It is begun: I have embarked upon a voyage of the mind, body, and spirit—a voyage almost ten years in the making. In the summer of 1999, as I prepared for my sophomore year at college, I replaced my aging Performa 6300CD (also known as the worst Mac ever) with a brand shiny—and above all—blue PowerMac G3. At the time, it was the state of the art, with a 400MHz G3 processor, 6GB hard drive, DVD drive, a whopping 64MB of RAM, and—oh yes—a built-in Iomega Zip drive (hot!).
Throughout the rest of college, the G3 was my primary computer. I slowly upgraded it over the years, replacing the hard drive with a 40GB model (and later a 120GB), increasing the RAM to 512MB, and even upgrading the processor to a 600MHz G4. And through it all, the computer stayed with me, faithfully keeping my memories and documents of years gone by (some dating all the way back to my original Mac LC, circa 1991).
But a funny thing’s happened over the past few years: I’ve begun relying more and more on my MacBook exclusively. At some point, when I realized I ought to backup my data, I cloned the G3 to an external FireWire drive, and now when I want to access those files (which, it seems, is rarely), I just plug the drive into my MacBook instead.
So it seems it’s time to retire the old feller. But it’s not going to be easy: it contains my full iTunes library, thousands of photos, and seventeen years of files. It’s been my vault for the past nine years, and I’m still in need of just such a thing, even if the G3 isn’t quite cut out for it anymore.
After mulling over my options for a while, I’m replacing it with this little guy: a 1.66Ghz Core Duo Mac mini. It’s ideal for my purposes: a small footprint and low power consumption mean my vault can always be accessible, and the modern technology means I can install Leopard on it for the latest in connectivity. The Mac Pro is simply more machine than I need—even the Aluminum iMac is a little too heavy. My goal is for the Mac mini to be my data repository, while my MacBook, iPhone, and yes, even my Xbox 360, act as the satellites that lets me access that data wherever I am.
Thus begin this journey of a thousand steps. I’ll be posting my progress here occasionally as I undertake this project, and I’ll endeavor to share with you my successes and defeats, my triumphs and pitfalls, my victories and cautionary tales. Stay tuned: the voyage has just begun.
I already have that exact set up, with an external 1TB hard drive connected to my mini, (hidden away in a book case) my MacBook Pro is my main computer and my XBox 360 allows me to watch everything on it in wonderful HD. I suggest Connect360 for streaming to your Xbox if you weren't already using it.
That sounds like a nice setup. I'll be shopping for my "main" machine next year. My last gen PowerBook is still chugging faithfully away, and ever since my iPhone, I have found myself using the PowerBook less and less. I used to check it first thing in the morning, last thing at night, and several times during the day. That chore has dutifully fallen upon my iPhone. Some days my PowerBook doesn't even get opened until the evening.
Mass storage has been shifted to a network drive, so my "main" machine no longer handles that responsibility. I've thought about the mini, but I think my next one will be a large iMac just for the beauty of the display. But I've got plenty of time to to reinforce that thought or come up with new ones. I'll be eagerly following your journey. Who knows, maybe I'll end up with a Mini and a mega-display to accompany it.
Funny, I'm starting the same process this week myself. Grabbed a refurbished 1.66 Mac mini and a Drobo is in the mail. I'd use the DroboShare but I need iTunes for my AppleTVs but I maybe switching to my 360 also because the AppleTV is suck a pain to encode HD videos for.
Good luck with your transition.
You're doing what I want to do, Dan. Once my dad is done with his aging G4, I'm going to stuff it full of drives and make it my vault.
How are you going to handle your bundles of drives? Can you get a tower with multiple drive slots?
Gotta ask, and only because I'm not familiar w/ it at all, but can you partition a Time Capsule such that part of it is (obviously) for Time Machine, and part of it is for your data repository? I mean, if all you are storing are files and data, I don't understand the need for a "computing" device rather than just network storage? Your Macbook probably has more processing power - so why spend $500 on a computer when you can spend $250 on a network drive?
It will probably be easier than you think as long as your data is organized at least a little bit. I did the same thing, and it's pretty cool.
My first thought on reading this was that you were being foolish - the whole vault situation could be solved with some network attached storage, perhaps a Time Capsule.
Then I realized that this is probably entirely adequate to your needs, and probably cheaper, and entirely more flexible - especially if you put it alongside your Xbox and let it drive your TV as well.
And I'm one to talk, with an eMac in the basement with a 300 GB external drive serving the same purpose.
"Performa 6300CD (also known as the worst Mac ever)"
Ha! Luxury! I owned a 4300-series around the same time.