If you're still rushing around trying to decide which personal items and/or family members to hock in order to scrape together enough cash for one of the first 733 MHz G4 Power Macs off the production line next week, slam on those brakes and brace for a screeching halt. You know that old saying that "anything that seems too good to be true probably is"? Well, it's admittedly a sad state of affairs when a clock speed that's not quite half of what the competition can boast qualifies as "too good to be true," but hey, you knew that Apple is beleaguered again, right?

Whereas yesterday we breathlessly waxed poetic about the imminent 733 MHz G4 reported by CNET, plenty of heavy hitters not on Intel's payroll have since come forward with data refuting that claim. As faithful viewer David Triska first pointed out, rather than ditching its current emphasis on multiple processor systems (which, with the symmetrically multiprocessing Mac OS X just around the corner, is finally about to make sense), AppleInsider reports that Apple is instead sticking to a mighty familiar-looking lineup with next week's new Power Macs. The plan is to bump the current "single 400, dual 450, dual 500" configurations up to a "single 450, dual 500, dual 600" mix instead.

Sure, the 600 MHz G4 doesn't have the "wow factor" of the mythical 733 MHz beast, but at least you get two of them-- assuming, of course, you're able to buy one of the half-dozen systems that Apple will actually be able to build; AI states that Motorola is having a tough time manufacturing the 600 MHz processors (imagine that!) and has resorted to "hand-test[ing] each chip." (We're picturing some guy with a Motorola hat holding a processor up to the light, squinting at it for a few seconds, and then declaring "yeah, that one looks like a 600" before tossing it into a barrel.)

For those of you not willing to let the dream die, feel free to cling to the hope of 733 MHz joining Steve on stage in four days. Still, not to step on your buzz or anything, but we feel it's our duty to warn you that AppleInsider isn't the only source refuting CNET's odd claims. The PowerBook Zone, for one, notes that MacWarehouse actually has part numbers for a dual G4/600 Power Mac in its inventory system already... though part numbers for a "CubeBook" also appear, so the odds of somebody playing a little prank are pretty high. But Mac OS Rumors also takes issue with CNET's scenario, noting that, as far as the most recent info can suggest, Motorola is nowhere near ready to ship a 733 MHz G4 by next week. If we had to put money on the outcome of this brouhaha, we'd steer way clear of backing CNET's story.

That said, we probably just forgot our medication again, but we find it very interesting that the typically anti-Mac CNET published a report that raised some people's expectations well above what Apple will actually reveal next week. Even though a dual-600 MHz Mac will probably outperform a single-processor 733 MHz system once Mac OS X ships, there's something anticlimactic about a nudge to 600 MHz instead of a more dramatic climb to 733 MHz. Could CNET be trying to blunt the effect of next week's announcements by setting expectations too high, thus scuttling any chance of a post-Stevenote stock price rebound and setting the stage for outright bloodshed when Apple posts its upcoming quarterly loss? 'Cause that's what the voices in our heads are saying...