You obvously don't get it, these aren't your typical consumer computers and are aimed at more intense processes like 3D Rendering and Video editing on a professional scale and not for iPhoto, Facebook and playing with yourself whilst on here....although it does that....but faster....price isn't really an issue if you use one of these for work as it will last years and pay you back way before it's dead.

Someone I know is a Professional Illustrator and only uses Macs and EVERYONE she knows in the industry uses Macs.....there is a reason, but if you don't know what it is, nothing will convince you otherwise.

If someone said to me "base model and £2500" in the same sentence I'd likely punch them in the face!

Even at this discount it's a ludicrous price tag! Liquid nitrogen cold from me! :disappointed:

Before the Apple haters down-vote this to oblivion, please link to a similar priced over-the-counter PC unit that is capable of editing 4:4:4 colour space full resolution 5K footage, because I can't build one for this price.

So they have overcharged you £1000 to start with?

Saying where from always helps :wink: Looks like Costco and is that the price Inc VAT or without?

Should have mentioned this was from Costco (Sheffield)

Price does include VAT - £1199 without VAT

What model is it?

If someone said to me "base model and £2500" in the same sentence I'd likely punch them in the face!

Even at this discount it's a ludicrous price tag! Liquid nitrogen cold from me! :disappointed:

Before the Apple haters down-vote this to oblivion, please link to a similar priced over-the-counter PC unit that is capable of editing 4:4:4 colour space full resolution 5K footage, because I can't build one for this price.

hot. yes this is a bargain if you want a Mac Pro.

This is an incredible deal for this workstation! I would nearly go as far to say this is not a consumer product but an enterprise workstation for production use :smiley:

An amazing price, haters are gonna hate no matter...

They didn't have the box so all the specs I could see are the ones on the label. Shame about the Mac haters here giving this cold.

Great price, have some heat. I used to have the older model at work but changed to a 27" iMac last upgrade

is that the new trash can design one?

I fail to see the positive correlation between an "Apple" and a "bargain".

The iMacs are too powerful now. Hard to justify a Mac Pro unless you're really doing some intense video work. Heat though, nice price.

This is fantastic for photo/video editing work when combined with a large 4k screen like the Philips 40in one :sunglasses:

Heat given!!

So they have overcharged you £1000 to start with?

That is an unreal price for a superb machine... Would I buy one, no, only because I would not use all of the capacity of the machine...

Voted hot, this should go scorching. Apple Price is here

You will not find cheaper and certainly no where near this price point!

How many Professional Illustrators reading this deal?

For me it's Alienware everytime; but I'm a gamer with a little bit of CAD thrown in.

is this nationwide?

More than you'd think, tbh.

The equivalent Dell would be something like http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/precision-t5810-workstation/pd

By the time you upgrade the CPU, add the extra RAM, add the PCIe ssd, and include two graphics cards (FirePro W7000's being the closest to the custom AMD D300's in the Apple) to get you in approximately the ballpark as this Apple in terms of specifications, Dell want £3000+VAT (£3600) and the machine will be several times larger!

So, absolute bargin.

​I have to agree with this.
If anyone could come up with a valid argument against this question/statement, I would love to hear it. :confused:

Voted hot BTW, awesome deal. Spent this much on an iMac last year.

Oops, can't add. Make that £1100.

OS?

Maths is wrong, logic is wrong.
This is an incredible purchase — no doubt about it.

Shame it's not online

If you are in the creative sector where Macs are standard and need one, then this is a cracking deal. Hot.

Would a pair of R290Xs not be as powerful as those Fire cards? I remember seeing Apples using normal PC cards a few years back (2900s perhaps) with different bioses on the same hardware for about twice the price :smirk:

I vehemently believe that all Apple products produced in the past decade are grossly overpriced and not a single one of them has been the best option on the market, especially with the way they are locked down and lacking in features...with the exception of the Mac Pro.

At the time the Mac Pro was released, I was unable to build a computer to meet the same specifications for even double the price, plus the case would have to be a juggernaut: incomparable to this machine which is basically the size of two toilet rolls: size being a major factor for video professionals on various remote sets.

Please don't blindly talk this computer down, because it's probably the last truly competitive product we'll see Apple produce in our lifetimes.

You can connect stuff

http://www.macworld.com/article/2146360/lab-tested-the-mac-pro-daisy-chain-challenge.html

Premium product for people doing serious work. One job would pay for this in my industry. Great price!

