[8thDegreeSavage]

Till i dropped a combo DVD CDRW drive in my 867 QS.

HOLY COW....I mean i cheaped out when i bought my box and tailored it down and only bought a burner instead of the combo drive...


Today i grabbed a nice LG 48x16x48 CDRW-DVD(New $99) and swapped it out...finally got the right DVD Player (3.2) using Pacifist(Apple why not just have it on your site??)

Got some drivers from xlr8 and now im really smoking!

Watching LOTR and posting is something I should have looked into long ago.


the quality is beautiful...even with my pokey Geforce4MX.


I know its lame.,..but just thought I would share..none of my buddies have macs...


8th

 

[MasterBlaster]

a

 

[MacDaddy]

Apple and PC dealers pay the same wholesale prices for this hardware.

Not really actually. Most suppliers give you discounts on the volumes you buy. Since not many Mac people order that type of stuff, there is no point in having it in stock all the time, not having it in stock all the time means we don't order it very often, that means that we pay a higher price for the product than say a PC store who sells 15 of them a day.

 

[RobTheGob]

Yeah, there are different prices, but they don't differ by much. At the wholesaler that I've dealt with the price in singles versus in smallish quantities (5-20) is only different by $2 for this particular drive...

You want to buy your parts at a Mac Boutique store? You pay Boutique prices!

 

[ehMax]

Most Mac dealers get in retail boxing and only one or two of these products where as many of the independent "put a frankenstein PC together with this drive and that motherboard and this processor and that case" dealers are buying quantity OEM versions. Many PC dealers are also not buying these through standard distributors like Ingram Micro and EMJ (which carry Macs) but are buying from other distributors that specialize in bulk OEM items. Many get direct from over-seas as well. The drive you were mentioning a couple weeks ago from a-power.com is 100% for sure an OEM drive.

The Mac dealers are NOT putting a huge mark-up on these items, they have a much higher cost from distributors.

With so many Macs in the past 2 years coming with Combo drives (and SuperDrives), and with these OEM products not coming with Mac support "out of the box", there is no incentive to buy in quantity or carry these product at Mac shops. The Mac market, with its elegant pre-built complete computers is not the same independant mom and pop, build a frankenstein PC computer market. (Thanks heavens).

There's no one stopping anyone from going to a PC shop to pick up one of these drives, downloading a driver and going for it.

 

[Tomac]

48x24x48x16!!! Thanks to the above ehMac users for letting us know of this! Amazing! Found the manufacturer link to model as well:

http://www.lgeus.com/Product/CD/GCC_4480B.asp

Now where would someone find 24x rated CD-RW media?

 

[MasterBlaster]

a

 

[8thDegreeSavage]

My two recent upgrade were....

120GB Seagate with 8mb cache......$125.00 WITH tax at a local PC place....works perfectly and is now my boot drive.

It would have cost me at least $200.00! from any Mac reseller i have spoken to lately.


And this new Combo drive, which im sure I would have been raked over the coals for as well....was only 99+tax, MasterBlaster seeme to have got a great deal as well.

I dont believe this crap about it being how many drive the place buys...thats total BS, the shop I got this stuff from was TINY, and didn't even have much stock..(2 of the Seagates and ONE of the LG Combo i bought) So I dont fall into this hype about it being due to how much stock one store sells....thats just not true.
Mac resellers have every opportunity to buy this stuff from the same channels as these little PC shops.

Tomac...the drive is great...i definatley suggest it.


I guess I have seen the light.

 

[MacDoc]

Ummmm Masterblaster get it correct - the Apple ROM combo drive at $149 will work with iTunes on 9 and X and that's important to some Mac users.
The third party drive will not.
Some third party drives will not work at all with certain Mac models or certain OSes and some will not work with the doors that are on some Mac models some will not get along with an internal ZIP the variations are hysterical and endless.
It's not always a straight forward plug and go and for every one that has a "no brainer" install experience there are lots that end up with hours of frustration.
We often have to chase around the net trying to find compatible burners for earlier Macs.
We spend hours finding out which models work in which Macs under which OSes. Often a 24x will work where the 32 from the same manufacturer will not. We had a fav 48x worked perfectly - not the 52 x

That said current boxes are more compatible as is X - IF you do your homework there are always deals around.
Course there are also the occasional blown directory from an incompatible device or a smoked MB from mixing RAM.
Guess it partly depends on what your time is worth.

I COULD do my own oil changes too.



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[8thDegreeSavage]

Macdoc dont take my whinging as directed at you...You are the most solid dealer I have spoke to regarding purchasing a box.


