First I wanted to upgrade my new mac mini with a Momentus XT but now I'm thinking about getting a "real" ssd + a FW800 drive for storage to have the huge speed boost of the ssd drive. Does anybody have this combination in his mini? What I want to know: How is the performance like of the external drive connected to FW800? Is it comparable to a standard internal hard drive?
View 11 RepliesThis is in regards to the 2010 mini. I have been reading up on SSD, Hybrids and FW800 with a 7200. What is the easiest AND most effective/cost effective solution? If I went he FW800 route, can I use the same drive as my data storage drive? Will there be enough headroom to run the OS over FW and use the drive to stream movies playing in another room on Apple TV2 simultaneously? Will this give me a performance increase over the internal 5400 if I use the external 7200 for everything over FW800?
That is where my thoughts about the hybrid come into play. I know I can stream the iTunes content over USB2, which I have at the moment for the big drive. I would need to go buy an enclosure with FW800 to run it as a boot drive. I could use that same money and go get a 500GB Hybrid drive and install myself and leave the USB2 as data only. If the install is painless but tedious, I might just do that. If the FW800 route would be robust enough to run the OS and stream data to other devices simultaneously (ie use it as I would the regular internal drive), I might just do that and wait for SSD prices to come tumbling down and do a bigger internal SSD in the future.
1. Can I connect an external HD to both my AEBS (via usb) and my Mac Mini via FW800?
2. If I can't do the below - lets say I connect my external HD to my Mac Mini via FW800 - with the drive be accessible on the network if my Mac Mini is sleeping?
I'm just trying to figure out what is the most efficient/produce the best speed - way to connect an external HD to my network.
I just bought a 640gig Samsung 2.5 inch / 5400rpm drive and threw it in a FW800 case from Other world computing. Running some test using the QuickBench 4 and AJA system test shows me that this little bugger is almost as quick as my internal drive on my MacBook Pro (Model number: WDC WD6400BEVT-00A0RT0). How can this be???? I did a varity of test with different file sizes and the Samsung get 70 MB/s vs about 84 MB/s for the internal drive.
My internal drive is pretty full vs this external drive that is currently empty. I do a lot of video work / large gigabyte files on the drive so perhaps I have a defrag problem? I really expected my internal drive to blow the FW800 connected Samsung out the water?
Could anyone recommend an external (FireWire 800) Hard Drive that they're using without issues with a Power Mac G5 (mine is a Dual Processor 2.3)?? I bought a couple of WD My Book Studio Edition but have no end of problems on FW800, and looking around here so is everyone else. LaCies seem to have similar problems, plus my own experiences in selling these and seeing FW ports falling off the enclosure's board, etc., puts me off them. Maxtors seem to have different issues and the new brown and orange Seagates are too fugly to even consider. So, anyone recommend a solution (250-500GB) that works fine with FW800 on a dual PMG5??
View 9 Replies View Relatedso I am in search of a new 500GB-1TB External Drive for Time Machine, and it has to have FW800 as well as USB 2.
I was thinking of getting an external chassis and buying my own hard drive, has anyone purchased a good external chassis with both ports, or a all in one drive that is worth the money?
I wasn't sure if it wouls be a bad idea if I wiped the interal hard drive while I'm booting from a recovery disk, then made a RAID 0 with the internal drive and my FW800 external drive. I'm nearing my max for the internal drive. I have a second FW400 drive backing up with Time Machine. I was hoping to just wipe, make the raid volume, and then restore from the Time Machine backup.
I guess even before that, my FW800 is not working in Lion. I reformatted while connected by USB, reset power management, and reset PRAM, but the firewire bus panics and takes out the Time Machine on FW400 as well. Is there a fix for this somewhere that I'm missing? I bought the FW800 drive for the above reason, only to run into a wall trying to make it work. I really don't want to do a RAID 0 with a USB connection.
