You could build something much more powerful for cheaper, and still be able to upgrade/change out individual internal components. I've bumped the RAM capacity/speed twice since I built this machine three years ago. Upgraded the video card once, and CPU once. When I decide to do a more thorough re-vamp, I can re-use the power supply, the case, the video card, and a bunch of other components.
What you're really paying for is a very expensive and moderately beefy machine that can run OS X legally. Or you need Final Cut Pro in some serious capacity. Oh, and it has an Apple logo on it.
I agree and you'll have to pry my self-built pc from my cold dead hands but my computer is super huge and hard to take with me, the design of the new Mac Pro is super neat
It's OK if you didn't want to, but you can build something cheaper and even more quiet than this new Mac Pro yourself. There are some excellent cases and cooling systems, and you can choose your components with your needs in mind.
With these Mac Pros, I don't think people who buy them are necessarily concerned about specs or cost-effectiveness. I think they are enthusiasts that need Mac OS, and find the Macbook Pro or iMac underpowered.
A person can build something cheaper and more quiet. That is not necessarily the person you are talking to though. Many people don't have that skill set, but say, work in music.
They're premium computers that aren't the highest end specs, but have a pretty good set of specs for the size and noise especially and can be serviced quickly at apple stores across the country pretty easily.
For the Pro market, expansion and user customization far outweigh form-factor. I have a 2000 sq ft lab space and 500 sq ft office, what do I care about the form factor of the Pro if I can't throw in my stock NVIDIA GPUs and any arbitrary hard drive?
What you're really paying for is a very expensive and moderately beefy machine that can run OS X legally. Or you need Final Cut Pro in some serious capacity. Oh, and it has an Apple logo on it.