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What can I do with this PowerMac?

eyoungren said:
In order to use WiFi natively on a PowerPC Mac you must have either an Airport Extreme card installed or a suitable alternative.

This is an Airport Extreme card. It came installed in most PowerBooks and PowerMacs from 2003 to 2006.

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This is a Airport Extreme/Bluetooth Combo card that is installed on later model G5s.

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This is the Runway Card that the above named Combo Card for late model G5s must fit on.

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And this is the runway card and combo card installed on a late model G5.

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As you can see, if you are missing any of this you do not have native WiFi.
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I could be wrong but all of the dual 1.8 G5s I’ve seen take a standard AirPort Extreme Card and won’t need a runway card or adapter. You will however want to get hold of the little antenna which connects at the rear of the tower.

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AphoticD said:
I could be wrong but all of the dual 1.8 G5s I’ve seen take a standard AirPort Extreme Card and won’t need a runway card or adapter. You will however want to get hold of the little antenna which connects at the rear of the tower.

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I wouldn't know. My only real experience with G5's has been a base model single processor 1.8Ghz late 2004 Mac. And then the high end Quad. My only other G5s are a 2.3 DC and a DP 2.7.

The last I have not messed with much so there is a gap of models I don't have any experience with.

As far as that T connector…I have one. Damn things are expensive so even though the 1.8Ghz SP never came with an Airport Extreme card I've kept the T connector. Still wrapped in it's plastic. :D
 
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Only the PCIe models(dual core 2.0ghz, dual core 2.3ghz, Quad 2.5ghz) use the combo AP/BT card on the runway card.

All PCI models take the standard Airport card.

As a side note, you can put a regular AP card in a PCIe machine and it will work fine. The only problem is that you're on your own to rig up an antenna as the antenna connectors on the two cards are different.
 
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bunnspecial said:
As a side note, you can put a regular AP card in a PCIe machine and it will work fine. The only problem is that you're on your own to rig up an antenna as the antenna connectors on the two cards are different.
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How do you think you'd go about doing that?
 
z970mp said:
How do you think you'd go about doing that?
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If I didn't care about how it looked, I'd take the antenna assembly from a G4 tower and snake it out one of the slots on the back.

If I did care...I'd use the cable from the bottom of an iMac G4 case that "snaps" apart and probably connect it to one of the "snap" type connectors on a small PCB. That would be a fiddly job, though, and would give poor reception if not done just right.
 
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Thanks @bunnspecial. I've been occasionally looking around for the runway and Wifi/BT card for my Dual Core 2.3Ghz, but they seem to be pretty rare and accordingly priced. I didn't even think about trying a standard Airport Extreme card.

If you wanted to use the built-in antenna (the long gray strip on the back of the Late '05 G5 tower), you could probably adapt the female MMCX (right-angle) antenna jack on the Airport Extreme card to the U.FL IPX female connection of the internal antenna.

This is a picture of a Male MMCX Right-angle to Female UF.L IPX adapter, but you'd either need a gender converting UF.L IPX lead (male-male) or chop and splice two male-female pigtail leads together with a little touch of solder and tape it up.

I can't seem to find any gender switching cables, but I imagine they probably exist.
ipx-u.fl mmcx.jpg
 
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