Storage Solutions Mac Mini Hard Drive Configuration

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Anish

Forerunner
Okay I've been looking for a new Mac for the studio to add to the existing 24" G5 and after considering Hackintosh and the new iMacs, I've decided to pickup the 2009 Mac Mini, 2.0Ghz, max out the RAM to 4GB DDR3 and add more storage.

Now, the initial plan was to swap the internal drive with a 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" drive but I'm not very comfortable with poking a knife into a $600 desktop on Day 1.

So, couple of questions..

1. How will an external firewire 800 drive compare to using a 500GB internal drive and can I use the external as my primary boot disk for Leopard?

2. Will using a pair of external firewire drives in raid 0 (Like the G-tech raid) improve performance over a single drive?
 
get the base model...Opening the Mini is pretty easy and takes less than 15 mins

+ it's easy to swap back to the old config if in case you need to claim warranty (although Mac Minis have extremely low failure rates)

Although Firewire HDDs run stable and fairly fast, I wouldn't boot off one

PS: I haven't ever tried booting off a firewire HDD, hjust my perception
 
^ Have you tried opening your mini?

How about using the internal SATA port to connect to an external 1TB eSATA drive? Cause even if I use internal, I'm limited to 500GB and a 7200rpm drive will generate lots of heat!
 
^ Have you tried opening your mini?
Click to expand...

yes, to upgrade the RAM...quick and easy job

I'd say replace the internal drive with a 320GB 7200rpm (the heat should be OK, Minis don't heat up that ) to handle the OS bit, and add firewire HDDs for storage
 
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