Ok; so instead of trying to sell my MDD I was thinking of turning it into a file server. Well my problem is that it only takes PATA drives and those are hard to find that are large anymore (and what was large a fews years ago isn't so big anymore.)

So I was thinking...

1. Since its limited to OS X Leopard is it worth trying to find a Leopard Server install for it?

2. To get faster larger storage... I was looking at getting a SATA card for this beast. SATA will be faster and afford me larger drives. Right? I know I'd be somewhat limited as its only got regular old PCI (at 33MHz too...) I've not been able to dig up many workable SATA card for this machine. The Sonnet card from OWC looks pricy and theres also a FirmTek card too; but its eSATA i think.

Any thoughts on rather or not this is worth doing? If so anyone know where I can find some workable cards that allow me to boot off of the SATA drives inside?

just stick with a slower PATA drive for the OS.. and use the SATA card for storage.. The sonnet card is pretty much your only option

So there's no advantage of putting Leopard Server on the machine? I mean whats the advantage if I did that anyways?

If you're expecting this to be reliable at all, I would highly suggest not going ahead, and getting a new machine to do the job.

MDDs are at the point of failure these days, in my experience (I've written off 4+ this year).

If you're expecting this to be reliable at all, I would highly suggest not going ahead, and getting a new machine to do the job.

MDDs are at the point of failure these days, in my experience (I've written off 4+ this year).

Really? Mine works quite well. Its still a wind tunnel as far as noise is concerned. I used to use it a lot more before I got my MBP.

I thought I'd use it instead of getting some kind of enclosure or something. I have a few external drives and its kind of cluttered having them sit on my desk.

Still some 500GB and 750GB IDE/PATA drives available with a quick search and not too excessively priced, with some as pulls, Brand New and Factory Refurbished.

3.5" IDE computer/server hard drives (http://discountechnology.com/Products/3-5-EIDE-ATA-Hard-Drives-Computer-Server)

Still some 500GB and 750GB IDE/PATA drives available with a quick search and not too excessively priced, with some as pulls, Brand New and Factory Refurbished.

3.5" IDE computer/server hard drives (http://discountechnology.com/Products/3-5-EIDE-ATA-Hard-Drives-Computer-Server)

Not too excessively priced ?!? $300 for a 500 GB and $150 for a 250 GB?
Keep in mind the slim or no warranty too. The "new" ones will be old stock that have depleted warranty.

Truthfully, given the noise, power consumption, IDE limitation and lower reliabilty of the MDD machines, I would be hard pressed to recommend one as a server.

Given a choice, rather than spending money on drives, server OS and SATA card(s) I would give a serious thought to a NAS unit, like a Time Capsule or a Synology unit Synology Network Attached Storage - Products (http://www.synology.com/products/index.php?lang=us) or the cheaper NetGear ReadyNAS Duo V2 Netgear ReadyNAS Duo v2 Review - SlashGear (http://www.slashgear.com/netgear-readynas-duo-v2-review-09194156/)

Hmmm good ideas... I'll look into that. Do some NAS drives play bette with Macs than others?

Hmmm good ideas... I'll look into that. Do some NAS drives play bette with Macs than others?

The Synology is very Mac friendly, the NetGear does support AFP and has OSX 10.7 compatible RAID management software. The Synology 212J is the better product, albeit $100 more expensive. It explicitly supports iTunes streaming, TimeMachine, has its own iOS app. DS212j Products - Synology Inc. Network Attached Storage - NEW NAS Experience (http://www.synology.com/products/product.php?product_name=DS212j&lang=enu)
The other good NAS brand with Mac support is QNap

You are right, some other NAS manufacturers are not as Mac friendly.

Really? Mine works quite well. Its still a wind tunnel as far as noise is concerned. I used to use it a lot more before I got my MBP.

I thought I'd use it instead of getting some kind of enclosure or something. I have a few external drives and its kind of cluttered having them sit on my desk.

All the ones I've seen have worked fine - until they stopped. One was a power supply, another had the ATA controller go, etc.

I'd second what CanadaRAM suggested, looking into a NAS.

I've all but replaced my Mac mini server with a Synology NAS (see sig), and it's working great. No complaints.