Upgrading a G4 with PC components

[Ian Goddard]

Hey, I know this is going to sound like heresy, but I have a G4 800 mhz, 40 GB hard drive, with a CD drive running Mac OSX 10.3.9

I also have a selection of PC's that I no longer use that have various size ATA hard drives as well as DVD units.

It seems, from what I read, that I could install these types of drives in the G4?

Any hardware hackers out there? I'd appreciate some advise.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

ATA drives are ATA drives -- there is no "Mac" hard drive or "PC" hard drive, so you're good-to-go there.

DVD drives are the same, with one exception: being able to burn media on them via Apple's iLife software requires drivers. Mac OS X includes drivers for many, many DVD/CD drives, but in case yours isn't immediately supported, you can always resort to a piece of software called "Patchburn" that'll allow many unsupported CD/DVD drives to work properly in a Mac. Even without the Patchburn software, your DVD/CD drive should function normally -- you just wouldn't be able to natively burn DVDs and CDs through Apple's software like iTunes and iDVD.

 

[Satcomer]

If you ever want to "hardware hack" a Mac, never be cocky because someone in the world has already tried what you want to do. Just mosey over Accelerate Your Macintosh and use their Database menu item to go to the drive search lasso, then plug in you information. However be as general as you can be when plugging in your information, you will get more results.

 

[nixgeek]

One other thing to note: NEVER flash a PC video card for use on a Mac unless you KNOW that said video card can handle it. Most video cards now are either for PC or for Mac depending on the firmware. The PC video cards' firmware tend to be smaller in size compared to the ones that work on the Mac, so flashing a PC video card with Mac firmware will cause problems because of the lack of space on the PC video card for the Mac firmware. However, companies like ATI are starting to ship video cards that support both platforms right out of the box without having to flash it yourself.

Best thing to do is check with the manufacturer and use a card that is officially supported on the Mac. It will save you time, money, and lots of headaches in the long run.

 

[umati]

DVD drives are the same, with one exception: being able to burn media on them via Apple's iLife software requires drivers. Mac OS X includes drivers for many, many DVD/CD drives, but in case yours isn't immediately supported, you can always resort to a piece of software called "Patchburn" that'll allow many unsupported CD/DVD drives to work properly in a Mac. Even without the Patchburn software, your DVD/CD drive should function normally -- you just wouldn't be able to natively burn DVDs and CDs through Apple's software like iTunes and iDVD.

This sounds good -- that only iLife is affected by lack of drivers. So any random PC dvd-rw drive will work with something like Toast then, even without any drivers? What about burning via the Finder, and burning disk images with Disk Utility? Still no drivers required?

 

[DeltaMac]

This sounds good -- that only iLife is affected by lack of drivers. So any random PC dvd-rw drive will work with something like Toast then, even without any drivers? What about burning via the Finder, and burning disk images with Disk Utility? Still no drivers required?

That would be 'maybe'
Some burners will work immediately without any software needed, especially if you are using Tiger 10.4 or newer. Some may not work without software, but the Patchburn software will (probably) get normally unsupported drives to work (for most uses)