USB 2.0 PCI Express card in a Mac Pro

[onefish2]

My Mac Pro arrives this Friday 10-13 . I am going to need additional USB ports on the back. I know I can use a powered hub but I want a clean look and am opting for a PCI express card. I have scoured the web looking for such a card and it looks like only a handful of cards are available. Belkin makes one and that is the one I am thinking of purchasing.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=278295

Does anyone have any experience with such a card? Or can anyone make a recommendation?

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

My Mac Pro arrives this Friday 10-13 . I am going to need additional USB ports on the back. I know I can use a powered hub but I want a clean look and am opting for a PCI express card. I have scoured the web looking for such a card and it looks like only a handful of cards are available. Belkin makes one and that is the one I am thinking of purchasing.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=278295

Does anyone have any experience with such a card? Or can anyone make a recommendation?

Woah that's expensive! $90 for 4 USB ports?? Here's a slightly cheaper one on eBay for $40 although I don't know if it'd work in the Mac Pro: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PCI-EXPRESS-P...ryZ44933QQssPageNameZWD2VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Considering you can get a 7 port usb 2.0 powered hub on eBay for under $20 that does sounds incredibly expensive.

 

[laidbackliam]

i wish they'd still put regular old pci cards in macs, because, as outdated as they are, there are a lot of pci cards out there. so people wouldn't have to spend 90$ for 4 usb ports.

 

[onefish2]

I found a reputable site that has the Belkin PCIe USB card for $52.62 shipped. So that is not too bad. But it's still alot of money for a USB card.

My concern here was not necessarily the money but making sure it would work in the Mac Pro with OS X properly.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I found a reputable site that has the Belkin PCIe USB card for $52.62 shipped. So that is not too bad. But it's still alot of money for a USB card.

My concern here was not necessarily the money but making sure it would work in the Mac Pro with OS X properly.

Well a USB hub wouldn't have that problem. If you don't want an external USB hub then you could always rig up an external hub inside the case with the connectors by a PCI slot. But maybe that's just me. I can understand you wanting to keep things tidy and $52.62 isn't *that* much. Especially considering those USB ports would have more bandwidth than an external USB hub since an external hub is effectively squeezing 4+ USB signals down one line. That's fine for the likes of printers, mice, keyboards and even scanners but not fine for more than one hard drive or tv card.

 

[synth3tik]

I want more

So far I am bummed to see only a small amount of PCI-E cards, and now to hear that PCI-e 2.0 might be around the bend. I do audio production and used a PCI audio interface with my G4, now that I have a Mac Pro, I only have one option that will cost me $500

 

[techster85]

My Mac Pro arrives this Friday 10-13 . I am going to need additional USB ports on the back. I know I can use a powered hub but I want a clean look and am opting for a PCI express card. I have scoured the web looking for such a card and it looks like only a handful of cards are available. Belkin makes one and that is the one I am thinking of purchasing.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=278295

Does anyone have any experience with such a card? Or can anyone make a recommendation?

Did you buy the belkin card? Has it been working right?

 

[pcolette]

Belkin Card Works Great

I just received and installed this Belkin card (F5U252) in my Mac Pro and it works fine. Belkin does not support this card in the Mac Pro because they thought it would need drivers, but it was plug and run on the Mac. I have a Keyspan Serial Adapter plugged in to the card and connected to a Davis weather station. Works great!

 

[onefish2]

I am the OP. I received the card and it has worked flawlessly. No drivers needed.

System profiler shows the card in two places. Under PCI cards it shows up as a pci-bridge. And under USB it shows up as "unknown USB Open Host Controller card". I think I got a good deal on it from Provantage.com

BELW01Y USB 2.0 PCI Express Card 4-Ext 1-Int @ $46.67 each.

 

[techster85]

I am the OP. I received the card and it has worked flawlessly. No drivers needed.

System profiler shows the card in two places. Under PCI cards it shows up as a pci-bridge. And under USB it shows up as "unknown USB Open Host Controller card". I think I got a good deal on it from Provantage.com

BELW01Y USB 2.0 PCI Express Card 4-Ext 1-Int @ $46.67 each.

yea you got a really good deal, it costs 50 from that web site now...strange. I think i'll be picking one of those cards up in the next month.