Do
You Crave 54G Wireless in your old Power Mac? Apple abandoned you, but
we'll show you the way to fast Wi-Fi !
Page 2
Put
54G Wireless in a G3 or G4 Power Mac
2/17/2005 by Keith Benicek, Editor
The biggest bargain
we found was at a local Fry’s Electronics store (a huge chain
in California) where we ran across a bunch of AirLink+ ™model
WLH3010 802.11g PCI cards being reduced for clearance at $19.90! It
was absolutely identical to the Sonnett Aria PCI card minus the Sonnet
label on the radio chip.
We bought a couple (like duh, wouldn’t you?) to install in our
two test Power Macs. In either G3 or G4, Airport v3.1 recognized the
cards and we had lift-off. Both cards worked perfectly with strong signals,
full 54G Tx support and we could even connect to Apple’s Update
site without problem. The price difference between the AirLink+
card and the Sonnet Aria was $110.05.
Click
on most images to enlarge
Other than a decal and a few missing
stickers, the AirLink+ above is the same as the Sonnet Aria PCI card
below.
AirLink+ tells us that the current version of the AWLH3025 no longer
uses the Broadcom chipset, so it is NOT compatible with Apple Airport
v3.1 You may be able to find the WLH3010 at closeouts or smaller stores,
but make sure that it looks exactly the same as the one we show, chip
for chip. It’s really too bad that AirLink+ is not longer importing
this exact card, because it performed the best of all the PCI cards
we tested. You may be able to find it though in stores or online, BUT
make sure it exactly the same one chip for chip as we show above.
Another great choice often at a good savings if you’re a smart shopper, are the early Belkin model F5D7000 PCI cards which were apparently made by the same contract manufacturer in Taiwan as AirLink+ and the current Sonnet Aria cards. Now not all Belkin F5D7000 PCI cards are Mac compatible as the manufacturer made some changes in components that effects compatibility.
This is the box the 1st and 2nd
Mac compatible versions came in, but Belkin has used this box for later
non-compatible ones. Belkin F5D7000
"version 1"
below.
We also found a version of the Belkin F5D7000 we couldn’t test,
but there are some reports that they do work, so user beware and if you
buy one, make sure you can return it if it’s not compatible.
F5D7000
v2? Everything's the same as the first version except tfor the addition
of two LEDs.
We found a first version F5D7000 (without LED’s) at a local Office Max for $39.99 and a second generation F5D7000 (with LED ’s) at a CompUSA for $49.95. Both cards look nearly identical, only the LEDs on the second one make them different. OS X and Airport 3.1 immediately recognized both cards as if they were new Airport Extreme 54G cards.
Performance was outstanding and easily as good as the Tx speed and signal strength of the Airport Extreme card in our G5 Power Mac. With either a Linksys WRT54G, Apple Airport Extreme AP, or US Robotics TurboG router (uses TI 54G chipset) we got a consistent 54Mbps Tx rate and at least 68db signal strength from 50 feet away (through one wall).
Belkin
has issued a few other variations of the F5D7000, one with a noticeably
different radio chipset turned vertical (see
below picture) and another with multiple LEDs and considerably
different circuit components. Since these cards are officially out of
production, we couldn’t got samples to test for you. But, they may
indeed work, so if you see one and can buy it with a return policy if
it doesn’t work, give it a try and let us know please!
This
one's NOT Mac compatible
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