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Value of an Intel Developer Kit "G5"

Hrududu

Hrududu

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 25, 2008
2,309
662
Central US
So I found a Powermac Intel Developer Kit for sale and wondered what you all think something like that would be worth. Its the 3.6GHz Pentium 4 with the original HD and OS. Its not exactly "legacy" like most of what we discuss down here, but its a potential collector item I think. So any thoughts about what the future value might be or if its even that rare? According to the link below, they were supposed to be returned to Apple in 2006, so I don't know how many remain in existence since I would assume Apple destroyed them.

HERE is some info on them.
 
Its more of a value to you rather than actual value. Actual hardware value is maybe 400$ but the dev part might make it worth more like 6-800$. For sure it will be a hard to find collectors PC in the near future.
 
Actual hardware there is actually more like $40, old P4's are worth very little, especially with low RAM and an ancient Intel GMA graphics chip. Because it seems to use a modded Mac Pro chasis and has very specific software, the rarity value may make it worthwhile to a hardcore collecter but not to the average joe.
 
Considering that SJ made a point about these not remaining in developer's hands I would have thought these to be a rare beast (if not impossible to get).

So, comparing these to PC equivalent, yes, they're not worth much, but as a collector's item, they represent a turning point in Apple's history. A turning point that many thought would never happen. :eek:
 
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Hrududu said:
So I found a Powermac Intel Developer Kit for sale and wondered what you all think something like that would be worth. Its the 3.6GHz Pentium 4 with the original HD and OS. Its not exactly "legacy" like most of what we discuss down here, but its a potential collector item I think. So any thoughts about what the future value might be or if its even that rare? According to the link below, they were supposed to be returned to Apple in 2006, so I don't know how many remain in existence since I would assume Apple destroyed them.

HERE is some info on them.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't expect it to be worth anything outside of the collector scene; it can't run OS X past the prerelease 10.4.3 Intel builds, and as mentioned above the GPU is an Intel GMA 900, so is basically no better than a very low end PC at this stage. You won't have much luck hackintoshing it either.

I wish I could have kept mine, if I'd known that people weren't sending them back maybe I would have made it 'disappear'. Would love to have one again, just to put on a shelf.
 
steventsmith said:
I wouldn't expect it to be worth anything outside of the collector scene; it can't run OS X past the prerelease 10.4.3 Intel builds, and as mentioned above the GPU is an Intel GMA 900, so is basically no better than a very low end PC at this stage. You won't have much luck hackintoshing it either.

I wish I could have kept mine, if I'd known that people weren't sending them back maybe I would have made it 'disappear'. Would love to have one again, just to put on a shelf.
Click to expand...
Its definitely not much of a PC, but with the case already modified, I bet the motherboard mounts and stuff would be setup to build a new hackintosh into it. So if one of these popped up at a local flea market, what would you pay?
 
is a G5 with intel inside a collectors item:confused: , maybe it is:confused:,
at least its the predecessor of the MacPro:)
and its certainly nothing you find every day at ebay ,so it well could be collectible for some , its the first PowerMac G5 with intel inside that cant run osx ..if it can't be hackintoshed like steventsmith pointed out
at least you certainly can install linux on it
but as the pentium4 3.6 sits on socket LGA775 you could swap it for a a core 2 duo or something else that fits in the LGA775 and it has quiet fast ram ddr2 , so its quiet capable and fitting a better PCI graphics card could improve things
 
One thing to look out for: These are not "legal" to buy.

They were leased by Apple to the developer, with the strict condition, at time of lease, that they be returned when the lease was over (December 31, 2006.) There was no option to purchase outright. Apple did give developers even more incentive: If you returned the kit early (right after the production Intel iMac came out,) they would send you an iMac 100% free. (Well, realistically, you paid $999 to rent the DTK, then get an iMac to keep, so it wasn't *REALLY* free, but you get the point.) Therefore, unless the one out there was acquired from Apple's dumpster, it is technically "stolen property".

Of course, does Apple care enough to enforce this? I doubt it.

The actual "technical" value of the DTK is minimal. $50, tops. (Maybe $75 because of the case.) It has value solely as "the Apple-Intel transition computer".

And that valuation lies solely with you.

