I'm buying a firewire enclosure for my mac mini... suggestions & questions

[TheGizmo]

So I've finally just decided to turn off my PC *tear*.. since this mac mini does everything my PC did and more I don't find any reason to waste anymore electricity on running it 24/7..

Anyway, I need all the data from that drive, so I've decided to go with a firewire enclosure... as per previously advised by other forum members... as they claim the firewire will be faster than the usb 2.0.

so basically, 3 questions...

1) Is the Mac Mini Firewire 400 or 800? Would it make sense for me to buy an 800 even if its 400.. for future upgrades or work with a different computer? About a $40 price difference from 400 to 800.. but I plan to use this on my mini for the next year or so.. Wondering how new firewire 800 really is I guess and how common it is among other computers to justify me dishing another $40 for the 800.

2) I've been reccomended to buy the Icy Dock brand one. I plan to use this mini for a year or so as my main HTPC box. I want to do video editing on this hdd as well, so I need the enclosure to be uber fast. I already have a nice 750gb SATA 7200rpm 32mb buffer drive ready to put into it.. and I want whatever will be faster... so if anyone reccomends a different Enclosure for my drive.. I am all ears

3) What format should I put this drive in? I'm tempted to do NTFS because it would work with Windows PC's which is mostly all I use at work and whatnot.. would it really benefit me for speed or whatever else to convert it to whatever filesystem type OSX uses.. what is that btw?

Thanks for the advice everyone, much appreciated

 

[aphex]

I'm on my iPhone right now, so I apologise for my short answer.

1. The mini is FW400
2. I just picked up a Macally enclosure last week for my 1tb drive ($40 shipped from Amazon). It has FW400/USB/eSATA, I can't link from here but if you go to macally.com it looks like a tiny mac pro tower. Its very quiet and very fast. Nice build quality to boot.
3. NTFS is read only by OSX unless you buy some software to write to it (don't recall the name off the top of my head). Fat32 will work across both both platforms, but there is a 4gb size limit (per file), so keep that in mind. HFS+ journaled is the best for the mini IMO, but the you run into the same problem on the windows pcs (except they can't even read HFS+ without software like Macdrive)

EDIT: I'm home now so I can link...

This the enclosure - http://www.macally.com/EN/Prod...Show.asp?ArticleID=215
And here is the link at Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P1NAMO

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: aphex
I'm on my iPhone right now, so I apologise for my short answer.

1. The mini is FW400
2. I just picked up a Macally enclosure last week for my 1tb drive ($40 shipped from Amazon). It has FW400/USB/eSATA, I can't link from here but if you go to macally.com it looks like a tiny mac pro tower. Its very quiet and very fast. Nice build quality to boot.
3. NTFS is read only by OSX unless you buy some software to write to it (don't recall the name off the top of my head). Fat32 will work across both both platforms, but there is a 4gb size limit (per file), so keep that in mind. HFS+ journaled is the best for the mini IMO, but the you run into the same problem on the windows pcs (except they can't even read HFS+ without software like Macdrive)

EDIT: I'm home now so I can link...

This the enclosure - http://www.macally.com/EN/Prod...Show.asp?ArticleID=215
And here is the link at Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P1NAMO

Love that enclosure. Wish it came with an eSata bracket. How quiet is it? I'm kicking myself for not jumping on that Antec MX-1 deal or whatever it was (the quiet one with the fan). I need my enclosure on pretty much 18 hours a day (when my computer is on) so it needs to be cool, quiet and reliable.

 

[aphex]

The enclosure is silent (no fan), I only hear the sound of the HD itself which it only noticeable to me when it spins up. No creaks, rattles or hums when its sitting in the included stand.

The aluminum helps dissipate the heat, but even mine is only warm to the touch.

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: aphex
The enclosure is silent (no fan), I only hear the sound of the HD itself which it only noticeable to me when it spins up. No creaks, rattles or hums when its sitting in the included stand.

The aluminum helps dissipate the heat, but even mine is only warm to the touch.

Huh. This may be the way to go then. It's SATA only inside, right? Not IDE?

I have this big conundrum (well, it's not really "big", but it's a conundrum).

I have a Dell 4600 with two internal drives. They're both WD, 120gig and 160 gig. They're IDE. I've got SATA, but only SATA I, I believe.

I don't have any more room in the case. Solution? Enclosure! But I intend to at one point in the future, retire the desktop, and go with a Macbook Pro and HTPC solution (i.e. my main computer will be a Macbook Pro -- when I upgrade my Powerbook G4, likely in June -- and I'm going to build a HTPC/server for the living room that will store most everything). So I want to buy one of those WD 640 drives (quiet, cool, fast), and stick it in an enclosure. And then it'll be a main/storage drive for the HTPC when it gets built. The issue being, though, is that when that happens, I'll have IDE drives that would be good for [external?] backups, but nothing to put them in.

So I'm torn between getting a IDE/eSATA enclosure, getting an IDE enclosure and just putting the 640gig inside my box (since in the mean time I'm going to be ripping my CDs to the 640, I'm scared about having it burn itself up in an enclosure if it's on all the time) or just writing the IDE drives off.

Which I guess I should probably do. It's only $100 either way, I guess. And that enclosure sure would look nice with a Macbook.

Sigh.

Thoughts?

Think I might pull the trigger. Where can I get an eSata bracket? (And will SATA I be faster than FW or USB? I have all three on my PC). Thinking frys might be a good bet.

