So im thinking about trading my computer for a mac mini. The only problem is the mini has half the hard drive size. How much would it cost to have some store upgrade the hard drive to like 250 gigs?
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getting a mac mini
- Thread starter iSaygoodbye
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Yeah it would show up as an additional drive. If you look at laptop hard drive prices, you can see how much it would cost. It's pretty cheap now.
Installing itself can take some work but there are plenty of good instructions available on the internet
Installing itself can take some work but there are plenty of good instructions available on the internet
I think you should just replace the internal. It gets really complicated when you have all your stuff in different places. I recommend 320 or 500GB.
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&name=Laptop-Hard-Drives
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&name=Laptop-Hard-Drives
It'll cost about the same whichever you choose. You're limited to 500GB if you go internal though. (and that is if you do the installation yourself)
Spend $80-100 on an external HD. If you pay a store to replace the HD you void the warranty, and will be paying significantly more that $80-100 in hardware and labor costs. Also, if your switching from a PC the current Mini is fine, I just gave my mom one yesterday. I was going to wait for the update, but honestly it is not going to be a night and day difference in my opinion.
Hardly. Just save all your data to the external. Simple, and it means the boot drive will be freer = quicker boot times and program launches.
Is it that hard to install a HD in the Mini? I'm not sure about the Intel ones, but the G4's weren't too hard to poke around it.
It's funny to me how no one thinks changing the memory in a Mini is a big deal, but almost everyone thinks the hard drive is too hard. People, you have to remove the drive "cage" to put in the memory! If you can do the RAM you can do the HD. As for warranty I personally doubt it would void it, per the reasons I stated above - Apple does allow us to do the memory.
If you need to use the warranty and you take them your Mini with a non factory HD they probably will not cover it.
It is the same sort of idea as the guy who couldn't get his logic board repaired because of a small dent on his MB.
It is the same sort of idea as the guy who couldn't get his logic board repaired because of a small dent on his MB.
Easiest solution there is. Buy a FW400 enclosure (Mini Stack's have a great form factor and include FW and USB2 hubs, but are noisy as hell) with an internal SATA interface and a nice 500 gb to 1 TB 7200 rpm drive and you'll get almost as good of performance as you do from the internal 5400 rpm drive.
I recommend the internal drive as well. I originally started with a 160gb FW400 drive, but it was just an eyesore having it stand out.
I just upgraded my mini to 320GB. Got the drive from best buy for around $90. Still a 5400 RPM but it's only for everyday use. I did the install myself just because I've been able to upgrade the memory without issues. Took about 20 mins from start to finish. Now I'm running my 1.83ghz C2D with 3GB ram and 320 seagate hard drive. Runs great.
I just upgraded my mini to 320GB. Got the drive from best buy for around $90. Still a 5400 RPM but it's only for everyday use. I did the install myself just because I've been able to upgrade the memory without issues. Took about 20 mins from start to finish. Now I'm running my 1.83ghz C2D with 3GB ram and 320 seagate hard drive. Runs great.
I went the external route mainly for increased capacity. I use mine as HTPC and I've just about got the 1 TB external filled 2.5" drives just are not big enough, but if you are willing to do the work and 320 GB is enough for you then you will end up with a cleaner finished product
Your old "crappy" computer is likely to be just as quick or quicker than a new Mac Mini. You need to note, the hardware it got back in 2007 was considered outdated laptop hardware back then. It has not been updated in nearly two years now.
Bigger hard drives have greater information density and are, therefore, faster to deliver information assuming no other bottlenecks. FW, while good, would still be a bottleneck over the internal SATA. I was pleasantly surprised with the speed boost from replacing my MB hard drive.
While you are in there you can bump up the ram.
While you are in there you can bump up the ram.
This would assume most people get a new computer every two years? Aside from my MB, my other computer is a PIII-733 Dell. The new Mini will certainly be faster than that.
Here's a little look at Intel history:
PIII-733 October 1999
first P4 November 2000
2.4 GHz P4 April 2002
3.0 GHz P4 April 2003
Core January 2006
Core 2 July 2006
Quad Penryn January 2008
The current Mini is about as fast as anything going 3 years ago. And yes, with my PIII-733, I am as anxious as anyone to see the Mini updated.
In my Speedtools testing of a Samsung 320/5400/8 internal SATA drive compared to a Seagate 500/7200/16 FW400 drive, the internal drive performed better than the FW drive in almost all categories. The difference was minimal, though, perhaps 10%. The current Mini's SATA controller is 1.5 gbps, which is probably more like 1 gbps under average use. So the question for the OP is, is that 10% worth the lost space? Only he can answer that. For me, FW with larger capacity was more more important.
Successfully having done two internal hard drive upgrades and a CPU upgrade on a Mini, I caution you that you need to be prepared for a relatively difficult and not-risk-free process. If you are willing and able to afford the repairs or replacement costs and have the technical ability, it is certainly a feasible approach. If not, you should consider external options like a firewire drive as suggested previously.
If I recall, there is a ribbon inside the case, that can easily tear when opening and closing the case back up, correct?
Yes, and it's a mylar ribbon, which is far more a pain in the @$$ than conventional ribbon cabling. If you damage those leads, it's almost impossible to get it reassembled.
