[geeks] Replacing a Mac Pro 2006

[hike]

On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 10:44 AM, Mark Benson <md.benson at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am looking into buying a 2012 Ivy Bridge Mac Mini sometime in the next
> year
> to replace my Mac Pro. I love my Mac Pro dearly, it's been a total trooper
> for
> almost 6 years but it is getting a little long in the tooth and won't run
> 10.8
> without a hack and that's the first sign that you're about to get left in
> the
> Apple Tech Ghetto. Also I've compared the Ivy Bridge i7 2.6 Quad Core Mac
> Mini
> specs against the specs of the Mac Pro I'm running and it simply blows the
> Mac
> Pro I'm running away, computationally. I can back that up as my Games PC
> is a
> i7 2600 rig and it also blows my Mac Pro away.
>
> Apart from the lack of discreet graphics (slinging in 16GB of RAM ought to
> solve that in part) is there anything else that should be considered a
> hangup?
> I'd probably run an SSD inboard on the machine to mitigate the 2.5" hard
> drive
> issue.
>
> So I know the Mac Mini is way faster brains-wise. What I can't really cope
> with however is the loss of storage bays. I have a SSD + 4 drives (2 RAID1
> pairs) int he 'Pro.  I'd like to use the Thunderbolt Bus to run my storage
> instead... but everyone is selling enclosures WITH drives. I've already GOT
> the drives (2 are new, 2 are a year an a half old, all are SATA 600MBit and
> very quiet).
>
> Does anyone know of a 2 drive or 4 drive box with no drives for
> Thunderbolt?
> Preferably from a UK seller but not essential?
>
> Also I run a i7 2600 Sandy Bridge PC (Asus motherboard, NVIDIA GTX560
> graphics, 8GB RAM) that's way faster than my Mac Pro. It's EFI native not
> BIOS
> (it's got legacy mode for BIOS based stuff, not that I've ever run anything
> off it that needed it) so how easy is it likely to be to run 10.8 on that
> sensibly?
>
> I'm in need of options.
>
> --
> 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..."
> _______________________________________________
> GEEKS:  http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/geeks
>


Does OWC/MacSales.com sell empty Thunderbolt boxes?
They seem to have a look of Mac-hobbyist stuff.
If you don't sell any on their website, you might consider asking their
customer service.  My experience is that they will help with stuff they
don't carry.
This is USA specific--I've only been in a Dixon's in UK at the airport.
HTH