God help me, I made the full transition to Apple..

next-Jin

next-Jin

Supreme [H]ardness
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Mar 29, 2006
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Wife bought a rMBP 15" to replace our old Dell Studio '10 and since I basically don't game anymore I am selling off the old gaming PC for a 27" iMac.

We now have an iPad 3gen, iPhone 4, rMBP 15, and an iMac 27".

The only pc we have in the house is the htpc but I don't see ever replacing that.

My first and foremost question is I have enough older pc parts to build a cheap server. Can I use something like windows server for a NAS for all of these apple devices? The time capsule seems cool and all but it's horribly expensive for 3tb of storage. I have about 6tb of spare hard drives available ATM, or can I install OSX server and setup something very similar to TC?

Second question is is there a layman guide for those who make this type of switch? Most websites just shows cool tricks or simple how too guides. I'm looking for a guide that shows something like

Here is the windows version, here is the OSX version and how to do it

Thanks guys, looking forward to diving into this
 
inorder to use OSX server, you need apple hardware.

depending on the server software you choose, you should have no issues connecting the apple devices to the NAS.
 
Install server on the imac(its a 20 dollar upgrade) and you can hook drives up to it and use it as a time machine backup for itself and the macbook. That is going to be one of the best options.

I wouldn't bother with the mini server. If anything I'd get the 800 dollar mini and buy the server upgrade. You can always buy the 35 dollar owc dual hd kit for it and put your own second drive in down the road. It is a bit of a pain in the ass but it isn't that hard. It is cheaper then buying the server one as well. Unless you want raid 1 for the os though I wouldn't worry about it.
 
R3d said:
google hackintosh

here's a quick resource that may help you out.
maybe look at getting a mac mini server edition? - can also double as an htpc with xmbc on it
Click to expand...

FYI, the staff here are scared of Apple's laywers, and don't encourage the discussion of running OSX on unauthorized hardware. Ask me how I know. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
swatbat said:
Install server on the imac(its a 20 dollar upgrade) and you can hook drives up to it and use it as a time machine backup for itself and the macbook. That is going to be one of the best options.

I wouldn't bother with the mini server. If anything I'd get the 800 dollar mini and buy the server upgrade. You can always buy the 35 dollar owc dual hd kit for it and put your own second drive in down the road. It is a bit of a pain in the ass but it isn't that hard. It is cheaper then buying the server one as well. Unless you want raid 1 for the os though I wouldn't worry about it.
Click to expand...

+1.
 
With this new iMac coming how important is memory size? I am assuming it is exactly like PCs and 8GB would be fine for casual RAW imports to Photoshop/Lightroom?
 
I installed FreeNAS on my spare PC and threw in some 5400 rpm drives. FreeNas has a feature to where you can share a drive as an Apple Share and Time Machine service sees it just like it would a Time Capsule device and sends all backups to it perfectly. Unless I check on it every now and then I don't even notice it.

For all the other file shares for docs, music and etc you can take your pick on how you want to share them. FTP, CIFS(windows), AFP(apple), NFS and etc. Absolutely simple to setup.

Use this step by step to install and setup FreeNAS to share files.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eipH3EEWQI

Use this to setup a share so that you can use Time Machine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW5y4_X4KnY

There are countless FreeNAS setup videos on youtube. If you don't like these two I'm sure you can find many more.


Have any questions let me know.
 
Private Citizen said:
I installed FreeNAS on my spare PC and threw in some 5400 rpm drives. FreeNas has a feature to where you can share a drive as an Apple Share and Time Machine service sees it just like it would a Time Capsule device and sends all backups to it perfectly. Unless I check on it every now and then I don't even notice it.

For all the other file shares for docs, music and etc you can take your pick on how you want to share them. FTP, CIFS(windows), AFP(apple), NFS and etc. Absolutely simple to setup.

Use this step by step to install and setup FreeNAS to share files.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eipH3EEWQI

Use this to setup a share so that you can use Time Machine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW5y4_X4KnY

There are countless FreeNAS setup videos on youtube. If you don't like these two I'm sure you can find many more.


Have any questions let me know.
Click to expand...

Awesome this is exactly what I was looking for thanks!
 
We just try to avoid discussing hackintosh, no foul really.

I've had good luck with FreeNAS in a mixed OSX/Win environment. I've always run into issues accessing win shares via OSX, it works, it's just been flakey in my experience.
 
Windows server has UNIX extensions so you can do NFS, also the deduplicaiton feature in 2012 is probably the best thing windows could have done for storage. Turn you 6TB into 12TB or 18TB easily.
 
If Microsoft doesn't pull their head out of their collective asses, I see more people heading the same way (myself included), at least with the older generation. There will still be the younger people that buy Apple because it's the hip thing to do... but those of us that are older want a good looking, well maintained OS. Windows 8 is NOT either of the latter.
 
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