charm

I have a Silicon Graphics O2 system that I want to add a larger hard drive to. Currently the system has a couple of 2.1GB SCA hard drives which isn't nearly enough for the purpose I want to use the box for (moving my VHS to file format so I can watch on my Palm TX).

Some time ago I bought a 32GB SCA drive from ebay after investigating it and finding out that it was O2-compatible (info not from the seller). Unfortunately when the drive arrived it clearly wasn't going to fit in the O2. The photograph didn't quite reflect the actual height of the drive without looking at it very closely. I don't blame the seller. I did a bit of research, but the site that I got my information from stated compatibility (which could have meant via an external enclosure).

I tried NFS mounting the 80GB hard drive in my Linux box and it worked! ... until I started recording video. Unfortunately the latency was too great for the box to properly record video.

A few people have recommended buying Fibre channel drives, but these are expensive, and, to be perfectly honest, I don't want to have to spend a lot more time researching the best fibre solution.

A couple of sites mention using external SCSI solutions. The problem is... I bought a 32GB SCA drive ($70CDN after shipping/taxes, etc.) and I'd like to use it. I haven't found an external enclosure that would take the drive. Having spent quite a bit already on this 180MHz box I'm not really in the mood to plunk down a lot more.

Just today I was talking with someone who said "well you could do it (NFS) with gigabit ethernet." If that is true I'd like to hear from someone who is NFS mounting drives and saving video to confirm the statement. Even though it would probably mean buying two cards (PC NIC and SGI O2 card if it exists) I'd like to think this is the best solution. At some point I'll probably wire my entire apartment with gigabit.

Thanks and cheers!

Charles