So after neglecting my Mac mini HTPC setup for a while, I've been getting back to it. Upgraded the mini to Lion, installed the latest Plex (it seems like nine has matured a good bit, nice), ditched the FreeNAS as it was getting too cumbersome - the machine is huge, the software is hard to maintain, and the version I was using doesn't play well with Lion (although it seems like the latest does). Now I'm just rolling with a couple of USB hard drives - one for media and one for Time Machine.
I still want to get back to a NAS sometime in the future, because it's really better for a number of reasons - delocalizing the storage means no noise, a NAS can run a number of services (including Time Machine) that can relieve the load on mini, etc, etc. But when I do, I'll want a dedicated, simpler, more effective box for that. That means money so it'll have to wait.
Until then, and since this HTPC/server lives in my bedroom rather than in a living room, I've managed to conceal the externals in a closet thanks to long USB cables, which alleviates the noise matters to a degree, but doesn't completely solves them. I can still hear them when the load is heavy. I can also hear the mini's own hard drive working. It's not a loud or constant noise, but, yeah, it's those every-20 seconds small noises of a 2.5" hdd's moving parts.
So that brings me to the point of this post. I want solid state memory running that sucker. I've been looking and SSDs still cost a buck more than what I wanted. And I don't even need the performance of an SSD. I just want complete silence so it can work 24/7 without driving me crazy. Applying some troll logics here, since the boot disk on the mini only uses 30 or less GBs, what if instead of an expensive SSD, I simply use a bootable thumbdrive or memory card? Wouldn't that get the job done for a fraction of the cost? What do you guys reckon?
