[X4U] Using a Quicksilver G4 as a NAS?

[Neil]

Thanks for your thoughtful reply David.  My responses follow yours  
below.  I'm still looking for recommendations on an 8-bay USB  
enclosure and a 4 or 8 port SATA controller, SATA hard drives, and an  
OS (maybe FreeNAS?).

On Jan 2, 2009, at 4:03 AM, David Ledger wrote:

> At 23:42 -0500 1/1/09, Neil wrote:
>> I have an old Quicksilver G4/733 with 1.12gigs of ram and running  
>> Mac os 10.4.11.  I need storage.  So, I'm thinking of adding a  
>> couple SATA cards, pulling the existing drives (even the DVD), and  
>> installing 6 or 8 SATA hard drives.   I know that can make a lot of  
>> heat, but I think I would rarely access more that two drives at a  
>> time.  I don't need RAID.  An 8 bay NAS would be expensive, and  
>> while an 8 bay USB enclosure would suffice, that would run a few  
>> hundred dollars too.
>>
>> My questions:
>>
>> Am I better off getting a USB enclosure?  If so, is there one in  
>> particular that I should consider?
>
> That would depend on what you would do if your G4 died.

I think a fan or power supply would be the most likely failure.  If  
the replacement isn't too expensive, I would do that instead of  
switching to a new Mac.  If the repair costs more than about $200 or  
is more difficult that popping in a PCI card or a RAM module, I would  
just buy a new USB enclosure.

> If you would replace with an iMac or Mac mini then you'd be stuck  
> with SATA cards and drives.

I will still use the drives, that is the main investment.  Apple no  
longer makes any products with 8 bays.

> If you would replace it with Mac Pro, then your SATA cards would  
> move across and your investment protected.
>
> In either case an external box would be ok. I wouldn't use USB  
> though, especially with a slow G4. FW cards will continue to be  
> available for Mac Pros, whatever Apple does. Read up on USB 3 before  
> committing.

I don't think I've ever seen an 8-bay  enclosure for less than $1,000,  
except USB.

> You say you don't need RAID. Do you have a good way of backing up  
> these extra drives (or are they the backup for other places)? If  
> not, RAID 5 makes sense. (When will someone make an economical  
> external RAID 5 box with 5 drives? It's the simplest, cheapest way  
> to do RAID 5).

I'm planning to use a few drives as back-ups for my three primary  
Macs.  The other drives are for storage, but I plan to get an 8-bay  
USB drive to plug in once a week to back-up the storage and to have a  
second back-up for my primary Macs.  I don't consider RAID 5 to be a  
true back-up solution to itself because it doesn't help if the problem  
is data corruption, theft, lightning that destroys more than one  
drive, etc.  The back-up should be off-line most of the time.

>
>> If converting the G4 into a NAS makes sense, which SATA controller  
>> card (inexpensive, Mac compatible and bootable), hard drives (low  
>> heat)?  Should I run the Mac os or try Linux?  Thanks in advance.