Forums | MacLife

Well, I have built a TON of PCs, have a FW enclosure next to me, and love to tinker with stuff.

Just to let you know, I have no experience, so my ideas should not be thought of as nec. good ones.

There seams to be a 'simple' IDE to FW converter with a 3 wire power cable running to the PSU.  There is a standard 4 pin MOLEX connector running to your IDE device from the PSU.  A small fan which is also hooked into the PSU seams to be the only other device that is powered.

I have NO idea where you would get the IDE 2 FW adapter.  But other than that, go pick up a cheap PSU (or, if you are like me, pull one out of a parts box).  Slap this into a small shuttle style case you bought for 30 bucks or so.  Since you are smart, , and have already moded this shuttle case to hold 2 ROM drives and 2 HDs (easily accesable) all you need to do is bolt a nice SS plate to the back, drop in those IDE/FW cards, daisy chain two of them, run each grouping of two to each of your open FW slots on your mac and boom, you have a sweet looking, easily interchangable, high capacity FW enclosure.  No idea where you would get the Controler card unless you bought up a pile of old enclosures at an auction like the one I go to.

If you wanted to get really into it, you could mod a bouple PCI cards (and some simple cord extenders) so that the front of your shuttle case had USB, FW, Audio, etc ports in the front.  Section of one side, or add a compartment, to store all your calbes in.  Now you can hook up your KB and MS to the shuttle case and not have cords laying around.  PLUS you could, if you have a CRT or flat panel with smaller/ round base, throw your monitor on top!

Yes, my post has horrible grammar and spelling.  Yes, I am too lazy to correct it.  My horribly random thought process will have to due.  Besides, I am sure I did not help all that much!

Waaah! Nobody has one that looks like the Mini...boo hoo. Hence my desire to build one.

I could just repaint the thing, eh?

I'm sick of this windtunnel tower I'm using as a drive farm. Too noisy. I need quiet.

Doubt he can just do a simple PSU swap for a PC one. Those days are sort of over in the more recent AGP G4 Macs without lots of modding work.

If you want quiet drives just go all Seagates. My 80GB Seagate is the quietest drive i've ever owned.

i always look at fwdepot.com as a catalogue for what parts are available. if you want something pre-built, wiebetech.com, granitedigital.com and plenty of other places can keep you satisfied, but they'll be wanting a pretty penny.