12-29-2006, 05:20 PM
I have a 1.83GHz mini and run an external FW hard drive as my main drive for the same reasons you cite.
The external HD is faster than the internal HD. I chose FW instead of USB2 as most things I have read on XLR8yourmac.com and barefeats.com show FW is still faster than USB2 at least on the Mac.
The original HD is still installed in the mini. Once I had the external FW hard drive connected, I used SuperDuper to copy the internal HDs content to the FW HD and had it make the copy bootable. I then opened the Startup Disk pref pane and selected the FW HD as the boot disk.
The only other upgrade I have done was to increase the RAM to 2GB. I did it myself following the OWC instruction videos. It wasn't too difficult to do but if one is unsure and sending it in to OWC is an option, then that may be a good option.
I am still considering putting my mac mini in some small form case like a Shuttle and connecting a 3.5" HD and a 5.25" SuperDrive to the SATA and IDE connectors respectively. Similar to the Mac mini Monster project over at Macintouch:
http://www.macintouch.com/specialreports...hase2.html
My mac Mini replaced a Dual G5 and I have been very happy with it's performance for what my needs are nowadays.
Good luck!
The external HD is faster than the internal HD. I chose FW instead of USB2 as most things I have read on XLR8yourmac.com and barefeats.com show FW is still faster than USB2 at least on the Mac.
The original HD is still installed in the mini. Once I had the external FW hard drive connected, I used SuperDuper to copy the internal HDs content to the FW HD and had it make the copy bootable. I then opened the Startup Disk pref pane and selected the FW HD as the boot disk.
The only other upgrade I have done was to increase the RAM to 2GB. I did it myself following the OWC instruction videos. It wasn't too difficult to do but if one is unsure and sending it in to OWC is an option, then that may be a good option.
I am still considering putting my mac mini in some small form case like a Shuttle and connecting a 3.5" HD and a 5.25" SuperDrive to the SATA and IDE connectors respectively. Similar to the Mac mini Monster project over at Macintouch:
http://www.macintouch.com/specialreports...hase2.html
My mac Mini replaced a Dual G5 and I have been very happy with it's performance for what my needs are nowadays.
Good luck!