[frdmfghtr]

I was poking around the Apple website and playing with some Mac Pro configurations. I'm not looking to buy one, as a Mac Pro is grossly overpowered for my needs and grossly overpriced for my pocketbook.

Still, what a co-worker had pointed out was interesting, so I tried it myself--and he was right.

Take a look at the Mac Pro hardware customization prices on the Apple website. Upgrading from a 2.8 GHz Quad-core Xeon to two 3.2 GHz Xeon processors is $2100. WOW! That seems expensive to me.

The real killer is memory. I always knew that memory from Apple had a high markup, but look at this: Upgrading from 2 GB to 32 GB is $9,100! That's over $1100 for each 4 GB memory stick! If you bought 32 GB from Newegg, you would spend $1160 or 13% of what Apple would charge.

Is there really that much difference between the two to justify a 784% (9100/1160*100%) markup??

[Simon]

If you were to buy those 3.2 GHz Xeons you would be paying over $1300 a pop.

The Mac Pro RAM markup is real. It's well known. Nobody buys FB DIMMs from Apple.