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Filmo · Apr 19, 2005, 04:43 PM

Is there anybody making a firewire enclosure the is roughly identical to the style and form factor of the Mac Mini?

I'd like to be able to stack the Mac Mini on top of a nice brushed aluminum case that looks just like the mac mini itself and run a short 4" firewire cable down to the external drive.

Anybody seen anything like this? Sure would be cool.

turtle777 · Apr 19, 2005, 05:15 PM

Get a second mini and use it in target mode

-t

P · Apr 20, 2005, 05:57 PM

I think it's a little early yet to see stuff like that. It will come though, if Apple sells enough minis.

JHromadka · Apr 21, 2005, 09:42 AM

Lacie makes some drives that have a similar look, though not the same dimensions.

Mithras · Apr 21, 2005, 03:53 PM

I would love something like that too. This MacAlly one is cheap and vaguely silver, but like most is too narrow and too deep.

zeebe · Apr 21, 2005, 11:47 PM

Originally Posted by Mithras

I would love something like that too. This MacAlly one is cheap and vaguely silver, but like most is too narrow and too deep.

Your probably not gonna see one until the companies start putting the power source external of the drive. That is what is making it too deep.

Leo the 3rd · Apr 22, 2005, 01:03 PM

Actually, here's one that has a 160GB drive, firewire hub and USB 2.0 hub. Similar form factor.
http://www.megamacs.com/v1/?action=view&pid=FanMNMM160

Stecchino · Apr 22, 2005, 03:40 PM

That's a cool looking thing, it is.

ajprice · Apr 22, 2005, 04:05 PM

The company website for that hub/hard drive - http://www.micronet.com/General/minimate.asp

Comes in 80GB, 120GB, 250GB and 400GB flavours

Front ports would have been nice, but that is a really good piece of kit for a mini.

funkboy · Apr 22, 2005, 04:30 PM

That's an excellent find! Acts as a USB hub, Firewire hub, and even a fast hard drive. could it be used to boot up from? Would it be faster than internal 80GB 4200 rpm drive?

I'd like one!

mattsgotredhair · Apr 22, 2005, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by funkboy

That's an excellent find! Acts as a USB hub, Firewire hub, and even a fast hard drive. could it be used to boot up from? Would it be faster than internal 80GB 4200 rpm drive?

I'd like one!

Am I wrong, or do they mistakenly say that there will be 3 firewire ports, but it seems that there will only be 2 available right? To me, this seems like the idea everyone has been wanting someone to come out with, but this was poorly implemented.

Oh well...

iREZ · Apr 22, 2005, 05:16 PM

just seeing that makes me wanna go out and buy a mini so i could buy one of these things,

from me.

funkboy · Apr 22, 2005, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by mattsgotredhair

Am I wrong, or do they mistakenly say that there will be 3 firewire ports, but it seems that there will only be 2 available right? To me, this seems like the idea everyone has been wanting someone to come out with, but this was poorly implemented.

Oh well...

I agree. It appears one of the 3 firewire ports is used up... so that means there will be 2 free total. Couldn't more have been added for fairly cheap?

If there was a model without a hard drive I would get it - the hard drives in the 80 and 160GB versions only have 2MB caches, which is awfully small nowadays. I'd rather have 8MB or 16MB.

Krusty · Apr 23, 2005, 12:16 AM

Very nice and a perfect accessory to the mini. Realistically, it would be a bad piece of kit for any mac, desktop or portable... hub + HD in an Apple-looking, stackable design.

sworthy · Apr 23, 2005, 06:42 PM

I wonder what type of hard drive they put in there? Also, is it user accessible?

JHromadka · Apr 25, 2005, 10:56 AM

The new miniMate might fit the bill. External drive plus more Firewire & USB ports. Only negative I see is the 2MB buffer instead of 8MB on the hard disk.

nickw311 · Apr 25, 2005, 11:03 AM

Would it be quicker to load the OS onto that miniMate and run it over Firewire since the HDD in there is 7200RPMs?

Also, how does the Mini sit on top of the Mate? Is there any sort of lip that holds it in place or anything?

P · Apr 25, 2005, 01:55 PM

Originally Posted by nickw311

Would it be quicker to load the OS onto that miniMate and run it over Firewire since the HDD in there is 7200RPMs?

