Mac Mini

[Tab]

Does anyone have any evidence of this? PM, thanks.

 

[wisdomtooth]

Official reviews say Mac Mini uses 2.5" 4800RPM notebook HDs.

 

[SunSamurai]

No, they are 2.5s.

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: wisdomtooth
Official reviews say Mac Mini uses 2.5" 4800RPM notebook HDs.

It uses 4200rpm 2.5" HD. The stock iBook HD is faster (5400rpm). A pretty good comparison and what you get w/ a minimal mac. Read through it and ask yourself do you really want this "toy".

 

[Tab]

You're comparing a tiny form factor to a normal case, what do you expect? For what it does, its a great PC.

 

[SunSamurai]

Originally posted by: Baked

Originally posted by: wisdomtooth
Official reviews say Mac Mini uses 2.5" 4800RPM notebook HDs.

It uses 4200rpm 2.5" HD. The stock iBook HD is faster (5400rpm). A pretty good comparison and what you get w/ a minimal mac. Read through it and ask yourself do you really want this "toy".

What part of "mini" did not seep into your baked brain?

 

[Wahsapa]

any word on how hard it is to swap the hd and memory with something else then apple?

 

[wisdomtooth]

In all fairness, I think Apple should have put at least 5400rpm 2.5" HDs into the Macs mini. 5400rpm notebook HDs have been around for a while, after all.

 

[SunSamurai]

Actually, in all fairness, I think everyone judgeing this thing should actually sit down and USE IT and learn how OS X differs from XP before trying to compair it.

You people do realize that some 10,000rpm drives are faster than some 15,000rpm drives right? From my short time here so far, I have come to expect mor form people on these boards. Pretending 1000Mhz for one CPU = 1000Mhz for another is just as silly as thinking RPM is the end all be all preformance measurment for hard drives. Many of you tht hardly even use OS X dont even realize the differances in the file systems or how OS X works a hard drive differantly than XP.

Not to mention that this is not a system that you can easily compair to anything else. Its smaller than anything else out there, and comparing it and its innards, just on the hardware and design front is hard enough, but then you get into the software, and its all over man.

 

[barnett25]

I have heard that it isn't to hard to get inside to change the RAM, but I don't know for sure. From what I can tell Apple's stance is if you break it opening it youve voided your waranty, but if not then your fine. I would say that upgrading the RAM won't be hard, but I dont know how much more heat would be generated by a faster HD, it might cause overheating problems.

 

[wisdomtooth]

5400rpm notebook drives have been in use for a while now without much overheating issues. And laptops are just as hard to cool as a Mac Mini.

The form factor for a 5400rpm notebook drive isn't any different from that of a 4800 either, so space constraints in the Mac mini is not an issue.

And as for OSX handling HD I/O differently, it is irrelevent. Why? It's not like OSX cannot take advantage of a faster spindle-speed HD.

Heck, my old Powerbook G3 has a 5400rpm HD and it's from the year 2000.

I stand by my statement. It would definitely have been better to put a 5400rpm HD in the Mac mini.

 

[addragyn]

Wow overclockers.com, I can't believe that site is still around. I still remember their terrible editorials after I stopped reading them years ago.

Comparing a Mac Mini to a Dell Dimension 4700 really misses the point of the Mini.

Mini
2"x6.5"x6.5" = 84.5 square inches
Maximum continuous power: 85W

4700
14.5"x7.25"x16.75" = 1761 square inches
Maximum continuous power: 305W

Over 20 times the volume and triple the power...

 

[addragyn]

Apple doesn't list a specific RPM for the HDs, the Power Mac and iMac pages list RPM. Likely they have a contract for the sizes and take whatever RPM the manf. gives then at that price.

Would have been nice for them to explicitly spec faster HDs.

http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html

http://www.apple.com/powermac/specs.html
http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html

 

[addragyn]

FYI - OS X is bootable from Firewire or USB. Make it even slower by booting from your sister's iPod Mini!

 

[Childs]

Originally posted by: Wahsapa
any word on how hard it is to swap the hd and memory with something else then apple?

Shouldn't be hard at all. I'll know on Friday and report back if someone doesnt do it first.

Originally posted by: Baked

Originally posted by: wisdomtooth
Official reviews say Mac Mini uses 2.5" 4800RPM notebook HDs.

It uses 4200rpm 2.5" HD. The stock iBook HD is faster (5400rpm). A pretty good comparison and what you get w/ a minimal mac. Read through it and ask yourself do you really want this "toy".

4200RPM is stock. Depends on the upgrade path you take, but when I bought my Powerbook last summer that was one of the things I upgraded.

And that article seemed fairly slanted. Basically a PC guy saying why you don't need anything in the Mini. He disregards the modem, but there are other uses for a modem, not just surfing the web. Faxing comes to mind. He essentially says if something was on the mini that the dell didnt have, well, thats a plus for the dell because you don't need it. Even disregarded the iLife bundle because he doesnt like to use apps of that nature. He even questioned the value of the size. Well, that reviewer must wear tan fatigues 365 days of the year, drive a 1985 Ford Taurus, and eats nothing but Shredded Wheat and Chef Boyardee. What you absolutely need and what you like are two different things. I see no need for DVD players in cars, but I don't chastise those who have them.

This reviewer must walk around parking lots and tell M5 owners that they overpaid. They can get a 78 Datsun at the county police auction for $100.

I also find these comparison articles from PC oriented site strange since they do NOT have a mini in their hands, so how can comment on the value of the hardware and software? Not to mention the "intangibles". Get the machine in your hands, use it for a week or so, then bash it if youre inclined that a 6"x6"x2" machine that can capture video, edit movies, create music, author DVDs, and just about everything for $499 is a bad value. Heck, my 6800GT almost cost that much after tax!

 

[hopejr]

If you want to compare the Mac mini with a PC properly, read this:
http://www.macworld.com/weblog...esandoranges/index.php

 

[Eug]

4200 rpm 2.5" drive with 8 MB cache.

 

[barnett25]

Here's a video that shows how to open the Mac mini. It's on slashdot so it probably won't last long. Here is a mirror someone posted to slashdot, if the first link doesn't work.