My AppleTV with OSX experience! (High res shots)

[Erendiox]

I'm just waiting to find out how many people end up frying their AppleTV by sticking in larger hard drives that could potentially generate heat beyond the tested tolerances of the ostensibly fanless unit.

When they realize they've voided their warranties and are out $300 plus the cost of the new drive, maybe they'll be thinking, "Hmm, maybe Apple limited it to a 40 gigabyte drive for a good reason."

Somehow I doubt this will happen. Harddrives have never been huge heat producers. And besides, increasing the capacity doesn't increase heat output. The only thing that might is increasing the RPMs, and even then, it's minimal, although, I wouldn't go sticking 10K raptors in there...

Also, i'm sure apple put 40 gig hard drives in there to keep the manufacturing cost down, not because of heating issues.

 

[taylorwilsdon]

Too bad the drive I put in is much higher quality then the trash that Apple puts stock. Capacity is very rarely a cause for incresed operating temperature (moving from 40 to 160gb will raise temps a bit but disc speed (rpms). The quality of the drive has more of an impact then anything else.

edit - other guy beat me to the punch. Thanks bro - somebody knows what he is talking about!

 

[jkieffer72]

I'm just waiting to find out how many people end up frying their AppleTV by sticking in larger hard drives that could potentially generate heat beyond the tested tolerances of the ostensibly fanless unit.

When they realize they've voided their warranties and are out $300 plus the cost of the new drive, maybe they'll be thinking, "Hmm, maybe Apple limited it to a 40 gigabyte drive for a good reason."

Can you point me to some specs that show that larger capacity drives generate more heat, or are you just making assumptions?

 

[jkieffer72]

Can you point me to some specs that show that larger capacity drives generate more heat, or are you just making assumptions?

Tee-hee... I guess a couple others had the same thougths I did...

 

[MacBass]

Would the modded TV display correctly on a 4:3 monitor/TV? I would imagine it would with OS X running, but I'm just curious. I might suggest this option to my dad.

 

[nplima]

looks like there's a lot of different hardware where people would like to run OS X... that's good news for the people at OSx86 project

folks who would like a unixy way of having a DVR/media centre and prefer 100% legit software should have a look at this one: http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html

 

[Avatar74]

Can you point me to some specs that show that larger capacity drives generate more heat, or are you just making assumptions?

After further reading elsewhere I discovered that the biggest heat producer in the AppleTV by far is the CPU. Granted, I don't expect there to be huge variances in heat generated by drives of different sizes... but installing any hardware substitute whose exact tolerances have not been tested has some risk associated with it. That risk could be anywhere from minimal to great...

The way the AppleTV is designed, using the exterior aluminum chassis as one big baffle to lose heat... and aluminum loses heat quite efficiently... it is more likely to push the tolerances very quickly with the accumulation of heat compared to a device that is actively ventilated. So would a normal device be sensitive to the slightest change in interior heat, probably not. Might this device? I don't know...

... but that of course is why I said "I wonder how many". Not "Many people will"...

 

[dscotts]

Taylor

Just got my ATV and EyeTV250 today to try and get my AppleTiVo going.

Any suggestions would be helpful. I am green at hacking - this might be over my head but I am willing to learn...

 

[taylorwilsdon]

Its pretty straightforward. Good luck installing software though, I'm having some real trouble mounting DMG's in my OSX installation on my AppleTV with OSX. I'm ending up having to install them via enclosure then dropping the HD back into the AppleTV.