PCI slots on G5 Powermacs

Hardware-wise, no problem, but there has to be an OS X driver available for the card. OS X doesn't have drivers for every PCI/PCI-X card made.

daveL said:

Hardware-wise, no problem, but there has to be an OS X driver available for the card. OS X doesn't have drivers for every PCI/PCI-X card made.

Click to expand...

Along the same lines, will every PCI-X slot on PowerMacs accept:

Old PCI cards?

AGP cards?

Is there a size limit on old PCI cards?
Is there an adapter to convert old PCI cards to PCI-X or will they fit right in?

gopher said:

Along the same lines, will every PCI-X slot on PowerMacs accept:

Old PCI cards?

AGP cards?

Is there a size limit on old PCI cards?
Is there an adapter to convert old PCI cards to PCI-X or will they fit right in?

Click to expand...

afaik old pci cards will fit, but agp cards won't. that's why the g5 has an agp slot.

Old PCI cards? Has to be the newer 3.3V PCI cards or PCI-X cards -- they must fit the slot (PCI Specification 2.3)

AGP cards? Apple "says" it must be at least AGP 8x, may want to look for the voltage it'll support and what people have been using.

Is there a size limit on old PCI cards? Yes, make sure the card is at least as long as the PCI slot and is keyed correctly. The XServe G4 would actually short out the motherboard when short 5v cards that fit part of the slot were used.

Is there an adapter to convert old PCI cards to PCI-X or will they fit right in? None needed... PCI-X is actually a 3.3V PCI slot that runs at 100 and 133MHz.

In fact the first PowerMacs rev A machines that had PCI only, were just feature crippled (still had the PCI-X controller) to delete the capability to run at 100/133MHz thus making them PCI slots.

The newer rev. B machines deleted the PCI-X controller completely.

How Old is Old?

When did this standard voltage change take place in pci cards?
Would the Ultra SCSI pci card that came BTO in my blue & white g3 work in my G5? Would it need drivers?

Edit: I just remembered that there are no extra regular molex power connectors from the g5 power supply unless you get a y-adapter and use the one from the dvd drive, so what I was thinking of doing wouldn't work easily anyway.

AppleAce said:

When did this standard voltage change take place in pci cards?

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Happened quite awhile ago in computer years, but since quite a few PCs (on until recently Macs) still support both 5v and 3.3v -- there was no need for card makers to switch. The XServe G4 was the first Mac to kill 5v cards completely.

AppleAce said:

Would the Ultra SCSI pci card that came BTO in my blue & white g3 work in my G5? Would it need drivers?

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Even if it is 3.3v, you're bound to run into lots of driver issues. Since a lot of card makers ditched legacy card support. And one that came with a PowerMac G3 would probably fit that definition.

Be prepared to give up sleep mode with any PCI card, FYI.

iGary said:

Be prepared to give up sleep mode with any PCI card, FYI.

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Good point. I'm sure there aren't too many 3rd party drivers that would bother supporting sleep.

daveL said:

Good point. I'm sure there aren't too many 3rd party drivers that would bother supporting sleep.

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Even Belkin's FW card disabled sleep on my MDD G4.

I went to the usual upgrade sites (OWC, XLR8YOURMAC), and Apple's support for PCI cards really stinks. It's so spotty that some testers reported no problems, and others (the majority) lost the ability to sleep their machines.

This is all really easy to fix, but Apple and the PCI people have been ponting their fingers at eachother for years.

To answer the original question, any USB 2.0 or Firewire PCI card should have no problem working in a PowerMac G4 or G5. I have used both OrangeMicro and Adaptec cards and they work with the drivers built in to OS X.

Any card that follows the standards should also have no issues.

Bear said:

To answer the original question, any USB 2.0 or Firewire PCI card should have no problem working in a PowerMac G4 or G5. I have used both OrangeMicro and Adaptec cards and they work with the drivers built in to OS X.

Any card that follows the standards should also have no issues.

Click to expand...

Do you have sleep issues? (Your machine, that is )

Patch^ said:

I was wondering is it possible to use a standard PCI / PCI-X card that is sold for a PEECEE on a Powermac e.g. a USB 2.0 card or Firewire card. Or would i have to buy a special PCI card made especially for apple computers etc....If so where could i get one.....

thnx

Click to expand...

Most other than Video cards will work. That is if you can find a device driver for them(which can be a chore in itself).

iGary said:

Do you have sleep issues? (Your machine, that is )

Click to expand...

I don't know if the cards I have impact sleep. The machine is usually on and only gets powered off if I'm going to be away from home for more than a day or so.

I actually had sleep issues without having the PCI cards in my system. It's probably one of the USB or firewire devices I have connected. It wasn't worth tracking down back then, and it certainly isn't worth it now.

More PCI X slots...

Pop music is a challenging medium. Believe it or not, on the current album I am working on, I have already maxed out my G5 2.5 ghz machine and get CPU overloads constantly because of the external plugs I run. basically, I need more PCI slots.

Don't say Magma. They do not support 100-133 mhz 64 bit and cost $1800 bucks. Old technology.

But, doesn't the Apple 'X Serve' system software tie a G5 desktop and an 'X Serve' 'two slot' together as one to run OSX apps and share PCI's?

Wouldn't that work to expand PCI?

Or, how about two 2.3 dual ghz 'X Serves', tie them and get a quad machine with 4 slots.

I would much rather add a machine than a PCI chassis.