How Would I Manage To Have 5 Hard Drives... Outside of My Computer?
The title may be misleading, or it may not even be clear at all, so let me elaborate:
I'm tired of Windows and Windows hardware. So I want to buy an iMac. The main thing that prevents from getting a iMac is the fact that I have years of data in my 5 hard drives I have inside my Windows PC... You really can't fit 5 standard-sized hard drives inside an iMac. But I really want to have that data once I make the move.
As possible solutions, I thought of getting 5 external hard drives, but that has it's problems: It's not a cheap solution, and I don't want to have 5 albatrosses on my desk surrounding my iMac.
Another solution was to somehow get a network "container" for all my hard drives: I would stash all my hard drives in this "container", plug it in into the network, and be able to access all my data through all my computers. In that way I could access my data without filling my iMac with data that can be kept somewhere else (somewhere that would fit, too!).
My question is, do these kind of containers exist? If so, what are they called and what's an estimate of their cost?
Not sure what you mean by Windows hardware, but macs are built on the same Intel architecture nowadays.
Personally id save a grand or two and install Linux on your existing system. Or buy more "windows hardware" at half the price of the MAC with the same hardware and stick Linux on that. MAC OS is based on Linux anyway.
Basically I see buying a mac like this. Same hardware but twice the price with an expensive OS that's more restricted than the free OS its based on.
Putting it like that, I'm surprised how many people buy macs.
I can't speak for non-Windows architecture as I currently use Windows Home Servers. In my current WHS box I think I've got 7TB of available storage. In my mind the only downside to this is that I'd like to find a better long term backup solution to support the NAS. Till I come up with a better long term backup solution I use RAID where appropriate. Expensive... yes but trying to recover data from crashed drives isn't one of my favorite pastimes!
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May i make a suggestion. Mac hardware is pc hardware. In fact it tends to be outdated pc hardware and overpriced at that so you really are paying for an os aka mac tax. Personally i dont care what you do but at least try ubuntu with wine. A) mac and linux are related...both unix based. B) ubuntu is pretty darn stable and finds most all drivers on its own. C) wine makes it possible to run windows based programs on linux if you have something that cant convert over. D) its hard to go back to win or mac after using linux for some time
May i make a suggestion. Mac hardware is pc hardware. In fact it tends to be outdated pc hardware and overpriced at that so you really are paying for an os aka mac tax. Personally i dont care what you do but at least try ubuntu with wine. A) mac and linux are related...both unix based. B) ubuntu is pretty darn stable and finds most all drivers on its own. C) wine makes it possible to run windows based programs on linux if you have something that cant convert over. D) its hard to go back to win or mac after using linux for some time
I agree with Rich, use Linux or Windows if you ask me...
Mac's charge you an extra 500-1000 depending on the model just for the OS, the hardware is the same if not less than what you can get on any windows based machine.
In fact my $750 laptop came with the second gen i5 processor, 540M nVidia card, and 6 gigs of RAM. I believe that a similar mac would be around $1,999 or some such pricing.
In fact the 15" screen would auto make it atleast $1,799 regardless of specs.
Looking at apple's site, the one advantage is the i7 processor... nearly $1,000 for a processor upgrade and a slight increase on the video card... No where near worth it.
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veh i have a new gen i7 laptop. all other specs are pretty good and i spent less than a grand. the only issue i have is the 6g ram that came with it and if it pis...err annoys me then ill spend 80 bucks max to upgrade. anyways u mentioned i7 but plenty of laptops have i7 on them
veh i have a new gen i7 laptop. all other specs are pretty good and i spent less than a grand. the only issue i have is the 6g ram that came with it and if it pis...err annoys me then ill spend 80 bucks max to upgrade. anyways u mentioned i7 but plenty of laptops have i7 on them
Oh no, I know that a lot of laptops come with i7, I mentioned that my laptop (price point I was using) was an i5 so I couldn't rightly say I got what the Mac had with my $749.99 price.
i7 usually adds around $100-150 to the price of a laptop.
There's different Core i7s out there - don' be confused that just because you have n i7 labeled CPU that you have the best of the best.
While it's true that Intel rates i3s at 3 stars, i5s at 4 stars and i7s at 5 stars in terms of processor ratings, there's a lot of differences between the lowest of the i7s an the best ones out there.
I can't speak for non-Windows architecture as I currently use Windows Home Servers. In my current WHS box I think I've got 7TB of available storage. In my mind the only downside to this is that I'd like to find a better long term backup solution to support the NAS. Till I come up with a better long term backup solution I use RAID where appropriate. Expensive... yes but trying to recover data from crashed drives isn't one of my favorite pastimes!
Not really into file carving?
