You should have seen how many fans the protos had... I have yet to see one in final enclosure in person, but the samples were not quiet.

Anyone interested in these machines: just make sure you spend at least the $50 upgrade to the RADEON 9600 gfx. The NV 5200 is really, umm, "bad and cheap" to be polite.

Now I should probably shut up before violating NDA. The only thing that surprised me with this system was the price. I was hoping for "different" but should have known what to expect. Also thought the systems would be available sooner. I haven't yet seen a new mouse or keyboard, so those are the only two smal details left still unknown. I don't expect them to be revolutionary (perhaps not changed at all from current models).

Only the RADEON 9800 is a an AGP "Pro" solution by the way. The NV5200 and RADEON 9600 are AGP (2.0) 8x. They're not compatible with G4 systems in case anyone is wondering (will cause machine to hang, plus ADC tab does not fall in-line with older variety).

Take the marketing hype in good measure. The machines are "nice" but they're not the end-all and be-all of computing. I'm sure they'll do well, but I also don't think everyone is going to rush out and replace their G4 machines. More aggressive pricing would definitely move a lot more consumers their way. They could start by pricing RAM a little closer to Earth retail prices.

Bruno