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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."
Part of the mac's allure is it's stylish looks. This is just as dumb as putting a PC in a mac mini case.
Do Not Eat iPod Shuffle
Worst. Idea. Ever.
The whole point of the mac mini is it's small form factor, transplanting it into another case to upgrade the HD is simply absurd.
and already nuked.
Anybody have the article?
(And seriously, if nobody ever R's T Fing A, why do servers go down faster than a hooker for a benjamin?)
Looks like they used it to host the page..
Up in flames already.
...without ripping your Mac mini apart and sticking it in a PC enclosure, you could use any capacity 3.5" disk you wished in conjunction with Mac mini by using any 3.5" drive enclosure with FireWire (and/or USB 2.0), including some sure-to-be-released FireWire/USB 2.0 enclosures that will mimic Mac mini's appearance, and be designed to sit underneath or near a Mac mini and still be aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps some vendor like El Gato will even make a FireWire PVR/tuner solution WITH an integrated 3.5" drive bay, in the same type of case as Mac mini.
(Preemptive response: Yes, FireWire 400 is more than fast enough for this application. Yes, even for a media server. Yes, even for a PVR. Yes, I know USB 2.0 doesn't support booting. If you want booting, use FireWire. Yes, I know Apple says you shouldn't stack anything on top of Mac mini. That's why I said Mac mini would stack on top of it. Further, it's very likely NOT because of heat, but because the AirPort and Bluetooth antennas are directly in the top of the case, and instead of making a bunch of convoluted requirements about when and if it's ok to stack something on it, they just said no stacking. But, again, moot, because you could stack the mini itself on top of such a hypothetical enclosure or device. Or, set them side by side.)
The Mac mini really is almost a perfect media center box:
Acceptable processor and video card
DVI, VGA, S-video, and Composite video out
1/8" stereo audio out, or digital audio via FireWire with one of several adapters
FireWire and USB 2.0
10/100 ethernet and modem
Optional 802.11g and Bluetooth
CD-RW/DVD or optional CD-RW/DVD+/-RW
Remote control via Apple Remote Desktop or VNC (included in the free ARD Client 2.1)
Very small, very elegant, and very quiet operation
All that's missing is a tuner and a PVR application, and that's a nightmare to wade into, what with what's necessary to tune satellite services, and the infancy of CableCard.
coral cache
Combine this with this articlehttp://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05 /01/30/2213249&tid=222&tid=174 from a few days ago, and you would have a miniMac in a Mini-ITX case, and a Mini-ITX in a Mini Mac case. It's a plot we've seen before. http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/e pisode/68818.html
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
I've lost count of the number of "mod your Mac Mini like this" stories that have been posted here in the last month. Most of them deal with increasing the power or expandibility. I find this kind of ironic, considering that the Mac Mini's market seems to be mostly people to which power and expandibility are definitely not primary considerations in a computer buying decision.
It seems their server is running tpc via AppleTalk. Long live PhoneNet!
-dameron
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...
I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone decided to mod their mini into a standard PC carcass. What's next? How about putting the Mini inside a vintage Apple II box?
//e), just for giggles.
Since the mini came out, I've been hoping I can stuff it inside an old Apple IIGS (or, even better - a
Anyone up to the challenge?
The PC Weenies: 11 Years of Online Tech 'Too
I always wanted a Mac but they were so damn ugly. If only mac minis had been designed to look like e-machines. Today truly is a great day.
Sacrilege aside, putting a Mac Mini in a PC case has one key definite advantage:
It would let you sneak a Mac into workplaces whose IT Manager(s) have a "no Macs ever, over my dead body" policy.
Just think: you could have a larger case containing a regular PC, but with the guts of a Mac Mini placed in the space around empty drive/PSU bays.
Hide a KVM switch somewhere and bingo... Windows/Linux when the PHB/IT Manager is around, Mac OS X when you want to get some work done!
It is a cool slashot article because they are extending it beyond what is was intended to be. If it was intended to be expandable then expanding it is not so interesting.
