PCIe to PCI Expansion Case

Question

Level 1

10 points

PCIe to PCI Expansion Case

Hi Hatter
Would this PCI expansion case work a Macpro ? or is anyone using one with a mac ?
http://www.cooldrives.com/1popcto4xpci.html
I've trolled about on many forums but have no definative answer. re-seller to this point has not responded to Enquirey.
Cheers
Tom K

G5 Quad 2.5 & Dual 1.25 & G4 1Gig, Mac OS X (10.4.10), Kona LSe Tb's of Storage & Ram Lots of mac stuff

Posted on Mar 2, 2008 7:25 PM

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Answer 1

Fortuny

Level 7

21,461 points

Mar 2, 2008 10:01 PM in response to Tom K 7

Hi Tom K,

first time I see this product, so no real experience on my side.

Two things I find curious:
1. No mentioning of any kind of drivers, which as I think are neccessary to run that thing even on PCs (not to mention Macs).

2. "THERE IS NO RETURNS ON THIS ITEM SO MAKE SURE THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED PRIOR TO SALE!" which I find very odd for online reseller.

Proposal: Wait for a definite answer to your query to the reseller.

Stefan

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Answer 2

Tom K 7 Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 3, 2008 2:06 AM in response to Fortuny

Hello Stefan
There's another supplier of this expansion case at-
http://www.virtuavia.eu/shop/pci-express-to-pci-expansion-box-p29809.html
I have asked them if it works on a Mac, but am waiting for reply.
Cheers
Tom K

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Answer 3

Tom K 7 Author

Level 1

10 points

Apr 7, 2008 5:12 AM in response to Tom K 7

Hi Guys
I Hooked up a Startech PCIe to PCI expansion case to my new Macpro 8core, it shows up in system profiler , But, my Cardbus PCI cards in the expansion case shows they don't have "drivers" installed.
Cardbus manufacturers SIGG and Elan only supply drivers for windows boxes, Is there any info out there that may help me to find or make a Mac Driver for the Cardbus cards..
OR , is there any one else who has this set-up ?.
Cheers
Tom K

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Answer 4

Tom K 7 Author

Level 1

10 points

Apr 9, 2008 5:07 AM in response to Tom K 7

an update ,
I just posted this on another thread.--

I'm Sorry for expecting the most advanced OS to read a basic PC cardbus.
well to test a theory, I just loaded up bootcamp with XP Pro SP3 and, the expansion case works well (off my macpro intel, slot 2) , Plus the cardbus card (SIIG) is recognized and XP loaded a driver, I then loaded the Panasonic P2 Driver, re booted and then inserted a P2 card and it came up instantly on the desktop as it should, all work well n fast.

So, an old OS as XP works but newer OS 10.5.2 leopard dosen't using the same hardware configuration.

The PCIe to PCI expansion case IS a cool idea for more slots, it's just the OS that let's the operation down.
As malcolm said (Some, such as FireWire and USB cards, will not need drivers.) My firewire 800 card works OK in teh expansion case and a USB card will most likely work too.
I realise that Cardbus is old technologhy, But thats what my camera uses, so a solution must be found.
-------
Also the Elan P111 card won't work at all, it's driver is for XPpro SP1, very old and out of date.

Cheers.
Tom K

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Answer 5

Jun 28, 2008 5:28 PM in response to Tom K 7

I have a similar product ( http://virtuavia.eu/shop/pci-express-to-pci-expansion-box-p29809.html )

Yet, after i put my TC Powercore cards in, it doesn't work, although the manufacturer claims Mac compatibility. I'm on a Mac Pro Octocore 2.8GHz.

Come on Apple, this can't be so hard to solve, right?

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Answer 6

Jun 28, 2008 6:00 PM in response to johnnymartino

Which PCI-Express slot are you using on the Mac Pro? If it's in slot 2, try moving it to slot 3 or 4. Since the last firmware update, there are reports of slot 2 not working with non-PCI-e-2 cards.

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Answer 7

mbean

Level 4

1,250 points

Jun 28, 2008 9:00 PM in response to Tom K 7

Hi,
Typically, these PCI expansion boxes will work reliably with XP but NOT Mac OS X.

The reason is that PCI and PCI-X drivers were written for the PowerMac G4/G5. No one ever wrote a PCI or a PCI-X driver for the Mac Pro as it did NOT support these cards. The Mac PCIe platform is usually Intel based and the PCI/PCI-X cards are all PPC based. This difference is the reason that the PCI expansion box will not work with lots of Mac OS X drivers.

In the XP world, the same computer supports both PCI and PCIe. In the Mac world this never happened. That is the reason why the PCI expansion box is not as useful on the Mac.

Have fun!

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Answer 8

Jun 29, 2008 1:09 AM in response to mbean

Have fun?

This is dreadful information 🙂

I just hope Apple will solve this. Or maybe find some obscure Linux driver for it.

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Answer 9

Aug 21, 2008 2:21 AM in response to johnnymartino

Have you checked out the "solution" presented in this thread?

http://www.chrismilne.com/uadforums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9404&start=0&st=0&sk=t&s d=a

Apparently it works with 4x UAD-1's and Mac, so maybe the issue you might be having is due to the power supply to your PowerCore is insufficient?

Shortly after the "solution" was presented on the UAD-forum, virtuavia now have started selling these:
http://virtuavia.eu/shop/pci-e-to-pci-expansion-card-kit.html

I'm on the fence here, thinking about upgrading to a Mac Pro 8 core, but would prefer to see someone else successfully reporting back on Powercore, since I have 3 PCI-version that I want to use (and 4 UAD-1's)

Message was edited by: Joakim Fahlstrom1

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Answer 10

Tom K 7 Author

Level 1

10 points

Aug 22, 2008 8:00 PM in response to johnnymartino

Hello Jonnymartino and others,
I can Report that My PCIe To 4xPCI Expansion case works great after I did the Markus Power upgrade. The Box was useless and un useable with the factory supplied power supply.
I have set up 4 PCMCIA card readers in the Case to read my P2 Panasonic Video card files, The trick to getting Leopard to read/recognize the cards is the Drivers/Extensions in the OS, That was the most frustrating part.
Now I have this case working very well with the P2 cards , I'm now testing a Single Slot, Rear entry card solution for the Macpro, I am very close but more testing is needed.
If you buy this Expansion case , ask the supplier to not give you the power supply cause it's trash.

Cheers
Tom K

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Answer 11

Aug 23, 2008 3:07 AM in response to mbean

I have no idea where you've picked up this information. Could you please elaborate and refer to where this is stated?

Cheers
Joakim

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