Even though you are always terribly busy

 

[MacDoc]

"terribly busy" - yep - surprised us last month

I wasn't being specific other than pointing out that Apple develops a premium by marrying the hardware and software - I'm not saying I approve, but that's life in the Mac lane. Personally I prefer toast but some clients like iTunes to burn and no Combo I know of will work with iTunes.
So you can't directly compare prices on an Apple ROM version as the Apple ROM offers additional features the third party doesn't.

I LIKE bringing earlier boxes up to current standards and users being able to adopt their own machines to what they want to do instead of forking over for a new box all the time.



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[8thDegreeSavage]

Excellent point...


I guess its not for everyone to dig up drivers from xlr8 and fix things manually if they dont need to.

 

[mose]

I use this story on my clients who want stuff cheap. (read really, really cheap!!!) Everyone is in business and fair mark-up is a good thing. Of course I don't believe in gouging. But profit is good.

Here is the story...

A guy wants to cross the desert. He has three merchants to see. The first tells him it will cost the rental of the camel and a bag of grain and a jug of water. The guys says cool but wants to check the competition. (Must be a Canadian! LOL)

The second merchant tells him it will be a camel rental half a bag of grain and half a jug of water. He likes this price but has to check with the third guy. (Yep, he is Canadian alright!)

The third merchant states I can do it for the cost of the camel rental. Full stop.

Wow what a great price. He tells the guy he has a deal but then asks...Won't we die half way across?

The merchant says - yeah, but he wants the order.

I don't have a problem with getting a deal. But I want the folks who serve me to be around. I like added value, service, knowledge and being there should something go wrong. MacDoc and Carbon (my two sources) are reputable and SHOULD charge enough to stay in business for a long time.

Folks price is a component of cost.

 

[ehMax]

Three cheers for mose!!!

MaserBlaster, I have a litte more experience and knowledge on the subject than just getting some prices from a few dealers.

"Markups and profits were HUGE compared to dealing in PC's"

Yes, and many, MANY PC dealers come and go and go out of businesses too. Used to do the trade-show circuit with a Mac related business. Every year there would be a totally new set of PC dealers as many had folded and gone out of business.

There are no HUGE profits when dealing with selling Macs. They are enough to stay in business. If you provide great service, have good marketing etc... You can make a decent living, but you won't find any rich Mac store owners around.

 

[PosterBoy]

Uh, MasterBlaster, just because he could mark down the price from 149 to 92 does NOT by any means mean that he would still be making money on it. The theory goes that if a store can get you to come in once, they can more easily get you to come in twice.

ehMax is right, a lot of places (a-power included) are selling you OEM product, or going through non standard distributors, or buying direct from overseas.

Take hard drives for example. We sell maxtor hard drives in my store, the 40Gb one goes for around 150$. And OEM store down the street sells it for $109. At first glancem it looks like the same thing for a much better price.

However, my retail package comes with connection cables, software and a full one year warranty, it comes packed in a nice box in a foam packing material.
The one down the street comes in an anti static bag, and only includes a 90 day warranty.

Bit of a difference I'd say.

Not to mention that once you leave the OWM store with the drive you don't get any kind of service afterwards, and usually a terrible (if any) return policy.

Many people can't ignore the price difference, and there is a price difference, but the retails store is by no means "ripping you off".

--PB

 

[MasterBlaster]

a

 

[ehMax]

The kind of experience and enthusiasm for my earning my business that I've had at independant Authourized Apple dealers has been great regardless if I'm spending $2,000 or just $20.

Here's a thing for you to try. Try calling Apple at 1-800-263-3394 and POLITELY, but firmly explaining your whole ordeal to customer service about the eMac, and see what kind of service you get. Apple will stand on their heads to keep their customers happy and I've witnessed this on many, many occasions.

For people who want to build Frankenstein PC's and buy this component and that component, that option is available. One may or may not like that you don't have that same amount of flexibilty at your local independant Mac dealer. But I know for a fact, that as a whole they DO NOT rip people off!

I'm sorry, but that's just not the case.

 

[MasterBlaster]

a

 

[hayesk]

FYI, I saw it mentioned that no third party OEM drive will work with iTunes. Not so. go to www.xlr8yourmac.com and look at the compatibility page. Some require a hacked driver but they do work.

 

[MacDoc]

Combo drive with iTunes- not CDRW only - we know of several CDRW but not in all models and not with both OSes.
Maybe the Samsung works - haven't tried it as we have lots of Apple ROMs that do.

Headache is that you don't know when Apple will alter an OSX version - CDRWs and DVDRWs seem okay but Combos seem to pose a problem.

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