I have a friend who works at Intel, and helped develop that board. He didn't even know that it was for the Apple transition kit until just a couple months ago, when I found the printed Intel part number for it, and asked him to look it up. "Hey, I worked on that. Some custom development board for a random OEM." I told him the random OEM was Apple, and his reply was "Huh. That explains a lot."

It came with the maximum processor it was capable of running. No Core 2 support, sorry.
 
Anonymous Freak said:
One thing to look out for: These are not "legal" to buy.

They were leased by Apple to the developer, with the strict condition, at time of lease, that they be returned when the lease was over (December 31, 2006.) There was no option to purchase outright. Apple did give developers even more incentive: If you returned the kit early (right after the production Intel iMac came out,) they would send you an iMac 100% free. (Well, realistically, you paid $999 to rent the DTK, then get an iMac to keep, so it wasn't *REALLY* free, but you get the point.) Therefore, unless the one out there was acquired from Apple's dumpster, it is technically "stolen property".

Of course, does Apple care enough to enforce this? I doubt it.

The actual "technical" value of the DTK is minimal. $50, tops. (Maybe $75 because of the case.) It has value solely as "the Apple-Intel transition computer".

And that valuation lies solely with you.

I have a friend who works at Intel, and helped develop that board. He didn't even know that it was for the Apple transition kit until just a couple months ago, when I found the printed Intel part number for it, and asked him to look it up. "Hey, I worked on that. Some custom development board for a random OEM." I told him the random OEM was Apple, and his reply was "Huh. That explains a lot."

It came with the maximum processor it was capable of running. No Core 2 support, sorry.
Click to expand...

These will max out with a Pentium D based processor.

Core 2's will NOT work on the Intel 915 chipset, which is what this has, since it has a GMA 900 GPU.
 
Anonymous Freak said:
One thing to look out for: These are not "legal" to buy.

They were leased by Apple to the developer, with the strict condition, at time of lease, that they be returned when the lease was over (December 31, 2006.) There was no option to purchase outright. Apple did give developers even more incentive: If you returned the kit early (right after the production Intel iMac came out,) they would send you an iMac 100% free. (Well, realistically, you paid $999 to rent the DTK, then get an iMac to keep, so it wasn't *REALLY* free, but you get the point.) Therefore, unless the one out there was acquired from Apple's dumpster, it is technically "stolen property".

Of course, does Apple care enough to enforce this? I doubt it.

The actual "technical" value of the DTK is minimal. $50, tops. (Maybe $75 because of the case.) It has value solely as "the Apple-Intel transition computer".
...
Click to expand...


ROTL $50 tops. :rolleyes:

G4 sell more for that FYI.
 
The average Pentium 4 3.2GHz w/Hyperthreading desktop with an integrated graphics solution really does still for only around $40-$60 on Craigslist. Then again, that usually only includes a 40GB HD and a CD-ROM or CD-RW

If the owner hung on to it for quite a few years, maybe somewhere down the line it would be worth a lot more. As it stands, its not too powerful of a machine with an OS very limited by what software will run on it.
 
Naw, I passed on it. I just couldn't justify spending money on it when I really wouldn't have any use for it.
 
I saw the same thing in July, just to let you know. I didn't buy it, since I bought a G5 instead. Who knows, there might be quite a few of these out there.
 
fun173 said:
:eek: I would have paid alot more than $130 for that!! How often do they show up?
Click to expand...
Not often I would assume, but I can't say I've really been looking for them ever. I just stumbled across this one while looking at G5's.
 
And, it's a year later.

Any idea if there's such a "developer kit G5" for sale somewhere?
IIRC Apple wanted all of them back...

This must be one of THE collector's items.
 
It would be really hard to use as a general use machine. They are totally incompatible with retail OS X, they'll only run off the special boot disks of the developer version of 10.4, and they won't upgrade to the GM, or any further updates.

It would have to be entirely for nostalgia value. I could see them being worth a little bit for the historical significance, but in the end not more than other machines like G4 cube or the original iMac. They were not great machines and don't exactly embody Apple quality. And the entirety of those machines (besides the case) could literally be bought at Fry's. Doesn't exactly make them unique if I could get an empty G5 case and throw in the exact same parts.
 
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