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Crazy idea, maybe it will work?

T

tdx

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 3, 2005
Messages
154
Hey everyone,

while following the Computex coverage, I discovered the new momma from Thermaltake, the Mozart TX (http://mozarttx.ecrm.com.tw/). Needless to say, I immediately fell in love and am planning on making this my next case.

Then I got thinking about a way to use the fact that you can put a secondary Mini-ITX PC in there. Of course, i could build a separate media server for my movies music, and that would be cool, but what would be crazy cool would be to use that feature in order to put... a Mac Mini. Yep. that way i could have a full-blown, top of the line PC on one side, and a Mac on the other side, both sharing the same data. And then i could finally die a happy man.

So, what do you guys think? Is it possible or not? For starters, can i buy a Mac Mini, take it apart and mount the hardware (mobo, memory, CPU) in the place reserved for the Mini-ITX motherboard?

Please post your advice, opinions, and wisdom.

Don't call me crazy. Call me obsessed.
 
Of course you could mount a mac-mini in there... even if you don't have the exact proper mounts, you can always drill holes and tap new mounts for the motherboard risers. That Mozart case looks pretty awesome and mod-friendly too.. you could stick a killer water cooling system in there with all the fan/radiator space available. :eek:

edit: here's pix of the mac mini's mobo and stuff for reference. http://www.mini-itx.com/news/13909018/
 
Actually, from browsing the dedicated website, it looks like there is an option without the window. And yes, it is sweet. Can't wait for it to be released and build a Conroe/Mac Mini beauty.
 
takeabao said:
Don't mix Thermaltake junk with the sleek chassis of a Mac Mini...
Click to expand...
Yeah, I wouldn't want to put a Mac that close to a high-end PC, either... I'd be afraid that all the bullshit the Mac is packed with would ooze over and corrode my PC components!
 
MasterOfTheHat said:
Yeah, I wouldn't want to put a Mac that close to a high-end PC, either... I'd be afraid that all the bullshit the Mac is packed with would ooze over and corrode my PC components!
Click to expand...
rolleyes.gif
 
Girls, Girls! Play nice now!


Cool Mod Idea! Gigabit Ethernet between the 2? Make sure your get a dual ethernet mobo :).
 
Yeah, the only thing i haven't figured out how to do yet is a way to share the data on the hard drives (which is probably going to be a RAID 5 array), especailly when one of the two computers is off. What would be really nice, for example, would be to somehow have both computers inside the case being able to access the media on the hard drives independently of each other, so that when one is off, the other can still play mp3s and stuff.

Obviously the best way would be a NAS, but since the hard drives are going to be inside the case, I don't see how it would be possible.

Any ideas?
 
tdx said:
Yeah, the only thing i haven't figured out how to do yet is a way to share the data on the hard drives (which is probably going to be a RAID 5 array), especailly when one of the two computers is off. What would be really nice, for example, would be to somehow have both computers inside the case being able to access the media on the hard drives independently of each other, so that when one is off, the other can still play mp3s and stuff.

Obviously the best way would be a NAS, but since the hard drives are going to be inside the case, I don't see how it would be possible.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
err.. I was going to say just have an external firewire hard drive because most of them have two firewire ports, but I just tried to hook my PC and laptop up to it at the same time, and one cancels the other out and it doesn't work. :( Another solution like you say would be the NAS device. That would be terribly easy to set up and it might yield the results you want. The NAS would just hook up to the router/hub you are using for the internet in your home, and from there you are all set to go. You wouldn't even need it inside the computer. Both would be able to access it at the same time and share data. I set up a simple NAS device at my old high school, and over 20 computers are sharing it. I bought this NAS enclosure, and just put a 160GB hard drive in it. (its actually NDAS) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817338003
All you have to do is install the software on both computers so the encryption key thing will let you access the drive, and away you go. I would really go for that. Its an easy solution. It also supports RAID if you hook up more than one of those NDAS devices on your network LAN. Its pretty sweet. (and yes, it supports mac) :p
 
I see what you're saying, and it would be a solution. However, part of the reason i want this particular tower is for its ability to house two separate computers plus a bunch of hard drives, all inside the same case. So what i'm looking for is a way to hook up two computers to an internal RAID array.
 
Well.. there is the "map network drive" option on the OS's. You could just share the drives from each computer with the file sharing wizard thing. lol, I know its an easy way out.. but doing everything hardware based is going to probably be hella hard, unless someone steps forward that has done it before and know it works.
 
The only problem with this solution is that both computers would have to be on in order to share the resources, right? Or I could map the drives on one computer, turn it off, and then access the data with the other?
 
tdx said:
The only problem with this solution is that both computers would have to be on in order to share the resources, right? Or I could map the drives on one computer, turn it off, and then access the data with the other?
Click to expand...
ah.. I see. no, with the map a network drive thing, the computer on the server side has to be on.. That wouldn't work then.

If you can figure out a whole raid system, that would be nice. Maybe try to find a raid controller that supports multiple clients? I don't know how that would work or which thing would plug in where. The raid controller would have to be independent since you couldn't put it in any single computer incase you powered down. That wouldn't allow access if the raid card was in just one of the systems. You would need some sort of raid controller that was separate from either PC that just plugs in somehow. I know they do have fiber channel raid setups, but they are external and super expensive. I still think the best option would be your NDAS drive on the network, and then just have your own storage for each system. After all, lots of PC things aren't compadible with Mac, and vise versa. For media sharing and stuff like that, the NDAS would work nicely. Just make sure you are running at full 100Mb to get the best speed. Its not the fastest thing in the world, but it gets the job done.
 
Find an external drive enclosure that hase both firewire and usb ports. Though I've thought about doing this...I'm too scared.

and please...Dont mix Thermaltake and Junk. I dont know about their past products but my armor and the xaserbag are really high quality products.
 
All of these are nice, but they are all external. So I guess that means there is no way to share internal drives, right? I've looked everywhere and cannot find a sloution :(
 
kuyaglen said:
Find an external drive enclosure that hase both firewire and usb ports. Though I've thought about doing this...I'm too scared.

and please...Dont mix Thermaltake and Junk. I dont know about their past products but my armor and the xaserbag are really high quality products.
Click to expand...
That doesn't work.. I already tried it.
 
Don't think there is a way to connect both systems to 1 harddrive without using additional hardware. You get take the enclosure of that external thing (link that I gave above) and build it in your system ;)

GL!
 
You know what? i was actually thinking about that. I could take the back of the enclosure out (with all the appropriaten wiring and connections) and "stick" it on the hard drives inside the case. Not very elegant, but it should work.

But the thing is, I've been doing some research about this build, and it looks like the incorporation of a Mac Mini inside a PC case and the sharing of hardware is extremely difficult if not downright impossible. Mainly the problem is the difference between the Mac Mini's and the PC's connections, PSUs, wirings etc.

I'm still looking for a way to make it work, but i'm not so sure anymore....
 
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