[negatv]

I was tired of the slow, small capacity hard disk in my otherwise excellent Intel Mac Mini. Upgrading to a 2.5inch 7200 rpm drive was an option, but still offered far too little capacity. Larger 200gb drives are now available, but at 4200 rpm.

External enclosures was an option but Firewire 400, is a real performance hit. And USB2.0 ? No thanks.

So, I upgraded to a 3.5inch 250gb eSATA hard disk which was to be contained in a Newertech Ministack enclosure. The procedure makes no permanent modifications to the mini, and is (relatively) easily reversible, which is nice for warranty purposes.

Far faster than using Firewire 400, or USB 2.0 - this mod transforms the onboard SATA controller into an eSATA port which communicates directly to the external drive. Making for easy future upgrades, great performance and fast.

Mac Mini eSata Hard Disk

[dmpdx@comcast.net]

Originally Posted by negatv 

I was tired of the slow, small capacity hard disk in my otherwise excellent Intel Mac Mini. Upgrading to a 2.5inch 7200 rpm drive was an option, but still offered far too little capacity. Larger 200gb drives are now available, but at 4200 rpm.

External enclosures was an option but Firewire 400, is a real performance hit. And USB2.0 ? No thanks.

So, I upgraded to a 3.5inch 250gb eSATA hard disk which was to be contained in a Newertech Ministack enclosure. The procedure makes no permanent modifications to the mini, and is (relatively) easily reversible, which is nice for warranty purposes.

Far faster than using Firewire 400, or USB 2.0 - this mod transforms the onboard SATA controller into an eSATA port which communicates directly to the external drive. Making for easy future upgrades, great performance and fast.

Mac Mini eSata Hard Disk

I think you are slightly incorrect. The newer higher cap 2.5" drives although at 4200 RPM's attimes offer better performance then some of the smaller 7200's. The perpendicular alignment is a big issue/factor in this.

[negatv]

True, the 200gb 2.5inch drive does use perpendicular method of recording, as did the Hitachi 160gb 5400 rpm drive. While this method does help a bit, both lag behind both 7200 rpm 2.5inch drives, and even more so with 3.5inch 7200rpm drives.

I'd definately like to get a 200gb drive for my Macbook Pro, but for the desktop the full size drive works best for me.