Is Apple charging reasonable Ram Upgrade prices ?

[trs96]

Was just looking at the iMac Pro 2019 refresh ram upgrade prices. Not sure how this calculates. I know a 256 GB ram kit costs more to make. But $5,200 dollars ? You nor I need that much but who is it at Apple that can't do the math correctly ?

The 64 GB upgrade price is somewhat in line with current prices at $400. After that the cost goes Ballistic. 5x the cost for only 2x as much ram for the 128 upgrade ? 13x as much cost from 64GB up to 256BG for only 4x as much ram ?

The good news for High End Hackintosh users is that macOS Mojave will now support up to 256 gigs of ram.

 

[trs96]

And of course, it's much more difficult to upgrade the ram yourself on the iMac Pro. On a 27" iMac it takes about 5 minutes. No muss, no fuss and you're done. Very different process for the iMac Pro.

If just watching this video takes 18 minutes the whole process may take you a few hours to complete. You must go slow and be sure you know what you are doing or the results will be not so good.

 

[remington]

I have done several MacBook Pro repairs before including replacing the keyboard which required full disassembly. It's not hard if you have built computers before but do take your time and keep track of all screws, disconnected cables and parts. If I was to buy iMac Pro, I would get the cheapest one and upgrade the parts myself if its doable but again that'll void the warranty. If you're not comfortable doing it yourself then you can get the iMac repair shops to do the upgrade for you or bite the bullet and buy the hefty priced iMac.

If you will do it yourself, better plan couple of hours without ANY distractions otherwise you'll forget where this screw or parts goes. You will need to be 100% focused on this task. Use Apple repair tools if you can find one as it'll make your job much easier.

I have this tool. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FZW4K5D/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[UtterDisbelief]

I was trying my hardest to be fair to Apple on this one ...

I see from the iFixit tear-down that there are four memory slots in the iMac Pro and the guys there fit a maximum of 128GB - 4x32GB.

Then I check suppliers hereabouts and can't find any single DDR4 sticks over 16GB (though I do see RAM prices are generally dropping quite dramatically which is a bonus). Okay other markets offer 32GB as iFixit used. Annoying but okay, I get that.

So for 256GB do Apple have access to 64GB DDR4 memory sticks? OR do they explain their huge price hike by the fact they offer a special, upgraded motherboard with 8-slots??? (though having said that, is there room for any more?!)

The supplying demand thing might, just might, explain their sky-high pricing.

Or I could have the wrong end of the stick, as they say.

 

[remington]

Then I check suppliers hereabouts and can't find any single DDR4 sticks over 16GB (though I do see RAM prices are generally dropping quite dramatically which is a bonus). Okay other markets offer 32GB as iFixit used. Annoying but okay, I get that.

There are 64GB DDR4 ECC sticks but it's around $500 each but I'm not sure if it's compatible with iMac. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KGLGJ7L/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[scottkendall]

There are 64GB DDR4 ECC sticks but it's around $500 each but I'm not sure if it's compatible with iMac. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KGLGJ7L/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

if the iMac Pro uses SODIMM then no that is not compatible, currently you are looking at about $300 for 32GB SODIMM in a single strip. So the $400 upgrade to get 64GB seems Fairly on point the $1000 jump seems ok also. What I have noticed over the years is that the larger a single stick of memory gets the more the price jumps exponentially. it would be interesting to see the cost of the memory without apple installing it. On another note the new iMac with 512 SSD and I9 CPU @ $3240 with a do it yourself memory upgrade (just a hatch and plug) $500 is not priced so bad. If you take into consideration the 5k monitor, the price would not be much higher then if you built a Hack with the same spect and a LG Ultra Fine.