Good price. Beware though, this is almost 2 years old. Add on top of that the fact that new MAC products are announced at the end of October annually. Put two and two together...

Still a great machine though, if I had the money I'd punt.

1. This won't be available at every Costco.
2. Not all professional users need fire pro or quadro as in some situations high end graphic card will be far better.
Have a glance (no newest cards are included, though)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-780-performance-review,3516-24.html

vat and join fee too

You forgot the screen

Great price, was due and upgrade at work as my 8 year old Mac Pro was a bit out of date. Considered a pro and at this price I would have gone for it in the end I went for the 5k iMac.

Based on the std price this is a great deal. Never really used a Mac and only basic photo editing required. Could anyone suggest an entry level Mac predominately for media playback and getting used to the os?

Many punters were expecting Mac Pro to be updated this fall. Didn't happen. Some still are this Autumn. If it will happen, those who bought will be heartbroken. Tough call I would say.

Sounds like you've never met a professional in your life?

TRUE professionals understand risk to reward ratio. If your time has any significant value attached to it you have a business arrangment eg an education or business warranty through someone like Jigsaw24 that supplies a same day replacement.

For programmers, photographers, professional musicians who earn a decent day rate, the downtime associated with fixing issues and apply bandaids and updates to your glass sided fairly-light display aquatic water cooled fishtank PC add up rather quickly at £50-100/hr.

I think if the OP mentioned some of the headline specs this would've been a LOT hotter.
I think people see Macbook and expect 4GB RAM and an old i5 from about 3 years ago. Actually looks decent for once!

Subjective.

Don't forget the Apple logo = £100 lol

Quite hilarious how people quote PC prices as if that's the same thing. This is not just well-specced machine for the money but is also VERY COMPACT and highly specced. I'm sure with a few bits from Scan, a few second-hand parts off a snarky PC gamers forum and a pirated copy of Windows I could build an equally powerful PC for a bit less than this - probably one the size of Durham - but some people don't want a giant PC cluttering up their home or studio. I have a decent gaming PC but I'm looking to get rid of it because it just takes up too much space. This would be ideal for me, and with Macs being so well-made it could be expected to work nicely for years and years.

the amount of power apple somehow manage to pack into such a small form factor is incredible.

??

I'm not a Mac hater and I have owned a few macs over the years but bang for buck macs are way over the top in price if you really need a Mac build a hackintosh most macs are difficult to upgrade some you cannot upgrade I'm sure you could build the equivalent PC for 3/4 the price. in my opinion you are paying for the looks and not the power when u buy a Mac

Irrespective of what you think of Macs, there isn't a PC in the world at these specs that's this size and this price. If anyone can post a deal for a Windows PC with the same (or better specs) than this, that's the size of a loaf of bread, then I'm keen to hear it.

Some people don't want Windows, some people don't want a PC the size of an aquarium. For those people, this device is a bargain - and one of few Apple products that can be considered decent value for money at this price, even on specs alone

Any sign of the upgraded model at a discount too?

alienware are utter balls. build quality is poor and aftersales is a joke.

People were asking for alternative equivalent pcs...

Technically they are the same thing now. However is it possible to build a PC with the same configuration for less?
Even though they use Intel kit, they limit the number of configurations that drivers etc have to cope with. Which should make for a more stable and efficient platform. You're average PC doesn't get that same benefit. The OS can even be tested against specific hardware, again a PC has to cope with Processor A with Motherboard X.
I'm a PC owner, would love to have these but can't justify the cost. However I do appreciate where a lot of it comes from.

Baaaaaaa. You dont need to. Baaaaaaa. Baaaaaaa.

Regards
Flea

Even when they do, would it be worth it?
I'm running a Sandybridge 2500k and Skylake isn't worth an upgrade yet, 5 year later. Can the same be said fo rthe latest Xeon processors?

Thanks. The Higher Education portal of the Apple website has this for £2098.80 with 3 years warranty. This deal is £1439.96 + £199 for the warranty = £1638.96, so comparing like for like with what's available from Apple, this a saving of £459.84.

Yes, it probably is possible to build a PC with [faster hardware] for less....although part of the appeal to many Apple users is the 'premium' feel their walled garden lumps of metal gives them....and no money can be placed on that mentality.

You just can't beat the golden oldies:

Idiotic analogy. Over a third of what you pay is for branding, not because it is better than anything else...

