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JazzCatDRP · Aug 10, 2005, 10:06 PM

I posted this in an old thread, but haven't got a response, and I'm going to order it tomorrow. If this is a no-no, delete away mods...

I'm going between the baseline mini and the middle range mini. Someone in another thread mentioned that the 40 gig drive was 5400 with a 2 mb cache, and that the 80 was only a 4200 drive, but had an 8 gig cache.

Considering the extra storage is just icing on the cake for me (I wouldn't come close to filling it, as I use an external for most of my storage), which drive would have better performance? Can someone explain just how much of an effect the cache size would have on the hard drive's performance, particularly since the 80 gig is technically slower? Thanks for any help!

sodamnregistered2 · Aug 11, 2005, 03:30 AM

It's a toss up. I had the 80GB and found it rather sluggish. I put a 7200rpm Hitachi in there and performance is quite a bit better

tomrock · Aug 11, 2005, 08:31 AM

I'd get the middle range just to get the wireless. As the price of the 7200 rpm drives come down, you can always add one later. Of course you'll have to move all your stuff, but you can put the old drive in a firewire or USB case and have a backup device.

osxrules · Aug 12, 2005, 12:47 PM

8 gig cache holy sh*t. I need one of them

.

I have the 5400 and it's OK but I got 50% drive performance increase from an external firewire 7200. I would get the cheap 40GB and then put in a 7200 Hitachi 7K60 or by all means stick with the 40GB as it is OK performance-wise.

The cache size doesn't make as much difference as the spindle speed so the 5400 40GB will be faster than 4200 80GB.

It might be worthwhile to get a 7200 since a lot of people have problems with the shipped drives in the Mini. I'm booting from a Maxtor 7200 external drive just now because my hard drive has gone.

power142 · Aug 12, 2005, 04:27 PM

8GB cache would be awesome!

Maybe one day...

Anyhow, I have the 80GB drive in my mini and it's the 4200rpm 8MB cache version and I have to say that it is way better than the 4200rpm 2MB cache drive in my Powerbook... night and day. I was actually pleasantly surprised. No match for a faster drive, but it's not all bad. Maybe the 40GB 5400rpm is better, I can't say.

Kyros · Aug 13, 2005, 12:29 AM

I'm pretty sure the 5400 rpm thing was just a few early ones Apple screwed up on. I think they're all 4200 now. I might be wrong though. In any case, you really want a 7200 RPM drive, and it's a lot cheaper to just get an external firewire one.

sodamnregistered2 · Aug 13, 2005, 06:47 PM

I got the Hitachi 60GB 7200rpm in the Mini and two external Firewire Drives and a DVD-R attached as well. Overall, it's a good set-up.

The 7200rpm internal drive is pricey, but worth it... you can def feel the performance increase... shame the prices have not dropped on them...

I was lucky and had the drive in my dell laptop, so I just pulled it and swapped it with the Mini. And who says Dell ain' good for nothing...

power142 · Aug 14, 2005, 07:17 PM

The Seagate Momentus drive looks promising too, 5400rpm with 8mb cache, under $200 for 100gb... and there's 7200rpm model on the way (also 120gb available in 5400rpm)

tooki · Aug 14, 2005, 08:07 PM

Hard disk cache size is HUGELY overrated. I wouldn't give the cache size another second's thought.

tooki

JazzCatDRP · Aug 14, 2005, 10:07 PM

Thanks for all the info...my bad on the cache typo. Whoops!

What kinds of performance boosts would buying a third party 7200 drive give me? Any examples?

ghporter · Aug 15, 2005, 07:32 AM

A 7200 RPM drive simply puts the data under the heads faster, which means there's a potential for the drive to perform faster. With a fairly un-fragmented drive (Macs tend to stay in this condition because the OS manages fragmentation pretty well), a faster-spinning drive should noticeably improve disk performance over a slower drive, and 7200 RPC is WAY faster than the typcial 4200 RPM laptop hard drive. However, a 7200 RPM laptop drive will be VERY NOTICEABLY more expensive than a 4200 RPM drive. It's a tradeoff that you can't really quantify in a "what kind of performance boost would I see" question.

harrisjamieh · Aug 15, 2005, 02:57 PM

Hi everyone, ive been having the same dillema, im about to buy a mini, but put it on hold to try and find out about the hard drive. I wouldnt have the confidence to fit the 60 gig 7200 drive everyone seems to be buying, so im stuck with one of apples options. im planning on doing some video editing on the mini (yes i know itll be slow), but i wondered if it is even possible to capture video to a 4200 rpm drive? anyone know an answer?

osxrules · Aug 15, 2005, 03:19 PM

I gave the example before that my external 7200 boosted drive performance by 50% (Xbench) over my 5400. This apparently makes some apps much faster. One important one is Photoshop as it uses a scratch disc from temp files and stuff.

7200 drives aren't all that expensive if you look in the right places. My 80GB Maxtor internal IDE drive 7200 that I put in a firewire case cost me £60 from a local store. I saw a Hitachi 7K60 7200 rpm drive on www.dabs.co.uk for about £90 including delivery. They don't seem to have them at the moment.

If you type in 7k60 in google, the first link is to the froogle product search. The average price is just over £100 but plus delivery, it comes to about £120:

http://www.macwarehouse.co.uk/catalogue/item/HITDR033?

Maybe you can try ebay but choose a seller that is actually a business type and not an individual and with a really good reputation.

If only Apple had used standard drives. I have to say that I'm running my Maxtor 7200 in a semi-open case in my firewire enclosure and it's really not that noisy at all, nor is it especially hot.