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SATA Controller for G4: Any recommendations?

B

Blue Velvet

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Jul 4, 2004
21,929
265
The current toy of choice is a G4 1.42 dual MDD and I'm looking to get 2 new 250gb+ SATA drives to put in it that will be also be compatible with the G5 I'm saving up to buy in 2-3 years time...

Any ideas on manufacturers of PCI-SATA controllers for a Mac?
Or any recommendations & tips on their use/installation?

The only ones I can seem to find here in the UK are PC ones.
Or is that not important?

Thnx
BV
 
Blue Velvet said:
The current toy of choice is a G4 1.42 dual MDD and I'm looking to get 2 new 250gb+ SATA drives to put in it that will be also be compatible with the G5 I'm saving up to buy in 2-3 years time...

Any ideas on manufacturers of PCI-SATA controllers for a Mac?
Or any recommendations & tips on their use/installation?

The only ones I can seem to find here in the UK are PC ones.
Or is that not important?

Thnx
BV
Click to expand...


You need controllers with mac roms.
There are only a few of them on the market, ACARD, SeriTek, Sonnet and SIIG. I've heard mixed results with the varius cards, but I don't remember which..

A look at www.xlr8yourmac.com will give you more info.

-tb
 
Blue Velvet said:
The current toy of choice is a G4 1.42 dual MDD and I'm looking to get 2 new 250gb+ SATA drives to put in it that will be also be compatible with the G5 I'm saving up to buy in 2-3 years time...

Any ideas on manufacturers of PCI-SATA controllers for a Mac?
Or any recommendations & tips on their use/installation?

The only ones I can seem to find here in the UK are PC ones.
Or is that not important?

Thnx
BV
Click to expand...

Most Definitely the SeriTek card. I have swapped it into a G3 B&W as well as a G4 MDD. It's awesome. So easy to use and CHEAP compared to the others. See it here:

http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-1s2/

I think it was around $60 USD.

I highly recommend it.
 
Thanks for all suggestions & help so far.
I'll follow them all up...

Cheers
BV
 
 
I bought a SIIG 2-channel card and it's already stopped working :(
Customer Support is either ignoring my email or is taking forever to respond (It's been 3-4 days now)
 
There's a lot more choice in the US. OWC have cards from around $60 - and charge $23-ish postage. So even with delivery and VAT that's less than what you'd pay in the UK (£52). That Cancomuk card is about £80 once they've delivered it. I've bought a Radeon 9600 that was modded by them to work in G4 MDDs and it came in two days by Fedex.
 
cwright said:
I bought a SIIG 2-channel card and it's already stopped working :(
Customer Support is either ignoring my email or is taking forever to respond (It's been 3-4 days now)
Click to expand...

Can you give me some more details on this .. I might be interested in an internal 4 port solution and with SIIG offering one I would like to hear this case ..

But with Firmtek entering this market too there will at least be some options soon ..
 
caveman_uk said:
There's a lot more choice in the US. OWC have cards from around $60 - and charge $23-ish postage. So even with delivery and VAT that's less than what you'd pay in the UK (£52). That Cancomuk card is about £80 once they've delivered it. I've bought a Radeon 9600 that was modded by them to work in G4 MDDs and it came in two days by Fedex.
Click to expand...

That's a very good point, thanks... have card, will shop.

I'll check Gordon Harwood too.
They can be OK value sometimes, certainly better than Micro Anvika...
 
Mertzen said:
Can you give me some more details on this .. I might be interested in an internal 4 port solution and with SIIG offering one I would like to hear this case ..
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what's causing the problem, but my SATA hard drive being controlled by this card just stopped working on my G4. I rebooted several times with no luck. I also tried moving the SATA controller card to a different PCI port on the G4, and still no luck. Neither the PCI card or the drive show up in the System Profiler.

I have also installed the same hard drive in the spare hard drive slot on a G5 and it works just fine, so this is definitely a problem with the card.

The card has been registered, and my email to tech support a few days ago is still unanswered. Of course, a phone number is nowhere to be found on their website.

EDIT: let me clarify... I did receive an automated confirmation email from SIIG when I registered the product, and a similar confirmation email after I submitted my issue to tech support. It simply said they received the email and would respond as soon as possible. However, I have still not received a response to my questions or any help with the product
 
This is from their site:

Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA)
You can contact our Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) Department for repair or replacement. SIIG warrants to the original buyer of the product that the hardware is free of defects in material and workmanship.**

To obtain an RMA number, please visit SIIG Technical Support and follow the instructions.
For all other RMA inquiries, please send a fax to 510-657-5962 or send us an email.

** If your product fails to be in good working order during the warranty period, you may return it to SIIG for repair or replacement at SIIG's option.

Have you faxed them at all .. maybe that is something that can help ..


I also found:
SIIG [Products] SIIG, Inc. 6078 Stewart Avenue
Fremont CA, 94538-3152 [RMA]: (510) 4135316
[Tech Support]:(510) 3537542
 
Wow... I don't know how I missed that...
thanks for the info, I'll call them and see what they say.

I really wish I would have thought this purchase through in the first place. I would like to have 5 drives in a G5 (my next computer), but in order to do that, I'd need the 4-channel SATA controller, not a 2-channel.

I wonder If they would let me upgrade? :confused:
and if they can only replace the unit, anyone want to buy it? :D
 
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