Adding IEEE 1394 to front bezel on XW4600?

[Kitmeister]

I have 4 HP XW4600 machines which did not come with the optional IEEE 1394 firewire installed. I have been searching for the past 6 months on information on what I will need to add this to my computers! Obviously I need the firewire cards installed into the PCI slots, but after that I'm lost. Is there a cable and instructions on how to connect the firewire cards to a front female connector (which I will need)? WHERE can I order everything I will need? Please help by email: kitmcguire@gmail.com

[SDH · Accepted solution]

Kit,

Best to keep the communications on the forum so others can benefit in the future too.

The xw4600 has a cable coming from its front IEEE port (which is often covered by black thick tape that can be pulled off only after you carefully remove the front plastic cover.  It is easy to break the two tabs at the very top but the lower ones on the open panel side with green on them are pretty easy.  Use a table knife to try to gently depress the top tabs after you get those lower ones released.

There are two cards... the a and the b types and both appear to be PCI (not PCIe).  Below are the Spares P/N and Assembly P/N, in that order, so you can go check eBay.  The a type seems more common.  Virtually all HP parts have two numbers.... that is why you need to search eBay for the best deal with both.

The cable inside the case is tucked in the corner of the long edge at the very top of that edge, up away from the motherboard, if the case is open and laying on its side.  Can be hard to see at first glance, but is long with a white plug on its end and a white plastic clip holding it there.  The others cables are all attached to the motherboard directly.  This cable is pre-installed for if you add the card.

xw4600 IEEE card: PA997A option part number, with the SP and AS numbers below.

447004-001 = External cable - For IEEE 1394b device (from backplane out to a device).  This would be HP quality.

393308-001 = 354614-003 = HP FireWire IEEE 1394a 3-Port PCI card

398400-001 = 398283-001 = HP FireWire IEEE 1394b 3-Port PCI card

Side note....  we never used the IEEE in these.  The xw4600 does have a built in eSATA port on the backplane directly attached to the motherboard, a bit up and away from the PCI slots.  I use eSATA a lot still, and it works great in those.  It runs at SATA II speeds.  I'd look at that before IEEE unless you have to use IEEE for some specific reason.... more common, and needs no drivers, and gets you right onto the SATA bus.

I did upgrade the processor in every one to an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 or (getting more bang for the buck) with the next step down (Q9550).  Used the 1333 memory sticks to match the processors.  Did not change out the fans and never had an issue with that.  There is a larger Performance fan, larger, but we never needed it.  They both have conventional PWM 4-wire plugs.  A number of these are still going strong by adding the quad core and the faster memory, but I've moved on to building Z400 version 2 (6 memory slots) at a minimum now.

SLB8W versus SLB8V sSpec codes on eBay.... about $50 for the faster and $30 for the bit slower.  There are a few sSpec codes.... those two are the latest versions, which you want should you choose to do that.

[Kitmeister]

'm going to assume it's best to just leave the IEEE port alone except for taking the black sticker off of it and use that. I had thought about using the onboard eSATA port but connecting my Sony video camera via i.Link cable to the eSATA would mean taking the side cover off every time I need to transfer video to the PC. Yes, putting a 1394a card in and connecting the IEEE cable is slow, but for me it's much more hassle free, Just plug the camera in the front and transfer video....slowly....LOL. I changed my 4 systems a bit and now rin Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 @ 2.50GHz    40 °C
Yorkfield 45nm Technology with 8GB of ram and they all fly! Of course disabling updates and stripping down all the bloatware and needless junk gives this system a lot of punch! Of the 4 I have here, one runs Win 10 Pro, one runs Win 7 Pro, one runs XP Pro and another runs XP Pro (but totally stripped of everything I could disable so I can use it as a sound processor machine only with an Orban sound processing card inside. Since building systems since 1985 the ONLY things that ever stopped any machine were hard drive crashes/failures due to end of life and much used optical drives and that's it! I use to work for Dell in Round Rock, Texas and had acquired some real nice systems that I naturally modified a bit....LOL! Still have them from 1997 and they still fly! Many thanks for your reply. It answered all my questions very well!