Slashdot Mirror
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."
...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.
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!
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!
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.
Don't you dare tell me what the "whole point" of any computer is. I'll tell the computer what to do, thank you very much. I don't care what apple thinks it should do.
MacroHard - Boning you in a big way! (TM)
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: 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.
Mac Mini server = $500 + $200 for good 250G IDE hard drive + $50 for case = $750.
Xserve = $3000, and you still need to buy another drive (shipping 80G hard drives in a $3000 server? pathetic).
Now, you might have a spare two grand lying around. I don't. If I want a ppc server, Mac Mini is what I am getting.
I'd mod this as underrated... but I'd rather comment.
My server is a Debian running iMac - 400mhz processor, 384mb ram, 20gb drive. More than powerful enough for hosting 3 email addresses, and serving a LAMP based site that gets a few hundred hits a week, my only complaint about both it and the Mac Mini is the lack of a second hard drive for redundancy/backup, but for my small scale purposes just rsyncing / to my ~/server-backup on my workstation is a perfect solution.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
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?
--- Submission is feudal.
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
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.
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
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
I had a steady B+ in my AI class until I failed the Turing test...