What’s The Price Tag On Your Next Mac? $23,000?

If there is one thing that excites long time Mac users, it’s the thought of getting a new Mac. It’s time. I’m ready. I want a new Mac.

Unfortunately, based on the price tag of some of Apple’s newer Macs, I might just need a mortgage to get my new Mac. That assumes there will be anyone left to borrow money from come January and Macworld.

How much money? How about $23,000 for a new Mac?

See? I wasn’t kidding about the need for a mortgage. Or, at least, a second mortgage. What? You didn’t think Macs were that expensive?

Actually, in general, Macs are no more expensive than any run of the mill Windows PC when you compare hardware feature for feature. So, why is this particular Mac priced the same as a new Toyota Camry or Honda Accord?

Sigh. It’s a dream. I’ve been waiting for months for a new Mac. I’m using my wife’s iMac. I fully expected that Apple would introduce new Mac Pro models, or at least a quad core iMac, before Macworld in January.

After all, Apple stunned everyone with a completely new line of aluminum MacBooks and MacBook Pro models. And raised the price.

After looking at the entire line of Macs, I’m probably going to sit tight, bide my time, relish the good old days, and wait for the next great Mac thing.

I do not like the iMac’s display. Sorry. Too much glare. So, I worry about the future Apple LED Cinema Displays; the ones that look like an iMac without the Mac part, and use the newfangled DisplayPort technology.

What got me excited about a new Mac and the intent to wait a few months, was the newer NVIDIA graphic chips in the MacBooks. I reasoned that perhaps newer Mac Pro or iMac models might have something similar to off load video decoding, perhaps add video encoding to the graphics processor.

Also, Macworld recently highlighted a new NVIDIA graphics board that is priced at $3,500, or, about $1,000 more than a new Mac Pro.

That was just what I needed to explain to my wife why a $23,000 Mac Pro was such a good value. Who spends $3,500 for a graphics board? It doesn’t matter. In my wildest dreams I don’t have a need for pumping 102 gigabytes of video through my Mac.

There’s no need to draw 300 million triangles per second or fill even the most complex graphic element with 52-billion texture elements, despite the bragging rights of 4 gigabytes of video RAM and 240 graphic processor cores.

My wife didn’t buy it. So, I decided to dream a little and went to the Apple Store online to price out my dream machine. That may be as close as I’ll get to spending $23,000 for a new Mac.

For the Mac Pro, dual 3.2Ghz quad core Intel Xeon CPU’s will set you back a mere $1,600 more than the dual 2.8Ghz version. Pump up the RAM from a platry 2 gigs to the 32-gigabyte maximum, and you’re missing another $9,100.

Adding three additional 1 Terabyte hard drives and upgrading the stock drive to a terabyte puts another $,1650 on the price tag.

All those drives require a RAID Card, right? Add $800.

The NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 video card with 1.5 gigabytes of RAM adds another $2,850 to the total, but I’m not even able to see anything on my Mac without a display.

The old style aluminum Apple Cinema HD display—in the 30-inch variety—are a mere $1,799 each. Wireless is good to have for another $50, and so is a second SuperDrive for $100.

Sure, I could add a few other odds and ends, but at this point I’ve probably just committed myself to the sale of my wife, or condo, or a neighbor child.

My dream Mac is a $23,000 Mac Pro monster that is so fast I could probably travel back in time, bet on some stocks, or short the market in early 2008, and make a bundle, so my upgrade wouldn’t cost me much at all.

Or, not. What’s your dream Mac and why? Click Here for a look at reader responses in the Mac360 Forums.