Mac mini HD upgrade.. which one?

[zen.state]

solved long ago

[AC773]

The FireWire bus will be a bottleneck for you, and there's the ugliness of doubling your mini's height. If you buy the right notebook drive, going internal will be better and faster.

The drive you want is the Hitachi 7K200. It features 7200 RPM with 200 GB of space. The performance is as good as some 3.5" desktop drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145160

It's so good that it almost made me consider a mini for myself...almost. The graphics are still a dealbreaker for me. :rolleyes:

Anyway, hope that helps!

[zen.state]

The FireWire bus will be a bottleneck for you, and there's the ugliness of doubling your mini's height. If you buy the right notebook drive, going internal will be better and faster.

The drive you want is the Hitachi 7K200. It features 7200 RPM with 200 GB of space. The performance is as good as some 3.5" desktop drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145160

It's so good that it almost made me consider a mini for myself...almost. The graphics are still a dealbreaker for me. :rolleyes:

Anyway, hope that helps!


I think you're right about the firewire being a bottleneck.

I read on tomshardware.com that the Seagate 7200rpm 2.5" sata was the best one to buy. I will research both.

[crazycat]

Go with the ministack, up to 1TB, extra usb and firewire, fits well under the macmini and you can use it with other desktops/laptops. I have a lacie macmini external HD and i loved it so much i got one for my iMac for the extra ports.

[MacinDoc]

I put the above Hitachi 200GB/7200RPM/16MB drive in my MacBook and it is a screamer, even faster than the Seagate drives on most benchmarks. Not to mention cool and quiet. If you don't mind opening your Mini, this would certainly be the faster option than Firewire.

[zen.state]

Thanks for the advice guys!

I think the 7200 internal makes the most sense. Since these mini's have SATA an internal should really give me a nice boost. The stock Hitachi 5400 does about 40-50MB sec but it looks like 7200's can do 70MB+ in the SATA 2.5" world. Firewire 400 has a max speed of 50MB so an internal is a no-brainer choice really.

I will get less GB per $ with an internal even though the external case makes up some of the cost of the FW option. Besides.. in the past I have had a couple issues when booting from FW drives.

Internal for me..

[zen.state]

I put the above Hitachi 200GB/7200RPM/16MB drive in my MacBook and it is a screamer, even faster than the Seagate drives on most benchmarks. Not to mention cool and quiet. If you don't mind opening your Mini, this would certainly be the faster option than Firewire.

Do you have any heat issues or at least notice the macbook is warmer with the hitachi 7200?

[Yvan256]

Since the new Mac mini is using a SATA drive, can't you buy a miniStack and run a wire from the inside of the Mac mini to a 3.5" drive in the miniStack? :cool:

That's what I'm planning to do, anyway. Just waiting on Leopard...

[zen.state]

It's so good that it almost made me consider a mini for myself...almost. The graphics are still a dealbreaker for me. :rolleyes:



I hear you on the graphics. I'm not a gamer at all though and the Intel GMA 950 supports Quartz Extreme and Core Image so its all I need.

[MacinDoc]

Do you have any heat issues or at least notice the macbook is warmer with the hitachi 7200?
No more than before the upgrade.

BTW, here is a good comparison (http://www.barefeats.com/rosa05.html) actually done on a MacBook Pro.

[zen.state]

No more than before the upgrade.

BTW, here is a good comparison (http://www.barefeats.com/rosa05.html) actually done on a MacBook Pro.

It looks like the Hitachi 200GB is the way to go. Seems a good amount faster than the Seagate plus it has an extra 40GB and double the buffer size. I'm sure the 16mb buffer helps keep the drive cooler as it would be moving the head less.

Here in Canada the Hitachi is $250 and the Seagate is $180. I'd say its worth the extra 70..

Thanks for all the advice guys!

[jhkingsr]

Bang for the buck you may want to consider the 250gb WD Scorpio. It's 5400 but compares favorably with the 7200's. It's less expensive with an extra 50gb. http://www.barefeats.com/rosa06.html

[zen.state]

Bang for the buck you may want to consider the 250gb WD Scorpio. It's 5400 but compares favorably with the 7200's. It's less expensive with an extra 50gb. http://www.barefeats.com/rosa06.html

I would much rather have a 7200rpm vs. an extra 50GB.