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Jasoco · Mar 13, 2007, 09:02 PM

All rightie. I have a first gen Mac mini. The original 1.24GHz G4 that came out in January 2005. When I got it, it was slow, so I upgraded the RAM to 1GB per forum members suggestions. It was still damn slow, so as per more suggestions I installed my OS onto my external FireWire HD. I was amazed by the speed boost.

At the time I only had the FireWire HD and the internal HD to use so I partitioned my FW HD into three pieces. At the time I used them differently. But after a while I decided I wanted all my files in one place. And I ran out of space on the 250GB FW HD so I got a 500GB USB 2.0 one to use as well. I hook up the 500GB and move all my files onto the 500. Thus leaving three useless partitions plus the internal HD. One of the partitions of the 250 of course contained my OS.

For a long time I wanted to reformat that HD back into one 250GB piece but kept putting it off because I would install the OS onto the internal HD and then get bored of trying to get my customly set up desktop back to what it was. (All the hacks and mods and stuff)

So I always just went back to my already existing install and forgot the whole thing. I did this a few times then the other day finally got fed up with the empty partitions going to waste and finally went through all the trouble of making an exact clone of my current OS by first installing fresh, then updating the new install completely to 10.4.8 and all the apps, then used Carbon Copy Cloner to only clone over the main Library and entire Users folder. Booting into the old install and manually copying over custom stuff from the System Library. Rebooted into new install and after only a few hurdles and fixes and updates of preference files I was back to a 100% perfect clone.

Lots of trouble.

The one thing I didn't count on and completely forgot about... The speed of the internal HD... My GOD it's slow. I forgot how slow. It is amazingly slow. I want to blame it on something else, but there's nothing else to blame. It's so slow!

I did benchmarks. The internal HD got a 19.1, the FireWire a 29.5. I assume larger numbers are better.

Why does the HD speed have such impact?

*sigh* It had to be done though. The OS was installed onto an HD I could easily remove from my setup and replace.. if the OS wasn't installed on it.

I suppose now that the 250GB HD is back into one piece I should go about installing once again onto the FW HD and going through all that trouble just to get my speed back. I definitely need a new computer. Are the new Intel mini's this bad?

imitchellg5 · Mar 14, 2007, 06:54 PM

Because the computer is constantly accessing the hard drive for files. The faster the hard drive spins in revolutions per minute, the faster data loads. The internal HD is only 5,400 RPM. The external HD is at least 7,200 RPM. It makes a huge difference.

Dr. DDS · Mar 14, 2007, 07:12 PM

Actually, the Mac Mini's HDs are 4200 rpm like the ibooks G4s

imitchellg5 · Mar 14, 2007, 08:02 PM

That's even worse then. The difference between 7,200 RPM and 4,200 RPM is huge.

QuadG5Man · Mar 14, 2007, 10:34 PM

Originally Posted by imitchellg5

That's even worse then. The difference between 7,200 RPM and 4,200 RPM is huge.

Even 5,400 RPM drives are sustantially faster than 4,200 RPM. Some people wouldn't even feel the difference in speed between an upgrade to a 5,400 or 7,200 RPM drive, as both would be a vast improvement from a stock 4,200 RPM drive. If you have a mac mini or ibook with a 4,200 RPM drive think about upgrading. IMHO

peeb · Mar 15, 2007, 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by Dr. DDS

Actually, the Mac Mini's HDs are 4200 rpm like the ibooks G4s

New Mac Minis now all ship with 5400s.

Jasoco · Mar 15, 2007, 11:45 PM

So the one I have is 4200? How much of a speed increase is a 5400 over that?

moonmonkey · Mar 18, 2007, 07:58 AM

Did the same thing, its the best upgrade you can do with a 1st gen mini.
Later mini's had faster drives so not so much of an impact.

imitchellg5 · Mar 18, 2007, 01:19 PM

I was just looking through a Mac Addict and according to them (for the Mac mini G4) Apple said that it came with a 4,200 RPM HD, but both of their testers came with 5,400 RPM HDs.

CheesePuff · Mar 18, 2007, 03:00 PM

Most of the older G4 Mac mini's did have 4200 RPM drives.

But now a days you can put in a 120 GB 5400 RPM 8 MB cache 2.5" drive for $90 shipped.

Jasoco · Mar 18, 2007, 07:14 PM

Would that make a big impact on speed?

imitchellg5 · Mar 18, 2007, 08:17 PM

It would make an impact, but go for a 7,200 RPM drive for the biggest boost.

moonmonkey · Mar 19, 2007, 05:24 AM

or put one of these in your mini

SanDisk | OEM | Products | SanDisk SSD Solid State Drives | SanDisk SSD SATA 5000 2.5"

peeb · Mar 19, 2007, 11:18 AM

How much of a difference will going from 5400 -> 7200 really make?

pundit · Mar 19, 2007, 11:37 AM

A 7200rpm typically has higher transfer rates, but can have lower seek times also. The seek time for a hard drive is measured in milliseconds rather than the nanosecond access latencies of random access memory. Faster drives also typically have the largest caches, and these significantly help the drive seek efficiently.

Until you have a top end drive, improving that component is typically the best choice for improving workstation performance, unless all you do all day is number crunching on tiny datasets. It is a generalization, but will be true in at least 90% of the cases.

GraphicUmp · Mar 24, 2007, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by moonmonkey

or put one of these in your mini

SanDisk | OEM | Products | SanDisk SSD Solid State Drives | SanDisk SSD SATA 5000 2.5"

He can't - the original minis came with Parallel ATA drives, not SATA....

Oh, and part of the difference in speed between the internal and external drives is the size - 3.5" drives will always be faster than 2.5" drives, even when the rotational speed (RPM) is the same.

Jasoco · Mar 24, 2007, 07:09 PM

Well, I finally got around to putting my OS back on my FireWire HD. Yep.. it's faster again.

peeb · Mar 24, 2007, 07:56 PM

Originally Posted by pundit

A 7200rpm typically has higher transfer rates, but can have lower seek times also. The seek time for a hard drive is measured in milliseconds rather than the nanosecond access latencies of random access memory. Faster drives also typically have the largest caches, and these significantly help the drive seek efficiently.

Until you have a top end drive, improving that component is typically the best choice for improving workstation performance, unless all you do all day is number crunching on tiny datasets. It is a generalization, but will be true in at least 90% of the cases.

:Thanks - so you think I'd see a real world speed increase replacing a 5300 with a 7200 of twice the size?