XServe G4 - HD Mod

Question

XServe G4 - HD Mod

I just got an XServe G4, and I am looking to do a couple things to it, and I am looking for some feedback.

I was considering buying some empty drive sleds, mounting SATA hard drives in them, and putting a SATA controller card in the open PCI slot. My problem is, there doesn't appear to be any standard 4-pin molex connectors in the machine.

Has anyone had any experience with anything like this?

If this isn't possible I think I might just get a couple eSATA enclosures.

XServe G4 Dual 1GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jan 22, 2009 12:15 PM

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Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

58,599 points

Jan 22, 2009 1:17 PM in response to infinitemobius

Good luck with that.

I was considering buying some empty drive sleds

There's no (official) source for empty sleds. Apple only sell them pre-populated with drives.

mounting SATA hard drives in them

The XServe G4 uses ATA, not SATA drives - the wiring on the drive module only supports ATA.

and putting a SATA controller card in the open PCI slot

OK - I guess you're planning on running your own SATA cables inside the enclosure? hmmm.

there doesn't appear to be any standard 4-pin molex connectors in the machine.

XServe G4 predates SATA by several years, so there never was any expectation of running SATA in the XServe G4.

The big question really is what do you expect to gain through all this? What's wrong with good old ATA drives in this machine?

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Answer 2

Jan 23, 2009 10:30 AM in response to Camelot

XServe G4 predates SATA by several years, so there never was any expectation of running SATA in the XServe G4.

The big question really is what do you expect to gain through all this? What's wrong with good old ATA drives in this machine?

Well, I have 3 TB in SATA drives that I want to move out of my Windows box into the XServe. I think the real issue is power for the drives. I won't have an issue getting the sata interface to them. I guess there is room in the sleds to adapt the 4 pin molex to SATA.

Will Leopard server have any issues with booting off of a SATA drive?

This almost makes me wonder if I should just get a G5 XServe - I have heard they are much quieter as well.

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Answer 3

Camelot

Level 9

58,599 points

Jan 23, 2009 5:18 PM in response to infinitemobius

Will Leopard server have any issues with booting off of a SATA drive?

That depends on whether the SATA card you get for the drives supports booting or not (some of them don't since they require a driver to be loaded by the OS)

This almost makes me wonder if I should just get a G5 XServe - I have heard they are much quieter as well.

You could do that. You could also just get a few ATA drives and drop them into the XServe G4 - probably a cheaper option than buying another server, too.

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