Add PCI Express to your PowerPC Mac

With the magic touch of a Broadcom™ PEX 8112 chip fastened onto a generic adapter, a PowerPC era Mac can function with an additional range of devices.
Broadcom article/website: docs.broadcom.com/doc/12351805
Music: • [no copyright music] '...

[@xPLAYnOfficial]

A lot of people don't know that PCI Express is both backwards and forwards compatible, however it's actually baked into the standard from day one and was made that way 100% intentionally. From the perspective of the computer it's just a regular PCI card and that adapter uses one of the bridge chips you would commonly see on graphics cards during that transition era. As long as it will work in terms of the software and drivers electrically it's going to just work without issue.

[@supericecreamsandwich]

Very interesting, it's always good to know little bits like this.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

PCIe is also latency and delay tolerant, which allows you to do things like plugging a x16 card on a x1 slot and it will still work despite the limited lanes and speed.

[@xPLAYnOfficial]

@@BrunodeSouzaLino that's not latency or delay that's bandwidth but yes it is very tolerant depending on the card. Plenty of cards are actually not tolerant at all

[@raphi_sch]

In fact, a lot of PCIe SCSI card are PCI SCSI card with a PCIe TO PCI adapter.

[@lookitsahorner]

Very cool! I didn't even know these existed, let alone they would work on older PowerPC systems. Please, please replace that old purple n' green PRAM battery though. Save sadness and a cleanup job in the future. Replacements are cheap on eBay.

[@supericecreamsandwich]

On it! Thank you

[@Rok_Satanas]

Don't use electrostatic bags as insulation layer, because they can be conductive

[@supericecreamsandwich]

Noted for next time!

[@BK2Modder]

Thanks for exploring this! I love these adapters, they've been especially nice since they dropped to an average of $20 give or take for adding PCIe slots to various devices

[@supericecreamsandwich]

Indeed! Love it when niche hardware drops in price/depreciates in value, even better that they make many of these so it's attainable. It's worth doing a followup video on this sometime to see what other devices can work. I'm determined to get a different PCIe msata AHCI card or another form of PCIe SSD storage and boot off of it.

[@amdintelxsniperx]

what i want is a pcix 64 card to pcie as that would give us just over a gig of bandwidth to play with

[@supericecreamsandwich]

I just found out today there's a StarMax PCI-X to PCIe v1.0 x4 adapter out there, it exists! www.startech.com/en-us/cards-adapters/pcix1pex4

[@amdintelxsniperx]

@@supericecreamsandwich yess should do the theoretical 1gbps transfer rate that the 64bit PCI x slots can output .

[@robsquared2]

Now I can finally install that 4090 in my 1999 mac! (sarcasm)

[@greggv8]

Try an PCIe x1 USB 3.0 card. There are PCI-X to PCI Express adapters that get you an x4 connection for much better speed, but they weren't cheap new, may be difficult to find now.

[@QuinsTechCorner]

I really like the pace of this video, and that tech is so cool. Shame you can’t boot from the “PCI bridge”.

[@supericecreamsandwich]

I truly believe this was more of a reflection of the OWC PCIe SSD, it has trouble booting in a Mac Pro 1,1/2,1, and I have to even manually select it in a Mac Pro 3,1, doesn't show up on when holding down option key. It's worth exploring this subject in a second video with a new range of devices!

[@djksfhakhaks]

But will it run doom? The adapter I mean.

[@FSK1138]

WOW !!!! i am going to look in to this for a old HP server with 2 pci slots ? BTW: have you tried running more than one of these adapters at the same time ?

[@supericecreamsandwich]

I've yet to test this with multiple adapters at a time, although I can imagine some use cases. Currently I have one permanently in the DP 2.0 G5 since it's a low-power high-speed way of adding lots of additional storage. Feels less practical as a GPU interface when AGP runs faster.. but I can imagine a same branded AGP + PCIe GPU running at the same time wouldn't be so bad.

[@vladislavkaras491]

Darn, I did not know those adapters existed! Thanks for the video!

[@supericecreamsandwich]

I'm happy to have made a video you could watch and enjoy about it!

[@Mainyehc]

Wait, did you replace the og PowerMac G4’s ridged handles with the plain, solid ones from the Quicksilver/Windtunnel model? 🤔

[@supericecreamsandwich]

Yessir! Did it to this computer years ago.

[@mizsilver]

I wonder how well some of this stuff works under a compatible Linux or NetBSD. It might be worth following up on, though this is definitely not practical for anything bigger than a half-height card.

[@supericecreamsandwich]

Currently trying linux out, would like to have at least something working before making a video and putting it up. Live CD's (such as Ubuntu 14.04 and Adelie Linux 1.0) produce no new results outside of currently supported hardware, next up I'll try some OS installs. Even an old PC GPU would look cool running off a G4!

