I just got a free G4 iMac 800 Mhz, and was hoping to use it to replace the G4 400 PowerMac I'm currently using. The one thing I forgot was that I had to buy a USB 2.0 card for the PowerMac and the iMac only has USB 1. I could swap all my USB 2 externals for FireWire ones, but that seems silly. Other than buying some type of network or FireWire storage appliance, I'm out of luck aren't I? Thanks -
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G4 iMac as iTunes server
- Thread starter iowamensan
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RIght now I have a G4 PowerMac in the basement with about 2 TB of external drives that stream movies and music to the Apple TV in my living room. I thought that the iMac would look a bit cleaner (getting rid of the CRT), but USB 1 wouldn't be fast enough to stream video, would it? And there isn't any type of FireWire to USB 2 adapter? One of my drives is FireWire, but the rest are USB 2.
Here's my guide. Too lazy to make a hyperlink, so here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/760268/.
Thanks for the info, but I guess I should have been more clear. I already have an iTunes server - the 400 MHz PowerMac. I was wanting to replace that with the G4 iMac, but my original question should have read - is there any way to get USB 2 speeds on a G4 iMac? Some sort of FireWire-USB adapter or something?
There are adapters for FW/USB, but they're hard to find and don't always work. However, USB 2 and USB 1.1 are backwards compatible, so you can use the iMac that way.
I'd just stick with the PowerMac, if you can.