Apple’s latest powerhouse, the Mac Pro, is now available on the Malaysian online store. This is Apple’s most powerful Mac yet and it starts from RM25,999. That’s about the same price as a fully-specced 16″ MacBook Pro with 64GB RAM and 8TB of SSD storage.
If you really want to go all out, you can customise the Mac Pro further with a better processor, RAM, storage, graphics and throw in an Apple afterburner card. With all hardware options ticked, the total price for the cheese-grater inspired tower can go up to RM231,608.
So why does it cost so much? To upgrade from the base 3.5GHz 8-core Intel Xeon W processor (Turbo boost up to 4.0GHz) to a 2.5GHz 28-core Intel Xeon W processor (Turbo boost up to 4.4GHz) is already a hefty RM30,800 upgrade option. But that’s probably nothing when you look at the RAM options.
The model comes with “just” 32GB of DDR4 ECC memory and if you want to max it out to 1.5TB, it will cost you a whopping RM110,000. This consists of 12x 128GB sticks. The RAM cost itself can buy you a Proton X70 Executive 2WD.
For storage, unfortunately, the 8TB option is not available at the moment. The max option you can go for is 4TB SSD which is an extra RM6,160.
Adding two Radeon Pro Vega II Duo with 2x 32GB HBM2 memory adds another RM47,520, while the Apple Afterburner card which is used to boost performance for decoding of ProRes and ProRes RAW video codecs for Final Cut Pro X and other applications is a RM8,800 option.
By default, the Mac Pro aluminium case comes with static feet. If you want to roll it around the original wheels will cost you RM1,760. Out of the box, it comes with a Magic Mouse 2 and a Magic Keyboard with numeric pad. An extra Magic Trackpad 2 will cost another RM569. Note that we didn’t include any extra software options so we are only calculating the hardware and its upgraded extras.
But wait, the RM231,608 total amount doesn’t come with a monitor. If you want a sleek professional-grade screen to go with that powerful machine, the Apple Pro Display XDR itself costs RM19,999 for standard glass. It will cost you RM25,999 for the nano-texture version which has a matte surface to reduce glare. The Pro Display XDR is a 32″ Retina 6K monitor that supports P3 wide colour and true 10-bit colour. According to Apple, this is their largest Retina display ever with 40% more pixels from the iMac 5K display.
The matching Pro Stand which offers height, tilt and rotation that is sold separately costs RM4,499. In case you don’t want to fork out over RM4,000 for a stand, you can attach the display to other VESA-compatible wall or desk mount but you will need to buy the VESA Mount adapter which costs RM899.
In total, it comes out to RM262,106.00 and shipping takes around 6-7 weeks. When we try to check out, the only option is to pay the total RM262,106 by card. Nope, there’s no Easy Payment Plan or the option to use multiple cards to pay. You just need a card with a huge credit limit. Well, at least the shipping is still free.
For the same amount, you could get a BMW 330e M Sport which is going for RM258,800. If you’re a power user with a huge budget to invest in a new machine, you can configure the Mac Pro on Apple’s online store. In case you missed it, you can DIY your own “PC version” with the PC Dune Pro.