[@robertchamberlin2362]

Awesome video thanks for the info I didnt know they had this adapter I need to get one!!!!

[@supericecreamsandwich]

Absolutely! Look up "PCI to PCI Express x16 Conversion card" on ebay, they're roughly $26 or so, making this cost effective. Gotta test out more stuff with this. Last time I shared an ebay link, youtube removed it.

[@MirelRC]

Very cool and relaxing video.

[@supericecreamsandwich]

Thank you!

[@readtedium]

I love stuff like this. Great work.

[@readtedium]

Oh, you should definitely try this on a Linux build as well-if you compile Debian SID, you might be able to get some of the devices that didn’t work on OSX to work.

[@supericecreamsandwich]

Thank you!

[@MCBuilder]

Very cool channel! Keep going man!!

[@supericecreamsandwich]

Thank you kindly sir! Getting back at it after being gone since 2017/18.

[@2mikedean]

clover might help you make the nvme drive bootable. i used clover for the boot drive in my dell precision m4800. it works great.

[@doq]

Clover doesn't exist for PowerPCs; it's a UEFI implementation for Intel machines only.

[@sakakaw]

@supericecreamsandwich hi!! nice work with this adapter!! i want to ask you if you have tried in an intel mac pro 2009, cuz i have a macpro 4.1 flashed to 5.1 with a amd radeon rx 6600 xt flashed for mac. thank you for your time!

[@supericecreamsandwich]

This adapter is meant for older computers, a Mac Pro 4,1/5,1 already has PCIe. That's a good GPU for the Mac too, an RX 6600.

[@user-pz6ph1hj2u]

I couldn't tell...did the Mac Pro ATI GPU work?

[@supericecreamsandwich]

Unfortunately not.. it allowed the public file sharing server to be accessed after boot.. yet somehow wouldn't initialize remote access. Odd. The intel card definitely caused unusual things to happen.

[@user-pz6ph1hj2u]

@@supericecreamsandwich I'm confused. What does the GPU have to do with file sharing or remote access?

[@supericecreamsandwich]

@@user-pz6ph1hj2u When the Intel Mac GPU is plugged in, there is no video output. I had VNC sharing enabled prior, to see the desktop remotely in the event of the computer successfully booting without video. In this case, when attempting to view the desktop, I'm unable to, unlike in the case of when the PC GPU is plugged in. I mentioned remote access because it's interesting to observe how the OS successfully booted and it's filesystem is accessible, yet, no video output or screen sharing works specifically when a Mac intel GPU is plugged in. It shows the card has an affect on the computer's/OS's behavior.

[@user-pz6ph1hj2u]

@@supericecreamsandwich got it. Thanks! I don't know why I didn't realize before when you said Intel, you meant the card out of a Mac Pro that has an Intel CPU, not an Intel card. Which doesn't make sense because as far as I know Intel only makes igpus and not cards anyway. This is super disappointing because I have plenty of those cards and I have plenty of G3 and G4 machines with PCI slots that would love to have one of those cards installed. Did you ever try flashing that other card to verify that it works flashed? It seems like it's an almost sure thing, but I'd love to know. Even more I'd love to know if it would work in OS 9, even though it would have only very basic acceleration at best. But at least it could drive a much larger display with millions of colors. Thank you so much for doing this video! This is fantastic content.

[@virtualtools_3021]

@@user-pz6ph1hj2u Intel does make gpu's once again, ARC series graphics cards, but idk if they'd work even in a modern intel mac, let alone a powerpc.

[@TheRadmin1724]

1:39 you defeated the fun of the G5s: LOUD FANS

[@supericecreamsandwich]

G5's are for sure not the quietest machine. I did have the side cover off.. the new fans take away the high pitch whirring sound G5's typically have. It sounds about the same right now as a Mac Pro 1,1-3,1 with all it's fans on 1500-1700 RPM with the side cover/panels on.

[@super-turbo]

Insane! 😮 How the GPUs performs? 😮

[@supericecreamsandwich]

Performance is hard to gauge, could be a topic for another video. When booting up the screen freezes then redraws (like it did in the video to my surprise). Sometimes especially if other PCI devices are plugged in, but this stops after logging in.

[@iliketurtles50000]

4090 💀

[@dkhl02]

Es gastar pólvora en gallinazo

[@yuan.pingchen3056]

Why stay with PowerPC Macs, do you want to develop PlayStation 3 games or are you actually a PowerPC instruction set enthusiast?

[@supericecreamsandwich]

I have a few computers I really like to work on, and some happen to be PowerPC. I'm an enthusiast of all sorts of vintage Macs, especially the 2000's PPC era, but would like to branch out to different things over time. I have some intel Macs I'd like to make videos about too.

[@Whizard72]

PowerPC Macs are for the dumpster.