[Exizl del Fuego]

Hey all, I just picked up a Rev. 1 PowerMac G3 B&W for super cheap and am intent on upgrading it and turning it into a nice server. I just picked up a 1GHz G3 upgrade, an SATA card, 1GB of RAM and an old copy of Mac OS X 10.3 Server (large HDs to come next paycheck).

Now the problem that I'm having is that the optical drive is acting finicky (This is under Mac OS 9 which came loaded on the machine). It came with a CD-ROM drive which wouldn't work, so I tried swapping it out with a DVD-R drive I had in a firewire case. The DVD drive wouldn't work either. Because I couldn't boot off CD or Firewire (not supported by firmware on these machines), I tossed the HD into the firewire case left over by the DVD drive and installed OSX onto it from my laptop. Put the HD back into the PowerMac and everything runs great. Installed all the extras and everything runs great.

And now the DVD drive sometimes works under OSX, but sometimes isn't going to cut it. I'm thinking that the IDE controller to which the optical drive is attached has gone/is going sour. I'd like to get some cheap IDE PCI card to pick up the slack. And since it's just for the optical drive, I'm not really looking for anything much in the performance area. How much luck do you think I'd have hopping over to CompUSA and picking up some generic IDE PCI card? And on a side note, how much luck do you think I'd have picking up a generic ethernet card as well (giving the PowerMac 2 ethernet ports)?

Thanks for any insights. It's been a loooooooooooooooooooooong time since I've been all techy and am feeling a bit rusty.

[mad cow disease]

You cannot pick up a generic PC NIC OR controller card, stick it in your Mac, and expect it to work.

Sorry, but it just isn't that easy.

Besides, what are you going to need TWO ethernet ports on your computer for?

[intake]

He might want to make his server into a nice firewall. You'll need two ports for that. One from the router, one back out to the network.

[Exizl del Fuego]

That's exactly right, intake. The idea is for the server to act as web server externally, and router/firewall + file/media server internally.

But it looks like I should steer clear from just any off-the-shelf components. Ah well. Thanks!

[mduell]

You'll need to find an ATA controller/NIC that says Mac compatible on the box (and the associated 100% higher price). CompUSA should have some of both.

[Exizl del Fuego]

Yay for Mac Markup, huh? Thanks for input, mduell.

[OpenStep]

Originally Posted by mad cow disease

You cannot pick up a generic PC NIC OR controller card, stick it in your Mac, and expect it to work.

Sorry, but it just isn't that easy.

Besides, what are you going to need TWO ethernet ports on your computer for?

Absolutely incorrect. See this link for a list of PC compatible NICs that work on a Mac:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/OSX/os_x_network_cards.html

[bowwowman]

The Sonnet Tempo series ATA controller cards are pNp in OS X, fast, reliable, and reasonably priced. About $75 new online or $40 on ebay

[dave49er]

I noticed someone mentioned the Sonnet ATA card. That may not work for you. From what I've heard (and by physical comparison) they appear to be rebadged Promise cards and only support hard drives. I have had several Promise cards, and it was true of them.

From Sonnets' site:
Add up to 4 internal ATA/IDE hard drives
Boots from any attached hard drive

[mad cow disease]

Originally Posted by OpenStep

Absolutely incorrect. See this link for a list of PC compatible NICs that work on a Mac:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/OSX/os_x_network_cards.html

So like I said...you can't just grab a GENERIC PC NIC and stick it in your Mac and expect it to work.

[OpenStep]

Originally Posted by mad cow disease

So like I said...you can't just grab a GENERIC PC NIC and stick it in your Mac and expect it to work.

Did you happen to click and read the link? A realtek network card is about as generic as you can get.