I mean the 6 core model but it seems unlikely.

Got the link to the Higher Education Portal?

You can sign up for the advanced card anyway and if you don't spend £3k in a year they refund you the difference anyway if you go back to a standard member, did it last year.

This is a great price and really where it ought to be pitched. Such a great looking device in a tiny form factor too.

All those PC builders out there - don't forget to include a decent PSU and case, then apportion some cost for support.

I'm a concept artist\illustrator. Firstly let me correct the person who said that most creatives use Macs is incorrect, it is actually PCs which are more the dominant in the creative industry because of the cost and power. The most critical aspect is the software i.e Adobe, Pixologic etc and if the individual can use them well. Having a Mac is not magically going to turn my work better or even enhance it.

Also you do not need that amount of power for illustration, I have an adequate machine with 16gb memory and a old relatively old GPU , and an i5 4th processor. Not state of the art, but for programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator, you know programs for illustrating it doesn't require that much ommmph except only when I'm painting at 600DPI and using lots of layers.

The only time I need or feel the slowdown is when I'm rendering in Maya, when a better GPU and CPU would be nice. However, then again we're shaving only seconds and not minutes so hardly worth it.

Anyway the Mac Pro looks nice, its a good price a £1000 off is amazing but lets not pretend Apples rule the creative graphic industry anymore, maybe the music side but its the person and not the tools which the industry is hiring.

Do all your clothes have George or F&F labels? Is Dacia you car manufacturer of choice?
Some people will always pay more for perceived quality. Sometimes it's warranted, sometimes it isn't. At £2,500 this is very poor <£1500 then it starts to make sense. If it was less than £1k it's would be a no brainer.

Some of the brand cost is swallowed up by: -
Dedicated R&D and QA time and cost putting specific parts together.
Miniaturisation
OS fine tuning
Sheep factor marketing

Will this play minecraft?

I included windows in that.

i can't see the pedal that opens its lid anywhere ?

Care to elaborate on that, or was it just a rant?

I can see that the Apple looks neat, and at just under £1500 it is not that expensive for what you get.

I'm just querying why people are claiming they couldn't build a similar spec PC for similar money. Well, actually around £400 less, as I demonstrated. It won't be an Apple, of course. And it won't come with support, but it will have standardised components, so it will be cheap to fix if it goes wrong.

Title needs to be changed to "Mac Pro Tower". Some people might get confused to the Macbook.

The simple answer to this is that PC has moved forward a great deal over the last few years. What your PC can do now, compared to Mac, is an entirely different story to 10 years ago. As such, pretty much anybody that studied graphics and design until quite recently, will have most definitely done it on a Mac. Colleges and universities don't want to spend money changing all their systems and re-training staff, so they stick with what they've always used in those departments; Macs. Truth is, also, that in terms of bang for buck, the Mac is way cheaper than PC equivalent. And you've got a drastically lower chance of things like virus's. Then things like customer service of Apple, which is a massive deciding factor, comes into play. We used to have blackberry in the business. When one went wrong you had to send it back to them, and two weeks later you'd get it back, if they agreed to fix it under warranty, which was rare. With Apple, we've taken an iPhone to the store, said its not working properly, and they've just handed us a new one. No argument. Same with iPads. As it happens, the other Mac hardware we have, some of which made in 2009, haven't had a single thing go wrong. Time is money, so it's a no brainer for us to purchase Apple.

Indeed, but to correctly compare like for like, you should recognise part of the cost price is "support".

As for Hackingt0sh, I did many in the snow leopard, lion days. If I'd charged my time spent getting these working correctly I could've bought two of these.

Is this deal national?

this is exactly what i was thinking, my personal editing and gaming rig would destroy this at most tasks and costs less.

They are still making one hell of a profit selling this, but then again. You've got apple customer service and warranty if anything goes wrong + OSX (which is actually just an expensive linux distro haha).

Irrelevant when it comes to saving money, many people are prepared to factor in those savings, hence why the hackintosh community is at large.

Some people in these comments are plain flat out plain stupid and/or arrogant, it's making me cringe so much so that I decided to make an account just to comment here - your £400 "gaming" GPU ≠ pro-grad workstation card(s).

I'd like to start off by confirming what many think (especially those spending their own personal cash), that in many cases, an expensive professional GPU is not entirely needed. It is important to remember though that in many other cases, a good professional card will make all the difference between working smoothly and efficiently, and having to put up with a lifetime of difficulties.

