Best accessories for mini

kerbouchard · Member Joined: 06 Mar 2011 Posts: 78

First post. Been lurking for a while though! Want opinions on the best external HD for a 2010 mini. Stackability and visual appeal are important. Also want to know best Hub for my mini. Getting lots of conflicting ratings and reviews on both. Any advice appreciated. Thanks

philiparcario · Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 6:08 pm Post subject:

my first question is did you buy a 2010 mac mini?

second question is if you purchased it what model?

right now there is one model that kind of stacks with the 2010 mac mini.

with the development of t-bolt and the hope for a 2011 mac mini to have t-bolt hookup I would rather you say you have not purchased your mini. I would then try to sell you on the idea of waiting a few months for a 2011 model to be released. Of course if you own the 2010 model and no longer can return it well then I will look for the stacker link for you.
_________________
2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

promise pegasus r6 3x 3tb + 3x 4tb =21tb hdds
lacie little big disk 2x 512gb ssds
synology 2tb disk station

kerbouchard · Member Joined: 06 Mar 2011 Posts: 78

Yes 2010. Bought the one with the drive but upgraded it to 2.66ghz processor. Not going to return it.
_________________
2010 mac mini upgraded to 2.66mghz. Very First Mac Computer
Airport express and Airport extreme
4th gen ipod touch 32g

philiparcario · Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 6:25 pm Post subject:

good at least you have it with the 2.66.

this comes close

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816142025

it is low cost it it lets you pick your drives. there is no perfect fitting device amazing but true.

other methods are two of these side by side

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111110&cm_re=sans_digital_towerstor-_-16-111-110-_-Product

or one of the above

with one of these side by side

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111111&cm_re=sans_digital_towerstor-_-16-111-111-_-Product

here is a link with a photo

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/showthread.php?t=213477

go to post 87 first photo. right now there is no perfect fit to stack.

we have someone that modded a dead time capsule to stack under the 2010. we have had the suggestion to use this

https://www.applecomponents.com/items/922-9565_housing-w-optical-drive-slot/0000004798?pn=1&cmp=0167&per_page=30

and mod it it is an empty shell.

myself if I was sticking with a 2010 2.66 I would buy two sans digital units one with usb/esata and one with all the fittings usb/esata/ fw800 I would put them side by side and use the two of them . The fw800 one for booting and the usb one for a TM. I would put a fast hdd in the fw800 one like a caviar black 2tb and a big 3tb hdd in the usb one. gives me up to 5tb and the oem 2.5 inch drive for 5.32 tb total.
_________________
2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

promise pegasus r6 3x 3tb + 3x 4tb =21tb hdds
lacie little big disk 2x 512gb ssds
synology 2tb disk station

kerbouchard · Member Joined: 06 Mar 2011 Posts: 78

Yeah I figured if I was going to keep it for 3 years I had better upgrade the processor. The Iomega mini max doesn't stack? I wanted to try to stay under $200 for now.
_________________
2010 mac mini upgraded to 2.66mghz. Very First Mac Computer
Airport express and Airport extreme
4th gen ipod touch 32g

kerbouchard · Member Joined: 06 Mar 2011 Posts: 78

Bought the apple care also.
_________________
2010 mac mini upgraded to 2.66mghz. Very First Mac Computer
Airport express and Airport extreme
4th gen ipod touch 32g

philiparcario · Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:31 pm Post subject:

the iomega is close not perfect.

a time capsule is close not perfect.

mod of a 2010 shell would be perfect.

but the shell sells for 119 you may be able to fit a 3.5 inch hdd in it maybe not. for sure you could fit this in it

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MSTG800U2K/

then use your own 2.5 inch hdd . they have been lax in making a good fix for this. I suspect that they knew about t-bolt coming in 2011 and when it comes will make a good stacker.
_________________
2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

promise pegasus r6 3x 3tb + 3x 4tb =21tb hdds
lacie little big disk 2x 512gb ssds
synology 2tb disk station

kerbouchard · Member Joined: 06 Mar 2011 Posts: 78

Well maybe I will just wait till they get it right. I have a WD my book 500g. I need to reformat this to FAT32 to get it to work with Mac and PC right? I want to hook this to the extreme so I can access it wirelessly. I think it will work. Will FAT32 work with time machine? What is this t bolt? Have a link?
_________________
2010 mac mini upgraded to 2.66mghz. Very First Mac Computer
Airport express and Airport extreme
4th gen ipod touch 32g

