Que!Fire inside G4 Quicksilver???

[Achtung_U2]

Hey everyone:

I own a Que!Fire 12x10x32x CDRW desktop drive. Originally, I think this thing was over $425! I checked eBay, and they are only selling for around $25 now, so its really not worth selling it when it works so well.

Because of my modified system, iTunes only reads from this drive, so, it is actually still very usuable for me when ripping music in iTunes. Physically, the unit looks somewhat dated now, its very large on the workspace, and colored to match with the Graphite G4, not the Quicksilver. So... I had this thought...

Has anyone ever taken one of these apart? i was thinking of tearing off the case & installing this drive inside the lower front bay of the Quicksilver. i could run the power cord directly out the rear of the box, and the firewire could stay inside plugged directly into the motherboard port.

It appears that some sort of mod is in order for the lower bay to accomodate the size of this drive.

If anyone had any experience, thoughts or comments to help on this, I would greatly appreciate it before I just go and rip apart the Que!Fire.

Thanks much, have a great day.

 

[cpjakes]

You don't even need to make it that complex...

All FireWire devices are ATA at heart. If you take it out of the case, it should just plug directly into the second ATA cable in the lower bay of your tower. I suppose that if it only did what you wanted it to over FireWire (not clear I understood what you meant in your post about the "modified system") that you could leave the ATA/FireWire bridge somewhere in your system, but I doubt it's necessary. Power should also be there, that 4-pin molex connector that powers all internal drives.

The only downfall with this, if any, is that it will slave to your main optical drive, which could produce speed issues, but I doubt they will be of much significance since that's what all dual optical drive Macs have to deal with.

cpjakes

 

[Achtung_U2]

Hey CP,

Thanks for the info, much appreciated. If, in fact, the QueFire has those connections in back... it will make the hook-ups, clean & EZ.

Now, the only issue is figuring out a way to mount, and/or secure that drive in place on the lower bay. The factory bay is really tiny, I guess maybe for a compact zip drive or whatever.

Has anybody installed a full-size drive in thier Quicksilver lower bay? If so, did you purchase a part or do some type of mod?

Thanks again everyone

 

[krimson]

Try Here

 

[Achtung_U2]

Hey krimson:

Thanks bro! exactly what I needed

BTW... cp was right, I took apart the Que!Fire, it just had a piggy-back set up attached to all the standard interface connectors in the rear.

Now I have the exact info I need regarding the front panel case mods & drive install. (I've already had the Dremel & drill out before to get the Sawtooth motherboard to line up with the Quicksilver rear connections). No fear of creative case mods here


It appears on the referenced webpage that he used scotch tape to create a door hinge (doesnt look too nice) So, to maintain the asthetic integrity of the Quicksilver face, I will 'fir' out or shim the front edge of the tray and glue the Mac's dummy panel onto it. This way it will just slide back & forth with the drive-tray and save creating some hinge system like the upper door has.

My own opinion of the interface/power hook up is to still use the firewire instead of the IDE connector. That way, I avoid master/slave or speed issues, etc. It will hide inside...but function the same as any external firewire drive. At least i can use the Mac's power supply though and have 1 less transformer on the power strip.

Thanks to both of you guys, I'm all set to go, really appreciate it.

Peace, Mark ~

 

[cpjakes]

Achtung -

Sorry I didn't pay attention initially about you having the 3.5" drive bay. But yes, it's possible as pointed out by krimson's link. I assumed because you didn't mention it that you did have a second 5.25" bay. But it sounds like you're well on your way.

Maybe I should try one of these with my DP 450, it's only got the smaller lower bay...

cpjakes

 

[Achtung_U2]

Hey cp...

Thanks, I guess i wasnt clear on my explaination of that anyway.

Well, of course I would prefer not to saw, cut, drill or grind any more of the Quicksilver than i have to, I've already done enough of that on the rear side .... but, its frustrating that iTunes, iPhoto & iDVD will not recognize my new Optorite 'superdrive'.

I can use Toast & even Apple Studio Pro. But when burning in iTunes, iPhoto or iDVD.... it doesnt work.

This is pasted from the system profiler:

OPTORITE DVD RW DD0203:

Manufacturer: OPTORITE
Model: OPTORITE DVD RW DD0203
Revision: 2.30
Serial Number:
Drive Type: CD-RW/DVD-RW
Disc Burning: Not Supported
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal

Anyhow, I've heard that there's no way to make the system support disc burning, (my buddy even bought the Pioneer drive, but, he has the same problem). Obviously, Apple wants us buying new hardware, not upgrading our paid for machines , so I just have to decide if Im gonna go for it or simply get used to burning music in Toast only. At least Studio Pro works great for the DVD's.

Thanks again.

 

[krimson]

you might want to try downloading Patchburn IIHere if you have 10.3. Patchburn for Jag, but make sure to back up everything before you use it. i checked for the Optorite, but i didn't see it listed, you might wanna try and figure out who made the internals, and cross reference it with the lists found at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com.

 

[Achtung_U2]

Optorite (Patchburn) Quicksilver superdrive

krimson:

thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

You have just saved me soooo much trouble.

That Patchburn driver installer for 10.3.2 Panther, looked right into my system and asked to install itself to support my Optorite drive.

It took like 4 seconds, and a reboot.... and now, I have a $102.00 Superdrive. (It cost only $102 and they even gave me 5 free Pioneer DVD-R+-)

As thier read-me stated, still shows non supported in my system profiler, but, who cares... it comes right up in the software programs..... and BURNS!

Now I dont have to drill and grind the Quicksilver, and... I can sell the QueFire as well.

You guys are the BEST on here! Thanks much