Depends on the bridge chip, but it's unlikely. For the Firewire HD I have, the seek time is fairly high because of the built-in latency in the bridge chip. That is a very old Oxford Semi 9 chip, not the newer 911 or 922 chips, so YMMV, but I doubt that it will be faster.

nickw311 · Apr 25, 2005, 02:58 PM

what exactly is a bridge chip? I am not familiar with that term. Thanks

frankiec · Apr 26, 2005, 09:54 AM

Originally Posted by JHromadka

The new miniMate might fit the bill.

http://www.micronet.com/products/pow...imate_0305.htm
"This presentation contains content that your browser may not be able to show properly. This presentation was optimized for more recent versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer."

That's a good way to sell it.

turtle777 · Apr 26, 2005, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by frankiec

http://www.micronet.com/products/pow...imate_0305.htm
"This presentation contains content that your browser may not be able to show properly. This presentation was optimized for more recent versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer."

from the HTML source code:

<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft PowerPoint 11">

Mwahahaha

Those idiots. The person in charge should be fired.

-t

nickw311 · Apr 26, 2005, 12:07 PM

lol, it won't even play on my PC at work using Firefox...... good marketing there. They really know their audience. Ohh well, I still think I am going to buy one

P · Apr 26, 2005, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by nickw311

what exactly is a bridge chip? I am not familiar with that term. Thanks

In this case, a chip that converts ATA or SATA to Firewire. There are no "true" Firewire HDs that I know of, so you put a regular ATA drive in a box with a little chip that translates the Firewire signals from the bus to something the drive can understand, and back. You could think of it as a very tiny computer in target disk mode.

This little chip has to receive enough Firewire signals to understand them (because one Firewire command != one ATA command), then spend a few cycles converting the signals to the appropriate ATA commands and finally wrap the requested data in Firewire again to send back to the computer. This takes a little time. It doesn't affect the bandwidth so much, provided the chip is pipelined and fast enough to keep the interfaces fed, but it does introduce some additional latency.

nickw311 · Apr 26, 2005, 10:25 PM

Originally Posted by frankiec

http://www.micronet.com/products/pow...imate_0305.htm
"This presentation contains content that your browser may not be able to show properly. This presentation was optimized for more recent versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer."

That's a good way to sell it.

Looks like they took down the presentation...
http://www.micronet.com/General/minimate.asp
Probably a good idea.... idiots!

ajprice · Apr 27, 2005, 03:44 AM

And another one!
http://www.macpower.com.tw/news/2005/04/25/948

From the website:

Technical Specifications:

* 3 USB 2.0 High Speed Ports (Hub)
* 3 Firewire Ports
* Interactive Cooling System (Heat Sink & Auto Sensing Smart Fan) (wooo!)
* Supports any 3.5" Hard Drive (ATA 6 Compatible) (Does this mean its an empty enclosure?)
* External Power Adapter

sworthy · Apr 27, 2005, 04:13 AM

looks like the same thing as the miniMate, but it has a fan (which I definitely see as a bad thing - no matter how "smart" it is).

Filmo · Apr 27, 2005, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by sworthy

looks like the same thing as the miniMate, but it has a fan (which I definitely see as a bad thing - no matter how "smart" it is).

I think a fan for cooling the drive is probably a good thing if it's quiet enough. Since the powersupply is going to be on the floor, hopefully that will help dissipate some of the heat.

P · Apr 29, 2005, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

from the HTML source code:

<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft PowerPoint 11">

Mwahahaha

Those idiots. The person in charge should be fired.

-t

I get that on the Intranet sometimes when someone is lazy. We're supposed to just use IE, but I got bored and downloaded and installed Firefox personally, and that gets me in trouble at times.

stavrosbezas · May 2, 2005, 11:34 AM

Really looking forward to someone buying one and posting a review!

yuckydog · May 3, 2005, 07:37 AM

I sent Macpower an e-mail and this is what I got back last night:

Thank you for your enquiry regarding the "M9 - Mac Mini Pod". This product is currently only available to OEM customers. We will begin shipping the retail version to our distributors towards the end of May. News regarding this will be posted on our website. Please visit our website next week to see a complete detailed listing of the specifications of the M9

Scarpad · May 3, 2005, 10:19 AM

If this is only an enclosure and I can add my own drive I'm very interested in it