Jaime Ignacio wrote: > Hi guys, I've seen a couple of articles around the web about turning a > PowerMacg4 into a servicable NAS but I have a particular problem where I > live in Hong Kong and getting parts that are compatible with older macs > is a real headache (especially if you don't speak Cantonese). > > I was just wondering what suggestions people have with regards to parts > I should get... whether I should go the IDE or SATA PCI card route, etc? > > The current configuartaion of my old PowerMac G4 is as follows: > PowerMac G4 Gigabit Ethernet > 400Mhz single processor > 1GB ram > 40GB HDD > 1x DVD-rom drive > stock ATI Rage Pro graphics card (i think! it has both VGA and ADC > connections on it) > OS X 10.4.11 Tiger
I have a PM G4 GE, 533 MHz, single CPU, 768 Mb RAM with Tiger as a server. It has a 120Gb HD boot disk, 750 Gb and 1 Tb SATA drives and a SATA PCI controller (I don't recall the brand off hand). The large drives are for storing video files. In addition to being an AppleShare server (using the normal Tiger service, not OS X Server) it is also a database, DNS and DHCP server. It all works quite well. It is hooked up to a Giga bit switch but it doesn't have many gigabit capable machines connected to it (most of the machines with gigabit are laptops connected via WiFi). > > There is currently only the 1 HDD, but the screw to hold the HDD frame > to the bottom of the case is missing, and there is no alternate frame > next to it. The drive bracket right next to the IDE connector usually is U shaped and can hold two drives. There are two more drive mounting plates next to it. > > Ideally I'd like to have a TB or more of storage inside, and I know that > I have to use an add-in card but I wasn't sure if any old PCI card would > do (do they need specific mac drivers? etc). It does have to be Mac specific. Generally speaking drive controllers and video cards have to be machine specific as they have boot code that must run before drivers can be loaded off disk. > > The PowerMac is currently standing on the floor next to my 22" ViewSonic > LCD TV, connected by the VGA cable, I'd like to be able to use it as > both my main media server, serving music, photos, etc to my white > MacBook, as well as watching the occassional HD movie/television episode > on my tv. It's currently quite noisy, even though I've tried my best to > clear dust out from inside it... It's not fast enough for adequate video playback. I sometimes use a 500MHz Sawtooth G4 for video playback and it works but it's kind of jumpy. My 800MHz Quicksilver can pretty much handle it though. I use a 1.4 GHz Mac Mini connected to my LCD TV for playing back movies (stored on the GE server). It works well at playback although I do keep the video resolution low (1024x768). It also has a TV encoder and it can't quite keep up doing simultaneous recording and playback (playback suffers). -- Clark Martin Redwood City, CA, USA Macintosh / Internet Consulting "I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway" --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
