One word. Motorola.
That's apples biggest problem and has been for a while.
having said that...the new machines look nice enough. I believe the 867 and the 1ghz use last years cpu revamped (which cannot take advantage of the DDR speeds..waste of time).
But, well have to wait and see what the new year long developed revision G4 does that produced a whopping 250mhz...speed increase..as far as IF it runs at DDR speeds on the frontside bus.
The new dual gig is about as fast as last years..almost..in the intial bench tests I've seen. For that..it's not a best buy over last years now cheaper dual...since they both have same performance...(at least these initial tests ...mostly cpu related...seem to show)..and they are considerably more expensive. Just would dpend on whether the new goodies are worth it to you or not.
http://www.barefeats.com/pmddr.html
All this leads me to believe that these current macs..are "Yikes" models. Or..I should say..transition models.
The issue with the front side bus...has been around for a while now. Basically..the G4 FSB has a limit of 1.3 gbs datarate thruput. If you look at what the new DDR boards memory controller thruput is...(2.7gbs)...you start to see the problem. One constipated mac.
As I understand it...up unti current...all G4's from moto have this limitation. They cannot communicate at DDR thruput levels.
There is some specualtion as to where the new year long developed 250mhz faster G4 1.2dual chip...can do this or not.
But, the 867 dual and the 1ghz dual are definatley slightly reworked last years chips...that cannot run communicate at DDR speeds on the Front side bus.
But, even though the 867 also has no performance gain from DDR..its now a dual...and 1699...which makes it still a bargain.
We'll see how the new rippin 1.25ghz models do in a few weeks.