I'm not going to try setting up the RAID 0 until I get the FW800 drive working reliably, but I was hoping to kill two birds with one stone.
Info:
iMac (24-inch Early 2008), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
On one hand, I've got an Intel X25M 160GB SSD available that could go into my MBP. On the other hand, it would replace a WD 640GB drive that I really like for the capacity. Oh I also currently have time machine running to an external FW800 drive.
I tend to use a lot of space because for my work I have to use a LOT of unique virtual machines for connecting to all of my clients. I think this alone is pushing me away from the SSD.
I am considering putting in the SSD and having my OS/apps be there. Then adding another external FW800 drive (fast one I guess) for my VMs. I would then chain my time machine drive from that.
I installed a Kingston SSD drive in my 2010 mac mini. If I put the OSX install DVD (grey disc 1), the SSD is not visible in either the installer or disk utility.
The SSD is a Kingston 64 GB SATA 2.5-inch SSDNow V Series Solid State Drive. Cheap drive.
The funny thing is that before i started all this I restored a SuperDuper image of 10.6.4 from my old mini to the SSD using a usb to SATA adapter. Installed and it worked! The SSD booted OS X but the ethernet jack was not working.
Does anyone know of a workaround for installing OSX onto a drive that is not being recognized in disk utility?
I'd like to find a way to reinstall OSX using the grey DVD without having to remove the SSD drive.
I purchased a FW800 enclosure for my Seagate 500GB 5400rpm HD. I just got a 2010 13" MBP. I was previously using a 2006 MBP with an ExpressCard slot, and had this hard drive connected over eSATA. According to TomsHardware the max sustained write speed of this drive is around 65MB/s, which is what I was getting over eSATA. So I got the FW800 enclosure now that I can't use eSATA with the thought that I'd be getting the same 65MB/s that this drive is capable of. FW800 should be able to handle up to 100MB/s. But I'm only getting around 40MB/s, closer to what I should be getting if I was using FW400.
View 4 Replies View RelatedI have a 2010 Mini with 8GB of RAM on the way and I'd like to hear opinions on how difficult the HD upgrade process is. I'm looking to put an Intel X-25M SSD inside. The instructions at ifixit.com seem pretty straightforward but it looks like there is very little room for error in some spots.
I'm not shy about opening any Mac or any gadget for that matter. I've upgraded the HD and RAM in all the towers I've owned, upgraded the HD and optical drive in a PowerBook G4 12" and done the Optibay swap with RAID setup in the older (non-unibody) 15" MBP. More recently, I replaced the glass screen on my shattered HTC Evo 4G.
I purchased this spring of 2011 and only used the drive to install the software. I had lots of other problems with kernel issues and was in and out of the Genius Store like a hen on an egg, but now I am trying to use the DVD drive and it doesn't work. It doesn't recognize any applications to open it, not Toast, not Disk Utility, and it has a hard time recognizing music CDs also.Not only does it not recognize it on the desktop, it simply spits the disk out. I purchased new DVD-RW and tried to write an .iso image to the DVD, and it won't work. Sad fact is that this is now past the warranty and I am stuck with this. The Mac Mini 2010 version was expensive, and the only reason I bought it was because of the drive because I didn't have one.
Info:
Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
I notice that to upgrade the HDD from Apple is expensiva & many has posted picture on how they use a putty knife & replace them with a better & bigger capacity HDD.
I was wondering, for those not comfortable opening up the Mac Mini, what is the difference if we just buy a USB external HDD ? Wouldn't it be the same
Has anyone had any luck with not using an Internal Hard Drive and using either a Drobo or external drive to run OSX? I was thinking of getting a new HD that runs FW800 or using my Drobo to creat a partition to load Mac OSX on and run the OS from an external HD.
The Reason I am even trying this, is because the Mini uses Laptop drives with less specs then my External Seagate 500GB 7200RPM with 16 MB of Cache, also 3.5" drives seem to run quicker then even the fastest 2.5" drives.
