Apple is forcing (not literally) me to make a hackintosh!

[jmcgeejr]

I am so tired of the slow USB speeds to my mini, I have been waiting and waiting for thunderbolt adapters or enclosures (ones that won't break the bank) or ones that don't come with drives included. I thought about the sonnet express card option but that seems like a lot of spent cash on a temporary fix.

I think I am going to build a new hackintosh so I can have my drives internal on sata, ugh so frustrating! Anyone else frustrated?

 

[GGJstudios]

Why not use Firewire 800? It's 2-3 times faster than USB 2.0. I'm not frustrated at all and I've never seen any limitations with FW800, even playing music and movies from an external drive.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Yeah, Firewire 800 is plenty of fast, unless the FW 800 drivers are ****ed up, which they seem to be on my 2009 MBP, as my 2007 iMac is faster with the same FW 800 HDDs, and even a cheap eSATA ExpressCard adapter for my 2009 MBP copies data at almost 100 MB/s to the same HDDs, while FW 800 is somehow capping at 40 MB/s on that MBP.

 

[jmcgeejr]

Why not use Firewire 800? It's 2-3 times faster than USB 2.0. I'm not frustrated at all and I've never seen any limitations with FW800, even playing music and movies from an external drive.

I thought about that but then again I thought firewire 800 will eventually go away too no?

 

[GGJstudios]

I thought about that but then again I thought firewire 800 will eventually go away too no?

Not for a long time. Why not use it while you can? No technology lasts forever.

 

[jmcgeejr]

Not for a long time. Why not use it while you can? No technology lasts forever.

I will see what I can find, are there any enclosures you know of that will allow me to have multiple drives in it and not have to raid them? I have 2 drives that I want to keep separate without raid and have access to them, like they are in my usb enclosure.

 

[GGJstudios]

I will see what I can find, are there any enclosures you know of that will allow me to have multiple drives in it and not have to raid them? I have 2 drives that I want to keep separate without raid and have access to them, like they are in my usb enclosure.

OWC has a number of enclosure kits. I highly recommend their products.

 

[jmcgeejr]

OWC has a number of enclosure kits. I highly recommend their products.

I saw those but the 4 port doesn't support that and the 2 port says it spans the disks which I don't want. Cheers though.

 

[GGJstudios]

I saw those but the 4 port doesn't support that and the 2 port says it spans the disks which I don't want. Cheers though.

Well, they don't have to be in the same enclosure. Separate enclosures give you more flexibility, anyway.

 

[balamw]

I will see what I can find, are there any enclosures you know of that will allow me to have multiple drives in it and not have to raid them?

Look for JBOD support. (Just a Bunch of Disks). Sans Digital has some models with FW800 and JBOD support.

B

 

[sushi]

I thought about that but then again I thought firewire 800 will eventually go away too no?

Maybe. No one knows the future for sure.

But it's still available in many products.

 

[drsox]

Why not avoid all this "local" connection nonsense and go with a LAN connected RAID NAS.
With a GB LAN connection and 2/3 RAID drives, data rates and storage available will be more than adequate.

 

[balamw]

Why not avoid all this "local" connection nonsense and go with a LAN connected RAID NAS.
With a GB LAN connection and 2/3 RAID drives, data rates and storage available will be more than adequate.

There are definitely more/cheaper GbE NAS enclosures than FW800.

B

 

[rocknblogger]

Not for a long time. Why not use it while you can? No technology lasts forever.

Exactly! Use it since you have it. It makes no sense to not use it and I also agree that it will be around for quite a while.

 

[LeandrodaFL]

Hum, a mini is lighter and smaller than the PSU on any hackintosh, not to mention is totally silent, you probably wont like yourhackintosh experience after having a Mac, I cant go back to using a 30kg computer.

Having said that, Firewire 800 is really fast, but a thunderbolt SSD would be a dream. check lacie.com

 

[AngryRedTicTac]

If you want to keep your drives together this little box is a great way to do it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817507011&Tpk=st2-wabc

2 drives, FW800, JBOD. Plus it is really solid and nice looking. Been using one for six months now, no issues with random dismounts or anything else.

 

[jmcgeejr]

If you want to keep your drives together this little box is a great way to do it.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817507011&Tpk=st2-wabc

2 drives, FW800, JBOD. Plus it is really solid and nice looking. Been using one for six months now, no issues with random dismounts or anything else.

thank you! I am ordering right now, this is exactly what I was looking for!

 

[Mac7]

Why not avoid all this "local" connection nonsense and go with a LAN connected RAID NAS.
With a GB LAN connection and 2/3 RAID drives, data rates and storage available will be more than adequate.

Sorry for hijacking the thread. But how would I be able to do this?

 

[theSeb]

Sorry for hijacking the thread. But how would I be able to do this?

Start off by buying a NAS. I have a Synology DS1511+ and highly recommend their products.

 

[drsox]

Sorry for hijacking the thread. But how would I be able to do this?

Yes, get a NAS from one of the recognised vendors (Netgear, Qnap, Buffalo etc) and VERY IMPORTANT make sure the drives you buy are supported by the vendor (they usually have an official list) OR build your own and use FreeNAS or a server version of a free Linux distro - e.g. Ubuntu.

I've done both and have ended up with the Netgear ReadyNAS range. They have 2, 4 and 6 bay versions with excellent firmware - very resiliant. I have progressively upgraded from a 2 bay to a 4 bay to a 6 bay version without losing data or reinstalling.
See their forum for current info : http://www.readynas.com/