other new products only a month or so away (look to CES).

"...everything except for a monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS"

Uh, that's sort of a big deal when comparing to an iMac dude.

vring · December 7, 2017 7:45PM

toddzrx said:

VRing said:

macxpress said:

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

Many have tried to build a similar PC and have failed to do a fair comparison. The graphics cards in them are brand new (I think the reason for the Dec availability) as well as the Xeon processors are also new. Those alone are quite expensive. Since people cannot get their hands on these new AMD Vega/Vega Pro graphics they're trying to compare a PC with dual 1080TI graphics cards and thats not really a fair comparison in the end. Same goes for the CPU...many are just comparing the highest end current Core i7 which again, isn't a fair comparison. Even then, they come to about $4500 if I remember correctly. Again, that doesn't count in the design costs, assembly, shipping, sales costs, support costs, etc.

Apple did one during the keynote with an HP Workstation and it was over $7,000. I think we'll have to wait a little bit when the parts become fully available for the public.

What many fail to factor in when calculating a cost is the R&D, engineering, making the software all work efficiently, the OS, and any apps included, assembly, shipping, retail, support costs, etc. These are all factored into the cost of any product, yet people just go on PC Part Picker and price out the parts and think thats a fair comparison when its not.

Apple iMac Pro ($5000)

Intel Xeon (8 core / 16 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2666 ECC
1TB SSD
Radeon Pro Vega 56 - 8 GB HBM2

DIY PC ($3090 - everything except for a monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS)

AMD Threadripper 1950X (16 core / 32 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2133 ECC
1TB Samsung 960 EVO
Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (Vega 64) - 16 GB HBM2

pcpartpicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NGV9sJ

The DIY build has a better CPU and GPU than the iMac Pro.

By the time the iMac Pro launches, there will be even more price drops and other new products only a month or so away (look to CES).

"...everything except for a monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS"

Uh, that's sort of a big deal when comparing to an iMac dude.

So now you have a more powerful computer than the base iMac Pro and $2000 to spend on a keyboard, mouse, OS and monitor (or monitors).

edited December 2017

strangedays · December 7, 2017 7:52PM

VRing said:

macxpress said:

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

Many have tried to build a similar PC and have failed to do a fair comparison. The graphics cards in them are brand new (I think the reason for the Dec availability) as well as the Xeon processors are also new. Those alone are quite expensive. Since people cannot get their hands on these new AMD Vega/Vega Pro graphics they're trying to compare a PC with dual 1080TI graphics cards and thats not really a fair comparison in the end. Same goes for the CPU...many are just comparing the highest end current Core i7 which again, isn't a fair comparison. Even then, they come to about $4500 if I remember correctly. Again, that doesn't count in the design costs, assembly, shipping, sales costs, support costs, etc.

Apple did one during the keynote with an HP Workstation and it was over $7,000. I think we'll have to wait a little bit when the parts become fully available for the public.

What many fail to factor in when calculating a cost is the R&D, engineering, making the software all work efficiently, the OS, and any apps included, assembly, shipping, retail, support costs, etc. These are all factored into the cost of any product, yet people just go on PC Part Picker and price out the parts and think thats a fair comparison when its not.

Apple iMac Pro ($5000)

Intel Xeon (8 core / 16 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2666 ECC
1TB SSD
Radeon Pro Vega 56 - 8 GB HBM2

DIY PC ($3090 - everything except for a monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS)

AMD Threadripper 1950X (16 core / 32 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2133 ECC
1TB Samsung 960 EVO
Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (Vega 64) - 16 GB HBM2

pcpartpicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NGV9sJ

The DIY build has a better CPU and GPU than the iMac Pro.

By the time the iMac Pro launches, there will be even more price drops and other new products only a month or so away (look to CES).

Nice try but you’re missing major components, your time, a warranty from a single provider, and excellent support.

Heres another PCpartPicker estimate from june which included a monitor:

CPU: Intel - Xeon E5-2620 V4 2.1GHz 8-Core Processor ($408.99)
CPU Cooler: NZXT - Kraken X62 Liquid CPU Cooler ($158.99)
Motherboard: Asus - X99-E-10G WS SSI CEB LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($649.00)
Memory: Crucial - 32GB (1 x 32GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($253.81)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($479.99)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Founders Edition ($678.99)
Case: Silverstone - TJ04B-EW ATX Mid Tower Case ($151.90)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Titanium 1000W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($242.89)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 7 Professional ($134.99)
Monitor: LG - UltraFine 5K Display 60Hz Monitor ($1299.95)
Other: ASUS Model ThunderboltEX 3 Expansion Card ($69.99)
Keyboard: Apple - MB110LL/B Wired Standard Keyboard ($49.00)
Mouse: Apple - MB829LL/A Bluetooth Wireless Laser Mouse ($79.99)
Speakers: Logitech - Z130 5W 2ch Speakers ($18.99)
Card reader: Kingston - Digital MobileLite G4 USB 3.0 card reader ($9.24)

