Powermac G4 and ATX conversion : Revisited
This issue has been raised before. However I do need more answers. Sorry about that. Most forums cover adequately how to connect and splice the wires. They do not cover the connection of molex connectors from the ATX to the Mac drives etc. Do I assume that these connectors will carry the necessary load and the Mac will function ? I am aware that ADC displays will not work but about the Firewire 400 or any SCSI devices like Adaptec cards.
Any assistance welcome.
The molex connectors on the ATX supply will connect to your various drives without modification just as they would with the stock supply.
No problems with Adaptec or other PCI cards. They don't use the +28V line so they'll work fine.
Never used Firewire on my converted MDD, so can't comment on that.
Thnks for the reassurance. I have also been told that FireWire devices with their own power supply should work as they aren't dependent on the Mac for power. Hope it's some use for other prospective PPC users.
The PCI Firewire cards I've had had four pins on the card to attach a mini-molex power connector in case you wanted to power a device through the card using one of the PSU's molex connectors (the ATX's floppy connector size). I've got a Formac TV/AV box hooked up to a bare PCI Firewire card with no PSU molex attached to the card and the device draws power without an external supply, but it probably doesn't need a lot of power.
Here's a couple links for the conversion threads:
http://www.applefritter.com/node/23054
http://www.applefritter.com/node/19551
Eeun's MDD ATX conversion story is another good one.
The Firewire PCI card with a molex male connector is an interesting concept. If I hook a spare and unused molex connector with 2 outlets [P4 & P5] - from the Powermac G4 - to that PCI card, will it give me enough power to drive 2 HDD's ? Just a thought ! The ATX 400w unit has only one set of molex connectors.
The reason the ADC monitor doesn't work with the ATX conversion is that the ADC monitor requires 25 volts. Nothing else uses that voltage so ADC monitors are the only thing affected.