SCSI card for G5 tower?

Question

SCSI card for G5 tower?

Does anyone know of a good, compatible, SCSI/PCI card for a G5 tower?

We have some old scanners, tape drives, etc. that are al SCSI. They were connected to an old beige G3 that finally died. Now I can't access some of my back-up tapes, nor scan.

I know Adaptec makes one, but none of the specs list OSX (or any Mac OS) as an operating system.

I need a solution, and really know nothing about PCI cards. Any thoughts?

G5

Posted on May 13, 2010 8:55 AM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 13, 2010 9:08 AM in response to SkylinPittsburgh

Depends a bit on which G5, but for a scanner, you are probably fine/better with Ratoc SCSI-2-FW adapter $90.

PCI slots are keyed for 3.3v and do not support older cards.

Some people (back in '03-04) did buy Adaptec 29160N and Apple has sometimes had native support for Adaptec, but Adapatec also stopped their 1/2 time single support person staff.

The old standbys like 2930 are out, or the 2910.

For highend, ATTO if you had SCSI drives, and a scanner, but then you are looking at serious UL4S territory.

The question use to come up a lot, but that's been... 6 yrs plus.

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Answer 2

May 13, 2010 9:25 AM in response to The hatter

It's an older G5 tower.
System profiler comes up as:
Model identifier: PowerMac 7,2
Processor Name: PowerPC 970 (2.2)
Processor speed: 2 GHz
Number of Processors: 2

Also, would a SCSI card out of an old, Blue&White G4 work?

Hate to spend $3k on a new scanner, and who knows how much on a tape drive.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

May 13, 2010 9:59 AM in response to SkylinPittsburgh

I'm sure you can pickup another Beige pretty cheap, if not free.

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Answer 4

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 13, 2010 10:01 AM in response to SkylinPittsburgh

All G5s other than maybe Quad or PCI Express are "older."

If it is $3k piece of equipment, then a Mac compatible Adaptec 29160N or even try the Ratoc. Tape and SCSI scanners are where ATTO or Adpatec makes sense. Even UL4S model.

No, the Smurf's old card won't (why not say and list WHAT) because it isn't keyed for PCI-X slots.

My old hunting ground for SCSI was GraniteDigital and MacGurus.

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Answer 5

May 13, 2010 10:24 AM in response to BDAqua

"I'm sure you can pickup another Beige pretty cheap, if not free."

Trying to reduce the number of computers, as desk space is limited. The G5 I'm using is one of our old workstations that has now been relegated to printing, back-up (already have a VXA tape drive FW'ed in), and FTP service.

Would be nice to have the older tape drives into the same computer, so when I need to pull older files for client, I don't need a separate machine to do so.

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Answer 6

May 13, 2010 10:39 AM in response to The hatter

"All G5s other than maybe Quad or PCI Express are "older."

Working at a Quad right now, which is soon to be replaced. It's served me well for 4 or 5 years now, but CS5 is forcing me to go to a MacPro. Would have never gotten this much life/productivity out of a PC though.

"If it is $3k piece of equipment, then a Mac compatible Adaptec 29160N or even try the Ratoc. Tape and SCSI scanners are where ATTO or Adpatec makes sense. Even UL4S model.

I'll try the Ratoc first. Any experiance with them?
Do you know if the ATTO UL4S or Adaptec 29160N can still be had new?

"No, the Smurf's old card won't (why not say and list WHAT) because it isn't keyed for PCI-X slots."

Because I'm not sure what the old G4 is. It's sitting on a shelf in the back warehouse - somewhere. LOL

"My old hunting ground for SCSI was GraniteDigital and MacGurus."

Thanks, I'll start searching there.

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Answer 7

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 13, 2010 11:43 AM in response to SkylinPittsburgh

If you plan to move the scanner and tape to a Mac Pro, watch for things that are going to be compatible with 2009+ Pro.

If the "G4" has Blue side panel, you'll know (I still have mine but its been dismantled finally, in its day it had an appetite for a lot of various Ultra2 and Ultra160/320 SCSI cards, it was the best way to use PCI video slot (66MHz) for faster storage. And I really wasn't keen on the state of ATA).

The Mac Pro and CS3 with support for up to 32GB claimed a lot of Quad owners. Now, with K64 you can ($$$ allowing) stuff 48GB in there and never worry about those large expensive SCSI or other scratch storage arrays. Trouble is 8-core COSTS but easier to support more than 16GB RAM.

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Answer 8

May 13, 2010 1:09 PM in response to The hatter

Hatter,

Nah, the scanner and tape drive will hopefully stay with one of the G5 towers (we have 3 of them - one Quad, and two Duals).

We're slowly replacing our main workstations with MacPros, so the G5's will be relegated to menial tasks. The Pro's will be for design, production art, and 3D work.

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Answer 9

Jon Smith

Level 4

1,390 points

May 13, 2010 8:47 PM in response to SkylinPittsburgh

If you're near the South Hills, dig my email address out of my profile and drop a line; I have both a UL3S and a UL4S you can try. They are both available used on eBay for reasonable, and still (I think) available new for unreasonable.

Jon

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Answer 10

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 14, 2010 5:04 AM in response to Jon Smith

Jon, they'd need the 4S. The UL3S/3D didn't make the 'leap' to PCI-X.

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Answer 11

Jon Smith

Level 4

1,390 points

May 14, 2010 5:50 AM in response to The hatter

Thanks. Good to know. As you can probably tell, I haven't really made that 'leap' either!
.... Jon

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Answer 12

May 14, 2010 7:12 AM in response to Jon Smith

Jon,

My office is in the 'Rocks, but I do, in fact live in the south hills.

I'd definitely be interested in trying the UL4S, as long as your willing to part with it. I'm pretty sure it will work with at least the tape drive (Sony SDT-09000).

The scanner may be tricky. It's a UMAX PowerLook 2100XL. And while it does really nice scans, everything I've read online suggests that it is very particular about SCSI cards.

I'll shoot you an email later today.

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