A couple of questions before I jump |
November, 12, 2002 1:47 AM |
stuffcorp |
I'm preparing to install OS X for the first time. It's been a while since I've used my PowerTower, and for personal and business reasons it now makes sense to turn back to my "old reliable." I've got my copy of Jaguar. I've got the latest version of XPostFacto. I think I'm ready, but I'd like to check with the forum to assure myself, *before I spend any more money* what hardware is likely to work, and what I'm probably going to end up buying. The PTP has a PowerLogix G3/375 upgrade card a PowerLogix RapidFire/USB card an Adaptec 2940UW card (I've heard that it's probably incompatible) an IXMicro TwinTurbo128 video card (will this work in OS X???) 256 Meg of RAM a 9 GB (well, 8.something) IBM UW SCSI drive a 9 GB (again, 8.something) Western Digital UW SCSI drive a 1 GB Apple HD (made by IBM) a Philips SCSI CD-ROM drive a S????? (I don't remember) SCSI CD-ROM drive an internal SCSI JAZ drive an internal SCSI zip drive The 2 9GB drives are connected to the 2940 card, the 1 GB drive is the only device on the "fast" internal 50 pin SCSI chain, and I have all the rest of the drives on the "slow" external chain, via the internal 50 pin connection. Now, I'm scrounging for a copy of Intech's H.D.S.T. (if I can't find a copy soon, I'm gonna buy it). But in the meantime, I'm worried that I need a PCI Radeon card to replace the TwinTurbo, and that I'll need to find myself another SCSI UW card, or track down some 68-50 adapters to link the UW drives to the fast 50 pin bus on the motherboard (which I am loathe to do, as it means a 50% speed decrease). The questions I have are: 1. Do I need a new video card? 2. Does Jaguar(10.2) have support for the 2940 card, or will I need to replace it? 3. Is Intech's H.D.S.T. the only option for successful formatting? (I have trouble swallowing the concept of paying $60 just to format my hard drive.) 4. Since 9.1 is on the IBM UW drive, I'm looking to leave that alone and put OS X on the Western Digital drive. I understand that you can put classic on the same partition as OS X. Is there any reason to partition the WD drive to separate OS X and classic? 5. Is the 8 GB limit enforced on SCSI drives too, or just on ATA drives? 6. Do I install classic after installing OS X? Thanks a bunch, --Casey _______________________ Charles (Casey) Goodwin stuffcorp@hotmail.com |
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RE: A couple of questions before I jump |
November, 12, 2002 7:39 PM |
mjoecups358 |
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The 2940UW might work, but it WON't boot. I had two of these, one would work fine and show drives, the other caused a kernal panic on boot. Neither would work as a boot drive. I use the IXmicro twin turbo, so I agree with the other posts that should be cool. My PTP now has the Acard 66 IDE card with a 60 gig maxtor 7200RPM drive $175 TOTAL). I also have the Macally USB/FW combo card and ATTO Express PCI PSC UW scsi card (pull from a beige G3). Original Radeon PCI too. Pretty spiffy for 7 year old HW. It's a G4/450 by the way. Super reliable, and kinda speedy for an old piece of shit. Marty |
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RE: A couple of questions before I jump |
November, 12, 2002 4:31 PM |
marcush |
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I also have a Power Tower Pro but w/G4 800. Most ATA cards will appear to the Mac as SCSI cards, so the 8GB limitation won't stop you. I say most because I think some of the latest Sonnet ATA cards may appear as IDE interfaces. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I have an Acard ATA 100 card installed, and I'm booting off of a Wester Digital 80GB Special edition 7200rpm drive. It has a 20Gig partition for OSX 10.2.1, a partition for OS 9.2.2, one for OS 9.1, a partition for Classic, and a 50GB partition for data. I also have an IBM 120GXP 120GB 7200rpm drive jumpered as a slave device. On the other channel of the card is an IDE Toshiba SD-R1202 DVD/CD-RW drive. I've heard that 2940UWs shipped with Apple systems still work. I have a retail 2940 that I've never tried with OSX. Initio cards will work and so will the ATTO UL2D according to some. I have all 3 cards but have decided to move away from SCSI except in my Linux boxes. The Twin Turbo will work as stated but I don't think it is accelerated, so the GUI will be slow if not. An ATI Rage Pro or Rage 128 may be the best options for acceptable video performance at a low price point. |
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RE: A couple of questions before I jump |
November, 12, 2002 1:55 PM |
stuffcorp |
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Thanks will. Since the video card should work, I'll ignore that for now. In terms of the SCSI card, then, I have to consider 2 things... First, from what I've read, I'm pretty sure the 2940 is NOT gonna work. And since I want to boot from the UW drive into OS X, it looks like the OWC ATTO card is out of the question (machine is a PTP). What with the WD drive requiring me to buy Intech's H.D.S.T. to use it, that's 2 strikes against the SCSI path. I happen to have a 60GB ATA100 drive sitting around (was for a new server... but this is more important). So, if I consider the ATA card path, I only have to buy 1 thing, and I get more HD space to boot (no pun intended). OS X on the first (8 GB) partition, then 2 or 3 more partitions for OS 9, Classic, and who knows what else. Sounds like a decent idea. Is anybody with a PTP w/G3-upgrade booting flawlessly in OS 9 and OS X from a PCI ATA card? Also, how's the experience with Asante PCI ethernet cards under OS 9 and X? I'm looking for a slightly faster (Gigabit) connection... the PTP's built in 10base-t is convienent to have, but is too slow for large file transfers. --Casey _______________________ Charles (Casey) Goodwin stuffcorp@hotmail.com |
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RE: A couple of questions before I jump |
November, 12, 2002 2:47 AM |
willschou1 |
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I'm not going to try and answer all your question but will answer a few. The Twin Turbo Video card works fine in OSX. A few people who think you have to have the lastest 32mb Video card will laugh at that but so what...it works. Apple drive setup will format your drives just fine in most cases. There are a few mostly older SCSI drives it doesn't work with.Some older Western Digital drives are on that list :-( Intech's Hard drive speedtools is a fine product but few people need it.You format the drives from OS 9.1 using drive setup not from the OSX CD. The 8gb limit doesn't effect SCSI drives just IDE/ATA on some/most machines.Classic can be installed first or last from within OSX or not. I recommend a separate partition for Classic. It makes life easier when problems need to be fixed.I run OSX 10.2.2 as of today full time and I no longer even have a classic setup. I do have OS 9.1 and mostly boot into it to archive my email once a week. I'm surprised how much I like OSX but it it take Jaguar and getting my older printer to work. I belive the 2940 card will work but someone else can answer that. I am too lazy to look it up ;-) Best of luck |
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