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philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,362
248
Howell, New Jersey
if you had a 2011 mini it may be worth a shot. taking the dvd out of a 2010 mini is not a bright idea.

sell the mini on ebay and use the cash to buy a 2011 mini.

follow my logic a 2010 mini runs snow and lion a 2010 mini has a dvd player. a lot of people want this for htpc .

a lot of people have large dvd collections and large cd collections.

the 2010 mini does well on ebay just look it up.

WHEN THE 1TB WD CAME OUT. I TOOK IT APART AND IT HAD A NON STANDARD INTERFACE! IE IT WAS SOLDERED TO A USB CONTROLLER

If the 2tb is the same it will not do what you want.
 
Last edited:

Tobias Funke

macrumors 6502a
Apr 3, 2012
628
61
I doubt the drive in side is 9.5mm.

The housing alone is 21 mm high.

Maybe they have just added a few more platters and made the drive taller to get 2TB.

I wish they would make a 2.5 inch 9.5mm 2TB drive for component sale. :cool:

I think a 1.5 TB would be 1st though.
 

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
It won't fit I'm almost sure of it. The drive inside that is most likely an Enterprise "sized" 2.5" drive which usually are 15mm. All laptop drives are 9mm or 12.5mm (in the extreme). Usually the high capacity hard drives that come out are the 15mm drives so they can be put into servers (since using 2.5" 15mm drives gives more storage in a small space which is essential in a datacenter).

Per WD's website:
2TB drive w/ enclosure is 21mm
750GB and 1 TB w/ enclosure is 19mm
500GB w/ enclosure is 15mm

If 6mm of each of those drives above is due to the enclosure you get:
2TB drive w/o enclosure 15mm
750GB and 1TB w/o enclosure 13mm (or roughly 12.5mm)
500GB w/o enclosure is 9mm

So yeah, the 2TB drive is definitely not a laptop spec'd drive but rather a server/enterprise spec'd one.
 

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,362
248
Howell, New Jersey
It won't fit I'm almost sure of it. The drive inside that is most likely an Enterprise "sized" 2.5" drive which usually are 15mm. All laptop drives are 9mm or 12.5mm (in the extreme). Usually the high capacity hard drives that come out are the 15mm drives so they can be put into servers (since using 2.5" 15mm drives gives more storage in a small space which is essential in a datacenter).

Per WD's website:
2TB drive w/ enclosure is 21mm
750GB and 1 TB w/ enclosure is 19mm
500GB w/ enclosure is 15mm

If 6mm of each of those drives above is due to the enclosure you get:
2TB drive w/o enclosure 15mm
750GB and 1TB w/o enclosure 13mm (or roughly 12.5mm)
500GB w/o enclosure is 9mm

So yeah, the 2TB drive is definitely not a laptop spec'd drive but rather a server/enterprise spec'd one.

it is a given the it will be 12.5mm or 15mm

I doubt the drive in side is 9.5mm.

The housing alone is 21 mm high.

Maybe they have just added a few more platters and made the drive taller to get 2TB.

I wish they would make a 2.5 inch 9.5mm 2TB drive for component sale. :cool:

I think a 1.5 TB would be 1st though.

it will be taller then a 9.5 mm.


I could get it to fit in a 2011 mac mini even if it is 15mm, or I could put in a pair of 1tb drives not sure what would be better or easier to do.
 

John Kotches

macrumors 6502
Jan 19, 2010
377
10
Troy, IL (STL Area)
Might want to check to see how much heat the 2TB (or 1 TB) drives give off to determine if you will exceed the heat tolerance of the MM.

That could end up dramatically shortening the life of the MM.
 

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,362
248
Howell, New Jersey
Might want to check to see how much heat the 2TB (or 1 TB) drives give off to determine if you will exceed the heat tolerance of the MM.

That could end up dramatically shortening the life of the MM.

good point. a pair of 1tb drives will work in a 2010 or a 2011 mini , but 1 2gb which is all that will fit In a 2 bay 2011 mini may run too hot.
 

shortcut3d

macrumors 65816
Aug 24, 2011
1,112
15
Switching from a 750GB WD Scorpio Black 7200RPM drive to a 9.5mm 1TB WD Scorpio Blue 5400RPM drive significantly lowered my system temps. So I would recommend dual 1TB WD Scorpio Blue. Also, I would question the power supply over the internal SATA to power a 15mm enterprise drive.
 

MJL

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2011
845
1
Economies of scale and the price history of RAM tell me that it will not be that long before prices of SSD drop so much that we'll see 500 Gb SSD prices dropping below mechanical HDD. Heck, I remember the days the CD player came out and we were told that it would never drop below 1000 guilders because the laser's were so expensive to manufacture (a car in those days was round 10.000 guilders). And look now what the average DVD/CD player is costing. I also remember the first IBM PC 286 costing as much as a car....

