PCI cards in Power Mac G4

[painejake]

Looking for a little advice really, I have an old Power Mac G4 dual CPU computer (MDD) that now use as a dedicated Logic 8 rig for ease of just leaving everything setup where it is.

However with a keyboard mouse and mixer I'm out of USB ports! Is there any way I can attach one of these cheap little nippers and off I go with an extra 4 ports?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/PORT-HIGH-S...8&qid=1371022071&sr=8-1&keywords=usb+pci+card

Secondly the hard disk speed is, well... not that great! (I didn't expect much going from SSD to IDE though!) Are there any SATA controller cards I can install that won't cost the same as buying a Mac Mini?

I have a feeling the with USB card i might be able to get away with sticking a cheap one in but the SATA controller will be a bit more picky. Is there any certain chipsets I should look out for?

I don't have the cash at the moment to go ahead and just get a i7 Mac Mini which would be ideal really so trying to make do with what I have without spending a fortune. I could use my MacBook however its nice to leave everything setup and ready so when something pops into my head I can go and record it straight away!

I've kept it on Tiger so with the 2GB of RAM and dual CPU it does run pretty well Logic is just a bit sluggish when recording tracks.

Many thanks!

 

[Fred64]

USB Card

I bought a 4 port PCI USB2 card on Ebay and it worked fine even with no drivers on my G4 Quicksilver with Tiger

I haven't tried using it to boot to any external drives but that doesn't cause me any problems.

 

[painejake]

I bought a 4 port PCI USB2 card on Ebay and it worked fine even with no drivers on my G4 Quicksilver with Tiger

I haven't tried using it to boot to any external drives but that doesn't cause me any problems.

Oh excellent thanks Fred64, will get a cheap one for the USB then and that will be sorted!

It's SATA cards that seems to be expensive, might be better just using to IDE drives and using one as a scratch drive just for Logic.

 

[Nameci]

Look for an NEC chipset USB 2.0 PCI card. They work out of the box and pretty much stable based on my experience.

The MDD has 4 drive bays, the main tray has two and there is another tray below the ODD cage which could contain another two.

 

[skinniezinho]

Look for an NEC chipset USB 2.0 PCI card. They work out of the box and pretty much stable based on my experience.

The MDD has 4 drive bays, the main tray has two and there is another tray below the ODD cage which could contain another two.

x2.
painejake you have pm.

 

[painejake]

Thanks for the replies guys will go with an NEC USB card then and just some extra IDE drives!

 

[666sheep]

Regarding SATA card: look for SIL3512 or 3112 card and flash it with Wiebetech firmware. Works like a charm.

 

[philz4life]

I was very lucky to get a SATA PCI card for my MDD on eBay for only $20. If you decide to get one, just keep looking and eventually a deal will pop up. Also, the only brands I would use are Firmtek and Sonnet. Other cards may work sometimes, but they don't support booting from SATA drives.

 

[666sheep]

Other cards may work sometimes, but they don't support booting from SATA drives.

Acard ones are bootable as well, mentioned earlier SIL3512/3112 ones too (these require flashing w. Mac firmware to be bootable).

 

[painejake]

Well there's quite a few SIL3512 cards on eBay at £5-15 so will grab one flash it and see how that goes! Getting a SATA boot and scratch drive out of it would be fab!

Thanks all!

 

[powermi]

if you want a realiable bootable sata pci card you should buy a Sonnet 2 ports or firmtek 2 or 4 ports, Sonnet 4 internal ports cant boot. All of them are very reliable.

i also have try the Lacie esata card 2 ports, and is working great, supports booting and OSx just switching a pin. is GREAT

 

[Cox Orange]

The Macally SUA100e is also bootable, if one finds it, but does not support all SATA drives for some reason, but it can read SMART data from the drives, becasue it is reported as "SCSI"-card.