Accuracy of Apple's estimated ship date? [Mac Pro]

[Will G.]

I ordered the default Mac Pro with a 8800GT graphics card at around 11am pst today (Jan 8). The estimated ship date is 3-5 weeks or "by Feb 13," and I'm wondering how accurate that's likely to be.

I remember when I bought a PowerBook G4 a few years back, there was an estimated delivery time of several weeks because of the customizations I'd made - but a couple days later it arrived at the door. That leads me to believe that Apple overestimates, rather than the other way around, to make customers happy - but it could have just been a unique situation, too.

So with the "3-5 weeks," is three weeks more likely than five, given that I got my order in early? Is there a chance that it would be sooner than that? If it did end up coming sooner, would they be likely to change the estimated delivery ahead of time or just ship it without prior warning?

I normally wouldn't ask, but I do have reason other than general impatience to want to know when to expect it. Thanks for reading.

 

[Kingsly]

I spoke with a sales rep over the phone before buying mine, and he basically said that it will probably ship a lot sooner but he can't actually come out and tell me that in the event that it really does take 3-5 weeks. Being that we ordered on the first day I would imagine our MP's are first in line to get built.