Pro grade cards offer specific graphics-related features relevant to the professional graphics applications. These are a result of the different card architecture as well as the different drivers. Some of these features are designed to streamline graphics work, meaning that the same can be achieved without them but with a slower work process. Others enable processes not available via consumer cards.

Professional cards, especially at the higher end of the range, offer a selection of extra hardware features like hardware frame synchronization, quad buffered stereo or uncompressed video output. These featured, which often require add-on cards, are specifically for niche markets, and require more robust and specialized hardware. They are therefore not available on the run of the mill GPUs.

Because the pro grade cards are designed for business use whilst the consumer cards are aimed mainly at home use, the support structure on each family is different. The professional cards enjoy a far more comprehensive support cover that includes looking at software issues that may have caused incompatibility problems between pro-grade card and pro-grade graphics application. For consumer cards, on the other hand, support only covers correct operation of the GPU hardware. This is important in business environments where resolving hardware-software problems quickly has an impact on revenue.

Professional cards are certified to work correctly with most professional graphics software applications, and software vendors in turn tend to require pro-grade cards in their hardware requirements list. This is to minimize the volume of support calls from non-certified hardware. This does not mean that consumer cards will not work. It only means that some features may not work with consumer cards, and there is a likelihood of more frequent problems.

Consumer cards are replaced often. They are always chasing the latest and the fastest technology. Professional ones, on the other hand, are more stable. They enjoy longer development periods, and are replaced less often. This helps large organizations wanting to standardize on hardware in the long term. It also increases long term stability.

The professional cards are not, as some believe, identical hardware with different BIOS and drivers from consumer cards. They are designed and built from a similar architecture base, but branch off pretty early on in production. The consumer cards are built for ultimate speed whilst the professional cards are built for stability and compatibility - different philosophy for different purposes.

Good price but I'm gonna get the Xperia Z5.

If your creative, you can produce work on PC or Apple Mac!

I love PC, I love Apple Mac, I love even more my four year old Hackintosh (i7 6core) now with 24gb ram, Twin nVidia770, SamsungEvoSSD boot drive & 4 raided Hitachi 4TB drives, all in a standard midi-tower running El Capitan operating system.

The processor still edits 4k multicam footage perfectly! Only external drive for backup using CarbonCloneCopier which backs up any changed files of the day.

Over the last four years, in the shift from 1080p to 4k, I've upgraded the harddrives, graphics cards and added more memory! The original PC components were half the price of a Mac Pro at the time and the upgrades have saved me from having to purchase a new £3000 Mac Pro Bin and will keep me going for another few years.

Hackintosh laptops are too problematic to even bother with though, so I also own a 2012 MacBookPro which is a great machine, I can now upgrade the SSD card to 1TB, but I can't upgrade the Ram as its soldered to the motherboard!

As a music producer I've used both a PC and Mac. There are certain things that don't run on a PC so I'm on Mac these days. I recently built my own Hackintosh. It's great but the build hasn't been a smooth ride and I've probably put in a few weeks work into fixing some faults and crashes. There's still an issue with Thunderbolt. It works fine when it works but that's the compromise. I've saved perhaps £1.5k on an equivalent mac though so I think it's worth it and knowing what I know now I could probably build and put together a more compatible, less problematic machine in 2-3 days. However, for those that want fault free, zero stress, just buy the macpro. This is a great price for a great, compact machine which can go in your rucksack if you ever need to go somewhere.

No dear, I'm not blinded by a firm who is a modern day pioneer on planned obsolescence...

I don't agree with that. I'm posting this from my HP ProBook 4530s, i5 cpu, 8gb RAM, 512gb SSD and 1080p screen running the latest OS X 10.11 El Capitan absolutely perfectly. Everything works as it would on a real Macbook.

Well... yes. I'm a Software Engineer. This device isn't intended for the consumer market because it's got a daft spec and silly price.
There are often deals on here for specialist bits of tech rather than Tesco selling feckin' bran flakes for 10p off.
Even if a low percentage of people reading this are the target audience... they're still going to be thinking 'ooo, I wonder if there are any in my local Costco'.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not particularly a Mac fan... but if I saw this, say, six months a go I'd probably suggest it for the missus rather than her iMac.

For the product itself this is good value. <-- Surely this is what HUKD is about... voted hot. Those people voting cold need to take their heads out their asses.

