[X4U] OT: using old tower Mac as a Firewire case?

[Philip J Robar]

On Dec 10, 2006, at 10:07 AM, Michael Elliott wrote:

> As I was scouting eBay today, I noticed that old G3 Blue/White (and  
> even older beige) tower Macs with on-board firewire were going  
> pretty cheap.
>
> I know that if I mount a Mac as a Firewire device at startup that  
> all of the attached devices to it will also mount on the host  
> computer.
>
> I was wondering if anyone could comment on the plausibility of  
> purchasing a beatup G3 (specifically Blue and White), pulling out  
> the CD-ROM and/or Zip drive, putting IDE drives in all the slots,  
> and then restarting the computer with the command-T (or just T) key  
> held down, and then connecting to my Intel iMac by Firewire cable?   
> That way, I would still have a large case with a fan, and one power  
> supply/power cord to worry about.

The Firewire in B&W Macs is buggy. I don't remember the details, but I  
that's why I have a separate card in mine. A little research at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com 
  or http://www.lowendmacs.com will probably provide details. The 1st  
rev. motherboards also have defective IDE controllers, again details  
can be found at xlr8yourmac.com. Stick with revision 2 motherboard AGP  
machines (aka Sawtooths) or newer. (Rev. 1 boards don't support dual  
processors if you ever want to upgrade it.)

Phil