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Resolved Runway card
- Thread starter bjar
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Just the runway card itself? Not the actual modules?
If so, yes. But people know it's a necessary part and price gouge.
Actually it is the card plus the module. Seems like an alright deal, considering it is the only one I have ever come across.
Yeah then. That's a little high IMO, but not excessive.
As these things are rare, I'd buy it if you have the means.
True. I thought about that, but my wife looked in my office closet the other day and asked why I needed 6 old macs (2 quick silvers, 2 fw800, one MDD, and the g5). Think I might have a problem. I justified the duplicate machines saying one was for parts, but now she wants me to sell them or give them to goodwill. I want to actually use the g5 but want to have Bluetooth. I have a dongle but doesn’t work the way I want it to (can’t wake from sleep with mouse). Anyway, I bought the runway card, I got the g5 for free so it’s all good.
Currently d-link dbt-120 for Bluetooth. No WiFi at the moment until I get the runway card and bt/WiFi module. What I bought is a complete Bluetooth/WiFi upgrade kit for the 2005 g5. Includes runway card, module, and screws.
Not wanting to pay the outrageous prices the runway cars usually sell for, when I bought my first PCIe G5 I bought a mini-PCIe Airport card out of a somewhat later MBP(I think an MBP 3,1 or 4,1) and then a Mini-PCIe to PCIe adapter card. There are adapter cards specifically made for this purpose that have the "snap" antenna leads to connect to the WiFi card, and then have an external coax connection on the faceplate of the card for you to fit your own antenna.
This isn't QUITE as elegant of a solution as using the built in Runway card, especially since it only gives you Airport and not Bluetooth. On the other hand, in my case I found that my G5 is far enough away from my router at home that the additional flexibility offered by being able to use my own antenna-a "standard length" antenna such as you'd find on a router was normally fine, but I was able to boost my signals a lot by using a nice 12" long antenna on its own base that allows a wide range of motion of the antenna for optimum positioning.
In any case, I went through a few cards, and found that the ones made by Broadcom(p/n starting in B) worked perfectly and were recognized natively in Tiger and Leopard as Airport cards. Atheros cards(p/n starting in A) were a bit more hit-or-miss. The card itself should be under $20 on Ebay, and the mini-PCIe to PCIe adapter card is under $10, or possibly even less if you don't mind waiting on it to arrive from China.
The initial set-up I used followed me from a dual core 2.0 to my first Quad, where it remains. I've since acquired a few other Quads with factory cards, but wouldn't pay the prices needed these days to get them.
One additional alternative if you don't need Bluetooth is to acquire an Apple Airport Extreme card, such as is used in earlier G5s and a handful of other PPC Desktops(late iMac G4s, late eMacs, FW800 G4 MDDs). These will fit right where the Runway card fits and work fine. The BIG caveat with these, though, is that the antenna connectors in the PCIe G5 won't fit this card directly. You'll either need to fabricate an adapter or otherwise rig a secondary antenna.
This isn't QUITE as elegant of a solution as using the built in Runway card, especially since it only gives you Airport and not Bluetooth. On the other hand, in my case I found that my G5 is far enough away from my router at home that the additional flexibility offered by being able to use my own antenna-a "standard length" antenna such as you'd find on a router was normally fine, but I was able to boost my signals a lot by using a nice 12" long antenna on its own base that allows a wide range of motion of the antenna for optimum positioning.
In any case, I went through a few cards, and found that the ones made by Broadcom(p/n starting in B) worked perfectly and were recognized natively in Tiger and Leopard as Airport cards. Atheros cards(p/n starting in A) were a bit more hit-or-miss. The card itself should be under $20 on Ebay, and the mini-PCIe to PCIe adapter card is under $10, or possibly even less if you don't mind waiting on it to arrive from China.
The initial set-up I used followed me from a dual core 2.0 to my first Quad, where it remains. I've since acquired a few other Quads with factory cards, but wouldn't pay the prices needed these days to get them.
One additional alternative if you don't need Bluetooth is to acquire an Apple Airport Extreme card, such as is used in earlier G5s and a handful of other PPC Desktops(late iMac G4s, late eMacs, FW800 G4 MDDs). These will fit right where the Runway card fits and work fine. The BIG caveat with these, though, is that the antenna connectors in the PCIe G5 won't fit this card directly. You'll either need to fabricate an adapter or otherwise rig a secondary antenna.
Yeah, I am aware of all of the other options. I am probably not the only one here that wants these things to be complete and exactly how apple intended. I got the g5 for free so I feel like my $100 add on is justified.
Absolutely, when there are good alternatives, it is wasteful to spend that much amount of cash on a single PCB. But hey, it's your wallet to set fire to, light it up like the fourth of July!
Forgive me for outlining the alternatives to the runway card-my impression was that the OP was complaining about the price of it...
It’s cool. Someone else could come and learn something. The information is still useful.
mild edits:
yes, they can often be picked up for half that if you're in a hurry, or for almost free if you're patient (sometimes even with the runway card fitted)
double yes, considering above
All in my opinion of course, you're welcome to other ones, and just because it's crazy doesn't mean it's bad, I've paid crazy money for some things I really wanted before, I'm happy with my choices
yes, they can often be picked up for half that if you're in a hurry, or for almost free if you're patient (sometimes even with the runway card fitted)
double yes, considering above
All in my opinion of course, you're welcome to other ones, and just because it's crazy doesn't mean it's bad, I've paid crazy money for some things I really wanted before, I'm happy with my choices
Yup, I am happy with my purchase. That is all that really matters right?mild edits:
yes, they can often be picked up for half that if you're in a hurry, or for almost free if you're patient (sometimes even with the runway card fitted)
double yes, considering above
All in my opinion of course, you're welcome to other ones, and just because it's crazy doesn't mean it's bad, I've paid crazy money for some things I really wanted before, I'm happy with my choices
All these other solutions spoken to AFTER you buy the card. Murphy’s law right?