Total: $4686.71

http://www.pcgamer.com/apples-new-imac-pro-costs-5000-but-is-it-overpriced/

...but again, this assumes your time has no value, that a single provider warranty has no value, and ignores the awesome longevity, resale value, and lower TCO of a Mac. A Mac’s value is more than a bunch of PC parts slapped into a case.

edited December 2017

macxpress · December 7, 2017 7:59PM

VRing said:

macxpress said:

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

Many have tried to build a similar PC and have failed to do a fair comparison. The graphics cards in them are brand new (I think the reason for the Dec availability) as well as the Xeon processors are also new. Those alone are quite expensive. Since people cannot get their hands on these new AMD Vega/Vega Pro graphics they're trying to compare a PC with dual 1080TI graphics cards and thats not really a fair comparison in the end. Same goes for the CPU...many are just comparing the highest end current Core i7 which again, isn't a fair comparison. Even then, they come to about $4500 if I remember correctly. Again, that doesn't count in the design costs, assembly, shipping, sales costs, support costs, etc.

Apple did one during the keynote with an HP Workstation and it was over $7,000. I think we'll have to wait a little bit when the parts become fully available for the public.

What many fail to factor in when calculating a cost is the R&D, engineering, making the software all work efficiently, the OS, and any apps included, assembly, shipping, retail, support costs, etc. These are all factored into the cost of any product, yet people just go on PC Part Picker and price out the parts and think thats a fair comparison when its not.

Apple iMac Pro ($5000)

Intel Xeon (8 core / 16 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2666 ECC
1TB SSD
Radeon Pro Vega 56 - 8 GB HBM2

DIY PC ($3090 - everything except for a monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS)

AMD Threadripper 1950X (16 core / 32 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2133 ECC
1TB Samsung 960 EVO
Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (Vega 64) - 16 GB HBM2

pcpartpicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NGV9sJ

The DIY build has a better CPU and GPU than the iMac Pro.

By the time the iMac Pro launches, there will be even more price drops and other new products only a month or so away (look to CES).

Hahaha...try again!

This is the typical bullshit response. Its no where near an actual comparison. You're forgetting most Professionals don't want to fuck around with finding the parts, making sure they're all compatible, building the PC, installing the OS and all of the drivers, supporting their own PC when issues arise, etc. They just want to take the damn thing out of the box, install the software they need, migrate files if necessary and be on their way. When something goes wrong they have full support from Apple. Good luck with that on your build where you have to call individual manufacturers to get...well some kind of support for it.

You left out a display which is a critical component to your build as its not going to be cheap to find a compatible display. You left out Thunderbolt 3 and if you don't think thats a big deal then you're completely full of shit. Its not running macOS which can be critical for a lot of Professionals.

Its more than just the sum of the parts...its the experience, the support, etc. You can't PC part pick that...

edited December 2017

vring · December 7, 2017 8:13PM

StrangeDays said:

VRing said:

macxpress said:

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

Many have tried to build a similar PC and have failed to do a fair comparison. The graphics cards in them are brand new (I think the reason for the Dec availability) as well as the Xeon processors are also new. Those alone are quite expensive. Since people cannot get their hands on these new AMD Vega/Vega Pro graphics they're trying to compare a PC with dual 1080TI graphics cards and thats not really a fair comparison in the end. Same goes for the CPU...many are just comparing the highest end current Core i7 which again, isn't a fair comparison. Even then, they come to about $4500 if I remember correctly. Again, that doesn't count in the design costs, assembly, shipping, sales costs, support costs, etc.

Apple did one during the keynote with an HP Workstation and it was over $7,000. I think we'll have to wait a little bit when the parts become fully available for the public.

What many fail to factor in when calculating a cost is the R&D, engineering, making the software all work efficiently, the OS, and any apps included, assembly, shipping, retail, support costs, etc. These are all factored into the cost of any product, yet people just go on PC Part Picker and price out the parts and think thats a fair comparison when its not.

Apple iMac Pro ($5000)

Intel Xeon (8 core / 16 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2666 ECC
1TB SSD
Radeon Pro Vega 56 - 8 GB HBM2

DIY PC ($3090 - everything except for a monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS)

AMD Threadripper 1950X (16 core / 32 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2133 ECC
1TB Samsung 960 EVO
Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (Vega 64) - 16 GB HBM2

pcpartpicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NGV9sJ

The DIY build has a better CPU and GPU than the iMac Pro.

