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Crimson · Mar 1, 2009, 01:06 PM

I'm dreaming... of an affordable SATA-card for my meager GigE - what are the alternatives? Are any of them el cheapo PC-cards flashable for mac? I don't need RAID or any fancy stuff, just to get some more life to my mac...

Crimson · 09:02 AM

http://www.halvathinnat.fi/magento/a...rive-card.html

Dunno if this is flashable, maybe I'll try it one day... It's based on Sil3112-chip, and mainly I'm wondering if Wiebetech's TCS1-1/TCS2-0 firmware would go into it.

mduell · Mar 3, 2009, 07:08 PM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816124004

reader50 · Mar 3, 2009, 09:06 PM

That card is one I've been watching the comments on. It looks to be Mac-compatible up to 10.5.1, including on PowerMac G5s. Silicon Image hasn't updated their drivers for later Leopard versions.

However, the OP has a PowerMac G4 with PCI slots - the linked card is PCIe.

Crimson · Mar 4, 2009, 11:52 AM

mduell: that would be affordable one, although it's PCIe as reader50 pointed out. SI doesn't seem to have any mac drivers online anymore...

mduell · Mar 4, 2009, 07:43 PM

Yea I can't really see blowing the $65 for the Sonnet card on a boat anchor like that.

Crimson · Mar 5, 2009, 02:24 PM

mduell: excuse me? Some of us just cannot shell out dough for all the latest gear there is. Besides, as I live in finland, and I do not have a credit card, newegg etc is out of question. Oh, that said Sonnet would likely cost 100 euros here. I know I have an old mac here, so don't come rubbing it into my face!

reader50 · Mar 5, 2009, 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by Crimson

SI doesn't seem to have any mac drivers online anymore...

Silicon Image still offers their Mac drivers. Get them here by selecting the chipset the product is based on. Choose "Driver" then "Mac OS X".

The problem is they haven't updated their Mac drivers since late 2007 or so. They work in Tiger, and Leopard up to 10.5.1 ... as of 10.5.2, the SI drivers are either unreliable or just don't work. SI's response so far has been to add a disclaimer to the driver descriptions, suggesting you bug the enclosure- or hard drive- manufacturer about why SI's driver doesn't work any more.

Crimson · Mar 6, 2009, 10:09 AM

Aye, noted that thingie about enclosures. I'm actually planning on adding internal drives. Oh, cannot seem to find 3112-drivers for mac there, 3124 OTOH has drivers.

mduell · Mar 6, 2009, 04:15 PM

It's no slight against you, it's just hard to justify blowing $50+ on a computer that's worth $150.

Crimson · Mar 7, 2009, 03:30 PM

That way thinking, yes. But that's why I'm after a flashable card at around 20$

Besides, I bought this mac a year ago for 80 euros... Added RAM from my sawtooth, which I thought had fried AGP, which turned out to be misflashed R8500, which I reflashed later and sold for 30 euros (had bought it several years earlier for 35 euros...) If only I had enough money, I'd go for a G5 at least. Well, maybe later. Next thing is a new PSU, or rather, a new PSU cover. This machine runs way too hot now. 1.4GHz Giga upgrade, 2 HDD's and Radeon 9800Pro with Zalman's passive cooling - 120mm fan on the PSU would help to cool things down.

Crimson · Mar 10, 2009, 10:57 PM

Found a heads-up on another finnish forum - One ~20$ is indeed flashable, with deep-sleep and booting possible.

reader50 · Mar 11, 2009, 04:28 PM

Please post details - other people are likely to be interested at that price point.

Crimson · Mar 13, 2009, 12:04 PM

Ok, here's a brief cap from finnish: The card is based on Sil3152, the markings are:
Sil3512ECTU128
QK0429.1-1
0638
AD03AX2

It's from www.verkkokauppa.com (the current card there is not the same - they're based on SIL 3112ACT144)
Wiebetech's flasher recognizes it:
card found pci1095,6512
and flashes it:
firmware updated pci1095,6512 at B1 ROM-SST

Non-working:
Sil3512CT128
Q60585.1112
0327
0.3
Which is recognized too:
card found pci1095,3512
but the flash fails:
ERROR unsupported ROM found on the card.

No other information currently.