OWC puts together Mac Mini Stack Max: USB 3.0, 4TB 3.5 inch drive, eSATA and more

[Grateful11]

Hi Larry, I thought someone on here said it was thought to be some sorta conflict between OWC's design of
the Ministack and the Mac Mini. Maybe I read somewhere else.

I like the new design, I just hope in comes in at a somewhat affordable price.

Can one assume Blu-Ray is going to be an option for the optical drive? I already have an OWC
FW DVD Burner and I'm looking to move up to Blu-Ray hopefully this year.

[sekker]

Looks really nice.

Thanks for the real info straight from the horse's mouth!

[jdc]

valiant effort -- I understand the no TB vs cost option -- and Im sure its an well built product that the folks at OWC put a lot of thought into.

but without USB 3 on Macs its more or less a fancy USB 2 and FW800 hub.

[Chakravartin]

jdc wrote:
...but without USB 3 on Macs its more or less a fancy USB 2 and FW800 hub.

Yeah. It's just passing USB 2.0 from the Mac.

...Unless they know something about the next Mini tht we don't know.

[OWC Larry]

The miniStack will be very cost competitive with other single drive storage... but offers more than most even as the drive only solution. The miniStack max is more costtly - a bit more going on there with reader and optical, etc... but still very attractive. Blu-Ray and DVD reader/writer options will be provided for the optical bay + full 0GB/no drive options as well. USB 3.0.... all about the future.

[tlh828]

I like it. I want one.
However, OWC should change the word "compliment" to "complement" on their site.

"Durable aluminum body compliments Mac aluminum finish"

[deckeda]

jdc wrote:
valiant effort -- I understand the no TB vs cost option -- and Im sure its an well built product that the folks at OWC put a lot of thought into.

but without USB 3 on Macs its more or less a fancy USB 2 and FW800 hub.

Agreed.

Given Thunderbolt, waiting for USB 3 to appear on Macs seems risky. Someone who wanted the faster external disk speed might have paid $150 or whatever to get it. $200 maybe, if it means the way to get that speed and turn a mini or iMac into something it's currently not.

These kinds of things catch manufacturers between a rock and a hard place. The continued appearance of the eSATA port exemplifies this. Without the bandwidth of what eSATA can offer, it's really only on here as "a convenience" that didn't cost much extra, but if they didn't include eSATA some would complain (which is where education comes in, IMO...)

[cbelt3]

tlh828 wrote:
However, OWC should change the word "compliment" to "complement" on their site.

You're sure it's not in the initial USB handshake discussion ?

OWC: "Hello ! I'm a Stack Max !"
Mac: "Dude. Want to share data ? "
OWC: "Of course ! And may I say, you have a lovely brushed metal appearance this morning !"
Mac: "Thank you. You're my special friend. You can have supersecret Better bandwidth today !"

[Filliam H. Muffman]

The second generation Sandy Bridge motherboards coming out in the next 4 months are supposed to have native USB 3. Apple will have no excuse to ignore it any longer.

And at the point where Apple ships a computer with it, everybody that does not have it will be cursing Apple for not including it earlier.

[threeprong]

We're looking at getting a Mac Mini Server so this is an appealing concept to me.

I've not done my homework in regards to ThunderBolt so I can't say I'm disappointed that it is not available here.

Anyone running a Mac mini server?

3P