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Mac Mini Teardown Reveals Potential for User-Installable Second Hard Drive
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It did reveal that the second SATA cable was not provided and that Apple's pentalobe screws were not used. It also appears (although it wasn't discussed) that the hard drives don't have special temperature reporting mechanisms like the iMac has, and both drive slots are easily accessible. All of that information is very relevant to anyone wanting to install two drives in one of these minis.
They clearly aren't useless as I indicated above, quite the opposite really. Furthermore, they also serve as repair guides.
Ummm, 1997 just called they want that insight back! The internet has changed communication and content delivery well over 10 years ago, Apple had little to do with that. As are servicable PC's, users have been able to swap drives, cards and memory, hell at one point even cpu's for years and years. None of this is new or bleeding edge. I hear the dot com era is coming, better call some vc's to fund your insights! Lol.
That would be great.
They could slim them down and ship them with the same SSD's as the Air's. And install a traditional HDD in the spot freed up by removing the optical drive.
Probably even room for more battery that way.
Useful
Interesting. In contrast, I would be hard pressed to find something more useful than a optical drive.
I can rip DVDs to movie and put them on my iPhone without having to pay Apple to 'rent it' (when I already own it). We burned Graduation DVDs for my daughter's preschool---you know, cherished memories. (Sometimes you don't want your kids up on YouTube; we don't even list their ages on Facebook. It is a bad idea). Cherished memories are best on physical media. I spent 10 cents apiece on my Taiyo Yuden DVD media. Making copies for friends takes minutes. I also can usually get better prices on CDs from Amazon and rip 'em. When there is a better audio codec, I re-rip em without having to re-buy them. Pressed CDs/DVDs last pretty much forever, way better than hard drives.
I really get why optical media is not in the iPad or Macbook Air---they are mobile devices and these things are meant to be light. This is why I bought an iMac too---as a desktop, it feeds media to my optical-less mobile devices. It is a compromise and totally logical. But no optical in a desktop? The Mini was already quite Mini WITH an optical drive. Hey, each to his own; I've got plenty of other things to spend my money on.
This is just a cost cutting move that Apple has fooled some people into thinking is a feature. Wow, just wow.
Interesting. In contrast, I would be hard pressed to find something more useful than a optical drive.
I can rip DVDs to movie and put them on my iPhone without having to pay Apple to 'rent it' (when I already own it). We burned Graduation DVDs for my daughter's preschool---you know, cherished memories. (Sometimes you don't want your kids up on YouTube; we don't even list their ages on Facebook. It is a bad idea). Cherished memories are best on physical media. I spent 10 cents apiece on my Taiyo Yuden DVD media. Making copies for friends takes minutes. I also can usually get better prices on CDs from Amazon and rip 'em. When there is a better audio codec, I re-rip em without having to re-buy them. Pressed CDs/DVDs last pretty much forever, way better than hard drives.
I really get why optical media is not in the iPad or Macbook Air---they are mobile devices and these things are meant to be light. This is why I bought an iMac too---as a desktop, it feeds media to my optical-less mobile devices. It is a compromise and totally logical. But no optical in a desktop? The Mini was already quite Mini WITH an optical drive. Hey, each to his own; I've got plenty of other things to spend my money on.
This is just a cost cutting move that Apple has fooled some people into thinking is a feature. Wow, just wow.
I just love it when Apple do their Big brother stuff.
The space is there for an optical but hey no you can't have one because we dictate what is good for you
I understand there are lots of people who no longer need one but i can't believe there are not a significant amount that still do.
And don't give me the buy an external...that is a totally lame option.
The space is there for an optical but hey no you can't have one because we dictate what is good for you
I understand there are lots of people who no longer need one but i can't believe there are not a significant amount that still do.
And don't give me the buy an external...that is a totally lame option.
I was going to suggest one of these to a sibling but they do not like Lion and the lack of an optical drive. I do like how easy the tear down is. It was a pain extracting the hard drive from a dead iMac before wasting it.
Maybe..just maybe...there are other people out here with different needs to yours. Not all of us want to be on the bleeding edge of Steve's vision for the "New Order under Apple"
Is the SSD in the new Mac Mini user replaceable?
I am hoping the tear down can help us answer these questions!
Is the SSD in the new Mac Mini user replaceable?
Is the SSD speed 400Mbps ( 19-nm process DDR 2.0 technology )?
Is Apple using the Samsung or Toshiba SSD or both?
Marcus
I am hoping the tear down can help us answer these questions!
Is the SSD in the new Mac Mini user replaceable?
Is the SSD speed 400Mbps ( 19-nm process DDR 2.0 technology )?
Is Apple using the Samsung or Toshiba SSD or both?
