Compatable Parts?

G

GotMac?

Guest
Just a quick question here for you mac pros. i am still fairly new to the insides of the mac and just had a couple quick questions.

i want to phase out my pc, and i already have a powermac g4 that will be getting a good amount of upgrades, but i was wondering if i could put anything from my pc into my mac, like my exspensive sound card or my radeon 9700 pro, or my dvd burner. i don't see why it would not work, but i do not want to break anything in the mac or ruin my video or sound card.

The video card is AGP and the mac has AGP and the sound is PCI and the mac has PCI....

Any help on this would be awesome, thanks alot
 
OP
M

meltbanana314

Guest
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt it will work. ATI makes two different versions of their video cards - ones for Wintel users, and the others for Macs. They wouldn't do that if the parts were interchangeable between platforms. Ditto for the soundcard and dvd burner, probably. (Though it would help if you told me what brands and models they are so I can be sure.)

OS X has support for a narrow range of hardware, which is why it works. Focusing on a certain pieces or hardware (usually the graphics and soundcards that come with the machine on purchase) and writing excellent drivers for them is better than the Windows way of supporting every piece of obscure hardware with shoddy drivers that half work.
 
OP
V

VictoryRose

Guest
meltbanana314 said:
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt it will work. ATI makes two different versions of their video cards - ones for Wintel users, and the others for Macs. They wouldn't do that if the parts were interchangeable between platforms. Ditto for the soundcard and dvd burner, probably. (Though it would help if you told me what brands and models they are so I can be sure.)

OS X has support for a narrow range of hardware, which is why it works. Focusing on a certain pieces or hardware (usually the graphics and soundcards that come with the machine on purchase) and writing excellent drivers for them is better than the Windows way of supporting every piece of obscure hardware with shoddy drivers that half work.

i think you're right melt, but i have heard of people flashing their video cards with a different firmware and then putting them into macs. while the number of cards that this can be done on is limited, even if you did have a flashable card, it's not a highly recommended practice.
 
OP
G

GotMac?

Guest
My sound card is a sound blaster audigy platinum 2 and the dvd burner is a sony dual RW drive
 
OP
M

meltbanana314

Guest
No offical sound card drivers, sorry mate. Creative Labs ain't a great company to buy from.

Can you give me an *exact* model number on the DVD burner? I've heard of people trying to kludge together 3rd party DVD burner support on OS X, so at least maybe I can point you in the right direction.
 
OP
G

GotMac?

Guest
couldn't i just put the burner in and use toast? i don't know the exact model number, sorry, guess i will just buy a super drive from apple.
 

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