Okay, folks, time to choose sides in the semiannual Pre-Expo Rumor Dogpile! There's only one day remaining until Steve takes the stage and settles all the conjecture once and for all, and this time around, the greatest controversy centers around just what will be chugging away on the motherboard of Apple's latest and greatest Power Macs. For weeks we had been hearing that the best Apple could muster was a dual-processor G4 system running at 600 MHz-- and that even that might be too much to expect from Motorola, whose teeny yields of the 600 MHz chips might force Apple to adopt a far more embarrassing upgrade to 533 MHz instead. Last week, however, CNET/ZDNet (they're pretty much the same thing, now, thanks to the magical pixie dust of the Merger Fairy) broke the news that Apple's high-end Power Mac would instead be a single-processor model running a G4 at the far more impressive speed of 733 MHz. Whom to believe?

It gets better, of course. Partially in reaction to the reports of a Power Mac G4/733, outlets of insider information such as Mac OS Rumors and AppleInsider moved to contradict any possibility of a G4 running at such high speeds so early, reaffirming the "dual 600 MHz processors / 100 MHz system bus" scenario instead. But that didn't stop CNN Headline News from reporting the G4/733 as cold, hard fact yesterday, as spotted by faithful viewer Robert Ortenzi (and independently confirmed by faithful viewer William Dawson). That changes everything, of course; while we were skeptical of the 733 MHz rumor when it was just posted to the 'net, we're considering it in a whole different light now that it's actually been on TV. Because, after all, when has TV ever lied to us?

But for those of you poor, misguided souls who lack a spiritual relationship with your televisions and fail to regard them as windows to the One Great Truth, there's still more "evidence" (cough) of a 733 MHz Power Mac G4 floating around the 'net today. In particular, we were intrigued by the latest report over at MacEdition, which claims that, yes indeedy, a single-processor 733 MHz G4 unit complete with 133 MHz system bus really is in the cards-- and that dual-processor Macs running at 533 MHz will also be available. Beyond the processor issue, MacEdition further claims that the new Power Macs will boast an extra full-length PCI slot (bringing the total up to a slightly-more-respectable four), optional DVD-R or CD-RW drives, and a choice of graphics hardware: ATI Rage 128 Pro, ATI RADEON, or nVIDIA GeForce2 MX. (On a related note, isn't it remarkable how quickly the human mouth can fill with saliva?)

So here's our official stance: we're trying really hard not to expect anything more than a dual-processor Power Mac G4/600 tomorrow. In general, we've found it's better to be pessimistic and then possibly pleasantly surprised rather than hopeful, which invites the icky prospect of having our expectations dashed against the rocks; after all, there's little in this life more depressing than being let down during Expo Week. But we admit that the recent 733 MHz hysteria is getting to us. Hopefully we can retain our skepticism (yes, even in light of the CNN report) for another twenty-four hours or so.