miniStack v3 vs Mercury Elite-AL Pro

[terriyaki]

I'm planning to get one of these to use along with a new iMac. I'm looking for speed, reliability, and something that doesn't make too much noise. Based on some googling and searching on these boards it seems like I'm down to these two choices. I like the fact that the miniStack has so many ports but it doesn't seem to have as large a following as the Mercury Elite does. Noise is also a concern, I've read a lot of reviews saying that the Mercury was very quiet but I've read conflicting reports about noise regarding the miniStack. Anyone want to chime in with their experiences? Which drive are you using? Are you happy with the performance you're getting? Is it reliable? Is it quiet/noisy?

I'd also like to keep my options open in case I want to add a second external drive to the setup. If I were to get one of these drives and hook it up to the iMacs fw800 port and later added a second drive could I daisy chain it by connecting it to the first external drive's second fw800 port or would I have to use my iMacs fw400 port (remember now that the current gen iMacs only have one fw400 and one fw800 port)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, guys.

Edit:

miniStack v3
Mercury Elite-AL Pro

 

[terriyaki]

Bump. Hmm, maybe I picked the wrong subforum.

Could a mod please move this to the Buying Tips, Advice and Discussion forum, please?

 

[jhkingsr]

Here's my "customized" v3 ministack 750gb.

Very quiet and the usb hub is great!

 

[Sean Dempsey]

I've never noticed any real noise from from my Mercury AL Elite. It's been hooked to my mac pro for a few months, and I use it for daily backups.

I have 2 of them, 500gb each. I use the FW800 in a daisy chain.

Can't say much else. They are really cool looking, seem to work fine, and aren't very noisy from my perspective. I don't see any reason why you'd pass on them.

 

[longttang]

Hi

Here's my "customized" v3 ministack 750gb.

Very quiet and the usb hub is great!

Hi, How can you have the top in black?
Did you paint it ? Mine came in white colour ?

Thanks

 

[jhkingsr]

Did you paint it ?

Yep! Used Krylon Fusion gloss black.

 

[motherduce]

My ministack is very loud. I have it on my desktop and it's pretty damn annoying. Great idea with the firewire and usb hub, but damn it's loud.

 

[Cave Man]

The MS is plastic (I have two v2's) and do not act as very good passive heat sinks, thus the fan comes on a lot.

 

[wallaby]

I've got the Mercury Elite AL-Pro. Bought it for sound of mind, didn't really trust WD or other mass-produced brands. It's a quality case/hard drive and has all the ports you could ever want, although I wouldn't exactly call it quiet. It's louder than my MBP (as one would expect) while it's running; when it's spun down and idle it's pretty much silent. If you're using it pretty constantly, you may notice the noise. I guess it doesn't bother me all that much, but I used to own a PC and was used to noise.