Mac mini Maxi
By: aeberbach
Feb 8 2005
The Mac mini Maxi - how I attached extra storage to make a mini server.
This article involves doing things to your Mac mini which may well destroy it. You should not try this unless you are prepared to lose your entire Mac mini investment, and you should definitely not try it if you do not have an appreciation for the dangers of power tools, electricity and the jagged edges found inside PC cases!
When I woke up in Australia the morning after the MWSF keynote speech had come and gone, the Apple store timed out for 30 minutes or so before I was able to get my order in. It was a long wait until the 28th when the mini finally shipped, then the 31st before it was delivered. I wasted no time in getting the cover off and upgrading the memory, and was immediately impressed by this little machine.
However 2.5" notebook hard drives are a serious limitation. For one they are limited to 100GB - I have more than that just in FLAC-encoded CDs, and I have half that much just in RAW-format images. The mini would make a great little server - quiet, cheap to buy new, low power too - if only big drives could be attached. Knowing that the mini uses 2.5" IDE drives I decided it was just a matter of making the physical connector right, and started this project about a week before I actually got the mini, luckily I guessed right. The speed increase that comes with using 7200 rpm drives is not to be sneezed at either (the largest 2.5" 7200 rpm drive I know of is just 60GB).
There have been more than enough photo essays about unpacking the mini and disassembling it in various levels of detail. I'm going to jump right in and show you the part that mattered to me, the daughter board that connects the optical and hard drives to the mainboard. You won't see this view of it unless you disconnect both drives.
On the top is the optical drive connector. This is a standard connector but it's surface mount and difficult to buy - not something you can easily solder up at home. Below that is a 2mm-pitch 44-way connector, mating with a standard 2.5" drive - aha! Since I had adapters that let me use these drives in a desktop PC, I figured the reverse would be possible. And also I guessed that the optical and hard drives are simply master and slave devices on the IDE bus. A simple adapter would let me connect two normal IDE drives, be they optical or whatever. But while the adapter to connect 2.5" drives to a desktop machine is easily available, an adapter to connect 3.5" drives to a machine expecting 2.5" drives is not. Obviously 3.5" drives won't physically fit in laptops and there are different power requirements too so I could believe that such a thing wasn't available.
Taking the easily available adapter and just reversing the sexes of the connectors might seem like an easy way to do this but then the positions of the pins are swapped - pin 1 would become pin 2, etc. - a sure way to damage the machine or the drive or both. Each pin must be mapped correctly to the same-numbered pin on the other side of the adapter.
Where to put this server? Clearly 3.5" drives weren't going to fit in the mini's case. I settled on the Aopen H420B micro ATX case. If you're a switcher then Aopen might be a familiar name in cases. This is a fairly typical example of a PC case - steel sides, plastic front, clunky, covered in styling details that don't really help its looks. However it is roomy, comes with a power supply and as PC cases go is fairly compact. Another view shows that it is ready to house two 5.25" devices and a maximum of four 3.5" devices, although if you ask me stacking drives together in such a confined space is asking for heat-related trouble.
That this case is not as stylish as the mini isn't a big deal - its intended use is as a server, and it will be out of sight. I intend using it to store MP3s, images and video, and will stream music to various places around the house. It will share drives and be a convenient first backup location for work
if part of the allure is its looks, then what's dumb about putting a pc in its good looking case?
or are you using reverse psychology and you actually think this article ISN'T dumb?
Or you could just carry in the Mac mini hidden inside your briefcase and hide it under your desk, without the fake case.
Really. Some relatively talented industrial artist working for Dr Bott/LaCie/etc will design a fixed firewire drive bay that is exactly the same size as the mini, and may offer some other functionality like Compact Flash/SD/etc reader. Fixed 120GB, or a hotswap with cheap trays.
Good accessories come to those who wait.
I imagine that with the low price, low power usage, and ppc architecture (not many binary sploits for Linux on ppc...) many people would want to use these things as small servers. The problem is that the Mac Mini hard drive sucks ass - it's slow, only 40G, and the small form factor means upgrades are expensive. Perhaps the most important part of a server is a good hard drive.
