SATA optical drive in IDE-based PPC PowerMac G5

[cwright]

I have a PowerMac G5 (dual 2Ghz) with a very outdated IDE-based superdrive that I'd like to replace with this BDXL burner, which is SATA based.

I've already added two additional SATA hard drives (total of 4 internal) via a PCI-X based 2-port SATA controller card. In order to install that BDXL drive, would I just need an additional SATA card to connect it to (or remove one hard drive)?

Or, would I have to get some sort of IDE to SATA adapter to attach to the IDE cable that's currently connected to the drive?

And after all that's said and done, should I expect OS X 10.5.8 to support blu-ray burning in the Finder or with Toast/Disk Utility?

I'd prefer to get an internal drive rather than external, but would appreciate any insight into whether or not I'll have any problems getting this to work.

I found this adapter, which looks like it would do the job. Any reason why it wouldn't work?

Thanks!

 

[MacForScience]

I have a PowerMac G5 (dual 2Ghz) with a very outdated IDE-based superdrive that I'd like to replace with this BDXL burner, which is SATA based.

I've already added two additional SATA hard drives (total of 4 internal) via a PCI-X based 2-port SATA controller card. In order to install that BDXL drive, would I just need an additional SATA card to connect it to (or remove one hard drive)?

Or, would I have to get some sort of IDE to SATA adapter to attach to the IDE cable that's currently connected to the drive?

And after all that's said and done, should I expect OS X 10.5.8 to support blu-ray burning in the Finder or with Toast/Disk Utility?

I'd prefer to get an internal drive rather than external, but would appreciate any insight into whether or not I'll have any problems getting this to work.

I found this adapter, which looks like it would do the job. Any reason why it wouldn't work?

Thanks!

I would not go the adapter route: thats like buying a Ferrari and then putting a golfcart motor in it.

I would personally go with the external option and I would also be careful of Blu-Ray and the mac because your support is limited to your burning software (toast titanium). If you get a FW800 you should be fine. I would imagine that it would be cheaper then getting another SATA card to support the drive. (esp. considering how old the machine is)


Cheers

 

[Joshuarocks]

I would not go the adapter route: thats like buying a Ferrari and then putting a golfcart motor in it.

I would personally go with the external option and I would also be careful of Blu-Ray and the mac because your support is limited to your burning software (toast titanium). If you get a FW800 you should be fine. I would imagine that it would be cheaper then getting another SATA card to support the drive. (esp. considering how old the machine is)


Cheers

Actually, optical drives are slow anyway, so you wouldn't really see any difference in speed up compared to what you have now.. if anything, get a sata ii card for the HDD's and later SSD if you want that. Optical drives are slow anyway and it comes no where to even saturating the bus.

 

[cwright]

Thanks for the feedback. Basically I'm just looking to get two or three more years out of my Mac before needing to replace it. I work in video production, and am running out of drive space and effective ways to backup. At some point I want to be authoring blu-ray discs anyway, and thought it would be worth adding the drive now to use them for backups as well.

Now I'm starting to think I'd be better off investing in a 4-drive eSATA RAID 5 setup for the time being and continue to wait for blu-ray media to drop in price.

And... now I'm drooling over the Final Cut Pro X preview though, which means I'll likely be wanting to buy a Mac Pro sooner than later after all just so I can run it

 

[Joshuarocks]

Thanks for the feedback. Basically I'm just looking to get two or three more years out of my Mac before needing to replace it. I work in video production, and am running out of drive space and effective ways to backup. At some point I want to be authoring blu-ray discs anyway, and thought it would be worth adding the drive now to use them for backups as well.

Now I'm starting to think I'd be better off investing in a 4-drive eSATA RAID 5 setup for the time being and continue to wait for blu-ray media to drop in price.

And... now I'm drooling over the Final Cut Pro X preview though, which means I'll likely be wanting to buy a Mac Pro sooner than later after all just so I can run it

yeah, Final Cut Pro X sounds pretty cool, and although I have this PM G5 Quad I am typing this on, I also have networked a 2010 Mac Pro.. might try out final cut pro x even though I have no use for such software, since I don't do video editing.