Apple unveiled the machine last month but said that it would not start shipping the hardware until the second half of September. While the systems have begun to ship in the US, an Australian Apple representative said that the systems would begin shipping locally early next week.
The Power Mac borrows some of its internal architecture--including faster double data rate (DDR) memory--from the Xserve server that Apple debuted recently.
Although the Power Mac has received several speed boosts, the change in architecture is the first major upgrade to the line in about 18 months. The 1.25GHz model sells for AU$7,295 and comes with 512MB of memory, a 120GB hard drive, ATI's Radeon 9000 Pro graphics card as well as a "SuperDrive" that can burn both CDs and DVDs. It also ships with Apple's latest iteration of its own operating system, OS X 10.2.
Apple has already shipped a dual processor 867MHz PowerPC G4 system that includes 256MB of RAM and a 60GB hard drive for AU$3,795. Also, the company offers a dual processor 1GHz system that includes an 80GB hard drive, SuperDrive and ATI Radeon 9000 Pro graphics card for AU$5,495.
Apple has started to see sales jump following the introduction of the new Power Mac, said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior director of hardware product marketing.
"We've certainly seen an increase in our business since then," Joswiak said. At the same time, Joswiak said the overall economy remains a factor.
"Obviously, you have a tough economy which makes it tough on everybody," Joswiak said.
While Intel's Pentium 4 now boasts a top clock speed more than twice as fast as G4 chips inside the new Power Mac, Apple says that its fastest machine outperforms the fastest Windows-based PCs in several key areas, including Photoshop performance and MPEG-2 video encoding.
ZDNet Australia's Alex Kidman contributed to this report.
