Sawtooth - what's this above Airport?

[canhoto]

Hi.

Recently, when opening my Sawtooth for upgrading, I noticed that there are 4 numbered spaces (like slots) in the metal structure where the AirPort card is inserted, just above the Airport. Anyone knows what this is? Image attached.

 

[gr8tfly]

Expansion slots for PCI cards.

 

[canhoto]

Expansion slots for PCI cards.

??? But aren't the PCI card slots on the other side?

 

[gr8tfly]

If I'm looking at what I think I'm looking at, those are supports for long cards. Aren't there guides on the backside of the metal structure?

Otherwise, back to the drawing board for me (the service manual), and I'll report back.

Edit: Yes, those are support guides for long PCI cards. It has 4 slots probably because other configurations of this model (Digital Audio for one) have 4 PCI slots. The AGP model only has 3, plus the AGP slot.

 

[canhoto]

There are no guides. But they a bit aligned (although not perfectly) with the PCI slots, that's true. You cab see the PCI slots behind.

 

[gr8tfly]

Check the other side (from your photo) - you should see where the metal is folded in from the openings, forming a slot. They sort of resemble a capital 'I', from the photo's point of view.

 

[canhoto]

Yes, that's exactly that. Thanks!

 

[MacHamster68]

they are supports for full length pci cards , ok not common any more everything got smaller , but as these cards are "hanging " when installed and could depending what card be quiet heavy they had a support on the back

just searched for a picture of such a card installed , could not find one quickly , but here a example of such a pci card and indeed these supports do not line up as you can see on the picture of the card why , the support that looks like some sort of handle is a bit out of line

 

[zen.state]

It's to help hold extended cards like the one below in place. I have an 80mm fan mouted on the bracket and blowing air across the bottom of the heatsinnk and AGP/PCI slots.

This is an actual Geforce 4 Ti for Mac.

 

[zen.state]

That card looks like it's from the 70's or 80's

 

[gr8tfly]

No prob. Glad to help, and it's fun going back to those "older" machines.

I have a slighty newer single 933MHz G4 (Quick Silver) that has Leopard Server on it. One if these days, I'll use it to replace my B&W G3 running Jaguar Server. That machine has been going strong 24/7 for going on 8 years! It provides: DNS, Mail, SSH, and Apache services. My main reason for the upgrade is a more up-to-date Mail server, which has much stronger spam filtering.

Enjoy your PMG4!

 

[MacHamster68]

That card looks like it's from the 70's or 80's

its a old raid controller card from just about the same time of the QS (2002) at least at that time it was tested on a pentium3 pc in the article i found that long beast , hard to find these full size cards today