£60+ profit selling into CEX

This is hot, just have a look at the prices on fleabay for something like this. I recently paid £800 for a dual processor 8 core 2010 model (not on fleabay) and I then bought a couple of the fastest processors I could put in it for over £200 (on fleabay) turning into a fast 12 core machine and reckon I got a bargain. The Mac Pro it replaced was bought in 2006 and I only changed it because I couldn't run the latest OS on it. I use these machines professionally and this will most likely be the last one I buy before I hang up my rodents. I've never really had any problems I couldn't fix myself, in fact all I bought for the previous one was a new graphics card and extra ram. Mac Pro's are reliable and easy to upgrade. This is why we pay good money in first place.

This doesn't appear anywhere on the Costco website which begs the question is this in-store only? And if so why isn't it stated?

Also dont you have to be a member to get these prices atCostco? In which case should this be here at all?

This deal is starting to tick all the boxes of everything that annoys me about HUKD

Just called CostCo, rang around some stores, This deal is DEAD. Coventry has stock in store and they are selling for £2,279.98 so only a small saving if you are after a Mac Pro. Shame as I was just about to buy one! I am a professional video editor and for £1,500 (ish) That would of been a steal!

I was after one of these and cannot find this. Which Store did you see this?
This is not available online and have called a few stores and the cheapest is £1800 in Sheffield but all other stores who have any in stock price is £2279.98.
The one you may have listed maybe a managers special and also display model. I was told this item is now in deletion to be discontinued.

All tech is planned obsolescence. Most of that obsolescence is driven by software requirements rather than hardware design. Even then software nearly always lags behind.

So back to my previous question, in a round about way, do you buy branded goods? Branding of any product results in an increased cost to the consumer.

I'm a Mac hater but, for its purpose, I can't deny that this is a seriously good deal. You'll be paying over this price for a similar specced machine anyway.

hot deal

If you don't know what this machine really is then you (a) definitely do not need it and (b) don't need to vote cold because your PC for £400 does everything you need it to!

No because not all brands charge a premium because they can get away with it.... If some muppets want to pay £600 for a a brick that does nothing better than a normal Android phone, then fine.

The only reason to get a mac is in music production nowadays.

I can guarantee you that your portfolio and skill in your work is far more important than using a mac.

Even then using a mac pro is overkill for a graphic designer and illustrator. I work on mac and pcs throughout my career. Not one is better than the other. As for virus yes that is sure to happen but not if you install a decent software program like malwarebytes.

I just phoned my local, the Coventry store.

He says they're priced up in Coventry at £2279 incl VAT.

I asked about Sheffield, he said they were priced up in Sheffield on the system at £1499.97 before VAT. He said there was only 1 available in Sheffield and it's likely to be an ex-display model given the price is lower than what the system says.

A great deal either way.

Not available online and my local Bristol Branch are still selling it for £2279.98 rang their head office to see if they know anything about this ?

and when the guy from dell comes round to fix your Precision T7600 and has never seen a workstation with so much RAM and 2 CPU's and after 2 hours asks you "what do you think the problem is"

you realise that maybe you should have gone for a Mac Pro instead!

You're really trying to compare a workstation GPU against a non workstation GPU? I'm sorry, but it shows that you have no understanding of what makes a workstation a workstation.

The closest comparisson would be the FirePro 7900, these run at around £580 each.

A computer that I myself could not justify needing but if I relied on my computer to render at for work I would look right past building my own windows machine and just buy this. I'm sorry but its an absolute beast of a workstation and in such a nice and small package, its a steal at this price.

It's not just about performance per £1 but also how little space it takes up and how quite it is, and in terms of desktop workstations there isn't anything quite like the Mac pro, and that's from a windows user!

He said case right there

has anyone seen these at other costco?

When you look at a solution one dimensionally, hardware, you are probably correct. But an end to end solution for someone to do sustained productive work needs multi-dimensional assessment, namely, OS, OS X applications, serviceability, availability, reliability, usability, interoperability and what other people use in your professional environment which is compatitibility, then there are upgrability, back ward compatibility, portability with other solutions like Apple phone, etc, this multi-dimensional list goes on and goes and there are so many factors in deciding a productivity tool solution.

​It was an attempt at humour, admittedly a poor one but at least I try :smile:

Wrong, you'll walk into an Apple Store and walk out with a new one no questions asked.

