Upgrading a MacMini C2D 1.83GHz

WUSBDesign

Here's the deal - I'm going to help beef up a friend's MacMini some time in the following week, and I have run through the following option:

- RAM; from 2x512GB (1GB) to 1GB+2GB (total 3GB)
- HDD; a Hitachi 5400rpm 80GB to 7200rpm 120GB Hitachi/Seagate

The two upgrades go together only because we are going to open the MacMini up just once, just so we avoid the unnecessary scratches, oops here or there, etc.

Is the Hitachi HDD too hot for a sealed environment inside the MacMini? Is the Seagate HDD cooler?

Or is 120GB too small if we want a partition for BootCamp as well? As well as separate volumes for Tiger, Leopard?

Any gotchas? I have prior "experience" from a MacMini G4 upgrade, but set back by a broken power-on connector on a PBG4 (867MHz) while trying to pry a connector from the main board...

Cheers!

whiterebel

WUSBDesign wrote: »

Here's the deal - I'm going to help beef up a friend's MacMini some time in the following week, and I have run through the following option:

- RAM; from 2x512GB (1GB) to 1GB+2GB (total 3GB)
- HDD; a Hitachi 5400rpm 80GB to 7200rpm 120GB Hitachi/Seagate

The two upgrades go together only because we are going to open the MacMini up just once, just so we avoid the unnecessary scratches, oops here or there, etc.

Is the Hitachi HDD too hot for a sealed environment inside the MacMini? Is the Seagate HDD cooler?

Or is 120GB too small if we want a partition for BootCamp as well? As well as separate volumes for Tiger, Leopard?

Any gotchas? I have prior "experience" from a MacMini G4 upgrade, but set back by a broken power-on connector on a PBG4 (867MHz) while trying to pry a connector from the main board...

Cheers!

According to Crucial, the max Ram on a mini is 2GB.

WUSBDesign

Thanks for pointing that out. Still, it is possible - Crucial is wrong/conservative.

See this: http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/MacBook/Testing/Memory_Benchmarks

deevey

unless you are getting the HDD really really cheap wouldn't a 250gig / 5400 be a nicer better option ? ...

benchmarks have been done, and 5400 - 7200 doesn't seen to make that big a dent speedwise for most regular things on a macbook or Mini, I do a good bit of fairly intensive music and video too on my macbook and don't notice it ... the only thing that prevented me going for a 7200 drive this time round in my macbook was that benchmarks didn't stack up to the price vs speed increase.

I guess it depends on your needs, I'm finding space more detrimental day to day than HDD speed.

As per the heat of the drive, a faster drive (in theory) generally stays cooler, due to the faster seek times which should mean less time to get where it should to read the data .. again .. in theory, although my old Ibook was considerably less hot with the 7200 in it.

Oh and the Intel graphics WILL suffer if you don't use dual 1gig sticks, thats been proven already, it needs dual channels to run properly, again it depends what its primarily being used for, I know 3 gigs can be done (same with the macbook) but at a cost to your video performance which is crappy as it is...

My personal config prefs

1. Bigger drive .. use a full 32 gig partition for windows. (Samsung Spinpoint on komlett @ 95 euro!)
2. 2 gigs DDR for video speed increase (on Memory C) .
3. have fun.
4. Save for a proc upgrade in 6 months when the prices drop

WUSBDesign

I have a NAS for storing/backing up important files, and the criteria is just for partitions good enough for Tiger/Leopard/Windoze.

For performance improvement in using a 7200RPM HDD, I spotted this link: http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/12705/minihd.html

Notice the above article said the 7200RPM HDD "did not noticeably increase...heat".

The "run-faster-for-shorter-duration-and-therefore-less-heat" suggestion that is quite controversial, and I'd like to see more articles on this as this *WILL* be a decision-making factor. Improved performance, albeit modest, and less heat will make the 7200RPM HDD worth it.

A tip which I obtained was that the larger the cache in the HDD, the better. This points towards the Hitachi 7200RPM HDDs, which feature a 16MB cache.

There's still time, and all options are still opened.

And more info on 2.5" HDDs : http://www.storagereview.com/HTS722020K9A00.sr?page=0%2C0

WUSBDesign

More inclination towards the Hitachi 7200RPM drive: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/travelstar-7k200-5k250,review-29754-3.html .

Surely, once price drops below a threshold, this HDD is going to sell like hot cakes...!

deevey

Only 70 odd yoyo's in the price .. not that bad .. but thats the price of a processor upgrade right there, which would be a more worthwhile upgrade in my opinion.

Will the mini's Motherboard be able to utilize the faster drive to its full potential ? just worth checking out, as I said benchmarks seem to say otherwise.. but i'll be the first to admit I'm wrong.

The 320gig looks good to me for less money if you wanted to spend that much

Ohh I dream of the day when SSD comes down to sub-mechanical price !

WUSBDesign

On Komplett.ie, a Hitachi 120GB 7200RPM 16MB HDD goes for 95 euros. At this price, I could have gotten a 160GB 5400RPM 8MB one - also from Hitachi. And yes, a Samsung 250GB 5400RPM 8MB is at that price as well...

70 euros for a CPU upgrade? A quad-core? A C2D 2GHz is not that far up from the present 1.83GHz in terms of performance.

K.O.Kiki

If it's just for storage, I'd recommend external Firewire drives.

deevey

Well when I mentioned a Proc upgrade, I intended selling the other one and upgrading to a 2.2 + gigish for the difference.

WUSBDesign

re external FW drives for additional storage, agree!

re proc upgrade, I think the MacMini was obtained with a "hefty" discount .

Chardee MacDennis

WUSBDesign wrote: »

More inclination towards the Hitachi 7200RPM drive: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/travelstar-7k200-5k250,review-29754-3.html .

Surely, once price drops below a threshold, this HDD is going to sell like hot cakes...!

i bought one of these a while ago and was warned that they had a high rate of failure but took my chances - failed two months later.

WUSBDesign

Call_me_al wrote: »

i bought one of these a while ago and was warned that they had a high rate of failure but took my chances - failed two months later.

That's a major minus point...:eek: Did you get it replaced by Hitachi?

Chardee MacDennis

not yet it's still sitting in my room. have a three year warranty so no rush!

dont think i could trust the replacement anyway so i got the spinpoint much better imo.

WUSBDesign

Aww...just spotted a Hitachi 5400RPM 200GB for £68 + p&p on eBay. Should this HDD be the one?

EDIT: this HDD sports the power-hungry SATA-2 interface. Not likely my taste since this cannot be taken advantage of. Pity...

@ Call_me_al : out of curiosity, just what model of this Hitachi drive is yours?

EDIT (again): this said HDD actually sports a normal SATA interface...interests back up again