So there you are, sitting around twiddling your thumbs as you wait patiently (or even not-so-patiently) for speed-bumped Power Mac G5s to arrive on the scene. You're definitely in the market for a spiffy new Power Mac, but you figure that it would be folly to blow three grand on a top-of-the-line dual 2.0 GHz G5 now, when in a matter of days or weeks Apple will likely revise the top model to run dual 2.5 GHz processors at the same price. You've weighed the inconvenience of waiting against the benefits of greater performance, you've run some return-on-investment numbers, and your conclusion was that waiting would be the best option. What's one more month of creeping along with that beige G3 when waiting means you're practicing Prudent Financial Planning™?

Well, it's time to throw all that rational planning out the window. Remember when Virginia Tech announced that it would be replacing all 1,100 Power Macs in its Big Mac supercluster with brand spankin' new Xserves? At the time the school said that while they weren't sure what would happen to the retired Power Macs when the Xserves arrived, but it was "working on getting them very good homes." If you had visions of Srinidhi Varadarajan conducting grueling interviews and extensive background checks on prospective adoptive parents, however, you were way off. Apparently Srini's criterion for a "very good home" is one whose inhabitants are willing and able to shell out twenty-eight hundred clams.

See, faithful viewer Richard Tjoa was first to point out that a "limited supply" of Big Mac G5s are now being sold at MacMall, and they're going for just $2,799. When you think about it, that's ridiculously cheap for a system that, by all rights, should be on a velvet pillow in a museum somewhere. Don't forget, these units are historically significant for a couple of different reasons: not only were they the guts of the world's first Mac-based supercomputer and the most powerful academic computing system ever built, but they were also the very first G5s off the factory line. Remember when Apple put everyone else's orders on hold to divert each and every available G5 to Virginia Tech so they could get the system built on time?

That's right, for a mere $2,799 you get a bona fide chunk o' history that you just know was treated with respect-- run in a state-of-the-art cooled facility, rarely touched by human hands after its initial setup, etc. Heck, its SuperDrive was probably only used once or twice to load some software, if at all. Just in case, though, all of the Big Mac systems were "refurbished by Apple" to make absolutely certain that everything's in tip-top shape. And considering that it'll cost you $200 less than a regular new G5, well, frankly, we can't see how you can pass up this deal.

Oh, sure, the Apple Store has been known to carry non-Big Mac refurbished dual 2.0 GHz G5s for $2,399, but they're sold out right now-- and anyway, what kind of philistine wouldn't shell out $400 extra for a unit that was part of a freakin' supercomputer? Don't be that guy. That guy's not cool.

[Addendum: faithful viewer Brian Burrow noticed that the Big Mac G5s come with 1 GB of RAM instead of the base 512 MB, so don't forget to factor that in, too. Such a deal!]