I am currently in the market for a portable external hard drive or enclosure with usb2+fw800. (Any recommendations BTW?)
Is there any time of performance decrease in reading/writing onto the drive if its formated as NFTS and then use NTFS-3G on my Mac? Compared to HFS+ which is Mac's native partition.
My main issue is wanting this external drive to be compatible between my Mac and Windows machines. Also want to run Time Machine backups on the drive,
I know Fat32 would be another option, but not when it comes to large ISOs and 1080p videos larger than 4GB.
Have a new Mac Mini, using an external drive but I can't get it to show up in finder. It's a Lacie 1TB Porsche design HDD, using a USB connection directly into the mini. I tried it at first by connecting to an open usb on my cinema display..no good. Also no good when connected directly into the mini.
Info:
Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
How does StarCraft 2 perform on the current lineup of the iMac? I'm most interested in the 21.5" model, as I cannot afford the 27" version. Specifically, I'd like to know what resolution and settings the 4670 and 5670 models can handle...
View 10 Replies View RelatedI have been struggling with my Mac for weeks and weeks and before I finally decide to reinstall everything I wanted to turn to you experts for maybe the one hint that can resolve my problem: I have a 13 inch MBPro, mid 2010, basic version. Later I installed the WD Scorpio Blue 1 TB hard drive and copied the time machine backup. Shortly after, I recognized massive lags. I have quiet a few photos (3000 or so), 20gb of music and 40gb of films on this drive but only a few programs. Adium, Steam, Starcraft, MS Office, Skype, Growl and that is it I think. I use mobileme for synching, if that helps in any way.
Some examples: Sometimes youtube videos lag for a few seconds, even with HTML5, it takes 5 seconds to open a new tab in sapharie (again, only sometimes without any obvious rule)..................
It looks like it is less expensive to upgrade the memory to 8GB from Apple now. I need to decided whether to go for 4GB or upgrade to 8GB BTO. With the 8GB RAM, will there be noticeable gain in performance? I guess VMWare Fusion may run better. Not sure about other applications including the OS
View 3 Replies View Relatedjust got me a brand new 2010 MacPro 2 x 2.4 Quad-Core with 12GB Ram and the ATI 5870. This is the first MacPro to system boot into the 64bit Kernel by default (ie, hold 3+2 on restart to boot into 32bit Kernel). One of the first things I did was run the Photoshop performance test, which FYI on my old G5 2.7 with 4GB Ram returned a time of 114 secs, and on the new Quad-Core in 64bit kernel returned a time of 14 secs, so as you can imagine I was pretty happy with the results.
Then the problems started...... when I was installing software I got the dreaded Kernel Panic, restart your machine screen. So I did, and it happened again on restart, so I did, and it happened again on restart, so I did.... you get the idea. So I put the system disk in and restarted, then reloaded OSX10.6.4 and everything seemed to be going fine, until I installed software again (different app from the first time), and I got the Kernel panic screen, then again on restart etc, so I booted into 32bit kernel and all is good. EXCEPT! - When running the Photoshop test in 32bit Kernel it returned a time of 17secs. Now, I know I am being picky here, but I do a lot of work in PSCS5, and by a lot I mean sometimes all day on large photographic images, so 3 secs is a big deal....
To get my Multimedia-Data off my MBP i5 SSD I am looking for a small, 1 2,5" hdd enclosure that is FW-800 powered. I was unable to find anything in the forums nor in the buyers guide about this. Any recommendations or tests?
I am looking for something well designed if possible (imho like the LaCie Little Big Disk Quadra, which has two hds (double the power comsumption) and is too big).
Just bought this recently and installed Windows 7. The following screen shot under WEI Macbook Air 2010 13'' 1.86GHz 4GB RAM 256GB. The performance is quite amazing consider its 1.86GHz CPU, I bet 2.13GHz CPU would score bit higher.
