Whats so special about MAC airport???

what my question really is: is im buying a powermac and i already have a 802.11G router, now i could pay mac to install airport which is £50 or i could install a Wireless-G card myself for around £20.....is there any advantages of airport than buying say a belkin G card??

or will they both do the same job?

if there is one that will work with mac, it will do the same job as airport express

I'm not sure if the Belkin G card is compatible.
Generally speaking, the airport extreme card does exactly the same as any old wireless-G card, so any device that is compatible with OS X will do the job. (I know of USB dongles that work for example).

The router is fine, but you'd need to check if the internal card would be recognised.
I know you won't be able to install it in the airport extreme card slot though, as they are specifically Apple, so you'd need to sacrifice a PCI slot.

its just that the airport is macs own card thats all and so it will have its own slot inside so wont take up a PCI slot as mentioned but if you can live with that then go for a cheaper option

mr..nemo said:

what my question really is: is im buying a powermac and i already have a 802.11G router, now i could pay mac to install airport which is £50 or i could install a Wireless-G card myself for around £20.....is there any advantages of airport than buying say a belkin G card??

Click to expand...

If you think you'll need the PCI slots go with the airport. It leaves all three PCI slots available and you know before you open the box that it is compatable. The thing to look for in a third party 802.11g card is the broadcom chip. If it has that chipset it will be recognized by the Airport software and you won't have to install any drivers or anything it'll just work. Some manufacturers have made drivers and wireless clients for other chips, but they aren't as reliable from what I've heard. www.xlr8yourmac used to have a thread on wireless cards that were supported. You might want to check that out.

I cant see myself needing all 3 slots. im guessing the 128 graphics card doesnt take the number of spare slots down to 2pci slots available. im planing on adding a:

-TV card
- and this is the 3rd party wireless card im considering
"http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=201576&pcount=&Product_Id=184329&Section.Section_Path=%2FRoot%2FNetworking%2FWirelessNetworking%2F80211gWi%2E%2E%2Etworking%2F"

This card will match the high speed of my router. i cant think why i would need any other PCI slots for..

maybe a sound card, but im not sure how good the one is which is in the system already