switching in style: octo on the way

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mason.kramer

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 27, 2007
Messages
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I finally just ordered it. The badness of Vista is what initially got me to start thinking about the switch. Then I priced the Mac hardware and ran screaming back to doing research on another WinTel box. However Vista continued to suck. What finally pushed me over the edge was when I sat down and studiously worked out the T.C.O. of my computing technology. The hardware cost only accounts for about 30-40% of the cost of ownership in my analysis.

Even though I won't need it, I am the boss, so, I got an octo. Also a fresh Mac CS3 suite license, bluetooth, radeon 1900, 30" ACD, Apple Care. I ordered 4x2Gb ram separately from http://www.otherworldcomputing.com, which saved me about $1050 on the ram. I recommend 3rd party ram from ramjet.com or OWC to anyone considering getting a mac pro- and always get 2GB modules, the price differential makes it a no-brainer. I also ordered four 500GB drives separately (for slightly more than the cost of one 500GB drive ordered from the Apple store). I plan on setting up software raid 1+0. At the same time I pulled the trigger on a new domain/print server which will be running Linux and an AM2 barcelona 2.4ghz with seven 500GB drives in RAID 5. I look forward to getting that all set up and integrated with the new Mac and the Windows in the office. If like this Mac then I will get my employees Macs as they upgrade.

It ships in 2-4 days. I'm excited! I'll be posting a pic in the setup thread when it arrives. Since I haven't used Mac OS since v7, I will try to post my impressions of making the switch from Win XP.
 
Mind sending me a few hundred dollar bills since you obviously have a few to spare? I'm sure I can find some in your bathroom. :p

Kidding aside, that is going to be an awesome machine.
 
Wait.....you can deduct macs from ur taxes? if you can...guess whos gonna be getting the biggest, scariest mac on the block =D and what would you put the mac under in ur tax form?

But macs are not tax deductable....damn irs....
 
Business expense? Iunno I don't do my own taxes yet... I don't have a job. Working on that.
 
Yea, I'm deducting this. To whoever wanted to know, companies don't have to pay taxes on capital investments that they make in order to conduct their business. You only pay taxes on your net profits (basically...I don't actually know the technicata anymore; I have an accountant, and I'm not a business major). So you can "expense" your computer - that is - put it into the expenses column of your budget. It ends up reducing your net profits, so the tax bill is lower.

Macs aren't any more deductible than anything else. If you have a business and can prove that you had to buy the computer/lawnmower/bar tab/lambourghini in order to conduct your business, then it's not taxable. But they are pretty stingy with business expenses these days, so be careful. The IRS has a lot of power, they can snap on the proverbial latex gloves and work you over if they get suspicious. In fact they don't even need a reason, they can do it "just because." There is no bill of rights protection from the tax man. They even have their own enforcement branch replete with trained, machine-gun toting agents. When the coppers couldn't get Al Capone they had to bring in the IRS (seriously!).
 
mason.kramer said:
But they are pretty stingy with business expenses these days, so be careful.
Click to expand...
Well, to a degree. For a computer, it's really no contest.

A Lamborghini could be written off quite squarely, actually, if you come up with enough sound reasons. In fact, coming up with reasons is half the fun!
 
phide said:
Well, to a degree. For a computer, it's really no contest.

A Lamborghini could be written off quite squarely, actually, if you come up with enough sound reasons. In fact, coming up with reasons is half the fun!
Click to expand...

Almost too easily -- I use it for promotions in races.
 
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