On Feb 2, 2009, at 10:13 PM, Eric Volker wrote: > I also tried getting a Delta 410 into my G5, but the slots weren't > keyed properly. As far as I can tell, it's because the Delta is a 5V > card, whereas the Powermac G5 is keyed to accept only 3.3V cards. Can > anyone here verify that? I believe I have a PCI rev 2.3 Powermac > (rather than PCI-X), but I'm not 100% sure.
I have a dual 2.3 GHz G5 and it's been a slight pain with the PCI slots. I too was unsure of what they are, and figuring it out was the biggest pain. I'm confident they're called "PCI-X" which means "PCI eXtended", they're basically like normal PCI slots with an "eXended" section beyond the standard length. The newer Macs have "PCI-e" which are sometimes also referred to (incorrectly) as PCIx or PCI-X or PCIe which means "PCI Express". These come in a variety of lengths and are totally different than standard PCI slots. PCI-X are extended 64-bit slots that are keyed 3.3v only. This rules out all 5v standard PCI cards, but any 3.3v or universal PCI card will work, in addition to all PCI-X cards (kinda rare). Just today I needed a couple more USB ports and thought I'd stick a standard PCI 1394/USB2 combo card into my G5, but no, it was keyed 5v. I looked on eBay and most PCI cards sold now are universal (meaning they have both 5v and 3.3v keyways and auto adjust). I've used numerous other standard PCI cards in my G5, as well as several PCI-X cards, and todays combo card was the first 5v only card I've encountered that wouldn't work. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
