Mac mini upgrade?

[tmesselt]

So this may not be the right website to ask this on but I figure there are people here that might know the answer.

So I have the previous version mac mini 2.0ghz and I am looking to upgrade the internal hard drive.

The only thing I have actually found out is that I need a 5400 rpm sata drive. My question is how big of a drive can I put in? I have my eye one of the 500gb drive at newegg.com

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000150380%201309740009&name=500GB

I have already upgraded the ram so I know how to take it apart, anyone done the hard drive?

 

[dbfreq]

If you can hold off for a couple of weeks, Seagate will be releasing a 7200 rpm, 500GB SATA drive that will work well in the Mini:

 

http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Search.cfm?Ne=5000&Ntt=2.5++hard+Drive&Ntk=Primary&Ns=P_Popularity%7c1&N=6892

 

 

[Mr.C]

Hard drive speed doesn't really matter, physical size, bios and connection type are your main limiters. 500 Gb should be fine for any modern computer AFIK.

 

[dbfreq]

Hard drive speed doesn't really matter in what sense? It certainly does matter when you're talking about writing to the hard drive, seeking and accessing data. So does the drive's cache size. The drive I posted will have a 16MB cache, whereas most of the other drives for the Mac Mini only have a 8MB cache. Seagate drives also tend to be quieter and have a longer MTBF than other drives.

 

How can you say that 500GB should be fine for any modern computer??? That really depends on how much data you want to store.

 

[Audio_ELF]

Sorry ... double post.

 

[Audio_ELF]

Quote "How can you say that 500GB should be fine for any modern computer??? That really depends on how much data you want to store."

 

I suspect what was meant that there is no MAXIMUM size limit on modern computers. On older computers prior to the introduction of SATA there was often a size limit where the computer would only recognize up to a certain limit. Over the years these limits have been slowly expanded using various methods and with SATA there is no limit AFAIK. Also I think the "Hard drive speed doesn't matter" may refer to the fact that any drive will allow you to read quick enough to play back music files without issue.

 

As a note to the original poster ... have you considered sticking with your current internal drive and adding a NAS with mirrored drives - something like a Lacie "2big Network" with a pair of 500GB or 1TB drives - so that if you have a problem with one, you wont loose all for music files? It will cost you a little more, but might be worth it long term.

 

ELoise

 

[shenzi]

Check the iFixit.com site to make sure a 7200rpm drive is ok in the mini. I believe they can get warmer in operation. As previously mentioned, 5400rpm will be fine for music files though the extra cache size may be worth having. 7200rpm would be better for video use, if the mini is doing that.

 

[tmesselt]

Yeah, those were really my main concerns, I was just thinking for $100 bucks I could upgrade to a 500gb hd. I was just unsure if it could support that large of a drive, but it seems like since its sata it should be fine. Also the 7200 rpm drive might heat up to much, there is not enough evidence that I have found to prove otherwise, so I have decided against beta testing myself. I will also add a NAS to my setup, I was thinking actually about the 1tb time capsule, apple.com has refurbs for 400. Then add an additional nas to that later when I need more storage.

The other reason the time capsule is appealing to me is the usb port and 802.11n wireless.

 

thanks for all your responses.