Adapting Legacy Devices
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Adapting Legacy Devices
So you got your hot new tower Mac -- great! But now your machine is USB. Are you gazing sadly at your external drives, your scanner, and your printer? Gonna cost a fortune to replace those, huh? Hey, no need! There are adapters available for just about anything.
First, you'll need to pick up a SCSI card, for your external drives and your scanner. If you have normal SCSI connectors (DB-25), get the Asante 2906 SCSI adapter card. It's easy to install, and you'll have your familiar SCSI connection in no time. The card will run you around $50. That's the simplest route, and more dependable than the SCSI cable-to-USB cable adapters.
If your printer has an ethernet port, you're in clean, since all the new Macs have ethernet ports. But if you've been using a LocalTalk connector, Asante also makes an ethernet-to-localtalk bridge, called the AsanteTalk. Another option is Farallon's iPrint adapter. Check with the Asante or Farallon websites to be sure your particular printer is supported. Either adapter will cost around $125.
There is also a serial-to-USB adapter which is less expensive, but I've heard some complaints about dependability.
You can find all these adapters, and more, at most Mac stores. If there's no Mac store in your area, you can order them from most Mac catalogs (or online), like MacWarehouse, MacZone, and ClubMac.
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