And then you get roasted for it. Oh well, tweenies with no money have nothing better to do than jealously roast those who do & openly spend it
Ok joshing aside, if you’re happy with the purchase, then right on. I am a fan of keeping my money (aka I’m cheap) so I think I’d look to see if I can return it & go for Ben’s fix, But that’s me.
In regards to the wife, strategy is everything. She’s not mad at the macs, but you overtaking over her storage space - a space that she would otherwise fill with fluffy comforters & nice smelling soaps. Put one of those PMG4s in the garage. Why? Schematics, music & ifixit research of course. Run another headless as a fileserver in the attic or shed. There’s two down. If you have kiddos, an eMac or imacG3 are great edutainment Boxes that will survive a nuclear blast & sticky fingered curious toddlers. Stick one or two in their room. Size is important as a mini or stack of PowerBooks is waaay less noticeable than a stack of power macs. Might consider trading a few towers in for some cool portables or minis. Then you can point to how you’ve streamlined your man cave foot print. I have NO idea what Ben is going to do when he ties the knot.
Happy wife happy life, friends.
And then you get roasted for it. Oh well, tweenies with no money have nothing better to do than jealously roast those who do & openly spend it
Ok joshing aside, if you’re happy with the purchase, then right on. I am a fan of keeping my money (aka I’m cheap) so I think I’d look to see if I can return it & go for Ben’s fix, But that’s me.
In regards to the wife, strategy is everything. She’s not mad at the macs, but you overtaking over her storage space - a space that she would otherwise fill with fluffy comforters & nice smelling soaps. Put one of those PMG4s in the garage. Why? Schematics, music & ifixit research of course. Run another headless as a fileserver in the attic or shed. There’s two down. If you have kiddos, an eMac or imacG3 are great edutainment Boxes that will survive a nuclear blast & sticky fingered curious toddlers. Stick one or two in their room. Size is important as a mini or stack of PowerBooks is waaay less noticeable than a stack of power macs. Might consider trading a few towers in for some cool portables or minis. Then you can point to how you’ve streamlined your man cave foot print. I have NO idea what Ben is going to do when he ties the knot.
Happy wife happy life, friends.
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Absolutely!
It's not what I would have done, but then I often do things other people think are crazy too, and I'm OK with that.
Meh, I am keeping the card, I have been looking for like 6 months. This was the first to pop up. For clarification it is the runway card plus module in original apple packaging with the retail sticker for $200. So in my mind I got it half off! I originally wanted to get back into PowerPC last year so I could make my old tascam audio interface/control surface work again. It is not compatible with 64 bit OS X. So I bought a Fw 800 g4, same one I had back in 2006 with the same interface. I forgot how loud it was. But I had so much fun fixing it up and messing with it I just started going to goodwill every now and then and picking up more for cheap. They all run different flavors of OS X, os 9, and Linux. The g5 I got from a friend for free. It’s fun for me, I liked maxing then out for cheap, when back in the day it would have been thousands of dollars. But yeah I need to find uses for them, one quicksilver will go in our guest room with and old Cinema Display and apple speakers. The others I don’t know yet. I’ll figure it out. As far as the audio interface/control surface , it is now connected to a 2010 Mac mini running lion, and then I route the midi over the network to my Mac Pro, and now the control surface works in logic with my Mac Pro. The same think was accomplished with the g4 running leopard, but as I said before, too loud and sucked too much power. If I come across a g4 mini I may use that instead of the 2010.All these other solutions spoken to AFTER you buy the card. Murphy’s law right?
And then you get roasted for it. Oh well, tweenies with no money have nothing better to do than jealously roast those who do & openly spend it
Ok joshing aside, if you’re happy with the purchase, then right on. I am a fan of keeping my money (aka I’m cheap) so I think I’d look to see if I can return it & go for Ben’s fix, But that’s me.
In regards to the wife, strategy is everything. She’s not mad at the macs, but you overtaking over her storage space - a space that she would otherwise fill with fluffy comforters & nice smelling soaps. Put one of those PMG4s in the garage. Why? Schematics, music & ifixit research of course. Run another headless as a fileserver in the attic or shed. There’s two down. If you have kiddos, an eMac or imacG3 are great edutainment Boxes that will survive a nuclear blast & sticky fingered curious toddlers. Stick one or two in their room. Size is important as a mini or stack of PowerBooks is waaay less noticeable than a stack of power macs. Might consider trading a few towers in for some cool portables or minis. Then you can point to how you’ve streamlined your man cave foot print. I have NO idea what Ben is going to do when he ties the knot.
Happy wife happy life, friends.
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Check to see how many pairs of shoes your wife has in her closet, then look agast and ask her how many pairs of feet she has. Almost never fails.......
Haha. For real. I have like 3 pairs of shoes and they all serve a purpose. She has a new pair every week and wears them once.Check to see how many pairs of shoes your wife has in her closet, then look agast and ask her how many pairs of feet she has. Almost never fails.......
As I suspected, instant checkmate - and she only wears them once!! In that case feel yourself more than justified in going out on more frequent Mac spending sprees.
Get this. I have an iPhone 7. She has a new XS. She has AirPods, I don’t. She has a recent MacBook Pro, mine is a 2009. I think she’s the one with the Mac problem.As I suspected, instant checkmate - and she only wears them once!! In that case feel yourself more than justified in going out on more frequent Mac spending sprees.