Newer Mac for old HD2 Accel PCI cards? PCI fits PCIx?
 

My studio has been in cold storage for a couple of years (long story.) Anyway I'm trying to bring it back to life now and my trusty old G4 AGP is just not going to cut it anymore. I have the HD2 Accel cards which I believe (but am not sure) are PCI (not PCIe or PCIx. I assume this as they've been serving in the old G4 which is PCI) I'd like to get the most powerful recent-era tower that will accommodate these cards, in order to avoid having to buy new cards. FWIW I have the 192i/o. So a few questions:

1)How can I tell if my HD2 Accel cards are PCI 1.0 or 2.0 / 33MHz vs 66MHz? Or something else?

2)Will these HD2 Accel cards work in A PCI-x slot? I believe I read somewhere that a 66MHz PCI card will work in a PCI-x slot but that might be rubbish for all I know.

If the PCI cards will fit into PCIx slots, would that mean I might be able to use them with the late 2004 G5's that had : "three open full-length PCI-X slots: one 133MHz, 64-bit slot and two 100MHz, 64-bit slots?" Or not.


3)At the end of the day, which newer mac would house them with the least hassle? If I must find a computer with 33MHz PCI slots I think my best bet would be the Early 2005 G5M9747 Dual 2.0GHz.


I'm a bit confused, so help will be greatly appreciated!

Re: Newer Mac for old HD2 Accel PCI cards? PCI fits PCIx?
 

. . . see Digidesign's Compatibility "HD" section for "PPC Macs" found on Digidesign.com Support. Here is a link to the right page. . Note the "See Below" comment on some models. You don't have to worry about bus speeds etc. . . just follow the guide. In your case, the HD PCI-X cards you have will work in all the Macs listed on the top of the page. . .

Re: Newer Mac for old HD2 Accel PCI cards? PCI fits PCIx?
 

Thanks for the link.

I believe that the cards I have aren't PCI-x cards, however. I bought them in early 2005 and I thought that they're just regular PCI cards. I'm assuming this because they've been living in a 1999 G4 AGP mac which as far as I can tell is just an old school PCI machine. Not sure how to tell with certainty, though.

Some of the models mentioned in the link as being compatible, such as the M9457, have "Three open full-length PCI-X slots: one 133MHz, 64-bit slot and two 100MHz, 64-bit slots" This is the one I'm most confused about:

Will PCI cards work in those PCI-X slots? If so, great!



The other compatible models mentioned have either: "Three open full-length 33MHz, 64-bit PCI slots" I suppose that's the same spec as the computer they're in now, so should be okay.

The other spec mentioned is: "3 PCI slots (Slots 2&3 64-bit, 100 MHz; Slot 4 64-bit, 133 MHz)" I'm guessing the cards would work in that config. also?

Thanks.

Re: Newer Mac for old HD2 Accel PCI cards? PCI fits PCIx?
 

The HD PCI cards you have are prior to the PCI-Express cards. . . The PCI (Non Express) card type, regardless of HD Core, HD Accel or HD Process cards, will all fit the same computer bus types such as the G4 Power Macs (which are PCI) and most of the G5s (with PCI-X slots). However not all G4's were tested/qualified for HD cards and there is a late model G5 that is PCI-Express. There is no need to worry about bus speeds, bus bit width, etc. . . just read the Compatibility docs carefully for the correct Mac computers. . . then you can not go wrong.

Re: Newer Mac for old HD2 Accel PCI cards? PCI fits PCIx?
 

That clears things up. Thanks much, HowardK.

Now that I'm going to make a big hardware change, what's the best method to back up the work I have? Should I just copy my entire master disc to an external firewire drive? I want to do this correctly so I don't lose my work.

perhaps a new thread is in order? I searched "backup" but got a million unrelated threads.

Thanks!

Re: Newer Mac for old HD2 Accel PCI cards? PCI fits PCIx?
 

Yes.

Back everything up on an external - twice - then copy that to another external - then burn it all to DVDs - you can't go wrong.

I'm serious.