Usb 2 Card for G4 Xserve - Macintosh Garden

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2012, July 31 - 7:48pm

max1zzz

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Usb 2 Card for G4 Xserve

Hey, i am looking to get a usb 2 card for my G4 Xserve (Orig DP model, pci-x slots, running osx server 10.5.8 ) since two of my external hard drives are usb and usb 1.1 speeds suck. I tried two via based cards, both of which are a no go (card is seen by osx, but no attached devices work) and a card with a new NEC chipset (which prevented the server from powering on). I was advised by protocol7 that i need a card with a NEC chipset, so i guess a older one will work (but i have seen a post else ware that suggests this may not be the case)

So does anyone know of a card which will work in my xserve?

thanks
max1zzz

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2012, July 31 - 8:59pm

devils_advisor

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Joined: 2012 Jul 9

sonnet has a few for ppc. pci/pci x cards even firewire on some.

2012, July 31 - 9:07pm

max1zzz

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hmm, took a look at sonnet, they don't list the Xserve as a supported model, emailed their support and will see if they can confirm if they are compatible

2012, July 31 - 9:16pm

(Reply to #3) #4

devils_advisor

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you can go to the support site and download the manuals/pdf and check it out even if they dont say it ... any pci/pci-x mac is fine thats what i understood. my concern was how far down i can go in form of g3's but i believe you are in good hands with sonnet. on the other hand dont you have usb on that machine ? if so get a 4-way and hook all the other things to the 4-way never do that with the harddrive i did that once and the speed isnt very good besides the problems.
btw you got only 1 port for that as far as i know the other should be useless for that kind of expansion. at least mine has only a 2 slot riser card with 1 pci slot i think

add: i just looked at it make sure it is a card for a 66mhz 32 bit slot

2012, July 31 - 9:26pm

max1zzz

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Ok, sonnet support confirmed it should work.
And yeah, it has usb built in, but it's usb 1.1 which sucks for hard drives.
And i have 3 pci slots, a single slot, and a dual slot riser. I have two spare slots (well 1, but who needs a video card in a server)

2012, July 31 - 9:29pm

(Reply to #5) #6

devils_advisor

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Joined: 2012 Jul 9

found this

Andy Henson

I ordered and received the Sonnet Allegro USB 2.0 PCI card and have installed it in my Dual G5 XServe. For the first 24hrs I only plugged in the one "critical" (and intermittently unstable) device. The following day I moved a USB webcam from the hub to the Allegro card. The day after I moved the other device to the Allegro card and disconnected the hub entirely. No glitches to report at this time.

My experience: the Sonnet Allegro USB 2.0 PCI card is compatible with the Dual G5 XServe PCI-X in the lower slot. My upper slot contains ATI Radeon 7000 (64mb) graphics card. This setup yields a total of 6 external (2 builtin, 4 on card) USB ports and 1 internal USB port.

2012, July 31 - 9:37pm

max1zzz

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ahh, thanks, seems it'll cost me £23 for the card. A little expensive, but worth it i think

2012, July 31 - 9:38pm

(Reply to #7) #8

devils_advisor

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expensive ? i know the difference between dollar and pound but i would pay way more for that card here or even import it from china

2012, July 31 - 9:54pm

max1zzz

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last usb card i brought cost me less than £5, and some usb + firewire cards i had for the hackintosh server (which don't work in the Xserve i should add) cost me £3.50 each

2012, July 31 - 9:55pm

(Reply to #9) #10

devils_advisor

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i think all their stuff is a little pricey

2012, July 31 - 9:57pm

#11

max1zzz

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yeah, but sonnet is probably better quality, so is probably worth it

2012, July 31 - 10:01pm

(Reply to #11) #12

devils_advisor

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their products are dedicated mac. have a look at their history they made cpu upgrade cards for many power macs (performa's and so on) and now they still produce some good expansions

2012, July 31 - 10:09pm

#13

max1zzz

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Yeah, i have a 1.2Ghz sonnet encore cpu upgrade in my QS G4, runs very well even pushes the spec up enough to run osx leopard (it was a 733mhz originally)

2012, July 31 - 10:12pm

(Reply to #13) #14

devils_advisor

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beige g3 up to 1.1 ghz if you get a cpu upgrade somewhere
im amazed how much potential still in these machines is even 3d and video stuff

2012, July 31 - 11:43pm

#15

MikeTomTom

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I was advised by protocol7 that i need a card with a NEC chipset, so i guess a older one will work (but i have seen a post else ware that suggests this may not be the case)

It must be chipset "NEC D720101GJ".

2012, August 1 - 11:31am

#16

max1zzz

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hmm... yes that's pretty much what was on the non working nec card, the exact one is "NEC D720101F1

2012, August 1 - 11:38am

(Reply to #16) #17

MikeTomTom

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Joined: 2009 Dec 7

hmm... yes that's pretty much what was on the non working nec card, the exact one is "NEC D720101F1

Heck, that is nothing like chipset "NEC D720101GJ" You need to see that trailing GJ on the end there.