Recommendations? USB 2.0 & Firewire PCI card for MDD Dual Boot G4 (1.25 Ghz

Can anyone recommend a good USB 2.0 and Firewire
combo PCI card? (at least 3 USB 2.0 ports and 2 FW)
for my G4 MDD Dual Boot- 1.25 Ghz)?
I have an Orangelink+ Micro USB 2.0/FW PCI card from
the days of OS 9- that's supposed to be USB 2.0 under
OS X, but isn't (it shows up as max 12/mbps in System
Profiler). I'd like to get an external Hard Drive and
most of them are USB 2.0 now.

Another question:
Under system profiler, it shows that I have one USB
2.0 port. I'm assuming it's an internal port, because
all of the external ports show transfer rates of
12mbps. Is this a correct assumption?
Thanks in advance for any help!

I have the same Mac. The built-in USB ports are USB 1.1, and limited to low speed.

I used to have a Orange Micro OrangeUSB USB 2.0 PCI Card in it with four external USB 2.0 ports and one internal, and high-speed USB worked in OS 9 with their special drivers. When USB 2.0 support was added to OS X, it also worked with that.

I swapped it for a SIIG FireWire 800+Hi-Speed USB Combo a while back, it has two external USB 2.0 ports, one external FireWire 800 port, one external FireWire 400 port, three internal USB 2.0 ports, and one internal FireWire 800 port. All the ports work fine in OS X, I never tried it in OS 9 but I imagine in OS 9 the USB ports will be treated as low-speed.

The only hassle with this card comes from having so many ports. Two of the internal USB ports are on a pin-out rather than a USB connector. I used a USB PCI bracket on an empty PCI slot to expose those ports externally.

I ended up getting an external FireWire 800 drive that also supports USB 2.0 so I can move it to my PC laptop. Hooking it up via FireWire 800 is not only faster than USB 2.0, but it also supplies power to the drive so I don't need the AC adapter when hooked up to the Mac.

PowerMac G4 MDD Dual 1.25GHz Mac OS X (10.4.3)

It sounds like you had the same PCI card as I do. How
did you get the USB 2.0 speeds in OS X? The ports on
my card only register as USB 1.1 (12 mbps) in OS
10.3.9. When I first installed the card and went to
install the drivers in OS X, it stated that no
drivers were needed. Unfortunately Orange Micro's out
of business now and no drivers are
available/supported.

I didn't do anything special, they just worked once whatever release came out of OS X that added USB 2.0 support.

You might be confusing USB ports (which are not listed in System Profiler), with USB buses (which are). With either the OrangeMicro or the SIIG card, system profiler shows one "USB High-Speed Bus", and that bus is connected to all of the ports on the USB PCI card.

That Mac internally has two low-speed USB buses and two USB connectors. Not all Macs from that era are like that, I think the early iMac had one low-speed USB bus but two USB connectors. Either the OranceMicro or SIIG card has two low-speed USB buses and one high-speed USB bus, but with five USB connectors.

From an old OrangeMicro FAQ:

"The OrangeUSB 2.0 Hi-Speed PCI board uses an NEC chipset that has 3 USB host controller engines on board. Two of the host controller engines handle USB 1.1 transactions. One of the host controller engines handle USB 2.0 transactions. With 5 USB connectors available on the board, data traffic is automatically routed to the proper host controller engine depending on the speed of the device that is plugged into it. This essentially creates 3 concurrent USB buses. These USB buses allow devices to run in a less congested traffic environment. This helps devices such as color printers, scanners, video cameras and mass storage devices, which require a high bandwidth, to work well together."

Hello! I would interject that you would be better off forgetting usb 2.0. Most users have come to the realization that's it's not all that much faster than firewire 400. Stick with the firewire on an external drive because the usb won't be bootable and if you decide to clone your drive for an emergency backup you're in trouble if it's not bootable. Tom

Hello Again! I just purchased a cheap OXford911 chipset ext FW case for about 30 bucks and you can pick up new 120 gig hd 7200rpm at places like Compusa for 30-50 bucks after rebates. To me the whole point is having a bootable backup. I maintain at least two at all times and even have a original install for 10.3.9 even though I'm using 10.3.6. Tom

Hi, I'm about to get this card for my Mac G4 1.25 Dual Processor Mirrored Door system running 10.4.5. Have you had any issues with the sleep mode using this PCI card? I've heard that some folks (not this card specificly) have had problems with waking from sleep, putting to sleep with some of the USB/FW PCI cards.

From your post here it sounds as if you are happy with the card and are having no issues. Just a quick response would be appreciated. I've not ordered it yet. I need the 2.0 USB ports because I'm getting the new G5 iPod and of course they've removed the ability to sync to iTunes via FW on that model.

Justin :O)

I swapped it for a SIIG FireWire 800+Hi-Speed USB
Combo a while back, it has two external USB 2.0
ports, one external FireWire 800 port, one external
FireWire 400 port, three internal USB 2.0 ports, and
one internal FireWire 800 port. All the ports work
fine in OS X, I never tried it in OS 9 but I imagine
in OS 9 the USB ports will be treated as low-speed.

The only hassle with this card comes from having so
many ports. Two of the internal USB ports are on a
pin-out rather than a USB connector. I used a USB
PCI bracket on an empty PCI slot to expose those
ports externally.

I ended up getting an external FireWire 800 drive
that also supports USB 2.0 so I can move it to my PC
laptop. Hooking it up via FireWire 800 is not only
faster than USB 2.0, but it also supplies power to
the drive so I don't need the AC adapter when hooked
up to the Mac.

PowerMac
G4 MDD Dual 1.25GHz Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Dual 1.2GHz G4 Tower Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Dual 1.2GHz G4 Tower Mac OS X (10.4.5)