[jay_wilson]

I just checked Macpower's website. I see they have two different models of the M9. Lots of nice pictures and finally the specs have been released.

www.macpower.com.tw/news/2005/04/25/948

As a proud owner of a Macpower “Mvisto” enclosure. I am happy to report that my Mvisto is a beautifully engineered product. The build quality and finish are both superb and it simply oozes quality. The attention to detail is impressive with lots of nice touches. I have no doubt this M9 will be equally as good if not even better.



I see there are a few choices out there Mini Mate, M9, etc. Which one is the best?

[mportuesi]

I think they're not in folks' hands yet, so we really don't know at this point which one is the best.

I really wanted to wait and get one of these devices so I could turn a spare 80GB drive into a backup for my Mini. I eventually broke down and bought a standard USB/Firewire enclosure for it, because I need a way to do backups now.

Belkin has also come out with USB and Firewire port replicators expressly for the Mini.
They have two versions:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=199941
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=199956

I might end up getting one of these now that I have a disk in a separate enclosure.

[SoBayJake]

Originally Posted by mportuesi

I think they're not in folks' hands yet, so we really don't know at this point which one is the best.

I really wanted to wait and get one of these devices so I could turn a spare 80GB drive into a backup for my Mini. I eventually broke down and bought a standard USB/Firewire enclosure for it, because I need a way to do backups now.

Belkin has also come out with USB and Firewire port replicators expressly for the Mini.
They have two versions:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=199941
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=199956

I might end up getting one of these now that I have a disk in a separate enclosure.

I realize the Belkin products are not yet shipping, but what is the difference? 1 is 4-port, the other 6-port. But both descriptions state 4 USB 2.0 and 3 Firewire ports (one of which connects to the Mac, making 2 usable).

I assume the cheaper one doesn't really have Firewire, and the page needs to be updated??

[mportuesi]

Yeah, I couldn't figure that out either. I had originally thought one had firewire and the other didn't, but it's not at all easy to tell from Belkin's web pages. I suspect that's still true, and the copy editors at Belkin's website simply got confused.

I figured I'd wait until they were actually shipping. Maybe some more info will come out then.