By the time the iMac Pro launches, there will be even more price drops and other new products only a month or so away (look to CES).

Nice try but you’re missing major components, your time, a warranty from a single provider, and excellent support.

Heres another PCpartPicker estimate from june which included a monitor:

Total: $4686.71
http://www.pcgamer.com/apples-new-imac-pro-costs-5000-but-is-it-overpriced/

...but again, this assumes your time has no value, that a single provider warranty has no value, and ignores the awesome longevity, resale value, and lower TCO of a Mac. A Mac’s value is more than a bunch of PC parts slapped into a case.

Why are you posting a build from June? The one I posted it from today.

Outside of the keyboard, mouse, OS and monitor, what major components am I missing?

There are also trade-offs for the warranty, while it's not through a single company, the duration on individual parts is often between 3 and 7 years.

Putting this together will take 15-20 minutes. One would end up saving more time because they'd have a faster machine.

You wouldn't need to worry about resale in the short term because you'd have a system with 64 PCIe lanes, 4 PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, 1 PCIe 2.0 x1 slot, 3 Ultra M.2 ports, 1 U.2 port, 8 SATA3 ports and 8 memory slots. It's easy to just upgrade.

vring · December 7, 2017 8:46PM

macxpress said:

VRing said:

macxpress said:

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

Many have tried to build a similar PC and have failed to do a fair comparison. The graphics cards in them are brand new (I think the reason for the Dec availability) as well as the Xeon processors are also new. Those alone are quite expensive. Since people cannot get their hands on these new AMD Vega/Vega Pro graphics they're trying to compare a PC with dual 1080TI graphics cards and thats not really a fair comparison in the end. Same goes for the CPU...many are just comparing the highest end current Core i7 which again, isn't a fair comparison. Even then, they come to about $4500 if I remember correctly. Again, that doesn't count in the design costs, assembly, shipping, sales costs, support costs, etc.

Apple did one during the keynote with an HP Workstation and it was over $7,000. I think we'll have to wait a little bit when the parts become fully available for the public.

What many fail to factor in when calculating a cost is the R&D, engineering, making the software all work efficiently, the OS, and any apps included, assembly, shipping, retail, support costs, etc. These are all factored into the cost of any product, yet people just go on PC Part Picker and price out the parts and think thats a fair comparison when its not.

Apple iMac Pro ($5000)

Intel Xeon (8 core / 16 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2666 ECC
1TB SSD
Radeon Pro Vega 56 - 8 GB HBM2

DIY PC ($3090 - everything except for a monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS)

AMD Threadripper 1950X (16 core / 32 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2133 ECC
1TB Samsung 960 EVO
Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (Vega 64) - 16 GB HBM2

pcpartpicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NGV9sJ

The DIY build has a better CPU and GPU than the iMac Pro.

By the time the iMac Pro launches, there will be even more price drops and other new products only a month or so away (look to CES).

Hahaha...try again!

This is the typical bullshit response. Its no where near an actual comparison. You're forgetting most Professionals don't want to fuck around with finding the parts, making sure they're all compatible, building the PC, installing the OS and all of the drivers, supporting their own PC when issues arise, etc. They just want to take the damn thing out of the box, install the software they need, migrate files if necessary and be on their way. When something goes wrong they have full support from Apple. Good luck with that on your build where you have to call individual manufacturers to get...well some kind of support for it.

You left out a display which is a critical component to your build as its not going to be cheap to find a compatible display. You left out Thunderbolt 3 and if you don't think thats a big deal then you're completely full of shit. Its not running macOS which can be critical for a lot of Professionals.

Its more than just the sum of the parts...its the experience, the support, etc. You can't PC part pick that...

Threadripper is exclusive to Alienware for 2017. 2018 on the other hand is less than a month away, so you'll be able to pick up these specs (or better) from a reputable OEM such as HP or Lenovo in a short time.

I left out a display on purpose, I even made note of that. Now you have $2000 to spend on a display or multiple displays.

Thunderbolt 3 isn't that important when you have a motherboard with 64 PCIe lanes and loads of ports/upgrade options. External GPU? External storage? Just put it in the machine.

Image result for mac pro cables

People joke, but a lot of the mess can simply go into the case.

Again, if you're looking for an "experience" with a singular warranty, the larger OEMs will have computers with similar specs in about a month.

