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Originally Posted by doogald
While I don't disagree with your post, they are selling it with an external 4 TB Firewire 800 RAID 5 drive. It adds another $800, but it's also not just an external USB.
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Okay, Firewire or USB. Either way, as you say, most certainly NOT eSATA. And WOW, $800! That'd make this thing $1800 for what would amount to 2.5 TB (mirrored). I've got less than $500 in my HP WHS box (got a good deal originally) and have 2 TB (selectively mirrored). Sure, it's WHS, not OS X Server, and the processor is significantly slower, but you get the point. This obviously isn't meant for the home user.
Quote:
Originally Posted by doogald
That said, I'd add to your list eSATA ports, to either replace a USB or augment the 5 USB and 1 Firewire port.
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Dump two video ports and replace with one eSATA and one mini-HDMI.
Quote:
Originally Posted by doogald
As for USB 3.0, it seems early to be shipping that?
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No, I don't think so. Apple has traditionally been at the forefront of promoting new standards. Makes perfect sense to me for them to be first out the door with some consumer-level USB 3.0 stuff. It is an official spec and they are already certifying stuff. I expected both the i5 and USB 3.0.
At least I got the i5 in the iMac...for a $300 premium!
There's a $55 difference between the 3.06 Core 2 Wolfdale ($144.99) and 2.66 i5 Lynnfield ($199.99). Even taking into account the mobo chipset and video coprocessor differences we're talking <$100 difference...retail...between these. Sheesh!
Quote:
Originally Posted by doogald
That said, there is no reason why you could not just install Snow Leopard non-server on this and use it as a beefed-up home media server (the way that I use mine, though with external drives - I'd love it to have mirrored 500 GB internals.)
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The funny part about that is perhaps the most valuable part of the system is the $500 OS X server license. If you did replace it with Snow Leopard, be sure to eBay the server license.
I really do think Apple is missing a huge market opportunity by effectively ignoring the family room. AppleTV is okay, but was almost "me too" when it came out and is very dated now (today I'd take a $129 WD TV Live over an AppleTV even if the AppleTV were LESS expensive). But what I really want is the whole-home media server. Windows Media Center isn't taking off because, well it's Microsoft and these days the mainstream doesn't seem to accept a new conceptual use for computer technology until Apple puts its spin on it. It is also still just a little too pricey (well, and the extenders suck). Personally, I wouldn't even pay the prices I quoted above for the above configuration, but it would make the concept "seem" legit and likely bring in a bunch of competitive hardware/software and drive prices down. At least that's where my wacky brain is currently...