Mac mini Maximized With 3.5" Drives

Demolition writes "You just knew that someone would get around to this, didn't you? In this how-to article from AppleTalk Australia, a step-by-step guide describes how to transplant a Mac mini into a micro-ATX case and a method to connect standard 3.5" hard drives to it (using do-it-yourself 2.5"-to-3.5" IDE adapters). Only some minor case modifications and some added cooling are needed to complete the project."

Comments

Not really

[useosx]

Small form factor is nice, but if you want to throw it in your basement as a server, it's main benefits are:

1) It's cheap
2) Draws about 65 watts, so your electric bill will be lower than using an old G3 tower or something

So, in that case, if you want to use it as a server, a nice 400 GB 3.5" IDE drive would be great. Who cares about the case if it's in your basement.

Now, if they can only figure out how to get Gigabit Ethernet in there...

Why not... add a 7200RPM 2.5" drive?

[ikewillis]

For $150 you can add a 7200RPM 2.5" Hitachi TravelStar drive. Surprisingly, these drives run cooler than many 5400RPM 2.5" drives while providing the performance of a typical 7200RPM desktop drive. Best of all, you won't have to hack up your Mini (thereby violating the warranty) to install it.

Re:Why not... add a 7200RPM 2.5" drive?

[merreborn]

You can pick up a 200 gig 7200 rpm 3.5" drive for at least $30 less than your 60 gig 2.5". We're talking $0.75/gig vs. $2.50/gig.

Re:Or...

[3waygeek]

Download the free FireWire SDK from Apple, and you get a virtual DVHS application that makes your Mac's 1394 interface look like a digital VHS. Combine this with a HD tuner that has FireWire out, like the Motorola 6200 series used by Comcast and others, or the Samsung T165 ATSC tuner, and you're most of the way to a PVR.

Re:The point is using the Mini as a server

[sensate_mass]

On my mini 1.42, I bench about 50% faster with a 7200 rpm 8mb 250 gig Firewire over the stock 4200 rpm 80 gig 2.5". The speedup is very obvious in use. Oh, and I boot from it.

What is this latency of which you speak?

Re:The point is using the Mini as a server

[tetromino]

What is this latency of which you speak?

All benchmarks I've read show that firewire has much worse latency than IDE. A quick google revealed that average IO response time is 17.8ms for firewire and 0.12ms for IDE for a particular Maxtor drie (note: the 0.12ms figure is almost certainly because they were hitting data in the hd cache; otherwise it should have been more like 5 ms for the ide case). I am guessing that if you are streaming data, firewire is not too bad, but random access on a firewire drive will not give you good performance.

I recommend you to run a benchmark after connecting your drive directly to your machine's IDE cable.

Re:The point is using the Mini as a server

[TheHonestTruth]

You're getting confused by the fact that firewire is beating something that is extremely slow.

He's not confused, it's his point. Internal drive, 4200 RPM == slow and sucky. External Firewire drive, 7200 RPM == spins fast enough to make up for the connection latency. Therefore, an external 7200 RPM firewire drive is faster than a 4200 IDE. I'll confirm the boot up speed difference. My iBook boots much faster from my LaCie FW drive than from its internal drive. Random access and normal usage though? I can't make any claims in that regard.

-truth