Looking for some advice from fellow iMac owners and anticipators...

[iMerlin]

So Im eagerly anticipating my i7 like a crazy person. I ordered the i7 with 2tb HDD in it. So onto my question. I am officially decommissioning my old PC. But it has a decent Mother board and some space as well. I also have a Drobo with 2tb (4 500gb drives) in it.

My plan is to replace 2 of those 500gb drives in the Drobo with 2 1tb drives to accommodate the new iMac for Time Machine. Then throw the extra 500gb drives into the PC tower, put a video card in the PC that has miniDisplayPort on it. Then load some type of Linux like Yellow Dog or Ubuntu and turn that box into a shared server type of deal. And use the iMac as the screen.
Anyone see any flaws in this logic? Ive never really done anything like this so Im looking for any help anyone has.

Can I even load Linux on this box? Its just a simple PC with an AMD chipset.

Instead of putting it into the tower, should I just go get a couple of enclosures and run them all off the iMac?

Also, does anyone know for sure if a MiniDisplayPort video card will in fact output to my iMac? Any make or models I should be looking for? Ive been searching and cant really find anything with MiniDP yet.

I also have a 19" HP monitor with DVI in, anyone know if the MiniDP to DVI adapter will work for this? I know a lot of people are trying to hook up PS3s and stuff like that, but this is just a computer monitor, I think it should work just fine, right?

So anyway... thoughts... suggestions???

 

[ReggaeFire]

I think that would end up being far more trouble than it would be worth. Also it's unclear what you would be using the linux box for. I would think it would be easier to VNC to the linux box then messing with a Displayport video card and drivers on a linux box.

 

[iMerlin]

I think that would end up being far more trouble than it would be worth. Also it's unclear what you would be using the linux box for. I would think it would be easier to VNC to the linux box then messing with a Displayport video card and drivers on a linux box.

I would just be using it for extra storage, maybe set up a Raid array, something like that.
But you bring up a good point about the drivers for linux. I didnt even think about that. Hell, maybe I just keep the PC running even though I never really need it.