Just in case it wasn't clear, the build I listed is also quite a bit more powerful than the base iMac Pro. To allow the iMac Pro to compete, you'll have to go well above the starting price.

edited December 2017

macxpress · December 7, 2017 9:05PM

VRing said:

StrangeDays said:

VRing said:

macxpress said:

randominternetperson said:

Anyone know the price breakdown for the major components of this? $5K is huge money, and critics will be all about the "Apple tax." It would help to know that the processor costs $x, the video card costs $x, the 1TB SSD costs $x, etc. Presumably Apple is earning a margin of near 30%, so I expect these components are surprisingly expensive (adding up to well over $3000).

Many have tried to build a similar PC and have failed to do a fair comparison. The graphics cards in them are brand new (I think the reason for the Dec availability) as well as the Xeon processors are also new. Those alone are quite expensive. Since people cannot get their hands on these new AMD Vega/Vega Pro graphics they're trying to compare a PC with dual 1080TI graphics cards and thats not really a fair comparison in the end. Same goes for the CPU...many are just comparing the highest end current Core i7 which again, isn't a fair comparison. Even then, they come to about $4500 if I remember correctly. Again, that doesn't count in the design costs, assembly, shipping, sales costs, support costs, etc.

Apple did one during the keynote with an HP Workstation and it was over $7,000. I think we'll have to wait a little bit when the parts become fully available for the public.

What many fail to factor in when calculating a cost is the R&D, engineering, making the software all work efficiently, the OS, and any apps included, assembly, shipping, retail, support costs, etc. These are all factored into the cost of any product, yet people just go on PC Part Picker and price out the parts and think thats a fair comparison when its not.

Apple iMac Pro ($5000)

Intel Xeon (8 core / 16 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2666 ECC
1TB SSD
Radeon Pro Vega 56 - 8 GB HBM2

DIY PC ($3090 - everything except for a monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS)

AMD Threadripper 1950X (16 core / 32 thread)
32 GB DDR4-2133 ECC
1TB Samsung 960 EVO
Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (Vega 64) - 16 GB HBM2

pcpartpicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NGV9sJ

The DIY build has a better CPU and GPU than the iMac Pro.

By the time the iMac Pro launches, there will be even more price drops and other new products only a month or so away (look to CES).

Nice try but you’re missing major components, your time, a warranty from a single provider, and excellent support.

Heres another PCpartPicker estimate from june which included a monitor:

Total: $4686.71
http://www.pcgamer.com/apples-new-imac-pro-costs-5000-but-is-it-overpriced/

...but again, this assumes your time has no value, that a single provider warranty has no value, and ignores the awesome longevity, resale value, and lower TCO of a Mac. A Mac’s value is more than a bunch of PC parts slapped into a case.

Why are you posting a build from June? The one I posted it from today.

Outside of the keyboard, mouse, OS and monitor, what major components am I missing?

There are also trade-offs for the warranty, while it's not through a single company, the duration on individual parts is often between 3 and 7 years.

Putting this together will take 15-20 minutes. One would end up saving more time because they'd have a faster machine.

You wouldn't need to worry about resale in the short term because you'd have a system with 64 PCIe lanes, 4 PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, 1 PCIe 2.0 x1 slot, 3 Ultra M.2 ports, 1 U.2 port, 8 SATA3 ports and 8 memory slots. It's easy to just upgrade.

You're missing Thunderbolt 3 which is a major component. Its also missing 10Gb/sec Ethernet. You're still failing to realize that the display is a major component and its puzzling why you left it out. Its a major component and a major selling point of the iMac itself.

Nobody cares about short term value...its the long term value. There are only so many things you can upgrade. 4 or 5 years from now the upgrade options will be just as limited as the the iMac Pro so you're not really gaining much there. The bus speed today will be just as slow today as it will be in 5yrs.

I seriously doubt the speed of this amazing CPU you keep pushing isn't enough to make up for the time spent to build the PC (which more Professionals don't want to do and will take most more than 15-20 minutes...thats BS!), the time spent troubleshooting issues, installing the OS and the apps they need, etc. As I said before, there are a lot of Professionals who already use a Mac so why would they go through the pain of switching to a different platform, building the PC (if they even know how), installing the OS, etc?

How about the experience of using a Mac? The integration of Apple services and other hardware? What part is 7yrs on the warranty in your build? And don't tell me the case either. As said by @StrangeDays, there's a hell of a lot more to a Mac than just the sum of its parts. If you just want to be a BestBuy geek and just worry about specs then be my guest, but there's a hell of a lot more to a computer than the specs.

Apple's iMac Pro model number pegged as 'A1862' ahead of expected Dec. launch

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