Finding a compatible Ultra ATA/133 PCI controller card

[grizdawg]

I'm new to the forum and am interested in getting a functioning copy of OS 9.2.2 running on my Sawtooth G4 (I upgraded the processor to a single 2 ghz years ago, but I think it was originally a 400 or 450 mhz). My goals are to have my copy of Cubase VST/32 5.1 working again, and I'd love to be able to do some OS 9 and earlier vintage gaming.

I'm happy with my OS X 4.11 install and the software I have for that. I'd rather not mess with backing it up and partitioning for an OS 9 install if I can avoid it, so I'd like to set OS 9 up on a new drive connected through an Ultra ATA controller PCI card, which also sets me up for additional storage in the future.

Finding a zippy ATA/133 hard drive is no problem, since they can be formatted however you like. I'm having difficulty finding a controller card that I know will work, since there seems to be an ocean of used PCI's out there in eBay-land. This is new to me, and though I'm savvy enough to follow instructions installing parts into my G4, I feel like there's some basic principles I'm lacking in knowledge of PCI hardware, and I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the forums I've searched through for answers.

I'm sure the answer is complicated, but here are my questions: There are so many Ultra ATA IDE PCI cards out there. Which ones work for my Sawtooth? Do I need to get one being sold specifically for Mac? Will I benefit from an ATA/133 hard drive and card since it's going into a PCI slot, even though the system ATAs are at 66?

Any advice and/or recommendations would be appreciated!

[refinery]

you want a card that either comes with a mac rom ($$$) or one that can be flashed with a mac rom. if you dont have the experience or feel comfortable with flashing, its often to best just keep an eye on ebay and wait for a compatible card to pop up. Most of the ones you will see will be either Sonnet, ACARD, or Firmtek/Seritek, but there are others as well.
the question you have to ask yourself is, how badly do you want to learn it and what is your time worth? flashing can sometimes be a pain so for some, its usually more advantageous to just wait till one pops up that is plug-and-play. do you have all the necessary related tools like a PC you can use? Its usually necessary for this kind of work. Its something to consider for these things as a sort of potential hidden cost in time and money if you dont already have those things around to use.

Sawtooths are not particularly picky like certain other generations, in regards to what kinds of cards you can put in them. They'll work with most anything. The bus of the add-on card will function independently of the on-board ATA bus, so there's no problems there with using the full speed of any card you put in the expansion slots.

personally in this day and age I dont recommend people bother with traditional hard drives unless there's going to be a lot of data involved. if you're going to do the work of tracking down and potentially flashing a card, its better to go for the more modern SATA alternative as that gives you a lot more flexibility now and down the line with what drives you can use since ATA drives arent even made anymore. OS9 is not so large that it needs a terabyte drive for installation and most small capacity SSDs are more than enough for a classic machine and will give you a big performance boost not just because of the higher throughput but also the higher IO operation counts (simultaneous read/writes). Dont even bother with hardware RAID cards. they're proverbial needle in a haystack cards in 2020.

[grizdawg]

This was very helpful, thanks!

I wasn't set on an Ultra ATA, and was more looking in the interest of cost, thinking the proliferation of PCIs for PC meant I'd find a decent price on one that works for Mac. No big deal. I'm happy to take the SATA route, since I already found a reasonably priced OS 9 compatible PCI there. I could potentially just clone my OS X over to the SATA and build an OS 9 system on my original ATA hard drive (reformatting with the OS 9 drivers), but an OS 9 compatible SATA PCI will give me options either way.

I expect I'll have more questions along the way and will pour through this forum before (hopefully not) asking a stupid one.