Re: Re: New Macs....so what hard drive and enclosures??

[Kenneth Watt <kwatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 21 Oct 2009, at 07:31, noel wrote:

> Thanks Keith, agree re the update but I'll be getting mine VAT free
> so worth waiting for dabs to list the new ones.
>
> What are my options for raid'd storage on the mac mini? Is it just
> things like Drobo/Synology etc?

It's Kenneth, but it's a common mistake. ;)

I use a Mac Mini running Plex as well as a Popcorn Hour A100 (IIRC)
ATM but I will be adding a C200 soon to it. I will use mostly HD
material as well as music streamed from whatever location the drives
happen to be in.

I love the Thecus, rock solid thing that is but, it's not a cheap
solution or just as easy as the Drobo. It just sits there and works,
wonderfully.

The Drobo is pretty much the same, the downside over the Thecus being
that when you add the Droboshare to it the performance over the
network is just pants, utterly useless even for non-HD material. Works
fine for music though and most other things that you're not looking to
be pulling a load of data over the LAN for. Attached to a network
server or PC it's again fine, but there's issues there with it as well.

On a Doze box it will often halt the boot sequence and lock the box
before it even hits post. Don't ask me how or why this happens as I
haven't a clue, I just know it happens. So, PC reboots after an update
and you've got to unplug the damn thing, wait for the machine to boot
then plug it back in. As you will appreciate, this is a royal PITA.

If you connect it directly to a Mac then it's fine or I've had no
issues with that as yet.

With all of them, even the WHS box, there are heat issues running that
many drives which can also lead to premature drive failure, worth
watching if it's in a warm room. ;)

HTH

K.

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