Ye Macce Threade

[Nanoha]

It might not be a good idea to stick SSDs in a parity based RAID configuration.  The constant parity updates will wear out the SSDs at an accelerated rate.  Error checking might also be insufficient for this purpose in Synology system. 

 

Also, parity is good for mechanical drives where you don't expect the drives to fail at the same time (mechanical drives failure).  But with SSD failure usually based on prolonged wear, the spread load of parity RAID might mean the SSDs all start developing errors at the almost the same time.

 

I do agree that the noise-free operation of SSDs is quite desirable.  One possible setup is having a Wi-Fi dongle attached to the Synology NAS and placing the NAS far away from the listening area.  I personally don't bother using 7200 RPM drives in my personal RAID setups due to noise.

Edited July 1, 2013 by Nanoha

[morphsci]

My Synology NAS with WD red HDs sits right behind me at my desk and is extremely quiet. Even at night when I am the only one up I cannot hear it even when I am not wearing headphones. I do not think I would use current generation SSDs in my NAS.

Edited July 2, 2013 by morphsci

[blessingx]

I went to the Apple Store today thinking I was ready to plunk down money for the new 13" Air.  I then realized midway through talking to one of the associates that the annual Back to School promotion would probably be starting soon.  I wonder what the promotion will entail this year.

Cook may change it up, but been $100 Apple iTunes/App Store gift card last two years. 

 EDIT: And this year in Aus/NZ the same.

Yep, same.

[Nanoha]

Yep just saw the news.  Thanks!

[Aura]

If you have a reliable network you can use airplay to play audio on other airplay compatible devices. This is what I really like about it. I have the Mac Mini in the living room system but can listen to that music in my home office (airport express), the family room (Marantz AV-7005), bedroom (ATV) or anywhere else on the local network (iPad, iPhone).

 

Ah yup, forgot all about that. Thanks Jim . 

[n_maher]

External thunderbolt or USB3 drive?

 

Yes, that's what I'd do.  I guess what I was kindi of saying is that I don't get the point of the speed or expense of an SSD for a media server that is largely going to sit idle or have what I would assume to be really limited processing or read/write demands on a daily basis. 

[grawk]

My take is ssds are faster, quieter, more efficient, and more reliable. I won't be buying computers with without an ssd as a boot/os drive anymore.

[aardvark baguette]

I want a handful of these

 

 

until then, its SSD for OS, thunderbolt whatever for mass storage.

thunderbolt is really nice.

[morphsci]

Yes, that's what I'd do.  I guess what I was kindi of saying is that I don't get the point of the speed or expense of an SSD for a media server that is largely going to sit idle or have what I would assume to be really limited processing or read/write demands on a daily basis.

Yep I agree. When I bought my mini I went with the spinning disk because I did not consider the SSD price/performance ratio very good at the time. I didn't really need the performance and still do not. But now I agree with Dan since prices have come way down and my experience with SSDs, especially in my little Acer notebook, have been nothing short of astounding. My next mini will have an SSD OS drive if for no other reason than for future proofing.

[n_maher]

I guess I haven't really shopped SSDs recently so if they've gotten a lot better in $/GB ratios I see the logic.  I also agree that I'd run a relatively small OS drive and leave bulk storage to the spinny drives until large capacity, affordable SSDs are the norm.

[Sherwood]

My take is ssds are faster, quieter, more efficient, and more reliable. I won't be buying computers with without an ssd as a boot/os drive anymore.

100% this.  Everything in my house runs off SSDs now, and has for a while.  The last machine I built, the one I'm typing this post on, has 20+ TBs of spinning storage and runs on a 120GB Samsung SSD.  

 

I've got an SSD in an old mac mini hooked up to a TV, and it's lightning fast for what it's used for.  Same story with the laptops.  Spinning drives have the market cornered on $/GB and GB/3.5" slot, but past that it's sand all the way.

[jvlgato]

How hard was it to swap the SSD into the old Mini?

[luvdunhill]

I wish I had more SSDs, only have a few spinny drives :/

 

 

Filesystem                    Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/mapper/backup_vg-backup  164T  129M  155T   1% /backup

[Nebby]

 

I wish I had more SSDs, only have a few spinny drives :/

 

 

Filesystem                    Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/mapper/backup_vg-backup  164T  129M  155T   1% /backup

 

 

It's good to see you left some room to grow 

[agile_one]

How hard was it to swap the SSD into the old Mini?

Pretty easy, John.  Hardest part is getting the damn thing open,  Nest hardest is being careful to get the wireless antenna in place when reassembling.

 

Pretty good video here.  That vid is for 2006-2007 mini.  They (OWC) have for all models.

[jvlgato]

Thanks, Gene! I have a 2008 mini I'm using as an office computer. It's mostly ok, just starting to slow down. I'm thinking a SSD would really help it out. But when I went in there before to add RAM, it was such a huge PITA that I swore I'd never open the thing up again. Oh, and yes, I yanked the wifi antenna out without realizing it, and had to go back in to fix it.

 

Edit: Watching the video and mine looks just like that ... mine must be a 2006-7. I had bought it used/refurbished so I must have bought a one year old unit in 2008.

Edited July 3, 2013 by jvlgato

[Nanoha]

 

I wish I had more SSDs, only have a few spinny drives :/

 

 

Filesystem                    Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/mapper/backup_vg-backup  164T  129M  155T   1% /backup

 

Whoa wait, that is 164 terabytes right?  So pro   What kind of hardware setup is it?

Edited July 3, 2013 by Nanoha

[Torpedo]

The pirate mother lode.

[luvdunhill]

Whoa wait, that is 164 terabytes right?  So pro   What kind of hardware setup is it?

 

DIY of course

 

http://blog.backblaze.com/2013/02/20/180tb-of-good-vibrations-storage-pod-3-0/

[grawk]

it's a cool project, but I can't imagine needing that at home

[Nanoha]

Whoa, so a Backblaze Pod!  I remember reading about Backblaze a while ago.  Are you part of the Backblaze group or did you buy/build one?

[jvlgato]

Just got my MBA 11" i7 one day earlier than the estimated shipping date. I transferred my old computer to my new one, about 48GB, in just over 4 minutes using Thunderbolt. That was awesome!

 

Haven't had a chance to really use it yet, but it feels faster subjectively just clicking around to see if stuff was transferred/installed properly. I'll write again after I've used it for real.

[blessingx]

[Knuckledragger]

My 2011 MBP runs too goddamn hot all the time, especially in this sucktastic weather. I am in need of a good laptop stand/cooler device. Any HCers have suggestions on makes/models?

[Salt Peanuts]

^ I've tried a few and none of them worked all that well.  FWIW, I do have mine on a stand that keeps it off my desk surface.

 

If you are adventurous, taking the thing apart and taking off gobs of thermal paste then reapplying appropriate amount of it supposedly helps.