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

[Joshua Boyd]

On 12/15/2012 5:38 AM, Mark Benson wrote:
> 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.
You don't really need special Mac only cards any longer.  A modern 
Geforce will just work, except you won't see the apple logo at the 
beginning of boot up.

That said, there has been some indication that graphics cards don't work 
in thunderbolt PCI-e bridged cases, which is probably because of driver 
shortcomings.