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The miniStack v3 supports FireWire 800 and eSATA for a slight increase in price. If you follow the links to the price page. For a product description, you can go to NewerTech.

MiniStack 3 came out a couple of years back: http://www.newertech.com/products/ministackv3.php
eSATA, FW800 and FW400, USB 2.0.

Also, the NewerTech MiniStack3 lets you add a SATA drive to your mini. Plus it has an eSATA connection. Obviously, the internal drive and any drive connected to the eSATA port ultimately communicate with the Mini via FireWire or USB. As another poster said, these ports have ample bandwidth for streaming any HD video files.

-Peter

http://www.newertech.com/products/ministackv2_5.php

Unfortunately it matches the wrong tiny computer.

There are actually several products like that now.

One is this one, which has USB and eSATA -- it's probably available on other places as well, but who doesn't like ThinkGeek? They don't say the manufacturer, but if I'm reading the photo correctly I think it's "NewWave". It goes for $40. In the ad copy there's a mention of a 1TB limit but I don't know if they really mean that or not.

Another, nicer option (IMO), is this one from NewerTech; they call it the "Voyager Q" if that link dies. It speaks USB, eSATA, and both 400 and 800 Mb/s FireWire. MSRP is $100. It specifically mentions that it's compatible with 2TB and larger drives.

I've seen several other models floating around from various manufacturers (some I think are just re-brandings of the same product ThinkGeek is selling) that are all substantially similar.

I'd be a bit concerned about putting a drive through too many insert/remove cycles -- the internal SATA connector isn't really made for repeated connection and disconnection -- but for backup purposes it's a pretty darn slick idea. I'd been thinking for a while about getting my SCSI tape drive set up and working again, but I think I'm just going to do 2.5" disks instead. Yes, the tapes admittedly last longer, but this assumes you can get the equipment to read them (and DAT was always a bit finicky in this regard). Plus, there's no comparing the sheer volume of media produced; it's a lot easier to take care of a small stack of hard drives (for under $100 you can get an air/water-tight Pelican case and a small media-rated fire safe and keep a few drives secure against just about anything except getting nuked) than it is to try and protect a big stack of tapes.

I wouldn't go for an enclosure, given that he has more than a couple to go through.

Something like this would probably go down a lot better.

If the drives are IDE/ATA/SATA, this works well and is a better idea than rotating them through an enclosure. (I find that the captive cables in USB drive enclosures are not very robust. This does not share that problem.)

Take another look at your numbers. You don't want to buy a $674 Mac Mini* because of the hard drive, and you wish there was a similar machine for $1100? A) You can buy a lot of replacement hard drives for $426, or B) you can buy MiniStacks for them. Google for tests--they're faster than the internal drives. (Or C: buy 2 spare Minis for every 3 you deploy.)

By the way, the new Minis use SATA drives and performance is pretty good. Also: I bought a PPC Mac Mini the month it was introduced and it's been running 24/7/365 ever since, as my workstation and webserver. So I wouldn't stay up nights worrying about drive longevity. A laptop hard drive in a well-ventilated case in a climate-controlled office will probably last longer than the same drive in a laptop.

As for user serviceability, they're a bit tricky to get into, but not impossible. Google for disassembly guides and buy a putty knife.

* $674 = $599 + $75 for RAM. I personally think Core Due is just about as good as Core 2 Duo, but if you disagree... wait a few months. The Minis are due for an upgrade.

Replaceable batters on MP3 players would be a good start....You can replace the batteries on an iPod easily and cheaply.

This is silly. iPod batteries are replaceable. Here's a that sells batteries from the highly-rated Newer Technology. The high-capacity replacement for the iPod Photo is only $30. They aren't soldered in, either; they have a simple connector on them. All you have to do is open the case using the supplied plastic tool and follow the included instructions.

For something that only needs to be done every couple years or so, this really isn't a big deal.

The iPod's nearly seamless design results in there being no easy way to actually replace the battery

That is completely false. It is very quick and easy to replace the battery in an iPod. I bought a kit from then and replaced the battery in my 2nd Gen iPod in maybe 5 minutes.

After a bit of searching, I found an alternative to Apple's power adapters. This one sells for $50 (much cheaper than Apple's). I'm sure there are other companies doing the same thing as NewerTechnologies. Of course, as I mentioned in a previous comment, you could built your own using this Apple tech note.

Newertech has a great one called the miniStack. USB 2.0 or Firewire, and has hubs for both built-in. It's available as a bare case or with a drive preinstalled.

the rest of the issue is the inability to replace the battery (at least cost-effectively).

Ahem

About thirty bucks is not cost-effective enough for you!?

Fuck, you even end up with a better battery than the original.

This is yet another frivolous lawsuit where the corporation took the settlement because making it go away was more important to them than winning. Expect the next round of iPod price cuts to be delayed while Apple tries to make that money back. Fucking scumwad lawyers.

here are no aftermarket options (that I know of) for replacing a processor on a current G4

• PowerLogix is now offering G4 update cards and such.
• Newer Technology has recently been reincarnated... or at least transferred to new ownership. This is really promising, so please don't slashdot their site and put them out of business again :-)
  (yes, they are the people that were always 200Mhz ahead of Apple and had outstanding benchmarks as well, which is more important)

--

Over at MacSlash we covered the news last week in this story. We've got some more details, and some good links for more information.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Newer Technologies makes a pretty sweet iMac upgrade, too. Their videotape installation makes it easy to pop in and go, although it's only 466 mhz, as opposed to the 500 discussed in the article above.

--

The main difference is how the manufacturers got around the issue of the Apple boot ROMs being on the processor daughtercard. Newer has you mail back the original daughtercard, which they then solder a new G3 on. (So yes, your card is technically a refurb) They are a little cheaper, though -- $450.

