My 2011 Mac mini HTPC uses a 512GB Samsung 830 and 1TB Western Digital Scorpio Blue 9.5mm 5400 RPM. This WD Blue is nearly as fast as the 750GB Western Digital Scropio Black 7200RPM, which is one of the fastest 2.5" drives available. There are two versions of the 1TB WD Blue, so make sure you get the 9.5mm version. The other 12.5mm is slow and out dated. My full setup is below:
Tuner Configuration
SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime-6CC-3X2
Signal Strength: 99-100% (-0.1db - 4.8db)
Signal Quality: 100% (34db - 36db)
Symbol Quality: 100%
Network
Apple 3TB TimeCapsule
Apple Airport Extreme
Apple Airport Express
Netgear ProSafe 10/100/1000 Switch
Motorola Signal Booster 2-Port BDA-S2
F-Type 75 ohm Terminators (on all open ports, bulkheads, etc. to reduce interference from LTE signals)
Quad Shielded RG6 coaxial cables (to reduce interference from LTE signals)
Apple Mac Mini HTPC Configuration
2011 Mac mini 2.7GHz Dual-Core Intel i7
8GB 1866MHz Kingston Hyper X
512GB Samsung 830 SSD
1TB Western Digital Scorpio Blue 5400RPM
Logitech diNovo Mini
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboa...WT.srch=1&ci=0
Microsoft Windows 7 HTPC Configuration
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (on Samsung 830)
AHCI enabled
Disable Hibernate
Disable Sleep
Control Panel > Power Options > Balanced
Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings
> Hard disk > Turn off hard disk after - 20 minutes
> PCI Express > Link State Power Management - Maximum power savings
Broadcom NetExtreme Gigabit Ethernet:
All Offload options disabled
Rx & Tx Flow Control enabled
802.11az EEE disabled
Microsoft Security Essentials:
Excluded D:\\Recorded TV
Excluded .wtv files
Excluded ehshell.exe; ehSched.exe; ehRecvr.exe
Windows Media Center:
Tuner Salad for up to 12 tuners (currently use 6 tuners)
Media Browser & Neo Theme
Channel Logos
Scheduled Tasks:
Weekly restart of the HTPC (shutdown /r /f /t 0)
Weekly restart of SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime ("C:\\Program Files\\Silicondust\\HDHomeRun\\hdhomerun_config.exe" {tuner ID here} set /sys/restart self)
Two (2) Xbox 360 Slim 4GB extenders
Logitech Harmony One
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/remote...iversal-remote
Links
Enabling AHCI for Windows on 2011 Macs:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...1-now-possible
Tuner Salad:
http://mychannellogos.com/TunerSalad.aspx
Microsoft Windows 7 How-To Schedule A Tasks:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...chedule-a-task
Microsoft Windows 7 How-To Disable / Enable Hibernate:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...e-disable.html