With opening the console

When you open your Xbox Console you can determine the Revision precisely. First you have to locate the used Video Encoder Chip!

Determine Video-Chip

The VideoChip is located in the marked area:

Find out which chip your xbox has!

CONEXTANT

FOCUS

XCALIBUR

I got a CONEXTANT chip

I got a FOCUS chip

I got a XCALIBUR chip

Without opening the console

Just by looking at the serial number, which is visible through the Xbox carton, you have a very good chance to find out the version of an Xbox. You can also get the serial number in Linux with the xbox_tool command.

Please note that these rules may not apply to refurbished models.

Step 1: Manufacturing Date and Serial Number

On the bottom of the Xbox, you can see the manufacturing date and the serial number. The manufacturing date is in the following format:

2004-11-20

i.e. YYYY-MM-DD

(Year-Month-Day) which is the date according to ISO 8601.

The serial number looks like this:

3137905 44705

i.e. LNNNNNN YWWFF

L the number of the production line within the factory,

NNNNNN the number of the Xbox within this week,

Y the last digit of the production year,

WW the number of the week of the production year,

FF is the code of the factory (02: Mexico, 03: Hungary, 05: China. 06: Taiwan).

Step 2: The Factory

Look at the factory code, i.e. the last two digits of the serial number.

If the factory code is "03" (Hungary), you are done: You can be sure that it is a 1.0 Xbox. You can even be sure that it contains a Thomson DVD drive

If the factory code is "02" (Mexico), it is either a 1.0 or a 1.1 Xbox. Look at the manufacturing date: If it is November 2002 or later, you have a 1.1 Xbox, else it's a 1.0.

If the factory code is "05" (China), you have at least a 1.1 Xbox.

If the factory code is "06" (Taiwan), you have at least a 1.3 Xbox.

Step 3: Version Table

If you have a "Halo Special Edition" Xbox (translucent green), you have version 1.2, which has been made in weeks 8 and 9 of 2003 on lines 2, 5 and 6.

If you have a "Crystal Special Edition" Xbox (translucent white), you either have a version 1.5 or 1.6 which were made in weeks 32 to 34 of 2004.(Which is not on the list below)

Find out the production line of the Xbox, which is the first digit of the serial number. Then find out the year and week of your Xbox. The first digit of the second block is the last digit of the year (i.e. 2 or 3 for 2002 or 2003), and the following two digits are the number of the week. For example, the serial "1111111 31205" is from week 12/2003.

Now look up the box corresponding to the week and the production line in the following table. The legend below the table will tell you the meaning of the colors. Note:Anything After 18\04 Is mainly Unknown and is most likly to be a version 1.6 or 1.6b.

Week	Line 1	Line 2	Line 3	Line 4	Line 5	Line 6
23/02	?	?	12 Jun	?	?	?
34/02	?	?	24 Aug	?	?	?
39/02	?	?	?	?	29 sept	?
42/02			18 Oct
43/02			?
44/02			?
45/02			13 Nov
46/02			?
47/02		20 Nov	?
48/02		?	?
49/02		03 Dec	03 Dec
50/02					13 Dec
51/02				19 Dec	?
52/02				?	?
01/03				?	?
02/03				10 Jan	?
03/03				?	?
04/03	24 Jan			?	22 Jan	20 Jan
05/03	?			?		?
06/03	?			?		?
07/03	?			?		?
08/03	?	21 Feb		?		19 Feb
09/03	?	?	27 Feb	?		\-
10/03	?	03 Mar	?	?		\-
11/03	?		10 Mar	?	11 Mar	\-
12/03	?			?	?	\-
13/03	?			?	?	\-
14/03	?			02 Apr	03 Apr	\-
15/03	09 Apr					\-
16/03						\-
17/03						\-
18/03						\-
19/03						04 May
20/03		05 May
21/03
22/03
23/03			02 Jun
24/03
25/03
26/03
27/03
28/03
29/03		?-?-?	17 Jul
30/03	23 Jul	?-?-?	23 Jul	24 Jul	23 Jul	23 Jul
31/03	28 Jul
32/03
11/04		2 Mar
11/04	11 Mar	?
12/04	?	?			18 Mar	22 Mar
13/04	28 Mar	?			?
14/04		?			1 Apr
15/04		?	5 Apr	10 Apr
16/04		?	?	?
17/04		?	?	?
18/04		?	?	?
31/04	?	?		?	?	?
33/04	?		?	?		?
46/04	?	?	?	11 Nov	?	?
47/04	?	16 Nov	?	?	?	?
21/05					16 May

Legend:

1.0

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.6

unknown

Retrieved from http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Xbox_Versions_HOWTO