 

[KeithP]

Personally, I wouldn't spend the extra money on FW 800 right now. By the time you have a computer that might use it, Apple may have switched to FW1600 or 3200, or maybe even esata.

You might also want to take a look at the Mini Stack. You can buy an empty case or with HD already installed. It includes a built-in USB and Firewire HUB further reducing clutter.

-KeithP

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: KeithP
Personally, I wouldn't spend the extra money on FW 800 right now. By the time you have a computer that might use it, Apple may have switched to FW1600 or 3200, or maybe even esata.

You might also want to take a look at the Mini Stack. You can buy an empty case or with HD already installed. It includes a built-in USB and Firewire HUB further reducing clutter.

-KeithP

I like Apple-looking products as much as the next guy, but $80 for an enclosure is a bit much.

(Not to say I don't want one!)

Soooooo close to pulling the trigger on that MacAlly enclosure and that WD 640 gig drive. Someone talk me into it!

 

[Coca Cola]

The ministack v3 would compliment the mac mini nicely, you can just set it on top of it. It has fw800, 400, usb2.0, and esata for $110. However, if you dont need esata or fw800 they also have the v2 which only has fw400 and usb2 for $80, either one will support your hdd.

I don't have this enclosure but when I do have the need for one, this is the one I'm going for. I looked for info on the ministack, and I found this where they talk about the fan noise, I'm not sure how picky you are about noise, but I wouldn't mind it to much personally, someone links to another forum too. Plus not all enclosures have active cooling so maybe it would be safe to just unplug the fan if it's bothersome.

Here's another enclosure I considered. It houses two hdds, and looks similar to a mac pro as well, almost like what aphex linked to. Well, good luck on your decision.

 

[TheGizmo]

thanks for all the suggestions everyone.. yea I have seen the ministack but it seemed a bit too much just for "looks"... I'm still leaning towards the icy dock fw400 version.

question tho... is there a way to convert my ntfs to fat32/hfs+ without me having to copy the data to another drive any copy it back? b/c i don't have another 750 gig drive, just a couple of 200's.. and thatd be a real pain..

 

[manly]

LOL Macally ripped off the Power Mac/Mac Pro case.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: TheGizmo
thanks for all the suggestions everyone.. yea I have seen the ministack but it seemed a bit too much just for "looks"... I'm still leaning towards the icy dock fw400 version.

question tho... is there a way to convert my ntfs to fat32/hfs+ without me having to copy the data to another drive any copy it back? b/c i don't have another 750 gig drive, just a couple of 200's.. and thatd be a real pain..

Personally I would go with the Macally one over the Icy Dock. This is my second Macally enclosure and I couldn't be happier. Rock solid IMO.

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: aphex

Originally posted by: TheGizmo
thanks for all the suggestions everyone.. yea I have seen the ministack but it seemed a bit too much just for "looks"... I'm still leaning towards the icy dock fw400 version.

question tho... is there a way to convert my ntfs to fat32/hfs+ without me having to copy the data to another drive any copy it back? b/c i don't have another 750 gig drive, just a couple of 200's.. and thatd be a real pain..

Personally I would go with the Macally one over the Icy Dock. This is my second Macally enclosure and I couldn't be happier. Rock solid IMO.

Ordered it and that WD 640 from chiefvalue. Hopefully they'll be quite, cool and reliable. I'm gonna rip my CD collection to it, so if it crashes I'll cry!

 

[bigrash]

I have the Ministack v2. Had it since around it came out and it still works.

 

[TheGizmo]

Do any of you know if the Macally one uses the oxford chipset?

 

[manly]

Bumping an old thread because I need a good enclosure soon. Any new favorites?

Wish I could justify the pricey Macally G-S350SUAB (quad-interface); might end up settling for the Antec MX-1 that's often on sale.

Originally posted by: TheGizmo
Do any of you know if the Macally one uses the oxford chipset?

According to an Amazon customer review, yes.

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: manly
Bumping an old thread because I need a good enclosure soon. Any new favorites?

Wish I could justify the pricey Macally G-S350SUAB (quad-interface); might end up settling for the Antec MX-1 that's often on sale.

Originally posted by: TheGizmo
Do any of you know if the Macally one uses the oxford chipset?

According to an Amazon customer review, yes.

i was actually looking at the same macally enclosure myself, and $99 is way too much. however, i did find a similar enclosure, but its by rosewill.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817182123 - silver

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817182122 - black

weirdly, the black is $69.99 and the silver is $59.99. it has esata, 2xFW800, 1xFW400, usb 2.0.

 

[manly]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman

Originally posted by: manly
Bumping an old thread because I need a good enclosure soon. Any new favorites?

Wish I could justify the pricey Macally G-S350SUAB (quad-interface); might end up settling for the Antec MX-1 that's often on sale.

Originally posted by: TheGizmo
Do any of you know if the Macally one uses the oxford chipset?

According to an Amazon customer review, yes.

i was actually looking at the same macally enclosure myself, and $99 is way too much. however, i did find a similar enclosure, but its by rosewill.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817182123 - silver

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817182122 - black

weirdly, the black is $69.99 and the silver is $59.99. it has esata, 2xFW800, 1xFW400, usb 2.0.

This looks great, thanks. I will try to hold out briefly for a sale but $50 is not bad for a good quad-interface case.