# What kind of hard drive goes in my Beige G3?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-hard-drive-goes-in-my-beige-g3/335611>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 14, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-hard-drive-goes-in-my-beige-g3/335611 "2005-12-14T18:17:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-hard-drive-goes-in-my-beige-g3/335611/1 "2005-12-14T18:17:03Z")

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Mac, that is. Apple Macintosh. The drive has been trouble for years, and I don’t actually use this machine any more, but I am now thinking I’d like to make it into a Linux box, and I’d like to put in a new hard drive.

Problem: at the time I bought it, I though SCSI was the way, and Apple offered the option of a 4 GB ultra wide SCSI drive (SCSI-3?), so that’s what I have. The standards have passed it by, and now I have no idea what will work in my computer.

Here are the specs from the Apple site:

```
* Automatic termination
* Advanced Data Streaming Technology (ADS)
* RAID-ready
* Embedded RISC I/P processor
* Ultra SCSI connector: Fine pitch 68-pin "P"
* Flash ROM BIOS
* PCI 2.1 compliant
* Large command FIFO
* Supports disconnect/reconnect
* Asynchronous I/O support
* Multiple initiator support
* SCSI-3 tagged command queuing
* SCSI Manager 4.3 compatible

```

So I guess my question is is half GQ and half IMHO: What kind of currently available hard drive will work? Or do I really need a new SCSI card? Or is it better to switch to IDE?

(Note: I’ve already installed a SCSI internal Zip drive (long ago) and it came with a DVD-ROM (ATA?)).

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**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-hard-drive-goes-in-my-beige-g3/335611/2 "2005-12-14T18:38:53Z")

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Sounds like you have a second rev of the Beige G3 (300-366 MHz). Although I think even with the SCSI option you could put an IDE/ATA drive in there, it’s still going to be on the really slow bus Apple used.

It may be better (especially if you go with a larger drive) to get a PCI IDE card. A generally good resource is [Low-end Mac](http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g3b.shtml) (link takes you to the specs and information for your computer).

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**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-hard-drive-goes-in-my-beige-g3/335611/3 "2005-12-14T21:15:20Z")

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> [@panamajack](#):
>
> Sounds like you have a second rev of the Beige G3 (300-366 MHz). Although I think even with the SCSI option you could put an IDE/ATA drive in there, it’s still going to be on the really slow bus Apple used.
> 
> It may be better (especially if you go with a larger drive) to get a PCI IDE card. A generally good resource is [Low-end Mac](http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g3b.shtml) (link takes you to the specs and information for your computer).

Yes, it’s a G3/300 minitower, and yeah, I hadn’t realized that I could get that performance boost from the card. However, I don’t really need a huge drive, and there are some cheap SCSI drives out there in the 9G range. Problem is, that everything is listed as “80-pin SCSI Ultra 160” – is this utterly incompatible with my interface, or is something as simple as an adapter possible?