By putting the Mini into a PC case, you get the room to add a large fast hard drive, and the air flow needed to cool it.
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.
The Mac Mini is small enough to fit, whole and unblemished, into any old Apple model (except maybe the Cube, and I'm sure the guts would fit into that once the case was off).
Fit a Mac Mini into a Timex-Sinclair, and then I'll be impressed. =)
PS. I wonder how you'd type command-T on the membrane keyboard.
The Mac mini is not marketed by Apple as a server.
That's why they made Xserves.
The Mac mini is (and will always be) an entry-level Macintosh for the Macintosh curious who were previously turned off by pre-Mac mini computer prices.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
re: It completely ruins the point of having a Mac mini.
No, that's what YOU think the "point" of a Mac Mini is. To many (if not most) of us, the point is that it's an extremely affordable Mac.
re: Part of the mac's allure is it's [sic] stylish looks. This is just as dumb as putting a PC in a mac mini case.
Dumb to you. Cool to someone who didn't buy it for its sylish looks.
Holy crap, people. This is Slashdot. Some of like to take apart things. Some of us like to take cheap computers and make them perform like expensive computers. We're hobbyists and tinkerers. Why take apart the Mac Mini? We don't need any reason better than "because we can."
Hell, if I were to build a 5-desk office that needed a simple mail server and file server, the Mac Mini is just a RAID away from perfection, at less than a quarter the price of an XServe.
The Mac Mini is a beautiful piece of hardware. I'd love to have two -- one that never gets turned on or used, just left on the mantel in a glass box with the fine china, and another that's gutted, rebuilt, and folding 24/7.
// I will show you fear in a handful of jellybeans.
Since you are going with mini-ATX in any case (sic), why build in a comparatively slow Mac mini when you could use a mini-ATX board with an Opteron and get a real 64-bit platform for about the same money in the same space?
The project is cool for its own sake of course, but there doesn't seem to be a real use for it.
Oh, and people freaking out over the "sarcriledge" - it's a computer, that's all. A piece of metal and plastic. If you really get upset about something like this, I suggest it's time to take a hard look at your priorities and your life.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
I've lost count of the number of "mod your Mac Mini like this" stories that have been posted here in the last month. Most of them deal with increasing the power or expandibility. I find this kind of ironic, considering that the Mac Mini's market seems to be mostly people to which power and expandibility are definitely not primary considerations in a computer buying decision.
The simple fact of the matter is that the Mac mini is the first incarnation of hardware that will run OS X at a decent speed with quartz accelerated graphics at this price level, and many geeks like myself have been waiting for something like this to be within our price range. Now that it is affordable, and being the geeks that we are, we won't be satisfied until we are able to buy a $499 Mac mini, overclock it until it's running as fast as a dual PowerMac G5, and turn an entry-level system into the god-box we all would like to have... heheh....
Does that explain it for ya?
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
Nobody would buy from spam either, right?
78% Percent of users who report receiving spam daily
11% Percent of users who report receiving at least 40 spam per day
14% Percent of users who report they open spam messages to see what they say [Yikes!]
4% Percent of users who report they have purchased a product or service advertised in a spam email
So maybe 4% RTFA too? That's logic for you, bad logic, but logic none-the-less.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I'm just finishing up the docs on my conversion - I've implanted a Dell Axim PocketPC into a Compaq Luggable. The biggest challenge was connecting the Axim's QVGA to the luggable's 80x32 amber CRT...
The neat thing is, I've got more power in the luggable now than when it was new, and it wieghs about 15 pounds less, as well.
The cure for cancer is coming: Reovirus
"Why would someone deface a poor defenseless Mac Mini like this?"
"Because the hard drive is slow (4200 RPM), and this is cheap."
The guy stated that he wanted to build a server that was a) cheap, and b) quiet
In short, he is an idiot.
