I have no Mac, and I have no clue about prices, but I stumbled upon this today and really wondered whether they are sane...
And why some 63 people actually paid that price...
I mean yes, its 3 nvme drives in a box that seem to only have taken SATA or whatever before, but come on...
Entdecken Sie Lot of 100pcs 16GB 1333MHz RAM DDR3 ECC REGISTERED Server & Apple Mac Pro Memory in der großen Auswahl bei eBay. Kostenlose Lieferung für viele Artikel!
www.ebay.de
View attachment 21874
Well, Amfeltec doesn't quote prices directly, but one
retailer in the UK recently listed them above 650 Euros (which is a claimed 34% off listed price…oh wait, same as the one up top), so you kinda have an idea what the original pricing might look like. Those Trashcan Macs only have PCIe 2.0, so whatever performance you think you are getting...well, get ready to be underwhelmed. Why is it so expensive? Mostly because it's a niche use for a niche product, and also because it's a Canadian company. You are paying for the ability to scream at someone on the phone during their business hours and they'll politely overnight you a replacement if you need it (assuming that you are in North America) - or if it's European, there's a reputable retailer who stands behind the product. With the notable exception of some established brands, you rarely have that benefit buying clones/knockoffs from .cn. It depends on where you stand on the risk/reward scale.
The trashcan (AKA the Can't Innovate My Ass) Mac Pro has always been a bit of an expensive joke amongst Mac folks like me - a modern G4 cube, if you will. Apple made it to prove a point and then sent it down the river where it didn't receive any tech updates (can innovate, can't seem to keep it fresh, and it’s not like the successor cheese grater Pro are better value, either) - but still, if your shop bought it to edit 4k60 HEVC videos using DaVinci Resolve or Adobe Premiere back in 2014 or so and you kept it running for the past few years, the idea of buying one of those in with 3 2TB SSDs is still cheaper and yield better results than, say, using a Thunderbolt 2 attached storage device (which are even more stupidly overpriced for what it offered). A modern M1 Mini will match or better it on the task, but if it's a pro shop you are expected to keep gear running for 10+ years once the allocation is out and amortization is running down, it's somewhat justified. Granted, it's a classic case of good money chasing after bad. Not saying that I would buy it, but there are plenty of places where this made some sense to some people.