Mechanical HDD's are dead, manufacturing just needs to catch up.
 

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
Has anyone confirmed this will work in a 2011 Mini yet?

I found this info here:
http://www.notebookforums.com/t/240170/western-digital-wd-green-wd20npvt-2-5-2tb-sata-drive

Current Requirements
Power Dissipation
Read/Write 1.7 Watts
Idle 0.80 Watts
Standby 0.20 Watts
Sleep 0.20 Watts

but I don't have figures for the original Apple drives to compare.

http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/lR1QgnCGH5qWSqVW.large

That's how much room you have to work with. two certainly won't work. 1 would with no other drive (maybe with the super thin samsung 830).
 

Ifti

macrumors 68040
Dec 14, 2010
3,910
2,407
UK
May just be able to get one not a 2011 mini along with a Samsung 830 SSD.
If the new Mac Mini ever gets released and is a minor spec bump with no major physical change, I'll try it and get back to you!
 

madsilencerr

macrumors member
Aug 27, 2012
78
0
With the Mac mini 2011, i think you could put 2 1tb hard disks and use them as raid 0, so they would be faster and 2tb
 

jowie

macrumors 6502a
Jun 9, 2004
571
8
London ish
With the Mac mini 2011, i think you could put 2 1tb hard disks and use them as raid 0, so they would be faster and 2tb
Would much rather just have two 1TB drives as two separate partitions... Striping across two disks effectively doubles the possible failure rate.
 

madsilencerr

macrumors member
Aug 27, 2012
78
0
Would much rather just have two 1TB drives as two separate partitions... Striping across two disks effectively doubles the possible failure rate.

Yep, you are right! Sorry i didn't know that, i don't use raid 0 at all.
 

Armin Harich

macrumors newbie
Oct 10, 2012
2
0
Hi.

I upgrades my Mac Mini 2011 with a Western Digital Scorpio Green 2TB with 15 mm high. I also add a SSD with a edditional calble into it. I took the SSD out of the case, to save space. Both fit in well. But the thick HD need to be at the Top of the SSD. Top means, if you have the Mac mini in normal use.

How to open it, will you find here: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-Mac-Mini-Mid-2011-Dual-Hard-Drive-Kit/6275/1

I ripped one connector, as i was too fast. But could fix and it works now fine :).





Good Luck, Armin
 

marzer

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2009
1,396
120
Colorado
Hi.

I upgrades my Mac Mini 2011 with a Western Digital Scorpio Green 2TB with 15 mm high. I also add a SSD with a edditional calble into it. I took the SSD out of the case, to save space. Both fit in well. But the thick HD need to be at the Top of the SSD. Top means, if you have the Mac mini in normal use.

How to open it, will you find here: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-Mac-Mini-Mid-2011-Dual-Hard-Drive-Kit/6275/1

I ripped one connector, as i was too fast. But could fix and it works now fine :).

[url=http://www10.pic-upload.de/thumb/10.10.12/ll8pxgwljgf2.jpg]Image[/URL]

[url=http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/10.10.12/1wa89xff8d.jpg]Image[/URL]

Good Luck, Armin

ooh. What do you mean you took the SSD "out of the case"? You cracked the hard shell? Those things seem so solid.
 

Armin Harich

macrumors newbie
Oct 10, 2012
2
0
Yes. My case of the SSD was easy to open with screws. At on of the pictures, you see the raw SSD without shell.
Maybe it will also still fit inside with it. But i don´t know that.
Cooling should also be better that way.

Cheers, Armin.
 

Cave Man

macrumors 604
Anyone try this with the 2012 Mini yet?

Hi.

I upgrades my Mac Mini 2011 with a Western Digital Scorpio Green 2TB with 15 mm high. I also add a SSD with a edditional calble into it. I took the SSD out of the case, to save space. Both fit in well. But the thick HD need to be at the Top of the SSD. Top means, if you have the Mac mini in normal use.

How to open it, will you find here: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-Mac-Mini-Mid-2011-Dual-Hard-Drive-Kit/6275/1

I ripped one connector, as i was too fast. But could fix and it works now fine :).

[url=http://www10.pic-upload.de/thumb/10.10.12/ll8pxgwljgf2.jpg]Image[/URL]

[url=http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/10.10.12/1wa89xff8d.jpg]Image[/URL]

Good Luck, Armin
 

BenGieCruz

macrumors regular
Nov 8, 2012
138
76
Oklahoma
Yes, has anybody tried this on a 2012 yet? it should be the same as the 2011 but would like to make sure before i pull the trigger on that 2TB HD.... :confused:

BenGie
 

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,612
6,907
Economies of scale and the price history of RAM tell me that it will not be that long before prices of SSD drop so much that we'll see 500 Gb SSD prices dropping below mechanical HDD.

I've been hearing that for 8 years now. The problem is, the cost of HDD storage keeps going down too.
 
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