Anyone who votes cold been that its overpriced is a bit daft. Even if you hate apple you could re sell this and make a profit. Heat added

Wrong.

Would this be any good for Championship Manager '93?

I would love for you to show me where I can find 256GB PCIe SSD that does over 1000MB/s for £50 I will be buying one straight away for my home machine.

You can get Samsung SM951 128GB M.2 PCIe NVMe High Performance SSD for £72, from scan.co.uk so he's not that far out. (performance, not capacity)
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/128gb-samsung-sm951-m2-%2822x80%29-pcie-30-%28x4%29-nvme-ssd-mlc-nand-read-2000mb-s-write-650mb-s-300k-83k-i
(£119 for the 256GB)
Still, for a Mac Pro (ashtray) its a good price, if you can get one, I very much doubt anyone can at this price.

Do you know what makes a workstation GPU? Just curious...(no Googling!)

I'm a professional graphic and web designer and I'm reading this deal!

Fan boy in other words. "Last for years" - thats why they're replaced every couple of years is it ?

The biggest advantage, to my knowledge, is the reliability in an always on environment.

The failure rate of standard desktop gpu's under constant load is far higher.

I also know that workstation GPU's have different firmware and goals in mind with regards to accuracy in, for example CAD models.

I've quickly googled a page that should list the main differences for you: http://graitec.co.uk/hardware/cad-workstation-guide/workstation-vs-gaming-graphics

Edit: would help if I had copied the link properly.

Wrong. I'm an industry professional and nobody would use this for serious work. It's Apple's entry level Mac.

Of course they bring out new models every couple of years. Doesn't mean your current model suddenly stops working!

My friends 2008 Mac Pro still works just fine and has helped him earn a vey healthy living in Web Design.

Depends on the type of work that you do, every line has to have a base model.

Just because it is the base model does not mean that it will not function just fine in its target market.

You created an account just to say this? Too many industry professionals are just lurkers on these boards. Im glad you signed up!

​Nah Linux is more my thing.

So many stupid people on this thread. As usual the apple haters. This is a great deal flat out. You pay for more than specs with a Mac. You pay for reliability, form factor and os (which rips windows apart for every day use and speed)
I use a hacky because I need the power but I have had countless laptops before buyin a MacBook Pro and it's been the best investment, lasting 3 times longer than any one before it and is still speedier than most.

Those are half the capacity and half the write speeds meaning your nearer to £150 not £50

£119 for 256GB. (I listed the price of the 256GB). You're emphasis was on performance, Nowhere do you mention write speeds (only now), reads are theoretically 2000MB/s, and these (SM951) are pretty much the fastest SSDs out there.

I can see that the cost of my home-built comparison PC is being inched up. :smiley: However, we are still well below £1400. That is unless you insist on GPUs costing £600 each.

It does vary quite a bit. But I know Quadros (a couple years ago) were literally the same hardware as the consumer versions, just flashed with a different firmware and using a different driver that was optimised for certain applications (eg AutoCad/3D Studio Max). I think it basically had a more stable driver that preferred accuracy/stability over speed. Though some GPUs will be genuinely different, and probably have more RAM. I don't know if anyone was successful in forcing Quadro firmware/drivers onto the consumer version.

I realise you've only been here 5 minutes so you probably don't realise that once upon a time there were rules at HUKD and mods that enforced them or at least made sure that deals were accurate or correctly described.

I also seem to remember that unless a deal was available to the public (i.e. not membership) it wasn't allowed. Therefore this deal would needed to have included the 5% non member surcharge that Cosco impose on non members before it was allowed.

And again once upon a time in-store deals had to state that they were "In-Store" deals in the title which this doesn't, (in fact the title, photo and the description are all quite pitiful). Stating "In-Store" would have saved the wild goose chase for many trying to find this on the Costco website and save the Mods considerable effort trying to work out if this had expired or not. Meanwhile the deal ended up getting voted ridiculously hot even though its virtually impossible to buy one.

Trouble is I don't think anyone (including the mods) can remember what the rules are any more?. Anyway in answer to your question if someone from HUKD can be bothered to sort this mess out then I might actually be bothered to contribute more!

