TowerRAID TR8M-B - 8 Bay SATA to eSATA

Another restriction on the website

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Hi.

I use the 4 bay version of this for one of the external drive chassis on my home server. I also have the Rosewill 5 bay, which is built much better.

That adapter you linked to doesn't say if it supports port multiplier, which you'll need on order to address the drives.

This one does:

http://www.addonics.com/products/io/aau2esa.asp

I don't know what the performance is going to be like pumping the throughput of 4 drives through one USB connection, though. It's going to be kind of noisy on your desk if you're going to fully populate the chassis with drives, too.

Good luck with your endeavor.

John

Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know if the adapter requires drivers or something that might limit it to using with an actual computer.

If your trying to hook up a lot of drives and share them over the network why not just buy/build something that can hook into your network via Ethernet? I have and unRAID server that I built that just what I think you are trying to do. The server serves up the content to a modded original xbox but it works great for what it does.

I was thinking the same thing. I assumed that there was a reason why the OP wasn't going that way.

John

You should check here for that.

You probably already know this, but just because your client machines are Macs doesn't mean your server needs to be, too.

I have three Macs on my home network being served by a homemade Windows Home Server with about 24TB of disk.
Maybe you want to hackintosh that machine so you can have an always on Mac on your network, but I'm guessing that getting 10.6.x to work on that machine would be a challenge.

If you don't want to get into the business of administrating a Windows server, then maybe you might want to look into a standalone NAS device like a Qnap or a disk array like a Drobo.

John

Unverrich said:

I was looking to purchase this for all my HDs (http://www.sansdigital.com/towerraid/tr8mb.html) I have for Apple TV, but the problem is on the back of it, 2 eSata ports come out. Can I use 2 of these adaptors and make it 2 USB cables to plug into my iMac? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812816111&cm_re=esata_to_usb-_-12-816-111-_-Product

Thanks!

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Just for the record, I have owned this sansdigital unit for over a year and have it packed to the gills. It's a great unit, dependable, and requires an esata configuration. It's a cheap way to add huge storage and stream movies through your Apple TV.

For the original poster: I'd bet your suggested venture into hackintosh territory involves genuine technical knowledge. You'll likely need to do a considerable amount of research. I have no experience with that.

Unverrich said:

If i bought this server, http://www.lime-technology.com/products/rb-1200-server can I make it a full running computer and make it a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard on it?

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That I would not know. There are probably better components to use for building a hackintosh then the ones used to build that unRAID server.

The link already provided is the place to do the research on how to do that.