Apple rack-mounted server

After years of repackaging off-the-shelf Macs for use as servers, Apple introduced Xserve in May 2002 as its second attack on the server market – and the industry’s first 1U dual processor RISC server.

Xserve supports up to 480 GB of internal storage, one or two 1 GHz G4 CPUs, dual gigabit ethernet, RAID, hot swappable drives, and remote management while running Mac OS X Server.

For those who want to use Xserve as a workstation, Apple offers the high performance ATI Radeon 8500 4x AGP video card and all the G4 power they’re used to.

Specs (via Low End Mac)

• Cpu: single or dual 1 GHz PowerPC 7455
• Bus: 133 MHz
• Ram: 256 MB standard (512 MB in dual processor model), expandable to 2 GB using PC2100 DDR SDRAM in 4 DIMM slots
• L2 Cache: 256 KB on-chip L2 cache
• Hard Drive: 60/120 GB 7200 RPM, 4 drive bays, UltraATA/100
• Video: ATI 66 MHz PCI graphics card (Radeon 8500 AGP 4x optional)
• Vram: 32 MB
• Upgrade Path: none yet
• Pram Battery: 3.6V half-AA
• Weight: 26.0 lbs. (11.8 kg)
• System Performance: Geekbench 2: 564 (single), 871 (dual)
• Geekbench 2: 564 (single), 871 (dual)
• L3 Cache: 2 MB per processor offers 4 GB/sec. throughput
• Cd-Rom: 24x
• See: Online resources and links for the Xserve G4 (Mid 2002)

Nearly a year after the Xserve G4 hit 1.33 GHz, Apple unveiled the Xserve G5 with single or dual 2.0 GHz G5 CPUs and a 1.0 GHz system bus (vs. 167 MHz on the  G4), providing over 40% more overall processing power.

Other changes include an 8 GB memory ceiling on the single-processor model, four times as much as the G4 Xserve supported, and 16 GB for the dual-processor version, one less drive bay, and removal of video output as a standard feature. A PCI video card can be installed in the top slot for $100.

Xserve supports up to 6 TB of internal storage (three 2 TB drives), RAID, hot swappable drives, and remote management while running Mac OS X Server. When upgrading hard drives, make sure you set them to run as SATA Rev. 1 devices to avoid problems.

Specs (via Low End Mac)

• Cpu: 2.0 GHz G5
• Bus: 1.0 GHz
• Ram: 512 MB/1 GB standard, expandable to 8 GB using PC3200 ECC RAM
• L2 Cache: 512 KB on-chip L2 cache
• Hard Drive: 80 GB 7200 RPM, 3 drive bays, Serial ATA Rev. 1, 2 GB maximum per drive
• Video: optional, PCI video card adds $100, must be in upper slot
• Vram: 32 MB
• Upgrade Path: none yet
• Pram Battery: 3.6V half-AA
• Weight: 33.0 lbs. (15.1 kg)
• System Performance: Geekbench 2: 1217 (single), 1620 (dual)
• Geekbench 2: 1217 (single), 1620 (dual)
• L3 Cache: none
• Optical Drive: slot-loading Combo drive, SuperDrive optional