Marcus
That is just you. The majority hardly ever use their optical drives. I use them to install a purchased App or two, or rip music I bought from the store. That's it. Not much at all.
Sure you love your optical drive but Apple need to cater for the majority. If Apple kill the optical drive in the MBP or iMacs they'll have to still have the external option available for people to buy.
If Apple totally axed the internal optical drive I'd just save up for an external and use it like 1-2 times a month. At the most. And for notebook users I think very few users need the optical drives on the move. At home you can just use the external. So if the internal optical drive was removed I'm not cry. I'd jsut buy the external.
Small SSD
I really wish they would have offered a more reasonably priced smaller SSD option. Say 100 gb. I have so many big USB drives with everything on them that a large SSD isn't needed at all.
This could be useful for buying the base model. Then you could put your own smaller SSD in instead of the hard drive.
I really wish they would have offered a more reasonably priced smaller SSD option. Say 100 gb. I have so many big USB drives with everything on them that a large SSD isn't needed at all.
This could be useful for buying the base model. Then you could put your own smaller SSD in instead of the hard drive.
hope you aren't using frontrow. cure you won't find it on lion without a little fanangling.
Well, as a MBP owner, how many times have I used the optical drive in my MBP this year?
ZERO
So, yeah, I don't think it will be a huge deal. Just make sure you give me a couple more USB ports when you remove it.
If you have an iMac with an optical drive, why would the mini need one too? You've basically described the optical drive as a legacy device, so it makes perfect sense to see it disappear from more devices. Apple dropped the floppy drive fairly early too (although I expect the iMac will have an optical drive for the foreseeable future).
I don't know why Apple gets so heavily criticized for these decisions, there are plenty of small form factor desktops without optical drives. Personally, I wanted a non sever option with space for two hard drives instead of one, so this is perfect for me
Also:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151231
Adding an optical drive will really break the bank /s
That "cost cutting move" took a $100 off the base price of the mini, so they passed the savings onto the customer anyway. A base mini plus an external superdrive is still cheaper than the previous base mini with an internal superdrive. How is that a bad thing?
thats what i'm hoping for
think of all the goodies they could fill the space with.
this new mini surely confirms the MBP will lose the drive too.
So what? And how did you know until the teardown that Apple was using the same chassis in both configurations, or that the second SATA port, if available was active on the single drive model?
They have been selling them since the mini was launched.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/voodoopc-idol,1542.html
And at the time, the Mac Mini was good value for the form factor. Less so, now.
I don't really use my optical drive that much and I do like the fact the prices have dropped $100! You can buy an external one if you need one, but you'll still have $20 still left in your pocket.
But just getting back to the tear down, I'm curious if the one with the dedicated GPU will still allow the second hard drive.
But just getting back to the tear down, I'm curious if the one with the dedicated GPU will still allow the second hard drive.
Curious if Apple also put a custom firmware in the MacMini hdd.
The latest iMac's seem to be not so easily upgradable...
http://blog.macsales.com/10206-further-explained-apples-imac-2011-model-hard-drive-restrictions.
The latest iMac's seem to be not so easily upgradable...
http://blog.macsales.com/10206-further-explained-apples-imac-2011-model-hard-drive-restrictions.
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Why not?
It is not unheard of for people to stack up server models to do software development on. In the case of the Mini Server you wont have the best graphics going but no surprise there. For some users those extra cores should be a big advantage.
As to your specific question you might want to turn off some of the server features offered in Lion server. Then again I have to wonder if the server software is even pre installed. Remember at it's heart both versions of Lion are UNIX at their core anyways.
scooterbaga said:
Why not?
It is not unheard of for people to stack up server models to do software development on. In the case of the Mini Server you wont have the best graphics going but no surprise there. For some users those extra cores should be a big advantage.
As to your specific question you might want to turn off some of the server features offered in Lion server. Then again I have to wonder if the server software is even pre installed. Remember at it's heart both versions of Lion are UNIX at their core anyways.
No optical drive is complete BS! Physical media is going to be used for at least 10 more years and I wouldn't be surprised if that was longer. Just 1 more way to offer less product for the same price. Completely ridiculous and the fanboys just bend over and take it.
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Looks die cast to me. I would need to see one up close to say for sure. Die cast is actually a nice way to build parts for mass volume manufacturing. In the end though an inspection for wall thickness and contact points for ejector rods is required.
fabian9 said:
Looks die cast to me. I would need to see one up close to say for sure. Die cast is actually a nice way to build parts for mass volume manufacturing. In the end though an inspection for wall thickness and contact points for ejector rods is required.
I found the tear down valuable. I wanted to see how easy it was to replace the memory and replace the stock hard drive. It's easy...