[geeks] So let's say you wanted something bigger than a Mac Mini...

[Mark Benson]

On 15 Dec 2012, at 03:17, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> And smaller than a Mac Pro - what would you do?
>
> Answer, you'd buy this insanely-priced ($1300) expansion chassis and turn
> your Mac Mini into a 1U rackmount system with two PCIe slots (both x4 in
> larger connectors) hanging off a thunderbolt port.
>
> http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technologies/XMACMS/

But... when you add the cost of a Mac Mini and an insanely expensive Apple
graphics card to that it's the same price or pretty close as a Mac Pro. Also,
1U fans tend to be very whiney.

> Or you'd get one of the merely high-priced ($350) single-slot thunderbolt
> expansion chassis:
>
> http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/PCIe_Chassis/Mercury_Helios/
>
> I just noticed these on OWC website and thought I'd share - I know a few
> folks here were interested in something a little "beefier" than a stock Mac
> Mini...

Good idea, I like it, the slot is only 8x which would heel the card but you
could drop something like a 5770 in there and it'd move the dirt pretty well.
There's a catch though. They don't support any video cards and some hardware
needs special drivers that are apparently 'Thunderbolt aware' :(

--
Mark Benson

My Blog:
<http://markbenson.org/blog>
Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/mdbenson

"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."