Think a $9,599 Mac Pro is expensive? A Windows-based equivalent costs even more

By Konrad Krawczyk December 27, 2013

windows based high end mac pro equivilent costs even 9599 vs — Image used with permission by copyright holder

At this point, it’s common knowledge that one of the selling points of going with a Windows-based laptop or desktop PC over a Mac option is price. Windows machines are typically much cheaper than Apple’s offerings. When it comes to the new Mac Pro, however, you might be surprised to learn that building a Windows-based equivalent will deliver an even bigger hit on your banks account, at least when it comes to the most expensive Pro.

A top-of-the-line Mac Pro costs $9,599 and includes a 2.7 GHz Intel Xeon E5 12-core processor, 64GB of DDR3 RAM, a 1TB SSD, and dual AMD FirePro D700 graphics cards. In an effort to build a Windows-based equal, Stephen Fung of futurelooks.com chose a Silverstone FT03 case, a Silverstone SST-85F-GS 850W 80 PLUS power supply, an ASUS Rampage IV GENE mATX LGA2011 motherboard, Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 Ivy Bridge-EP 2.7GHz 12-core CPU, and dual AMD FirePro W9000 6GB GDDR5 graphics cards, 32GB of Corsair Vengeance LP DDR3 RAM, and finally, a pair of Samsung 840 Pro Series 512GB SSDs.

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So after Fung added everything up, what did the total cost of his Windows-based Mac Pro-ish desktop come out to? If you thought $9,599 was a lot, how does $11,530.54 for Windows sound?

We were surprised to hear that a Windows-based Mac Pro equivalent would cost that much more than an actual top of the line Mac Pro, considering that building your own systems from scratch is generally the cheapest way to go when getting a new desktop.

Here is a link to the Futurelooks article

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.

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Konrad Krawczyk

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…

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