Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Balancing all of these factors, we decided that a 2.5” laptop hard drive was the
best choice for our appliance system. We'd budgeted about $100 for primary
storage. That would have bought us a 1 TB or larger 7,200 RPM 3.5” desktop
hard drive, but alas, we had no room for a 3.5” drive. For $100 we could have
purchased a 32 GB MLC SSD, but that was simply too little storage space. So we
looked at 2.5” laptop hard drives. The 5,400 RPM 640 GB Seagate ST9640320AS
Momentus was selling for about $90, and the 7,200 RPM 320 GB Seagate ST-
903203N3A1AS Momentus for $20 more. We decided on the larger, slower
model, but on another day we might just as easily have chosen the smaller
7,200 RPM drive.
OpticalDrive
LiteOn DS-8A4S Slim Internal DVD Burner
(
http://www.liteonit.com
)
One of the drawbacks of using a small Mini-ITX case is that few of them, in-
cluding the one we chose, have room for standard optical drives. That meant
we needed a “slim” DVD burner. Compared to standard units, the selection of
such drives is quite limited, the prices are higher, and the durability is lower.
Still, the only alternative would have been to use a different case, and that we
didn't want to do.
Slim internal DVD burners are available in slot-load and tray-load models. Our
experience with slot-load drives from numerous manufacturers has been uni-
formly terrible. (We once had to tear down a system and remove and disassemble
the optical drive to reclaim the DVD it had eaten, which was a friend's only
backup copy.) Ruling out slot-load models left us with several tray-load mod-
els to consider. Of those, we ruled out Sony and LG models because our experi-
ence with slim drives from those manufacturers has been less than good. That
left us with the LiteOn DS-8A4S drive, which we purchased.
ExternalPeripherals
We're going to wimp out here. It's not that we don't want to list recommended
external peripherals for the appliance system. It's that we can't, because the
best external peripherals for our appliance system probably won't be the best
for your system. Accordingly, all we can recommend is that you choose ex-
ternal peripherals according to your budget and the purpose of your system.
Our appliance system will replace Robert's current den system, a mini-tower
unit. Yes, we also have a media center system with a 42” HDTV display in the
den, but Robert may want to do something else while Barbara re-watches
Brideshead Revisited
. Of course, Barbara may want to do something else while
Robert watches
Firefly
or
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
(for the fourth or fifth time),
but she doesn't want a computer and display on her end table.