Quote:
There's different Core i7s out there - don' be confused that just because you have n i7 labeled CPU that you have the best of the best.
While it's true that Intel rates i3s at 3 stars, i5s at 4 stars and i7s at 5 stars in terms of processor ratings, there's a lot of differences between the lowest of the i7s an the best ones out there.
Ohh.. Looks like it's time to upgrade my Centrino....
Depends what you mean by centrino. I'm a bit pedantic, but centrino isn't a CPU.
Centrino is a name given to a laptop that has one of a few specific CPUs, one of a few specific chipsets and one of a few wireless LAN cards. Centrino is a standard of power consumption and this is still used today.
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john definitely know the differences in the i's of course intel kinda messed things up in the i series as depending on what you do and so forth. my only point was mac tax and there are plenty of great laptops in a sub grand range new.
I make iOS apps. Making Ubuntu or another Linux distro (or continue with Windows for long...) is a BIG no-no.
I currently own a Mac Book Pro which I use for my App Development but sadly it isn't too powerful compared to today's standards (although I bought it just last year...).
Building a Hackint0sh is also a no-no because they are too unstable.
That aside, I will try building my own NAS server (or at least buy a cheap one, heh).
Thanks guys.
Depends what you mean by centrino. I'm a bit pedantic, but centrino isn't a CPU.
Centrino is a name given to a laptop that has one of a few specific CPUs, one of a few specific chipsets and one of a few wireless LAN cards. Centrino is a standard of power consumption and this is still used today.
D'oh! My bad >.> <.< I stupidly just went with the sticker lol.
Further investigation is showing a Core 2 Duo T8300....
Personally I'd disagree with the building of a NAS. I used to want to do this, but I realized I preferred buying one.
If you can afford it, I would buy a bunch of new drives and a dedicated NAS box. I personally decided on one that could hold at least 4 drives.
Two popular ones:
- Synology
- QNAP
Here's why:
These things are designed to run on very low power and usually with no fans, low RAM, etc. This is important because a NAS server really is not something you want pulling 700-1000W of power like a desktop. It doesnt need performance, it needs to be more power economical. These dedicated NAS appliances are cool and very quiet and small.
You can then also setup a bunch of 2TB drives in a RAID-5 array. The drives you buy can be those "green" low-power drives. This again will help make the device more friendly to your electricity bill.
All of this will still be fast enough to stream HD over your network. And, it will have an added bonus of not being built with a bunch of hard drives nearing the end of their lives.
Additionally, these NAS offer things like mini web-servers, uPnP/DLNA, Dynamic DNS support, and even have apps for Android & iPhone.
For the older drives, I'd just recommend something like that docking station someone posted above so you can get the data off of there -- then maybe donate them and/or sell them or send them off with your old PC.
Stay away from Thecus NAS's IMHO. I have one and I am massively disappointed with it.
Now I'm curious - what disappoints you about it?
I have a Thecus N3200 with 3 drives used as a backup for a WHS. It was fiddly as hell to setup, but has been relatively trouble free since (apart from a couple of overheating problems when clogged with cat fur )
It works as storage fine. Raid was fine. The gigabit port won't pick up an ip on my n4100+. The 10/100 is much closer to 10 on my network. Very slow.
It also seems to be incapable of ftp, usb volume mounting and many other functions.
Thecus connected remotely about the ftp and told me system files were missing. Advised to reset. I did to no avail.
Maybe only I've had this disappointment but the product was not what I hoped.
On a side note, the site I bought from said it was expendable but that's the n4100 pro, so now I'm stuck at 4*750GB
Wasn't too popular amongst modders so no alternative firmware to resolve these issues. No newer firmware to upgrade too. Flashing latest firmware doesn't help either
It works as storage fine. Raid was fine. The gigabit port won't pick up an ip on my n4100+. The 10/100 is much closer to 10 on my network. Very slow.
It also seems to be incapable of ftp, usb volume mounting and many other functions.
Thecus connected remotely about the ftp and told me system files were missing. Advised to reset. I did to no avail.
Maybe only I've had this disappointment but the product was not what I hoped.
On a side note, the site I bought from said it was expendable but that's the n4100 pro, so now I'm stuck at 4*750GB
Wasn't too popular amongst modders so no alternative firmware to resolve these issues. No newer firmware to upgrade too. Flashing latest firmware doesn't help either
Clearly you've sought to use your Thecus to a fuller extent than I have. Mine's always played a supporting role only in JBOD mode.
I'm sorry to hear it doesn't meet your requirements; it's always disappointing when tech doesn't live up to its specs.
How Would I Manage To Have 5 Hard Drives... Outside of My Computer?
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