The guys from Powerlogix pulled a somewhat slicker trick. They apparently have a utility which reads the contents of the boot ROM and stores it on the hard drive. Their card uses flash ROM and the contents of the file are flashed to the card when you install it. Therefore you don't need to send your card back for them to make more upgrade cards -- and your card is brand new.

I don't think you can use either card with a rev D iMac, but it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to spend big bucks to upgrade a 400Mhz machine to 466 or 500Mhz. It's a more attractive deal if you have a rev A or B model (233 or 266Mhz) especially since those two can take Voodoo2 upgrades (yeah, yeah, pretty old but still an improvement over the built-in ATI chipsets).

What's of more interest is that Powerlogix may use the same technique to offer upgrades for the Wallstreet Powerbooks.

I'm sorry but Powerlogix doesn't do that with the daughter cards, you are thinking of Newer Technologies. They do that with the daughter cards, this post is incorrect. PowerLogix pulls the ROM off the original board and flashes it onto their upgrade board.

CPU upgrades for the iMac have been around for a long time, the one from Powerlogix is actually semi-normal, instead of mailing off your daughter baord to be used in another upgrade.


...and I'm not sure we should trust this Kyle Sagan either.

I don't know where you guys get your mac info but it is about the oldest in the world. If I knew the slashdot community was interested in this I would have submitted it a long time ago.

And F.Y.I. there are two vendors of iMac upgrades the other one is Newer Technologies.

Except the way Newer Tech does is buy your old CPU/ROM combo card and replace the CPU.

Powerlogix, My favorite Mac Upgrade company, has figured out how to pull the ROM and place it on the hard drive and then when you install the new CPU it will flash it into the one on their chip. Pretty sweet idea if I do say so myself.


...and I'm not sure we should trust this Kyle Sagan either.

Sounds like you need help finding the Macintosh Product Guide

...how many manufacturers make hardware for your appletosh?

Try out the Hardware section.

You want a cdburner for your mac

I already have one, thanks. A Yamaha with Adaptec Toast.
Adaptec lists over 150 Mac-compatible CD-R/RW drives in their database (select toast from bottom menu).

a floppy drive?

iFloppy
SuperDisk
Addonics
Teac

a G4 upgrade?

PowerLogix
Newertech

where do you guys come up with this stuff?

I'll send you to Microsoft's own website for more information about that little feature called meta-data.

Or read how the Microsoft Annual report was written on a Macintosh.

It's so funny when people talk about things they know nothing about.

Sounds like you need help finding the Macintosh Product Guide

...how many manufacturers make hardware for your appletosh?

Try out the Hardware section.

You want a cdburner for your mac

I already have one, thanks. A Yamaha with Adaptec Toast.
Adaptec lists over 150 Mac-compatible CD-R/RW drives in their database (select toast from bottom menu).

a floppy drive?

iFloppy
SuperDisk
Addonics

a G4 upgrade?

PowerLogix
Newertech

where do you guys come up with this stuff?

I'll send you to Microsoft's own website for more information about that little undocumented feature called meta-data.



It's so funny when people talk about things they know nothing about.

www.newertech.com
www.sonnet.com
www.powerlogix.com
www.xlr8.com

Try going to http://www.macbuy.com and choosing cpu upgrades from the hardware list. I currently see ~60 products from 6 or 7 companies for macs ranging from the 61xx series to the 7x00, 8x00, 9x00 series to the G3. Most of those open without having to remove any screws. I upgraded my 7500 to a 200mhz 604e in 5 minutes - it has worked flawlessly since I bought it. You can't tell me it was difficult to upgrade my Mac. (and the 200mhz card only cost me $99 a year ago).

Here are a few Mac upgrade links....

http://www.newertech.com/

http://www.sonnettech.com/

http://www.XLR8YourMac.com/

http://www.macgurus.com/

www.newertech.com
www.sonnet.com
www.powerlogix.com
www.xlr8.com

Try going to http://www.macbuy.com and choosing cpu upgrades from the hardware list. I currently see ~60 products from 6 or 7 companies for macs ranging from the 61xx series to the 7x00, 8x00, 9x00 series to the G3. Most of those open without having to remove any screws. I upgraded my 7500 to a 200mhz 604e in 5 minutes - it has worked flawlessly since I bought it. You can't tell me it was difficult to upgrade my Mac. (and th 200mhz card only cost me $99 a year ago).

What apple did was release a firmware patch which makes the computer check to see if its using a G3 cpu before allowing startup (it's not a patch to the normal ROM - if it had been, any idiot would have been able to reverse the patch, as the MacOS ROM is a file on the disk on recent Macs).

It was known before this batch of G3s even shipped that they'd be G4 upgradeable, but apple released a software patch which seems to prevent g4 upgrades. OH NO!! Not a software patch! The treachery! They'll never get around THAT! Apple knows the futility of this.

Lets look at what Apple actually has done for their customers, upgrade-wise. The long lived family of PCI powermacs, the [789][356]00 series, all have processor daughterboards, which are replaceable, all the way up to G3 or even potentially G4 CPUs. Earlier powermacs can be upgraded to G3s with "L2-cache" upgrades (a CPU on a card fits in where the L2 cache normally goes, and overrides the existing CPU). Apple's G3 desktops all have zif sockets for easy and cheap upgradability. Apple's entire line of desktops uses one type of socket. I think that's pretty good. How many different sockets do you get across the pentium/ppro/p2/p3/celeron/k6/k7-athlon? How many such cpus can be used as an upgrade for one of the other cpus?

I own one of the first PowerMac G3/400s (Blue & White). I remain quite confident that by the time I want to upgrade it, G4 upgrades from third party companies like XLR8, newertech, and powerlogix will be waiting for me.