Mac USB & FireWire

USB 1.1 Cards for PCI Macs

This page is outdated and will not be updated. It is here for historical purposes only, as it predates USB 2.0 by some time. Two USB PCI 2.0 cards you may want to consider are the Sonnet Allegro USB 2.0 and the ADS USB Turbo 2.0 PCI. Both have 4 external USB ports, supports Macs as far back as the Blue & White Power Mac G3 and Mac OS versions as far back as 8.6, and provide full USB 2.0 speed with every version of OS X. (Mac OS 8.x and 9.x only support USB 1.1 speeds.)

These cards let you add USB ports to PCI Power Macs and clones. Specifications are virtually identical: two USB ports, 500 mA power to each port, requires PCI Mac or clone with Mac OS 8.1 or later (8.6 or later recommended for best USB support).

All cards ship with Mac drivers or work with Apple's drivers. In cases where the card doesn't claim Mac compatibility, I am relying on feedback from Mac owners who have installed and use the cards.

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• Pismo WiFi Networking Issue Finally Solved?, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.24. It turns out the problems wasn't the Pismo, the Buffalo WiFi card, or Mac OS X 10.4. It was the Wireless G router - Linksys to the rescue!
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Recent Deals

• Best G4 iMac Deals, 11.24. Used 15" 700 MHz CD-RW, $150; 800 MHz Combo, $229; 1 GHz, $289; 17" 1.25 GHz, $200; 20" 1.25 GHz, $509.
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• Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.23. Used 867 MHz SuperDrive, $348; 1 GHz Combo, $379; SD, $519; 1.33 GHz, $529; 1.5 GHz Combo, $549; SuperDrive, $609.
• Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.23. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 4-core. $1,919; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.93 8-core, $4,999; new 2.26 8-core, $2,290.
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• Best eMac Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz Combo, $100; SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 GHz Combo, $119; SD, $319; 1.42 GHz Combo, $289; SD, $498.
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• More deals in our archive.

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