Theres a reason MSE got sold for £87m and HUKD didn't - can you work it out?

the mac pc thing is stupid, even more so when people engage by comparing none server class based hardware (that the mac pro is)
comments here should be constructive, and comparing windows to osx (which is the main thing for me) is lots simpler. it's not about comparing, but in my career I much prefer osx and stability, when working in console game dev no choice and need windows. In every other industry (design,video,post,vfx) it's either osx or Linux hands down, even suprisingly android dev (look at all Google Android dev employees). /rant

ok so the problem here that I think people should know, if you look at geekbench scores you can get a better mac for less looking at the dual x56** mac pro from either 2009-2012. Personally I have a machine 2010 that comes in at 27k geekbench that cost me £1300. So adding the heat for the price, but people should be aware the 2010 is more bang for buck...also put a 680 4gb for 4k in mine.

This is quite true. But the point I make is the fanboys who shout loudest are the ones who "upgrade" to the newest shiniest one, and "lastability" doesn't ever enter in to it
I have a 2009 Macbook Pro and I love it. Leaves a Windows laptop for dead. And I still don't understand how to run it properly like I did the Windows one. But is it worth FOUR times the cost ? NO (I got mine for £250 second hand)

In my personal experience I have never lost out buying a Mac from new. My sister tends to buy cheap £300 PC Notebooks that tend to break within 24 months or so, whereas my £900 2008 Aluminium MacBook is still running like the day I bought it.

My sister has spent the same amount of money, if not more, over the last 7 years, has had a lot more frustration and none of the nice premium features such as the backlit keyboard etc.

I'll never understand those who upgrade for the sake of it and genuinely believe the the average person can be no worse off financially in the long run by buying a Mac new. Naturally second hand can give even more of a bargain if you get the machine from someone you trust.

​alienware? Lol you must new to gaming, they would be at the bottom of the list of places i would go if i was getting someone else to build me a gaming pc

But then sisters probably don't take as good care of electronics. Seems like half of girls under 25 have a smashed iPhone screen.

The biggest problem is that £200-300 isn’t really going to buy you a quality computer in the first place, doesn’t matter who makes it or what OS it runs.
By default it will have the cheapest version of everything possible to get to this low price point and will also be loaded full of junk applications etc.
Sure it will work, but it is hardly going to offer a decent experience and you can’t really complain when something breaks after 18-24 months of use.

​Exactly! that's comparing apples with pears....

MacBook money will get you a fine pc that will have better specifications and the old myth of Macs booting and running faster is no longer true particularly with a laptop of MacBook kinda money. My surface Pro 3 for example boots Windows 10 faster than my 2013 MacBook Pro (similar specs).

I do use my Mac but only really for internet and photos etc.

Mark my words Apple will start to produce touch screen and/or convertible laptops as they are no longer leading the field, people like myself are beginning to jump ship.

I think the sensible alternative is to spend £500-600 on an Asus, Toshiba or Sony laptop. Which is more reliable than an Apple laptop.
Personally, if I was going to spend a lot, I'd get a Dell. Very close to reliability of Apple, and their new XPS laptops look better designed in every way.

It was true at the time of the device's release, the SSD hardware in particular was especially pricey and has come down a lot since. While I don't believe Apple were selling at a loss, due to the very lean prices they negotiate with suppliers (which many times causes the optimistic supplier to go bust, at which Apple picks up the pieces and profits from, but that's another story) the discrepancy between the price of the Mac Pro and a PC, at least for a short period of time, is realistic. Apple could have been selling for close to cost price to take a larger market share of professional users and 'hook' them into their proprietary interface (making a profit on peripherals, software, support etc.).

When computer parts are sold to the public, manufacturers factor in long term costs like R&D, support, marketing from their larger business plan into the price. However with a big contract like Apple they might just be paying the simple cost of converting the materials into the hardware with a small margin on top (thanks to economies of scale).

The fast moving nature of the computer parts marketplace means the price gap has now closed, there are new alternatives available while the Mac Pro remains the same product. Its bespoke design does still give it that size advantage though.

Thank you..I managed to get this Mac Pro.. I just saved over £1000 from apple and over £700 from Costcos normal price.. :smiley:

Damn!! Can't believe I missed this. Was it in store also?

I don't know if I'm happy or sad I missed this one, as I don't really need it.

Just been to the Watford Costco and sadly the deal has ended. Did it only last for one day?

This was only in Sheffield CostCo instore and Manager Special as it was the last one.. I rang up but they had for £1899 exc Vat. I asked them to check on shop floor and came back wigh £1439. I was straight down there.

Yeah, none in Leeds either.

​That's not a chicken and egg situation hahaha but nice try