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FishKepr
Member
Joined: 28 May 2005
Posts: 116
Location: WA
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 Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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| slickrick wrote: | | Looks good! Do you have any pictures of the two straight on? That angle doesn't show how high the risers are. |
The tests I've run so far seem to indicate that it does not make a whole lot of difference. Keep in mind that I don't thave to proper equipment to do a series of objective tests, so that opinion is based simply on fan activity. Furthermore, the desk seems to no longer get as warm as it used to when the mini is placed directly on it. Even if it only brings the temperature down a few degrees, I think it was worth it since it makes little esthestic impact and, much more importantly, was very cheap. |
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slickrick
Senior Member
Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Posts: 441
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| Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 9:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks FishKepr for taking the new pictures. Those pads don't take away from the looks at all. The gap between the two should stop some of the heat transfer. Did you get them at Home Depot? |
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FishKepr
Member
Joined: 28 May 2005
Posts: 116
Location: WA
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| Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 9:44 pm Post subject: |
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| slickrick wrote: | | Thanks FishKepr for taking the new pictures. Those pads don't take away from the looks at all. The gap between should stop some of the heat transfer. Did you get them at Home Depot? |
Fred Meyer actually. They were about $3 for a set of 12, and at that price it's not worth shopping around. |
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bubbahotep
New Member
Joined: 11 Jul 2005
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 12:00 pm Post subject: |
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Hey,
It'd be useful to know what the pre-built Hard Drives are like. They don't specify the brand/model on the website. Are they quiet? Cool?
Would you recommend buying a barebones kit or the pre-installed option? (The price difference seems reasonable.) Just not sure of the performance.
Thanks! |
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sylvere
New Member
Joined: 29 Jun 2005
Posts: 8
Location: On line
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| Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 12:19 pm Post subject: HD |
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I just bought it with a250 go pre biuld and reference are write on the website , i'm french so if i find it everybody can  it's the last Hitachi ref T7K250, no noise, not hot at all... much better and less noise than the Minimat. |
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Susurrus
Veteran Member
Joined: 05 May 2005
Posts: 1303
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
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| Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:10 pm Post subject: |
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| bubbahotep wrote: | Hey,
It'd be useful to know what the pre-built Hard Drives are like. They don't specify the brand/model on the website. Are they quiet? Cool?
Would you recommend buying a barebones kit or the pre-installed option? (The price difference seems reasonable.) Just not sure of the performance.
Thanks! |
If you can use a screwdriver, do it yourself. Look in the Off-Topic section for some hard drive deals that I posted.
_________________
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 |
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bubbahotep
New Member
Joined: 11 Jul 2005
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:30 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks much for the suggestions.
After doing some reading on the various hard drive options, I ended up getting the kit and my own hard drive - a Samsung 250GB. Sounds like it will give me roughly the same performance of other 72K drives, but with considerably less noise and higher reliability(fewer platters).
Can't wait to piece it together! |
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oldskoolboarder
Junior Member
Joined: 06 Jun 2005
Posts: 21
Location: Menlo Park, CA
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| Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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OK, so I put my ministack together w/ a 250 GB Barracuda drive. Total cost, after rebates is about $180.
Here's some observations, in addition to previous reviews.
-The case could be made slightly taller. Why? Because when you bend the IDE cable and tape the thermal sensor, it protrudes above the top of the case, before the top is put on. So when you put the top on, it bulges. Not asthetically pleasing.
-Top is a little flimsy. Because problem above, the case is so flexed, that the edges to not meet flush w/ the sides of the case.
-Some report that their HD get too hot. I only noticed that when I ran a large file copy via WiFi that took about 15 hours. During normal operation, the HD seems fine.
-Would've been nice if the power brick was white instead of black. |
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Susurrus
Veteran Member
Joined: 05 May 2005
Posts: 1303
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
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| Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:09 pm Post subject: |
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| oldskoolboarder wrote: | OK, so I put my ministack together w/ a 250 GB Barracuda drive. Total cost, after rebates is about $180.
Here's some observations, in addition to previous reviews.
-The case could be made slightly taller. Why? Because when you bend the IDE cable and tape the thermal sensor, it protrudes above the top of the case, before the top is put on. So when you put the top on, it bulges. Not asthetically pleasing.
-Top is a little flimsy. Because problem above, the case is so flexed, that the edges to not meet flush w/ the sides of the case.
-Some report that their HD get too hot. I only noticed that when I ran a large file copy via WiFi that took about 15 hours. During normal operation, the HD seems fine.
-Would've been nice if the power brick was white instead of black. |
Um, I think I'll wait for Rev. 2 then.
No, it wasn't the black power brick that turned me off.
_________________
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 |
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WolfieCA
New Member
Joined: 11 Jul 2005
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:17 pm Post subject: |
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| skoone wrote: | Hmmm... Interesting. My drive isn't powering down. Yep, the blue light on the front stays on after the Mini has been powered down but the drive is definitely still spinning. Something is very wrong here. Guess I'm going to have to troubleshoot this one a bit further.
The drive itself works fine with the Mini and the M9, in fact it does everything that it's supposed to except power the drive down. The hard drive is a WD 300 gig, picked it up at Sam's Club a few days ago.
Steve |
Getting back to the point that Steve (skoone) made. I am having the same issue with the "smart" switch. My stack stays powered all the time. I even set the fan to "manual/high" to see if the light was just staying on, but the fan (and drive) kept running. I left it that way for an hour.
