External HD....USB or Firewire?

RogerC · Junior Member Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 43

I'm thinking of getting an external hard drive for my mini.

Should I get USB or Firewire?

And which ones are QUIET?

Which brands and models are best?

I'm looking at 160-200g

Thanks

Roger

Susurrus · Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:08 pm Post subject:

Get a FireWire, it's been proven to be substantially faster than USB. Get this and then put a nice hard drive like this to put in it. Should be what you're looking for. If you don't like that drive, but any other 3.5" ATA-compatible drive and toss it in.

Information about this enclosure is on the front page or here. It includes information to their review of the pre-production unit. It's quite and includes some hubs for you.
_________________
Computer Engineer
Junior, Brown University
15" NC8430 HP Laptop
1.42Ghz PPC Mac Mini, 1Gb RAM, 1st Gen
40GB G4 iPod
2GB Black iPod Nano

aquaman · Veteran Member Joined: 18 Apr 2005 Posts: 808

I would pass on USB 2.0 and get Firewire.

RogerC · Junior Member Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 43

I was thinking of maybe one of the Seagate external units.

I don't want to "stack" my Mini. I am planning on "slinging" an external using under my desktop. with only the cord coming up from underneath.

I have a small shelf I can mount for it to sit on.

I like having just a small box on my desk.

Susurrus · Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:10 pm Post subject:

You don't have to "stack" your mini, you can put it wherever.

Also, if you want to buy the Mini bracket that is on the frontpage of this site you could use that to put just the hub underneath. It would also provide some more space to add other "stackable" Mini accesories should you find some that you would like.

Pretty much any Firewire external you can find would work just fine. Just make sure it's a 7200rpm and 8mb cache drive and you'll be "good to g.o"
_________________
Computer Engineer
Junior, Brown University
15" NC8430 HP Laptop
1.42Ghz PPC Mac Mini, 1Gb RAM, 1st Gen
40GB G4 iPod
2GB Black iPod Nano

RogerC · Junior Member Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 43

Thanks!

chillywilly · Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:07 pm Post subject:

RogerC · Junior Member Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 43

I ended up with a 300G Maxtor Firewire drive.

The difference in speed is very obvious.

mikerigel · New Member Joined: 21 Jul 2005 Posts: 6

I am interested in the maxtor 300gb with 16mb of cache. link here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144365 but i was wondering if anybody actually tried to boot from it with the mini ? i don't want it if it's not bootable.
Thanks

Austin MacTexas · Junior Member Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 22

The consensus in the forums is that only firewire is bootable.

mikerigel · New Member Joined: 21 Jul 2005 Posts: 6

yes i know that firewire is required to boot from the mini, but i also read ( somewhere) that some specs had to be met in order to be bootable, and so that not all firewire drives were bootable.
Now, if that's wrong, well great, i don't have to worry about anything Very Happy

Thanks

chillywilly · Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 5:34 pm Post subject:

If I remember right about firewire, it's the case that the drive is in that determines being bootable. That's why a lot of people use companies like LaCie.

There's one company that sells an under-the-mini kit. I want to say Newer Technoligies. I'd have to find the link. They sell a drive kit for $99 where you add your own drive. It also includes 2 firewire ports and 3 USB 2.0.

They also sell drives up to 500gb in the same form factor.
_________________
Chilly
- Mac mini 1.42Ghz/1Gb/80gb

mikerigel · New Member Joined: 21 Jul 2005 Posts: 6

yeah, i looked into those, i actually thought about buying the one from OWC , until i saw the maxtor and its 16mb cache...
On the other hand, i like the integrated usb and firewire hub on the owc unit... decisions..... Very Happy


	FAQ Search Memberlist Photo Gallery Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in

	123Macmini.com - Forums Forum Index -> Mac Mini Upgrading	All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1