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PowerPC G5 Compatible Network Card

A

AverageJoe77

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 4, 2015
4
0
My dad's PowerPC G5 has a built in network adapter, but last week it went bad and he can no longer connect to the internet.

Not being a MAC guy, I took the cover off to check the expansion ports and holy old tech batman!

Anyway I need a compatible network card that will work with Tiger on a PowerPC G5 that fits into that ginormous PCI slot. Any suggestions or recommendations would be great.

Netgear GA311 was the most popular result from a quick google search, but I am pretty sure it is for intel macs, if anyone can confirm for me that it works on PowerPC macs that would be great.

Thanks.
Joe.
 
The ports are 64-bit wide and(at least on most G5s) are PCI-X which is backward compatible with PCI.

I have a Powermac G4 with a GigE card that works perfectly under Tiger and as best as I can tell was plug and play(it was in the computer when I bought it). I've been meaning to pull it so I can hunt for OS 9 drivers. I'll try to do that later today and report back-of course the card I have is not the only option, just one that I know works.

EDIT:

I'm assuming from your post that your dad has an early '05 or earlier G5, given your statement seems to imply that there is only only one ethernet port.

If your dad has a late '05 G5, which will have two ethernet ports(among other identifying features) you will need to find a PCI Express ethernet card. Among other differences, the late '05 model will also have three USB ports on the back and a white plastic panel about an inch wide and 6" tall on the back.

Please confirm which model he has so that we can guide you in the right direction.
 
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There are 2 USB ports on the back panel and no white plastic panel. So I am guessing eralier '05 model.
 
Thanks for confirming-that means that it's anything from late '03 to early '05 and can use a PCI network card.

That makes things a bit easier. The late '05 G5s were the only PPC Macs that were made with PCI-e slots, and sometimes tracking down an expansion card(of any given type) that will work in them can be a bit difficult. PCI cards that will work in PPC Macs are much better documented.

Once I get up off my behind, I'll go pull the GigE card that I have a G4.

In the meantime, I'll add that I have a PowerMacintosh 9600 with an AsanteFAST 10/100 09-00169-01 card. It works great under OS 9(or at least did after I downloaded the drivers from Asante's website) but I've not tested it in OS X(I have no intention of installing OS X on this particular computer). Of course, this card is only 100baseT and not 1000baseT like the G5 onboard ethernet. Depending on how good your dad's broadband is, he may or may not even have a fast enough connection to saturate a 100baseT card, but I still prefer having 1000baseT wherever possible. If nothing else, it makes transferring data between computers on the same network a lot faster.
 
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I just checked the System Profiler, and he has 2 - 2.7 GHz Processors, not sure if that makes any difference, but I was checking this site, and they are classified by the number and speed of the processors, which would mean I need to find PCI-X card.
 
The GigE card I have is marked as follows:

Selectron
LAN card A51562-008
E-G021-01-3932-B

It has an Intel chipset(FW82544E1), and is marked as being PCI-X compliant(although obvious works fine in a standard 64 bit PCI slot).

The one I have apparently was also a Dell OEM component, and carries a Dell p/n of MV-05M235-12402-2AQ-1Z05 . The first two letters may be MY-the label appears to have smeared during printing.

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AverageJoe77 said:
I just checked the System Profiler, and he has 2 - 2.7 GHz Processors, not sure if that makes any difference, but I was checking this site, and they are classified by the number and speed of the processors, which would mean I need to find PCI-X card.
Click to expand...

PCI-X slots are fully PCI compliant, and a standard PCI card will work perfectly in them. The only caveat is that-at least as I understand it-a PCI card will cause the entire bus to run at 33mhz rather than the 133mhz of PCI-X. If it's your only expansion card installed(short of the graphics card) this won't matter.

I have an Xserve G5, which also has PCI-X slots. I'm currently using a PCI 802.11g WiFi card in it until I can get an ethernet cable run to it. It works fine. I've also used PCI graphics cards in it.
 
bunnspecial said:
PCI-X slots are fully PCI compliant, and a standard PCI card will work perfectly in them. The only caveat is that-at least as I understand it-a PCI card will cause the entire bus to run at 33mhz rather than the 133mhz of PCI-X. If it's your only expansion card installed(short of the graphics card) this won't matter.
Click to expand...

Awesome. This is perfect.

I can get that card from ebay fairly cheap. I'll give it a shot and let you know how it goes in a few weeks.

Thanks for your help.
 
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