View 3 Replies View RelatedPerformance of the new MBP's as they take on the slew of new games being presented (VALVe has said they will release new games each Wednesday, so keep looking for your Css' and L4D's)
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Counter Strike Source will not be here all that soon so don't get your hopes up, they are redeveloping it, to run on a new engine. No point in porting the old engine when they will just have to do it again. Link:.....
I have a 15" 2010 MBP. I got it well spec'd, with 7200 drive, 8 GB ram, best CPU... First thing I did was bootcamp. Went smoothly - did a 400 gb partition for Windows 7. The drivers all installed fine and Windows 7 does alright.
My Windows Experience scores:
Processor: 6.9
RAM: 6.9
Graphic: 6.4
Gaming graphics: 6.4
Hard drive: 5.9
Things look good... But I am having trouble playing hidef content - VLC is choppy on a bunch of files that play smooth as silk when booted into Mac OS - and actually even play ok on my old Santa Rosa 15" MBP. Quicktime is also slow. I have always found VLC to be very solid. (actually use it on the Mac side for this test as well). I tried playing with the hardware acceleration toggle, and it does seem better with it disabled - anyone else having issues playing hidef media on the windows side of this MBP?
I may soon buy one of the newer generation iMacs that drop the FW400, includes 800 only. On my current Mac, I have a FW800 drive and a FW 400 drive. I use the 400 for time machine as speed is less important. My current iMac has a 400 & 800 connector. I have tested connecting the 400 to the 800 drive via daisy chaining, so everything is pulling off the 800 connector, so this assures me I can do this with the new iMac. However, Does it slow down your 800 drive when it has a 400 chained off of it? Or, if the 800 is the first drive connected to your iMac, do you maintain full speed?
View 5 Replies View RelatedI got an Intel x25 160GB SSD and I use a Firewire case to carry my old 500GB 2.5 HD. Now the question is, where should I put my Bootcamp for better use. You know, I am afraid, if I put bootcamp in the SSD as well, the SSD will got heavy load.
View 3 Replies View RelatedAnyone care to advise?
Would love to hear any past experiences and direct comparisons etc
Have written off the Momentus XT due to endless reviews of noise, heat and battery zapping. Is this just the way all 7200 internals are likely to perform though?
If so, should I maybe continue using my 5400 internal for apps and os, and buy a FW800 7200rpm for my media?
Oh, I'm using my MBP mainly for video editing (FCP, Motion, Shake) and some audio and graphics too.
I have been using a MBP for a few months now and I am making a total conversion from PC user to Mac user in January when I buy a nice new 24" iMac but to go with it, I want to buy a couple of new external hard drives. I have currently got a Seagate FreeAgent 500GB USB Drive which is Windows Formatted and I will be keeping that to use with my work laptop (a Dell), and I have been really pleased with its reliability. Anyway, I have been looking around and there are some fab drives on the market but I have a couple of questions. If I get an iMac with a 500GB Internal Hard Drive, how big an External hard drive will I need to use Time Machine without having to delete backups all the time?
Also, I have been primarily looking at the new Seagate FreeAgent drives and the do a PC version (USB) and a Mac version (USB/FW400/FW800), but the 640GB USB version costs �76 whereas the 500GB FW version costs �100. Would you go for the bigger size or the added benefits of FW800? Will I notice much speed difference between USB and FW800?
I can't find any conclusive info on this, can anyone shed any light?
I basically thinking of using my external as my main drive instead of the bundled Mac Mini hard drive.
I have looked over the postings closely but may have missed something. What is the current knowledge, now, in early September about Apple-installed SSDs and performance degradation over time? Early concern beginning with the release of MBP 2010 in April was the the lack of TRIM support in OSX. Has anyone at this point noticed or measured significant degradation of factory-installed SSDs? I am ready to purchase a MBP 2010 and I am considering a 256 GB SSD.
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