[Eug]

New PowerMac (Eug's uninformed prediction):

Announcement of new PowerMac in February 2003, shipping quite a bit later...

1.33 - 1.5 GHz dual G4 7457, hopefully DDR-aware but I'm not sure about that.
Quieter fans, because of the 7457.
167 MHz bus (not 200 as some are predicting)
2-4 MB DDR L3 cache (split between 2 processors)
256-512 MB DDR (2 GB max)
Combo Drive or SuperDrive (4X DVD-R. DVD-RW supported, but not DVD-RAM.)
Geforce4 MX, Radeon 9000 Pro, Geforce4 Ti, Radeon 9700 Pro - ADC and DVI
10/100/1000BaseT
800 Mbps Firewire (with adapter)
400 Mbps Firewire (two)
Four USB 1.1 ports (including those on keyboard) but no USB 2.0
Airport Extreme (card not included)
60-120 GB hard drive
56 Kbps modem
One-button mouse

iLife preinstalled along with a boat load of other software. OS X.2, not X.3.

US$2199 - $4499. AppleCare $249.

No PPC970 until 2004.

[schalliol]

Totally reasonable. Nice work.

[MindFad]

Sounds good to me. Hopefully they'll come down a little more on that "ultimate" model. And I think the prices shouldn't change at all.

My prediction, for the fun of it:

Prices all the same:
Fast: dual 1GHz
Faster: dual 1.25GHz
Fastest (and ultimate with all the trimmings): dual: 1.5

And hopefull we'll get the Radeon 9700 pro real soon. I'd like one for the ol' dual-800. I never thought I'd say the GeForce 3 is getting long in the tooth.'

PPC 970 in late August, early September (more based on hopes than anything else).

[Xaaron Swiftblade]

u dont think they'll be including usb 2.0 standard?

My prediction... umm, whatever they come out with, I might finally have enough to buy one

[Eug]

Originally posted by Xaaron Swiftblade:
u dont think they'll be including usb 2.0 standard?

No because:

1) It's inferior to Firewire 400.
2) It competes directly against Firewire (which is Apple's baby).
3) It would cost Apple time and money to integrate proper basic support in the OS.

The only good thing about USB 2.0 at the moment is lower cost (for inferior technology).

[CheesePuff]

You can't have an adapater to go from FireWire 400 to 800. So you would need two FireWire 800 ports, with an adapater for FireWire 400.

[Eug]

Originally posted by CheesePuff:
You can't have an adapater to go from FireWire 400 to 800. So you would need two FireWire 800 ports, with an adapater for FireWire 400.

No I meant three Firewire ports, two of which are plain Firewire 400, and one new port which could function as Firewire 800 or else Firewire 400 with an adapter.

I don't envision 2-3 Firewire 800 ports. Sounds like it would be expensive, and it would increase the hassle factor to have to fiddle with an adapter. (Not to mention the fact that Firewire 800 devices are exceedingly rare at this point, and will remain very uncommon for 2003.)

Indeed, if it isn't 2 Firewire 400 and 1 Firewire 800 (with adapter possibly costing extra on lower end machines), then I'd guess 1 Firewire 400 and 1 Firewire 800 (with adapter included).

[MindFad]

Originally posted by Xaaron Swiftblade:
u dont think they'll be including usb 2.0 standard?

My prediction... umm, whatever they come out with, I might finally have enough to buy one

Click.

[BenRoethig]

Single or Dual 867mhz (for education), Dual 1ghz, Dual 1.25 ghz, dual 1.42 ghz..
4 USB Ports (2 rear, 2 front)
2 Firewire 400 (1 front, 1 rear).
2 Firewire 800 (1 front, 1 rear).
Bluetooth.
Airport extreme.
Geforce4 MX, GeForce4 TI, Radeon 9000, Radeon 9000 pro via 8x AGP.
Pioneer A05 superdrive or 48x24x48x16 CD-RW/DVD combo drive (Samsung SM348B or LG 4480B) in top 5.25" drive bay.
48x24x48x16 CD-RW/DVD combo drive or Yamaha CRW-F1ZEM 44x24x44 CD-RW in bottom 5.25" drive bay.

[:XI:]

Originally posted by MindFad:
Click.

yeah, his/her sig took an age to download on my 56k

i was going to report him/her, but i guess your way is friendlier

[superfula]

Back to the topic at hand...

I for one am hoping for a PMac update here in the next week or so. I'd buy a dual 867 right now, but would rather get something faster for the same price after the updates. Also hoping for a price drop as well. I'm getting impatient though

[Kenneth]

So are you trying to say nomore 1,699 tower?

[Superchicken]

honestly I'd have to say the sig rules on MacNN are some of the dumbest I've ever heard... but I abide by em none the less.

my normal one is at http://www.clayshaker.com/mbp/meetfred.jpg

And I'm the admin of that forum. Basically I tell the kids I mod that A) their pics can't make it so people with crappy monitors have terrible width problems, so they have to keep em under 400 wide, and they can't be to freakin enormus... they still break the height rules but yeah... oh well.

[MindFad]

That's obnoxiously huge. Honestly, what is the purpose of having something that big underneath everything you post?

To the topic, I'm also expecting PM updates in the next few days. Nothing huge, but the current systems are already really stale in my opinion. Anyone know when the Radeon 9700 is expected to be here?

[Eug]

honestly I'd have to say the sig rules on MacNN are some of the dumbest I've ever heard... but I abide by em none the less.

my normal one is at http://www.clayshaker.com/mbp/meetfred.jpg

And I'm the admin of that forum. Basically I tell the kids I mod that A) their pics can't make it so people with crappy monitors have terrible width problems, so they have to keep em under 400 wide, and they can't be to freakin enormus... they still break the height rules but yeah... oh well.

Man I'm soooooo glad I don't have to look at that sig every time I peruse the forums.

Single or Dual 867mhz (for education), Dual 1ghz, Dual 1.25 ghz, dual 1.42 ghz..
4 USB Ports (2 rear, 2 front)
2 Firewire 400 (1 front, 1 rear).
2 Firewire 800 (1 front, 1 rear).

I'd be very surprised to see a machine with four Firewire ports. It'd be nice though.

For 1.42 GHz, it'd have to be 7457 methinks, while the 1.25 is currently the 7455. I would be surprised if the 7455 made it up past 1.4 GHz. 1.25 is already pushing it.

The question now is what chips Apple has up their sleeve...

[Eug]

Ben, you were right about the 1.42. I honestly had hoped for more than this.

Anyways as expected:

2 Firewire 400 and 1 Firewire 800, as well as Airport Extreme.

It looks like the DVD-R and video upgrades aren't going to come until later. Not a hugely impressive upgrade. At least the ATI 9700 Pro will be coming soon.

EDIT:

Nope, the DVD-R is 4X. I was looking at the Canadian specs, and they hadn't been updated yet.

[Eug]

Still using 7455.

That's interesting. Motorola is stretching the 0.18 u 7455 a loooonggg way.

How heavily overclocked can they go? One almost wonders if they've binning the ultra high speed CPUs for the past few months specifically for these 1.42 GHz machines.