You remember all those arguments about why the iMac was doomed to fail, right? No floppy, no slots, no legacy ports, etc. But one of the iMac's limitations was never as loudly decried as we thought it would be: the processor's not upgradeable. See, the iMac's G3 daughtercard includes the Mac hardware ROM, which only Apple can manufacture, and they don't sell them as parts-- so while third-party companies could create an upgrade card that would fit in the iMac's slot, without a ROM, the iMac wouldn't be a Mac at all. Fat lot of good a faster processor does you if you can't even boot your system, right?

But where there's a wallet, there's a way. They said it couldn't be done, but Newer Technology went ahead and did it anyway; now owners of non-slot-loading iMacs (that'd be all systems running at 333 MHz and lower) can upgrade the processor in their funky little space eggs to a blistering 466 MHz. How so, you ask? It's like this: Newer's iMAXpowr G3 actually includes the ROM chip from another iMac. In fact, based on the interview and article posted at Mac Speed Zone, it sounds like Newer bought a slew of old iMac processor cards, replaced all the 233 MHz G3s with 466 MHz ones, and thus built up an initial supply of product. Now, here's the tricky part: when you buy an iMAXpowr G3, you pay $699. After you receive the upgrade, you have five days in which to send back your original processor card, which Newer will turn into another iMAXpowr G3 to sell to someone else. If you return your old card within the five-day period, you get $200 back, for a net cost of $499. (Miss the deadline and your rebate is reduced to $150.)

It's a neat idea, and we can't wait to hear how it works in practice. The iMAXpowr G3 isn't shipping just yet, but it'll be available sometime this month. If you've got an older iMac and want to kick it into high gear, hurry up and get that tax refund. Heck, what else are you going to do with the money, put it in the bank?