Talked to OWC tech support and they said that it shoud shut off (light and all) when the mini is shut down. Adam is going to run some tests on one there and get back to me. If anyone else has this problem, please call and let them know. They said that I was the first and only one to report this.
Rich |
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oldskoolboarder
Junior Member
Joined: 06 Jun 2005
Posts: 21
Location: Menlo Park, CA
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| Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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| WolfieCA wrote: | | skoone wrote: | Hmmm... Interesting. My drive isn't powering down. Yep, the blue light on the front stays on after the Mini has been powered down but the drive is definitely still spinning. Something is very wrong here. Guess I'm going to have to troubleshoot this one a bit further.
The drive itself works fine with the Mini and the M9, in fact it does everything that it's supposed to except power the drive down. The hard drive is a WD 300 gig, picked it up at Sam's Club a few days ago.
Steve |
Getting back to the point that Steve (skoone) made. I am having the same issue with the "smart" switch. My stack stays powered all the time. I even set the fan to "manual/high" to see if the light was just staying on, but the fan (and drive) kept running. I left it that way for an hour.
Talked to OWC tech support and they said that it shoud shut off (light and all) when the mini is shut down. Adam is going to run some tests on one there and get back to me. If anyone else has this problem, please call and let them know. They said that I was the first and only one to report this.
Rich |
Who do we contact? I did a shut down but the LED stayed on. I didn't try to play w/ the power down too much. |
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skoone
Junior Member
Joined: 19 Jun 2005
Posts: 33
Location: North Carolina
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| Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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Hi guys..
I'm still here, been trying to get moved into the new home 
Here's the latest on my Ministack woes.. I'm finding the "smart" switch to be very erratic in the way it is supposed to function. I have finally gotten my drive to power down, but it takes having to power the Mini back up and then shutting it back down, and repeating this anywhere from 3 to as many as 8 times in a row in order for the switch to work. The same action applies when I am turning the Mini on. Just bringing the system online and operational usually won't spin the drive on, hence the Mini sits there with a folder and blinking question mark in the middle of the screen because it can't find a drive to boot to (since the hard drive in the ministack hasn't yet spun up!).. It's very frustrating and quite unreliable. I think until an issue is resolved on this (if it ever gets resolved) I will revert back to my good ole original Vantec hard drive enclosure. Oh, something else I've noticed about this Ministack enclosure.. When the drive is accessed, I can hear a faint sound of what seems to be crickets. I think it's the fan, I believe some others have found similar sounds coming from theirs as well, very odd.. And just annoying enough in a quiet room to be irritating, everytime that drive gets accessed every few seconds or so. To me, a real disappointment as I had waited in anticipation like many of you. There may still be hope though, and I sure don't want to give up on this as it really matches the Mini quite well. I like the looks of it too. Wish the blue light would indeed go out when the system is off.
Thanks to everyone in the group offering their input and ideas too!!
Regards,
Steve |
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blazer
Veteran Member
Joined: 23 Mar 2005
Posts: 1061
Location: San Ramon, California
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| Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe my hot and loud miniMate ain't that bad after all! 
_________________
1.42GHz Mac mini
2.0GHz Core 2 Duo Mac mini
2.0GHz Core 2 Duo Mac mini (2009)
2.5GHz Core i5 Mac mini (2011)
24" Dell LCD & 42" Sharp TV
EyeTV 250 Plus
1G, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G iPod nanos
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Susurrus
Veteran Member
Joined: 05 May 2005
Posts: 1303
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
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| Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:44 pm Post subject: |
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| skoone wrote: | Hi guys..
I'm still here, been trying to get moved into the new home
Here's the latest on my Ministack woes.. I'm finding the "smart" switch to be very erratic in the way it is supposed to function. I have finally gotten my drive to power down, but it takes having to power the Mini back up and then shutting it back down, and repeating this anywhere from 3 to as many as 8 times in a row in order for the switch to work. The same action applies when I am turning the Mini on. Just bringing the system online and operational usually won't spin the drive on, hence the Mini sits there with a folder and blinking question mark in the middle of the screen because it can't find a drive to boot to (since the hard drive in the ministack hasn't yet spun up!).. It's very frustrating and quite unreliable. I think until an issue is resolved on this (if it ever gets resolved) I will revert back to my good ole original Vantec hard drive enclosure. Oh, something else I've noticed about this Ministack enclosure.. When the drive is accessed, I can hear a faint sound of what seems to be crickets. I think it's the fan, I believe some others have found similar sounds coming from theirs as well, very odd.. And just annoying enough in a quiet room to be irritating, everytime that drive gets accessed every few seconds or so. To me, a real disappointment as I had waited in anticipation like many of you. There may still be hope though, and I sure don't want to give up on this as it really matches the Mini quite well. I like the looks of it too. Wish the blue light would indeed go out when the system is off.
Thanks to everyone in the group offering their input and ideas too!!
Regards,
Steve |
Crap. This MiniStack news just keeps getting worse and worse. MiniMate....MiniStack...MiniMate...MiniStack....grrr
_________________
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 |
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slickrick
Senior Member
Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Posts: 441
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| Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Maybe the light isn't supposed to go out. It could be a stand-by light. What's the manual say? Have you tried it on USB to see if it makes a difference? |
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