[Leia's Right Bun]

I am looking to buy my sister a 10 Gig iPod and a PCI Firewire card for christmas.

What I am worried about is if it will work properly with a beige G3 tower 266.

Does the firewire card work with an iPod meaning does it provide power?

Do the firewire cards need drivers or do they just work?

Will iTunes and the iPod sync ok even though it is only 266 MHz?

Thanks for your help.

[Gene Jockey]

Originally posted by Leia's Right Bun:
I am looking to buy my sister a 10 Gig iPod and a PCI Firewire card for christmas.

What I am worried about is if it will work properly with a beige G3 tower 266.

Does the firewire card work with an iPod meaning does it provide power?

Do the firewire cards need drivers or do they just work?

Will iTunes and the iPod sync ok even though it is only 266 MHz?

Thanks for your help.

Well, I have a 300 Mhz desktop beige, and I have a FireWire card in it. Works fine. It's just some off-brand one I got on line for $20. I just plugged it in and started up and it worked under X. No drivers, no nothing. Syncs my iPod just fine; that was the main reason I bought it actually, as all my music is on my G3 now having outgrown the 30 gig drive in my TiBook. Just go to PriceWatch and search for a cheap 1394 card. Good luck...

--Josh

[Gene Jockey]

Edit: dammit, that's the first time I hit "Reply" instead of "Edit".

[Socially Awkward Solo]

What brand is it? Do you know if it will provide power to firewire ports though?

[Gene Jockey]

Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
What brand is it? Do you know if it will provide power to firewire ports though?

I'll do you one better:

http://store.yahoo.com/akidacomputer/lucchipfirie.html

Yes, it provides power. Charges the iPod, runs my CDRW drive. Works like a champ. And as you'll see in the pic, it has three external ports and one internal. What you'd use the internal for is beyond me, but hey. Sorry I was too lazy to just look through my e-mail for the link the first time. Cheers...

--J

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Hmm, thanks for the help. I just hope 266MHz is enough though.

[icruise]

I doubt that the speed of the machine is a factor -- my old 9600 powermac (233mhz non-G3) was able to capture DV video without dropping frames. The ipod doesn't have to have that kind of throughput so it should be even easier for her machine to cope with.

I assume she is running an OS that is capable of using the right versions of Itunes etc?

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

Originally posted by Gene Jockey:

What you'd use the internal for is beyond me, but hey.

For hooking up to front panel case ports- on PCs.

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Originally posted by CRASH HARDDRIVE:


For hooking up to front panel case ports- on PCs.

Actually, it was for internal firewire hard drives. Problem was nobody was using them so Apple removed that plug from later computers.

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:


Actually, it was for internal firewire hard drives. Problem was nobody was using them so Apple removed that plug from later computers.

No, Apple has nothing what-so-ever to do with the design of a third party Firewire card. Many makes of them have the internal plug- certainly Apple has no say in 'removing them' from manufacturers' designs. They are there because PC cases commonly use front panel Firewire ports yet don't usually have Firewire other than with PCI cards. (third party cards are made primarily for PCs- most Macs have FW built in).

Not quite sure what you're talking about about any actual 'internal Firewire' drive, there never has been any such thing. People do use internal Firewire bridge boards hooked up to components on occasion though.

[icruise]

I think you guys are confusing two different things. Some Powermacs did (and may still?) have one internal firewire port on the motherboard, although few people use it. I'm not sure what the purpose was, but I have heard of people using to hook up an internal drive to the firewire bus, and at least one guy used it to make a docking station for his iPod (so you could plug it into a space he made in an empty drive bay).

I think Crash is right about the port on the third-party firewire card, although it could conceivably be used for the same things.

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Originally posted by Icruise:
I think you guys are confusing two different things. Some Powermacs did (and may still?) have one internal firewire port on the motherboard, although few people use it. I'm not sure what the purpose was, but I have heard of people using to hook up an internal drive to the firewire bus, and at least one guy used it to make a docking station for his iPod (so you could plug it into a space he made in an empty drive bay).

Ya that is what I was talking about. Apple had them for a while but pulled them.

I was thinking that internal plug on the Firewire card was for an internal drive. I know Apple has nothing to do with 3rd party designs.

[Eug]

Originally posted by CRASH HARDDRIVE:


For hooking up to front panel case ports- on PCs.

True, but when I went looking for a front panel thingy, all of the inexpensive ones only worked with external ports. You couldn't plug into the internal port. Stoopid.

The only other use I could see for it is if you're out of PCI slots and IDE connectors, you could conceivably buy a Firewire-IDE bridgeboard and use it internally with another hard drive.

Anyways, I'm using a cheapie Iwill Firewire card with my PC. It's based off a VIA 1394 chip.

[-Q-]

I ended up putting an Orange Micro USB/Firewire card in my Beige G3 and it's worked almost flawlessly (if something is plugged into the firewire bus and powered up, it won't allow the mac to boot up oddly enough).

I've been running a CD burner, iPod and hard drive on the bus and it's worked great...

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Originally posted by -Q-:
I ended up putting an Orange Micro USB/Firewire card in my Beige G3 and it's worked almost flawlessly (if something is plugged into the firewire bus and powered up, it won't allow the mac to boot up oddly enough).

Note to self, do not buy an Orange Mico.

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

Originally posted by Eug:
True, but when I went looking for a front panel thingy, all of the inexpensive ones only worked with external ports. You couldn't plug into the internal port. Stoopid.

The only other use I could see for it is if you're out of PCI slots and IDE connectors, you could conceivably buy a Firewire-IDE bridgeboard and use it internally with another hard drive.

Yeah, that's true, some of the cheapie ones bundle all the cables (USB, serial, whatever else is on the panel) together and put them outside the comp through a PCI slot or other opening. I've run into that. It is a pretty dumb design as far as the firewire. All they would have to do is leave the Firewire connector out of the bundle with the other cords, so it could remain inside the machine. I've found models that allow this. Particularly now with USB 2.0 ports as well, PCI cards often have an inside port.

Internal bridge boards with drives are actually a great idea. I've found a system that works particularly well using a bridge board in conjunction with the outer ports. Bridge boards have two FW ports usually. I have one PC that has a CD-RW hooked up to a FW bridge, and connected to the internal FW card. The second connector is hooked up to the outer case port in front. I can of course use the burner with the host PC, but the bonus is, I can dismount it through Windows, and then plug any other computer into the front panel port, and that computer is using the 'internal' CD-RW as if it were an external device. It works beautifully. Often times this way, I use the CD-RW in my PC, with my Macs. There's sort of a switch board of firewire cables from differnt machines that can reach the front ports and use the burner. It beats having yet another external taking up space and gives the internal drive much greater function.

[Macola]

Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:


Note to self, do not buy an Orange Mico.

I have a Western Digital card that I used in a beige G3/266 desktop and recently moved to a beige G3/300 tower. It's worked fine in both machines.