Where to buy a build-to-order MacBook?

jhff327 wrote:

You are not being offered what they are suggesting. It used to be possible to get 32gb of ram WITHOUT having to also get the 1TB SSD. It was custom. Now if you want Max this, you need to get max something else (esp RAM, which is important).

Apple Silicon Macs use a System-on-Chip design. The main processor chip contains multiple hardware units, including CPU cores, GPU cores, Neural Engine cores, RAM interfaces, and I/O controllers. The choice of chip influences many aspects of the design – so you cannot always choose each specification independently.

Within the M1 family, the number of RAM interfaces doubled with each step from Pro to Max to Ultra. And the available choices were Pro: (16 or 32 GB), Max: (32 or 64 GB), Ultra: (64 or 128 GB). The obvious conclusion: there were two size of RAM dies (8 and 16 GB) used with the M1 {Pro/Max/Ultra} chips, and differences in RAM options simply reflected the need to connect RAM dies to ALL of the RAM interfaces available on each chip.

Now they are tiers that make some sense, but really don't have huge love for a company that does somethings well but others terribly. Now, its been at least 5 generations since you could change your own RAM on your Macbook or Pro

Apple has always soldered RAM into MacBook Airs. They have soldered RAM into MacBook Pros ever since they released the first Retina ones in 2012. (The 13" non-Retina MBP hung around until October 2016. After October 2013, it was the only MBP in Apple's new lineup that had user-upgradable RAM.). All of the 12" Retina MacBooks released between 2015 and 2017 had soldered-in RAM, too.

, but If I said, hey, I will give you $200 more for either the ram upgrade or the SSD upgrade, that was a choice they gave. Apple no longer gives you that option.

You can custom-order any type of Mac from Apple's site, as long as you are talking about a new Mac, and not a Certified Refurbished one.

is 1TB drives aren't really practical, but can be a $200-400 extra cost just so you can pay $200 more to get extra RAM (wasn't case before). But if you want that 24 gb of ram on your Mackbook Pro, it doesn't matter, you no longer have a choice but to pay for that extra 512gb. (BTW, that $400 could get you a nicer 1tb disk for work use, and a 2TB for backing things up).

You can't custom-order a MacBook Pro with 24 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD? Maybe not if you want a M4 Max, but if you want a plain M4 chip, it's trivial to do it. Just select the low-end (M4, 16/512 GB) model and then select 24 GB of RAM on the page that comes up. You can custom-order a 32 GB / 512 GB model just as easily.

If you want one with a M4 Pro chip, 24 GB of RAM, and a 512 GB SSD, that's a stock model! No customization necessary. You can also get one with a M4 Pro chip, 48 GB of RAM, and a 512 GB SSD.

I’ve never even seen an AI chatbot used for that. Did you wade off into “chat with a specialist“ or something?

On the Apple website, you pick the model (MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, etc), then the screen size, then the processor, and are then offered the other options available for that particular model.

For example: Buy MacBook Pro - Apple

I usually use the Apple Store app, which is a little more focused.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/apple-store/id375380948

Only Apple will be able to customize a Mac to your specifications. Start with apple.com, find the Mac you want, click Buy, and then select the options you want. No chat-thing required.

NB: Apple no longer manufactures the MacBook. They were discontinued about five years ago. Your choices are MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or desktops. If you find someone selling a MacBook, it's either old or used.

I've never encountered anything like that. I'm sure it's frustrating. All I have to suggest is to try it again.

I just tried it myself and got all the way through just short of paying for it. No problems, no chatbot. If I had encountered such an insult that's all it would have taken for me to bail out also.

apple.com or an Apple Authorized reseller. You don't need a chatbot.

I suppose you could always try Best Buy or another authorized reseller.

Got a VPN installed on your local computer? If so, remove it, restart, and try the web configurator again.

I don't know if B&H Photo Video does "build to order" – but I have sometimes seen Macs on their Web site that were better-configured than "stock" models.

You are not being offered what they are suggesting. It used to be possible to get 32gb of ram WITHOUT having to also get the 1TB SSD. It was custom. Now if you want Max this, you need to get max something else (esp RAM, which is important).

