I'd seriously consider buying one of these 1GHz 17" Aluminum machines if the video truly does work fully and correctly. Do both the firewire 400 port and 800 port work, and assuming the second is recognized as a 400 if it does? Does the cooling fan control system behave properly? Does the computer wake from sleep properly?
It would be interesting to actually see this system benchmarked thoroughly against a TiBook 1GHz. Although it probably matters only from a gaming standpoint, the GeForce4 440 Go seems to have been considered a step backwards in performance. (The chipset was designed for AGP 8x mode but appears to be limited to 4x in the AlBook.) The faster bus speed, RAM and ATA controller in the AlBook, along with the increased screen resolution, probably give it the edge over the TiBook, so long as there are no major glitches with it under OS 9. The incompatability of the Airport Extreme, Bluetooth and auto-brightness aren't much of a loss. The increased maximum RAM is probably irrelevant to most users. I did note that the standard battery in the AlBook was weaker than that in the TiBook, which may hurt portability especially when you consider the higher-performance components it's driving.
If the AlBook works properly with a Magma PCI expansion chassis via cardbus then I'm all the more curious to own and try it. I have used one on two different TiBooks in the past. The thing that strongly put me off owning an AlBook before, aside from the OS 9 issue, was the idiotic screen hinge placement that precluded the use of a rear-mounted BookEndz docking station. Those awful side-mount docks look bad and take up an excessive amount of desk space.
My 1GHz TiBook seems to have developed a dead ATA controller. Until I get the motherboard replaced I won't be able to consider a head-to-head contest with the AlBook 1GHz. My best portable in the interim is a very strange beast - what was once a TiBook 667MHz that was re-worked by a third-party service to sport a 1.2GHz processor. While this technically would make it the fastest OS 9 portable that doesn't require tricks to make it work, the remaining components from the 667MHz kinda hold it back a bit when compared to later models. I've never tried it with OS 9 though, only OS X 10.4/10.5 which it performs surprisingly well under.