Note: I originally posted this here, but it seemed like a relevant post for my site, so here it is!
For the last few years, I’ve had a TranquilPC BBS2 system (1.6GHz Atom dual core). It was great, extremely reliable, and nice and compact. Even better, I was able to get Snow Leopard server installed onto it, which ran almost perfectly (no sound, but I didn’t really need this for a headless home server).
The limitation with this, though, was the available hard drive space. It’s almost time to get a new HDD, and there were no free slots, so I decided to upgrade.
The biggest requirement was the capability to run Snow Leopard (either server or normal, but preferably server so as to not waste the license). The second biggest requirement: lots of space for hard drives.
I recently had a look at a Fractal R3 case, and thought it was good, but I love the layout of the Fractal Define XL! The actual components were researched using the experiences of other people (for SL compatibility). The graphics card was required as the onboard graphics wouldn’t work with snow leopard.
Here is the list of components I went for:
Plus a few cables and things.
Building the system was fairly simple, although I had to first build it in an old case, because the original one got smashed in transit:
Bottom line, the system went together smoothly (apart from having to lengthen a cable that wouldn’t reach due to underestimating the sheer size of the case) and Snow Leopard Server was installed first try, then tweaked a little. I’m not sure if the sound works; I’ve no reason to try it. The real test was when I put the software RAIDed disks in. The OS recognised them and carried on as if it were the old system.
Pics of the build:
I’ve just ordered a load of extra cables to neaten it up, and a few components (RAID card, 2.5″ HDD PCI slot), so I’ll post an update when I get the extra stuff.
A short while ago, I bought a Seagate Momentus XT hard drive to replace the stock drive in my Macbook Pro. The advantages of the new drive were that it was 7200rpm (up from 5400), plus it had 4GB of Solid State goodness to give things a boost.
The drive worked very well; the speed increase was quite noticeable. Unfortunately, the drive wasn’t completely compatible with Mac OS X (never stopped spinning, so noisy and used more power). Long story short, Dabs.com sent a courier to collect it today and are issuing me a full refund (including the original postage costs; great customer service with Dabs).
So I’m now back to the original drive, but only temporarily. Last night, I ordered a 500GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue. Now, this isn’t a particularly fast drive, but when the rest of my plan is realised, it won’t need to be.
About a week ago now, I ordered a caddy that will allow me to fit a second hard drive into the MBP, but requires the CD/DVD drive to be removed. This isn’t a problem as I very rarely use the optical drive, and if I ever needed one, I could use my iMac (if I ever get it back), or put the removed superdrive into an external enclosure.
Once I receive this, I’m going to put a small Solid State drive (OCZ Vertex 2, 60GB) in as the main system drive, and use the quiet 500GB drive for storage. This setup should give extremely fast performance without all of the heat and noise that I was experiencing with the Seagate drive.
So that’s my plan! Until then though, I’m stuck with a rapidly filling 250GB drive 