09-10-2007, 04:44 PM

is there a IDE PCI Card for a powermac g4

09-10-2007, 04:51 PM

There are a number of them from Sonnet alone:
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/co...l#pcipcixcards

Also, you may or may not care but some PC IDE cards will work as well. I think one of the highpoint models (I forget which) is pretty easy to coax into working on a Mac, but I can't honestly recall- I'd have to check into it.

I'd suggest getting that Sonnet Tempo Trio to be honest though... it gets you USB 2.0, a couple more firewire ports, and ATA-133 support.

09-10-2007, 08:11 PM

what is a ata-133 port?

09-10-2007, 08:26 PM

the last revision of IDE before Serial ATA was introduced. It is twice as fast as the stock G4 IDE controller, and unlike the stock G4 card, it will handle drives larger than 128GB.

09-10-2007, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by Geeky1

the last revision of IDE before Serial ATA was introduced. It is twice as fast as the stock G4 IDE controller, and unlike the stock G4 card, it will handle drives larger than 128GB.

so it is ide but faster

09-10-2007, 08:36 PM

In the last few years we have gone from ATA33, ATA66, ATA100 and at the very end just before SATA sort of took over, ATA133. It's capable of 133 Megs Per Second but with 7200RPM IDE drives you will never get that speed, but it's does not hurt to have the extra there!

The main reason for a PCI IDE card is, like Geeky1 said, support for drives larger than 128GB. It will be faster than the stock Apple chipset also.

Which powermac G4 do you own?

09-10-2007, 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by dtravis7

In the last few years we have gone from ATA33, ATA66, ATA100 and at the very end just before SATA sort of took over, ATA133. It's capable of 133 Megs Per Second but with 7200RPM IDE drives you will never get that speed, but it's does not hurt to have the extra there!

The main reason for a PCI IDE card is, like Geeky1 said, support for drives larger than 128GB. It will be faster than the stock Apple chipset also.

Which powermac G4 do you own?

i own a 733 (Digital Audio).
well a 250gb hard drive work with a pci ata-133?

09-10-2007, 10:54 PM

Yes; any drive currently on the market offered with IDE from a 40GB to a 250GB to a 1TB model will work with a PCI ATA-133 controller card.

However, I have to ask one question; do you already have the drive?

09-11-2007, 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by Geeky1

I have to ask one question; do you already have the drive?

no i'm trying to find out what i can do to get more storage

09-11-2007, 12:27 PM

I've got a G4 Sawtooth model and ran into the same problem years ago. I added an ACARD PCI card (their RAID card in my case) and have had no issues at all. Plug the card in, attach a drive and you are good to go.

http://search.ebay.com/ACARD-Mac

ACARD has been pretty good over the years at having ROM updates as needed. I'm running OS 10.4.10 with no issues at all (even using RAID). The drives have been reliable (even though they are cheap WD drives). The only problem I've had was traced back to a GeeThree Sweet Multiport. For some reason, they made the RAID drive un-bootable. No damage to the data, just un-bootable.

I've also had no issues running OS 9 with the PCI card.

Scott

Shamless plug... I still have the GeeThree Sweet Multiport sitting around if someone wants it for cheap.

09-11-2007, 03:21 PM

MrGecko: if you don't have a drive already, you have basically three options. All three are fine choices, the question comes down to what exactly you want.

Your options, as far as I can see, are:

1. Get an IDE PCI card (such as the one celica73 linked to)
   Pros
   • Cheapest option
   Cons
   • IDE is an outdated standard; it has been superseded by SATA and how much longer IDE drives will be available is sort of up in the air. I doubt they'll disappear tomorrow or within a few months, but if you want to add more storage a year or two down the road, you may very well be SOL.
2. Get an IDE + USB 2.0 + Firewire PCI card (the Sonnet Tempo Trio)
   Pros
   • Gets you USB 2.0 and additional firewire ports as well as support for more/larger hard drives
   Cons
   • Has the same problem as the IDE only card- IDE is dead. It's around, but it's dead. Sooner or later you won't be able to get IDE drives anymore.
3. Get a SATA PCI card (Sonnet Tempo SATA or something similar)
   Pros
   • SATA drives are the new standard and will be available for the forseeable future
   • New features will be applied to SATA drives- things like NCQ, larger buffers, higher rotational speeds-things that IDE drives won't get as they're phased out
   Cons
   • You may need a cheap (like, <$5) power adapter to plug some of the newer SATA drives that don't come with 4 pin power connectors into the power supply

If it were my choice, I'd go for the SATA card, since you don't have the drive already. You can always add a separate USB 2.0 card later if you need it (assuming you have a free PCI slot for it)

09-11-2007, 05:36 PM

Thanks for the help
i have two ports available so i mite get a separate usb 2.0 pci card.