Additional SATA drives on powermac

[bigblackfalco]

Hi, and hello to all

This is my first post here.....just hoping that posting in the right section?!

 

I'm looking for some info on putting some more internal SATA HD's into my G5 Powermac (1.8mhz) model.

I've already got 2 HD's in the slots provided, but have seen 2 vendors who make a special 3 HD housing to fit inside the original housing.

I've been looking at SATA PCI-X cards that are compatible with MAC OS X, but must confess it's all a bit confusing for me, especially as I've never really looked at RAID.

 

Can you explain what I need to look out for.

What is the difference between PCI and PCI-X?

Do I need to get a card that supports 32 bit/64Mhz or 64 bit/133Mhz?

 

I notice that there is OSX support from 'Silicon Image' for cards with their chipsets. Anyone got experience with this??

Likewise with Highpoint PCI-X cards

 

Are there any other cards I should look at?

 

Your help is needed!

Cheers

Bailey.

[cbreaker]

I couldn't say what cards would work with OSX. You'll have to dig deeper into that one. Generally speaking, the Silicon Image RAID controllers are usually not supported in a RAID configuration on MacOS. These cards are not really RAID cards at all; they leave it to the software driver to actually perform RAID functions. Because of that, they're no faster doing RAID then if you did RAID with the operating system's software RAID. For true hardware RAID, you'll have to spend a little bit more money. Apparently there's a 3Ware card that works with MacOS.

 

About PCI/PCIe/PCI-X, well, you'll have to get what your board can support. It shouldn't matter what interface you use as long as there's a driver for MacOS.

 

PCI is Peripheral Component Interconnect. Any PCI card you get will work in any PCI slot (as a general rule.) All PCI slots are 32-bit and support 33Mhz but some slots support 66Mhz (usually only found in servers.)

 

PCI-X is a 64-bit PCI slot that is backwards compatible with PCI. The slot has an extension on it. Generally speaking, PCI-X cards will work in both a normal 32-bit PCI slot (albiet slower) and a 64-bit slot. Almost no PC's have these slots - only high end workstations and most servers have these slots. It's pretty expensive all around.

 

PCIe is PCI Express. It's called PCI because to the computer's operating system, the cards look like normal PCI cards. However, the slots are completely different and are not compatible with PCI or PCI-X. They use a serial-bus that is generally much faster then old PCI. There's different types of PCIe - based on the number of "lanes." Each PCIe lane is theoretically capable of speeds nearly twice as fast as PCI, and multiple lanes can be used at the same time - thus the "PCIe x4" designation would mean four PCIe lanes, making the available bandwidth approximately 1GB/sec. A video card typically wants x16, or 16 lanes of bandwidth, whereas a gigabit ethernet card would only require x4.

 

PCIe is cheaper to manufacture (less pins, less traces on the motherboards) and is capable of being faster and more reliable then PCI. It's quickly replacing PCI and PCI-X, as well as AGP (PCIe x16 is capable of nearly twice the bandwidth of AGP 8x, and can do that speed in both directions - no sidebanding.)

 

Hope that helps clarify things.

[bigblackfalco]

I couldn't say what cards would work with OSX. You'll have to dig deeper into that one. Generally speaking, the Silicon Image RAID controllers are usually not supported in a RAID configuration on MacOS. These cards are not really RAID cards at all; they leave it to the software driver to actually perform RAID functions. Because of that, they're no faster doing RAID then if you did RAID with the operating system's software RAID. For true hardware RAID, you'll have to spend a little bit more money. Apparently there's a 3Ware card that works with MacOS.

 

About PCI/PCIe/PCI-X, well, you'll have to get what your board can support. It shouldn't matter what interface you use as long as there's a driver for MacOS.

 

PCI is Peripheral Component Interconnect. Any PCI card you get will work in any PCI slot (as a general rule.) All PCI slots are 32-bit and support 33Mhz but some slots support 66Mhz (usually only found in servers.)

 

PCI-X is a 64-bit PCI slot that is backwards compatible with PCI. The slot has an extension on it. Generally speaking, PCI-X cards will work in both a normal 32-bit PCI slot (albiet slower) and a 64-bit slot. Almost no PC's have these slots - only high end workstations and most servers have these slots. It's pretty expensive all around.

 

PCIe is PCI Express. It's called PCI because to the computer's operating system, the cards look like normal PCI cards. However, the slots are completely different and are not compatible with PCI or PCI-X. They use a serial-bus that is generally much faster then old PCI. There's different types of PCIe - based on the number of "lanes." Each PCIe lane is theoretically capable of speeds nearly twice as fast as PCI, and multiple lanes can be used at the same time - thus the "PCIe x4" designation would mean four PCIe lanes, making the available bandwidth approximately 1GB/sec. A video card typically wants x16, or 16 lanes of bandwidth, whereas a gigabit ethernet card would only require x4.

 

PCIe is cheaper to manufacture (less pins, less traces on the motherboards) and is capable of being faster and more reliable then PCI. It's quickly replacing PCI and PCI-X, as well as AGP (PCIe x16 is capable of nearly twice the bandwidth of AGP 8x, and can do that speed in both directions - no sidebanding.)

 

Hope that helps clarify things.

Cheers for that. I knew that PCI express wasn't compatible with my unit. I guess using RAID isn't the main issue here, but having more storage is a must.

I will keep you informed.

Bailey.