Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

4 port SATA Card Recommendation for G5?

L

lukusc

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 16, 2009
13
0
Hi There,

I'm not so good on this hardware stuff and was wondering if anyone had some recommendations on what SATA card I can us in my PowerMac G5? I want a 4 port SATA card so I can expand my storage.

Machine Spec
PowerMac Duel 2.0 Ghz CPU (PowerMac7,3)
4 Gig Ram
1 spare PCI slot
Running Leopard Server

I know there are/were plenty of solutions out there but I've been unable to find anyone that will actually sell them any more. I figured I could cobble together a solution myself. Can any one help with a few pointers?
 
lukusc said:
Hi There,

I'm not so good on this hardware stuff and was wondering if anyone had some recommendations on what SATA card I can us in my PowerMac G5? I want a 4 port SATA card so I can expand my storage.

Machine Spec
PowerMac Duel 2.0 Ghz CPU (PowerMac7,3)
4 Gig Ram
1 spare PCI slot
Running Leopard Server

I know there are/were plenty of solutions out there but I've been unable to find anyone that will actually sell them any more. I figured I could cobble together a solution myself. Can any one help with a few pointers?
Click to expand...

I know most aren't bootable. That being said, you can run SATA cables with two ports on them. In theory, you could take one cable running to the drive bays and replace it with a dual plug cable and run the other onboard port to the other drives.
 
Hi Altemose,

I don't need to boot from it so thats fine.

Altemose said:
you can run SATA cables with two ports on them. In theory, you could take one cable running to the drive bays and replace it with a dual plug cable and run the other onboard port to the other drives.
Click to expand...
Thats a great suggestion. Do you know what I would do for power?

I would prefer to add a card and expand the drive count fro 2 to 6 if possible...
 
lukusc said:
Hi Altemose,

I don't need to boot from it so thats fine.

Thats a great suggestion. Do you know what I would do for power?

I would prefer to add a card and expand the drive count fro 2 to 6 if possible...
Click to expand...

For data, you can order some affordable cables online. Just make sure they are long enough. IIRC the G5s have two SATA ports onboard. Set SATA port 1 to run a dual head data cable up into the drive bays. Then run the second one all the way along the back of the tower to in front of the fan bays.

I am working right now so I can't pull my G5's cover off. But give me a second and I will check it out. I don't use SATA cards so I am not too knowledgeable in the area since I always go onboard. eyoungren and Intell are pretty knowledgeable in the area though.
 
Altemose said:
For data, you can order some affordable cables online. Just make sure they are long enough. IIRC the G5s have two SATA ports onboard. Set SATA port 1 to run a dual head data cable up into the drive bays. Then run the second one all the way along the back of the tower to in front of the fan bays.

I am working right now so I can't pull my G5's cover off. But give me a second and I will check it out. I don't use SATA cards so I am not too knowledgeable in the area since I always go onboard. eyoungren and Intell are pretty knowledgeable in the area though.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the detailed explanation. That should do nicely... Give me the extra storage I need for now.
 
Altemose said:
I would wait for eyoungren to come on and be able to give a detailed SATA card explanation.
Click to expand...
Yeah a SATA card would be preferable so if anyone else has recommendations I'd love to hear them. In a pinch, as a temp solution though what you've outlined sounds pretty good.
 
lukusc said:
Yeah a SATA card would be preferable so if anyone else has recommendations I'd love to hear them. In a pinch, as a temp solution though what you've outlined sounds pretty good.
Click to expand...

You will need to drop a power line from the optical slot I believe. Though I have seen multihead connections, most people say not to use them.... Sorry for the mis-info but get a SATA card.
 
Last edited:
Sorry guys, I don't have any recommendations. The sole SATA card I have is a 2 port card and I only got it based on what harrymatic posted in his flashing thread. The card was originally a PC card and was flashed to Mac.

Other than searching for a card that had the specs harrymatic suggested and then following his instructions I have no other experience with this.
 
the seritek firmtek 1v4 is a 4 port card and is bootable. ebay might be your best bet

Seritek-1v4/
SeriTek-1V4.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back