Apple used to make REAL servers (mine won't boot)

TL;DR

The Xserve G5 failed to boot because capacitor plague destroyed its power supply, but a recap brought it back to life.

Key Points

• 1.The Xserve G5 featured dual 2GHz G5 processors, 3GB RAM, and three hot-swap drive bays in a 1U rack-mount chassis — Apple's actual server product sold from 2002 onward.
• 2.The power supply failed due to the "capacitor plague" era of manufacturing; bad electrolytic capacitors are the culprit in ~99% of Xserve failures from this period.
• 3.Jeff used a Hakko FR301 desoldering gun to remove all capacitors, referencing a community guide from "House of Moth" that mapped capacitor locations and values for the power supply.
• 4.A 120GB SATA SSD failed to be recognized, but a 240GB Inland Platinum SSD worked after a fresh format — suggesting compatibility issues between SATA generations or drive firmware.
• 5.The server draws a constant ~190–200 watts at idle, comparable in compute power to a Raspberry Pi, making it extremely inefficient by modern standards.
• 6.macOS X Server 10.3 was successfully installed and booted, with a working web server confirmed by accessing `xserve-g5.local` from another Mac on the network.
• 7.Jeff plans to use the Xserve's serial port — rare for Macs since the 1980s — to feed GPS timing data and turn it into a highly accurate NTP time server.
• 8.Apple's Xserve line was ultimately canceled after failing to gain traction; Steve Jobs himself described their server market entry with the unusual word "humble," and the proprietary drive sleds and awkward rack-mount system were among its lasting criticisms.