T'hain Esh kelch · Junior Member Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 36

I bought the 2TB Lacie Quadra, since I really like the design, and no one has stepped up to do a Mac mini 2010 look a like yet.

philiparcario · Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 7:57 am Post subject:

kerbouchard · Member Joined: 06 Mar 2011 Posts: 78

kerbouchard · Member Joined: 06 Mar 2011 Posts: 78

no one know how well they will work but the speeds are crazy fast.

usb2 is 35MB/s

firewire 400 is 40MB/s

firewire 800 is 75MB/s

sata II is 280MB/s only ssds are that fast

Sata III is 550MB/s only special newer ssds are that fast

T-bolt is said to be 1250MB/s you would need multiple ssds to run those speeds
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mini does not have a SATA external connection does it? Firewire 800 yes
_________________
2010 mac mini upgraded to 2.66mghz. Very First Mac Computer
Airport express and Airport extreme
4th gen ipod touch 32g

kerbouchard · Member Joined: 06 Mar 2011 Posts: 78

Any opinions on these? I was leaning toward the lacie 2d quad and stumbled on this brand. About half the price of the lacie. Can't seem to find the drive speed.

Fantom Drives GreenDrive Quad Interface 2TB USB 2.0 / eSATA / Firewire 400/800 External Hard Drive w/NTI SHADOW 4 Backup Software GD2000Q
_________________
2010 mac mini upgraded to 2.66mghz. Very First Mac Computer
Airport express and Airport extreme
4th gen ipod touch 32g

philiparcario · Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 8:34 pm Post subject:

2010 wants fw800 for top speed unless you do an esata hack (a p.i.t.a. to do with the 2010 mini) so picking a good fw800 is the way to go. I have fantom 2tb externals a pair of them. I use them with my 2009 mac mini esata hack. They had a great sale 99 bucks each but they only have esata and usb. give me a minute or two to get links and give a good explanation of how to go about your setup.
_________________
2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

promise pegasus r6 3x 3tb + 3x 4tb =21tb hdds
lacie little big disk 2x 512gb ssds
synology 2tb disk station

philiparcario · Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 8:49 pm Post subject:

http://www.sansdigital.com/towerstor/ts1ut.html

this comes empty you get to pick your own drive. and it is a cousin to this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822207017&cm_re=fantom-_-22-207-017-_-Product

why are they cousins same chip set. the fantom will save you money but if it breaks you must return everything for a refund/repair which means they have access to your info.

this is the cousin
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822204092&cm_re=fantom_2tb-_-22-204-092-_-Product

to this

http://www.sansdigital.com/towerstor/ts1ct.html

why are they cousins well you have the same chipset and in the case of the sans digital you get to pick the drive. in the case of the fantom they use an hitachi last one that I opened and it is okay. If i were you and did not fear putting in a drive I would buy the sans digital one with just usb/esata and one with all the bells and whistles . I would use the usb one to be a time machine put in a 2tb hdd and i would use the fw800 one to be a boot drive. I would put this hdd in it.

this is low cost and is very fast for a boot drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?
Item=N82E16822152185&cm_re=samsung_1tb-_-22-152-185-_-Product

I also think newegg carries both sans digital cases

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111110&cm_re=sans_digital_towerstor-_-16-111-110-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111111&cm_re=sans_digital_towerstor-_-16-111-111-_-Product

the sans digital can act as a base for you mini. the slow one would be the time machine and the fast one the booter.

I would use this for the slow time machine

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245&cm_re=samsung_2tb-_-22-152-245-_-Product

the internal hdd I would just use for backup booting in case of a full crash.
_________________
2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

promise pegasus r6 3x 3tb + 3x 4tb =21tb hdds
lacie little big disk 2x 512gb ssds
synology 2tb disk station


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