The Alpha 1 kits disappear quite quickly, turning obsolete in February 2005 when the OS does not support GPU anymore. Finally, the kits include an Intel Pro100+ network card in PCI, because the Microsoft OS does not support the internal card of Power Mac G5s.

The other GPUs did not work, and my kit, which came with a Radeon 9600 Pro, had therefore been modified.

The first kit (Alpha 1) had an ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB (R3xx), the second a Radeon X800 XT 256 MB (R420). The kits had 512MB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive (Seagate ST3160023AS) and an ATi graphics card. Other variants do not work with the Microsoft OS. Microsoft has used two versions of the Power Mac G5: the original 2003 one in its “dual 2 GHz” version, or the June 2004 variant, still with two G5 at 2 GHz (but in 970fx version, in 90 nm). From time to time, those machines reappear on eBay or at private homes – I have one – but obviously without the Microsoft OS (and with Mac OS X). Then, Microsoft downgraded the machines, which were eventually sold to employees for $ 300, with obviously a completely erased hard drive.

The development kits are used during a few years, at least until the E3 2005: the demonstrations of the Xbox 360 at the time are on Mac. As we will see, they differ essentially by the graphics card used. Before the arrival of the real console, the brand provides two variants to the developers: the Alpha 1 and the Alpha 2 kits. Then, Microsoft buys many Power Mac G5 and installs a dedicated operating system on it for the devs.

Power mac g5 case vs mac pro case