Will this IDE card work?

Discussion in 'Macintosh Computers' started by Rabidjade, Oct 7, 2004.

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  1. Rabidjade, Oct 7, 2004

    Rabidjade macrumors member

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2004
    #1
    I'm moving onto my next project of getting my Umax S900 running. My first goal is changing everything from SCSI to IDE as the devices since I got plenty of IDE stuff. Now my question is I have an IDE controler card "Promise Ultra100 TX2". Will this card work with Macs? If not, where is a cheaper card located at that I can purchase. I am willing to buy used but thats for the other forum. Also if I were to have a card, would I still need to use Mac optical drives and certified hard drives or will anything work. Dumb question but I'm new to the scene.
     
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  2. cluthz, Oct 7, 2004

    cluthz macrumors 68040

    cluthz

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2004
    Location:
    Norway
    #2
    Promise haven't had much (if any) mac support.
    (I know that some scsi cards can be used with both mac and pc ex. adaptec 2906)
    I would search promises site.
    The roms on pc ata controllers are different than the macs,
    and you won't manage to boot from a drive connected thru that controller.
    SATA cards tend to be cheaper than ata card these days and can be had for about $60.
    The problem is that your computer isn't osx savvy and you have to use xpostfacto to runs osx, and i don't think sata is supported in os9.
    If you still have an internal scsi I would try to install osx on that hd and have your files and apps on the ata/sata disk you'll buy.

    Also remember if you still have your orignal cpu in the s900 (604 or 604e) then you are limited to use 10.1, if you have upgraded your cpu to G3 or G4 you can use 10.2 and if you have upgraded BOTH your cpu and videocard to atleast Rage 128 you can install 10.3

    I would check out the xpostfacto forum on OWC , look aroud this site and you'll also find prices on ATA and SATA cards.

    If you plan to stick with OS9, then be sure to find a card that is os9 supported. If you want to get osx be sure to have atleast 256 MB ram
    128 mb ram can be bougt for $16 for your computerhttp://eshop.macsales.com/Item_Specials.cfm?ID=6454&Item=OWC5MD128MBE2
     
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  3. Rabidjade, Oct 7, 2004

    Rabidjade thread starter macrumors member

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2004
    #3
    My S900 has 512mb of ram and has a G3 333mhz card. I have numerous ATA drives so thats why I wanted to go down that path. SATA isn't cost productive for me at the moment. A newer video card is comming sometime down the road as the one in it now is a factory one with 8mb of memory. I also have a 9011/150 with a G3 300mhz card in it which might undergo the same treatment.

    OSX has issues with the scsi controlers on the S900 systems and i figured I could go with a new cdrom and hard drive if I got the IDE card.
     
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  4. cluthz, Oct 7, 2004

    cluthz macrumors 68040

    cluthz

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2004
    Location:
    Norway
    #4
    Well i would go with ata controller then,
    Anyway i used to own a s900 and that machine had 3 controllers,
    two scsi 50 pins onboard and one 64 pins UWscsi card.
    I dont think its applies to all the controllers.
    I had to install osx from an old external Apple 600e cdrom, beacuse
    osx would install from the internal (which was a pioneer 36x scsi).

    Lowendmac has a page dedicated to install osx on a s900:
    http://www.lowendmac.com/supermacs/xinstall.html

     
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