1999 – From the day Steve Jobs announced the Power Mac G4, we’ve all known the Yikes! model was temporary. We pretty much expected it to be discontinued before Macworld Expo at the end of January – and probably before the end of 1999.

Well, Apple quietly did it. If you go to the Apple Store today, you won’t see the old G4/350. No more CD-ROM drive. No more PCI video card. Today, the 350 MHz Power Mac G4 is a Sawtooth machine.

A quick overview of features:

• 350 MHz G4 with 1 MB L2 cache
• 64 MB memory
• 10 GB Ultra ATA hard drive
• DVD-ROM drive (instead of CD-ROM)
• RAGE 128 Pro AGP video (old model had PCI video card) – new Pro card is up to 40% faster than earlier AGP card and is now standard with all G4 systems
• 56k internal modem (can be removed for $100 saving)
• AirPort optional (not available on Yikes! machines)
• OS 9 installed

In short, for exactly the same price as the 350 MHz Yikes! G4 with CD-ROM, PCI video, and no AirPort support you get a 350 MHz Sawtooth motherboard (with faster memory architecture), DVD, AGP video (twice the bandwidth), and the ability to plug an AirPort card in so it can communicate with an iBook without wires.

And if you don’t need a modem, you can order it from the Apple Store today for $1,499 plus shipping.

I’m lusting after new computer hardware again.

Keywords: #powermacg4

Short link: http://goo.gl/WlaVqE