PCI cards from G4 to G5

jamerican

jamerican

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A couple of weeks ago I tried to upgrade my Quicksilver G4 with a dual 1GHZ processor. I had some problems so I returned the processor to the vendor and bought a refurbished 2.0GHZ G5 from the Apple Store. Suffice it to say that I am quite pleased with the new machine. However, I have some PCI cards - Firewire 400 and USB 2 - that I would like to use in the G5. Is this possible at all? The G5 comes with PCI-X and I understand the slots are different to the slots in the G4. If they are not usable, can anyone recommend any site where I might purchase a PCI-X Firewire 400 card? Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)
 
I haven't tried it, but my understanding is that the G5's PCI-X slots ARE compatible with older PCI cards.

Of course, the G5 also has BUILT IN USB 2.0 and Firewire 400...
 
Thanks for the help. I know that the G5 has built in FW400 but I find that connecting my FW devices directly to the computer is much better than daisy-chaining them. My Umax FW scanner for instance will sometimes not work in a daisy chain, and since it has only 1 FW input, it cannot be the first device in the chain. My iSight camera also needs to be connected directly to the computer for maximum efficiency. My daisy-chain now consists of 2 FW HD's, 1 CD-R/RW and 1 LaCie DVD-R/RW. I have not tested the devices as yet as I have had the computer for only 1 day. I am sharing the FW input on the front of the Mac with the iSight camera and the Umax scanner.
I will definitely try the cards that I have in the G4 with the G5. :)
 
The G5s only support PCI cards at 3.3v. Some PCI cards are 5v, and will cause damage to your G5 if you use them in there (for example, some MIDI-based cards, video-editing cards, etc.).

More than likely, your cards will work in the G5, but if you value your hardware, I would suggest double-checking that the cards are in fact 3.3v and not 5.0v PCI cards.
 
Thanks for the advice, ElDiablo. Since I don't have the packaging in which my pci FW400 cards came, is there a way to identify the card before installing it into the G5? Anything on the card itself? TIA.
 
Hmmm... well, you could look for a model number somewhere on the cards and then Google for that number, or post 'em here and we'll see what we can dig up. I don't think that the voltage will be explicitly printed on the card, but as long as we know the exact model number, I'm sure it won't be too hard to find out.
 
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