It is FAR cheaper to obtain an old Pentium based PC, which can easily be found for free as compared to the Mac Mini, which is $799 in Australia.
This project is not a "cheap" way to build a server, it is an expensive way to build a server.
Then there is the noise factor. Yes, the Mac Mini is quiet, much quieter than an old PC.
But this is not where the story ends. Firstly he is making his Mac Mini almost as noisy as a PC, just by putting in a 3.5 inch HDD and running a PC powersupply complete with a PSU + FAN in it! The only other source of noise in a PC is the CPU fan and I explain below how that can usually be removed completly anyway. In such a scenario, a PC would make exactly the same noise that this Mac Mini does.
When looking at typical, stock built PCs, there are four sources of operating noise to consider.
1) PSU Fan. Both the modified Mac Mini and the recycled Pentium PC use a mini tower case, ergo we can expect the same level of PSU fan noise to emanate from both solutions. In both cases an aftermarket "near silent" fan can be fitted to minimise any noise. In any event, we can rule out any PSU fan noise that is present because both solutions will theoretically produce identical levels of noise. PSU fan noise is not a differentiating factor.
2) CPU Fan. This is one area where the Mac Mini will beat the stock Pentium PC. But there is no reason you need to stick with the stock configuration. It is an easy matter on most old PCs to underclock the CPU. This in turn allows you in many cases to run your Pentium using a large, passive heatsink alone ie, it becomes just as noiseless as the Mac Mini.
3) HDD noise. The modified Mac would use the exact same 3.5inch HDD as the Pentium PC, so we can rule this noise out too.
4) GPU cooler. The mac mini doesn't use a seperate GPU cooler, and niether would the PC. It would most likely have some crappy old Trident or S3 based 2D card that has no fan but is perfectly acceptable in a server.
The short story is that we can make a recycled PC just as quiet as this modified Mac mini so the noise issue is moot.
Consider that the Mac Mini option would cost you something like;
1.25 Ghz Mac Mini - $799
Minitower PC case - $50
3,5 Inch HDD ~ $150 (depending on what capacity you want)
= $999 (Australian)
compared to a recycled PC;
2nd hand Pentium 233 - $50 (probably free but lets use a nominal figure anyway)
Large passive heatsink - $25
New PSU fan - $15 (the old one might be a bit worn)
Linux/FreeBSD OS - $0
= $90
Basically, this goose has wrecked an eight hundred dollar Mac to build a ninety dollar server.
What a moron.
"You can't fight in here, this is the war room!"
Mac ITX
Do that with a Mini.
Amy
Right. Because Apples are computers for rich people.
Snob appeal, and all that. Like when we were all kids. All the gang had cheap Huffy or Sears bikes, and we had a lot of fun with them. The snotty kid on the end of the block had a Schwinn, and all 'Schwinn-approved' accessories on it.
Nobody liked that kid.
the namespace grows ever more crowded.
OS X will run X11 desktop environments natively, so you only have to hit a key combination to go from a full-screen X11 environment back to OS X. You could also run Windows on Virtual PC and complain about how incredibly slow it is. ;)
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
I'm not even a Mac guy, and the first thing that I thought of was "Geez, get a couple of external firewire drives." That would have been about the same price, would have looked better, would use less electric (enclosure power supplies vs. the ATX power supply used for the 3.5" hard drives), and performance would probably be as good as or better than his master/slave IDE hard drive setup.
More than powerful enough for hosting 3 email addresses...
Just tell me which three e-mail addresses.
About 2/3 of the way through the article:
'Finally came the big test - with everything attached I hit the switch. BONG...it's alive! '
No buddy, a BONG is the thing you were smoking when you came up with this inane idea. Whats next, putting the ipod into an old-school walkman shell?
8)
-Copyright law #69:Whenever Mickey Mouse is about to enter the public domain,copyrights get extended by 25 years.
You missed the details.
He didn't modify the Mini case at all, so that he can completely undo the setup and still have a pristine Mini.
In addition, he didn't want to burden the Mini power supply to power two 3.5" 7200 RPM drives.