Now they are tiers that make some sense, but really don't have huge love for a company that does somethings well but others terribly. Now, its been at least 5 generations since you could change your own RAM on your Macbook or Pro, but If I said, hey, I will give you $200 more for either the ram upgrade or the SSD upgrade, that was a choice they gave. Apple no longer gives you that option. There are the "tiers', but no customizing or building out to specific levels (they did keep it in reason, and it wasn't possible to do except online)

is 1TB drives aren't really practical, but can be a $200-400 extra cost just so you can pay $200 more to get extra RAM (wasn't case before). But if you want that 24 gb of ram on your Mackbook Pro, it doesn't matter, you no longer have a choice but to pay for that extra 512gb. (BTW, that $400 could get you a nicer 1tb disk for work use, and a 2TB for backing things up).

You are confusing the "options" (tier levels) they offer now, with what they used to offer just like 1.5 years ago, which let you get the best processor and RAM and understand that a certain level of Storage is fine. Now if you want the best, you get to pay $1000 for either RAM, processors, or frigging storage that you might not want ( and storage is the ONLY thing that you can actually use non-apple parts (and thus upgrade for) as time goes on.

Its cool, I have kept a level of each of my last macs, and wow, they have like a logarithmic failure rate. Like 5.5 years, 4 years, 2.5 years,1.75 years, and right now 1 year and getting issues. Nice cause it works with my phone but I type this from my PC.

[Edited by Moderator]

Not so authorised Apple resellers can offer the entire range and they make a small margin for doing so .

Many of these businesses provide a superb service support advice and aftercare package

That they still place the order via Apple and you still have to contend with delivery times.

if you don't want to give apple a penny of your money, why would you buy a macOS computer from another reseller? you think that reseller has some source for obtaining apple hardware other than apple themselves? smh.. ridiculous

i have to say, i am just as annoyed by the soldered-on RAM thing. yes, there are gains in space-saving and probably efficiency / heat / power envelope, but it's such a money-grab, when the price difference for extra RAM is WAY more than if you were to buy similarly-spec'd SODIMMs and upgrade yourself (were that still possible). same for iphones and the lack of removable storage... i'm fine with no microsd slot, as long as they charge fairly for the various NAND flash tiers - but they don't. 100 bucks more for storage that would cost maybe a quarter of that, or less?

sneef wrote:

i have to say, i am just as annoyed by the soldered-on RAM thing. yes, there are gains in space-saving and probably efficiency / heat / power envelope, but it's such a money-grab, when the price difference for extra RAM is WAY more than if you were to buy similarly-spec'd SODIMMs and upgrade yourself (were that still possible). same for iphones and the lack of removable storage... i'm fine with no microsd slot, as long as they charge fairly for the various NAND flash tiers - but they don't. 100 bucks more for storage that would cost maybe a quarter of that, or less?

Then why are you still an Apple customer if you think Apple is a money grabber? Why would you do business with a company your think is unethical in its policies? Or are you even an Apple customer?

re:sneef

From an above comment, it seems that 3rd party sellers are able to offer options that Apple does not (like possibly getting the extra ram without having to make a change to the rest of system).

as for why someone would buy an apple product while still feeling like they “don’t want to give another penny”, I can say I do so because for a non-work laptop, it allows fantastic connectivity with the iPhone, and also the new CPU and GPUs they have created are **** impressive. So for some we are stuck with the ecosystem, want that ease for casual use, but have additional computers like a Windows laptop from work or a massive gaming desktop that runs windows.

I will say that with each iteration of laptop I have gotten since 2007, the MacBook/MacBook Pro have lasted a shorter and shorter period (except my 2017 which sadly broke). However, the M2 chip i have found pretty impressive, although the giant, expensive MacBook Pro with the intel GPU (2017ish) was a huge disappointment for even simple games (which was why I went all out and maxed the RAM and GPU option, making for a super expensive laptop, when I could have gotten an Air and a seperate gaming laptop, but who wants to carry two laptops everywhere).

Finally, I will say the “ecosystem” works very well, even if Apple does unneeded updates (which I turn off) and such. Like everyone, I wish the iPhone had a microsd slot, but it is what it is. I have found the apple iPhone superior in many ways to other options, with the massive exception of the cameras, which are almost pathetic compared to Samsung.

so I don’t want to give Apple another penny, but I will do so, especially if they stop screwing around with the prices of cheap items like RAM and Storage, or atleast don’t force me into a corner where I need the M4 Pro to get the amount of RAM I desire.

Also, prices are going to go way up, so even though I don’t need a new laptop, I am tempted to grab it before this tariff riff-raff raises prices and/or turns into a trade war, or a real war.