And of course, he wanted a Mac, not a PC box.
"Won't this cut the throughput of your application server?"
Well, from TFA:
"I intend using it to store MP3s, images and video, and will stream music to various places around the house."
Does one really need a 1.X GHz CPU to accomplish that?
The answer is, of course, "no".
We are talking 100Mbit ethernet (wired) or 11/55Mbit (wireless) here. Any pentium class PC is more than capable of serving media files to ethernet at the rate of 100Mbit per second.
The truth is, this moron spent a thousand bucks on something he could have done for less than two hundred, and wrecked a really nice piece of equipment in the process.
He would have been far better off if he had have bought himself a pentium box to make a media server out of and used his Mini Mac as the media player in his living room.
"You can't fight in here, this is the war room!"
I would imagine in the trenches, your nodes must suffer more from mud, rain, lack of sleep and jammed rifles cartridges. If I were you, I'd put your systems in a climate-controlled environment. You'd see a lot fewer failures.
With your hubris of hundreds, try your cynicism with someone else.
Is anybody actually surprised that you can connect a hard drive to a Mac Mini?
Or am I too jaded? Is the great feat here that somebody managed to open a computer case?
Or does the Mac Mini contain salvaged Area 51 technology which shoots lasers when exposed, and did he develop a force field generator to be able to safely locate the ATA connector?
Or did his wife expressly forbid him from buying the Mac Mini, and has he frozen his wife inside a time bubble while devising a way to hide the Mac Mini?
But then how does he unfreeze her?
Can't wait to hear what happens next!
The Mac Mini may not be marketed as a server. But like the HTPC use which it also has not been marketed for, I have seen multiple people speculate about using one in such a capacity.
There is already at least one company offering (somewhat cheap) Mac mini hosting. You get a whole Mac mini (not shared), you can either buy your own and have them house it, or lease to own.
It's actually a really nice idea, since it's about as dirt cheap as a standalone unit can get, and the small size and low power make it a great deal for the colo company. It's a lot easier than letting people just throw SFF boxes at the colo provider which may have differeing power needs and might not stack well.
After all, most web pages around could easily be served off a Mini running Apache (which comes standard) as they will not will not really be CPU (or even possibly disc depending on what is being served) bound.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Mac Mini in mini-ATX case boots for furst time
... ..
Mac Mini:
That's odd, it feels so drafty... my case I can't feel my case! What is going on? Wait, computer two across the room has an iSight!
Mac mini opens iChat and connects to Computer Two
Mac Mini:
That's odd, I can't see myself anywhere... zoom in... refine picture... there's nothing just that giant brick and....
THE HORROR!!!
Mac Mini connects power supply to ground directly across processor core - bet you didn't know it could do that! HCF opcode lives on.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
you know how long Gentoo would take to install on that 2nd hand pentium 233 you speak of?!?!?!!?
psshhhhh...
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
The point of the mini was to win converts by offering a low entry point to the Mac. They can't be making much if any margin on the thing.
They would probably make more money by just selling a version of OS X for standard PC hardware. They could sell it for $149 with a $99 annual maintenance fee. Start adding up extra sales of iLife, etc and you could be talking about real money.
The problem with the mini is that it is still a fairly high price just to try. I also think that the performance is not going to stand up to a standard PC at that price point which would have a much faster and larger hard drive and more RAM.
How about putting OS X for the PC out there with a free 60 day trial? Imagine being able to install OS X on an existing Windows PC that was rotten with spy ware. People would gladly pay the $149 to keep it. I know people who are shelling out $100 out of desperation just for a virus scanner and cheesy anti-spy ware software that they hope will fix the problem only to fall victim again. If Apple developed an easy way to install OS X over Windows while saving documents, pictures, etc. they would have a real winner on their hands.
Apple would make more money this way and they wouldn't have to tie up the capital required to manufacture and distribute the hardware. They could still sell the higher end hardware which they probably make a good margin on. There will always be that small group that want a real Mac.