In April 2005, AMUG sent a design for what we called the Super-mini enclosure to a few of our favorite technology companies. The hope was that one of these companies might be interested in creating such a device. The design was based on using a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter provided by Adam Eberbach that allows Apple's Mac mini to interface with much faster 3.5" hard drives on the internal ATA/100 IDE bus. The design was basic and it would need to be altered to work properly, but the idea was to provide a hard drive tower for Mac mini to use with 3.5" hard drives. Based on my experience, Mac mini users would like the option to use 3.5" hard drives but they also want any modification to still look nice.

The AMUG Super-mini Evolves
Until recently the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock was the home of the AMUG Mac mini 3.5" hard drive project. However, the discovery that the Addonics SATA to IDE Converter (ADSAIDE) could be used in combination with the IDE Adapter to utilize 3.5" SATA hard drives with the Mac mini re-activated interest in the AMUG Super-mini project. While using the Maxtor 300GB SATA hard drive with the Apple Mac mini has huge performance advantages, it also creates more heat than the original Western Digital 200GB previously used in the Centris Drive Dock. I placed a Radio Shack CPU cooling fan (273-248) under the Centris drive tray and it reduced the Maxtor 300GB temperature from 122 degrees to 115 but I wanted even better cooling results. Unfortunately, plastic cases do not cool as well as aluminum.

As I looked for a suitable enclosure that might house the Super-mini, I found that many of them were larger than what I wanted and would require significant modifications. Then I found the newly released Addonics Storage Tower (ST5ESA1US). It has four 5.25" hard drive bays and measures 8.19" wide by 8" high by 12.94" long. It can be used with internal 3.5" drive brackets (AAHDMK53), removable mobile racks, hard drive coolers, 5.25" DVD-RW burners or the Addonics Disk Array 4SA SATA enclosure.



Basically, anything that will fit in a 5.25" drive bay also works with the Addonics Storage Tower (ST5ESA1US). This four bay drive tower retails for $149 and has five eSATA connectors and one USIB connector on the back of the enclosure. The Addonics Storage Tower has two perforated aluminum side panels that come off with a single thumb screw on each side. This provides the user with fast access to the inside of the Addonics Storage Tower and the sides are high quality sturdy panels. Some of the small enclosures that I have seen have plastic sides that are flimsy and easily damaged. While the Addonics Storage Tower is only $149, and one of the least expensive four bay SATA enclosures, it also provides a high quality look, a sturdy structure and the ability to build just about any computer storage device you might want with it.

The Addonics Storage Tower is built in several configurations. The only difference between the Addonics Storage Tower models is the ports on the rear connection panel. As such, the rear connection panel can easily be removed with four screws. If you will only be using the Addonics Storage Tower to build an AMUG Super-mini enclosure you might opt for the least expensive model available at the time of your purchase. The dual utility function of this project is that if you ever want to remove the Mac mini from the Addonics Storage Tower, you can still use it as an external four bay hard drive enclosure. Lets take a look at how the Mac mini will fit inside the Addonics Storage Tower.


Installing Mac mini
I removed the four screws on the rear Addonics Storage Tower connection panel and set it aside. Next, I removed the top of the Mac mini and removed the DVD and the 2.5" hard drive. Then, I installed the 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter provided by Adam Eberbach on the Mac mini hard drive connector. You can see more details on this process in the Centris Drive Dock article. With no drives in the Addonics Storage Tower I was able to slide the Mac mini into the enclosure side ways and move the Mac mini ports toward the connection panel opening. It is amazing how close the Mac mini fits inside the Addonics Storage Tower considering it was never designed for this purpose. Without any alterations the Mac mini fits inside with the front raised about 1/4" off the bottom of the Addonics Storage Tower. I thought about sanding the Storage Tower lower drive rails a little bit with a dremel so that the Mac mini would sit completely flat. However, I found leaving it slightly raised provides more cooling, a snug fit and the rear ports work very well in this configuration.


As you can see in the image above, the Mac mini is almost a perfect fit horizontally in the opening and has a 7/16" gap vertically. At first I thought I might create a small cover panel and screw it to the existing screw holes, but I found the opening helps provide better cooling. If I ever do close it up it would be vented for good circulation. The small opening is in back where no one sees it or plays with it, so I may just leave it alone. The rear of the Addonics Storage Tower provides a very nice snug mounting space for Mac mini. Cables can be easily attached to the Mac mini from the rear of the Storage Tower and the Mac mini stays firmly in place with no mounting screws. This installation is easy and works very well.

Installing Drives
Now that the Mac mini is installed in the Addonics Storage Tower you will install two drives inside the enclosure. The enclosure comes with lots of screws for this purpose and plastic wire ties for cleaning up any wire mess you may have. You can take off the front drive bay covers by unscrewing a screw on each side of the enclosure. The covers easily come out and a 5.25" inch DVR burner can be installed or a 3.5" hard drive with some type of a mounting adapter to work in a 5.25" drive bay. The example in this article has a Pioneer A09XL Dual Layer DVD writer with a silver bezel installed in the second bay and a Maxtor 300GB SATA hard drive in the top bay. The Maxtor 300GB SATA hard drive is installed in an Antec HD Cooler. The Antec HD Cooler has two heat sinks on either side of the 5.25" drive tray where you install the 3.5" hard drive. Two temperature probes are provided that display your computer temperatures on the front LED panel. The temperature display automatically alternates between the two temperature probes. I attached one temperature probe to the hard drive and the other one to the power supply at the rear of the case, using the thermal tape that is provided with the kit. If you are interested in more information on the Antec HD Cooler a review of it is posted at gruntville.com. The Antec HD cooler reduced the temperature of the Maxtor SATA hard drive from 109.4 when mounted bare in the second bay of this enclosure without the Cooler to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit with the HD Cooler installed. It works well and looks very nice but the fan noise is a little louder than I had hoped. I may replace it with a quieter hard drive cooler like the Vantec 3.5" Aluminum Hard Drive Cooler. Both the DVR and the Maxtor 300GB SATA were easy to install using two screws on each side to hold them in place.

Once the drives are in place you will use an ATA/133 IDE cable to connect them to the 2.5" to 3.5" IDE converter. You will attach the ATA/133 IDE cable to the adapter with the empty header on the PCB board treated as the top. The key on the 3.5" IDE cable should be on the bottom. On the other side and bottom of the board is the 2.5" male connector. Plug the 2.5" IDE pins into the daughter board connection where the Mac mini hard drive normally attaches with the empty header up and toward the empty mini combo drive connector. The Mac mini has an ATA/100 bus that the DVD and hard drive share. If you want to duplicate this setup, set the DVR as slave and the hard drive as master using the manufacturers pin settings. Connect the middle of the ATA/133 cable to the DVR and the end of the cable to the hard drive. The 3.5" ATA/133 IDE cable can support up to two drives. You could use two internal hard drives and use a DVR in an external FireWire 400 enclosure or you could use one hard drive and one DVR, as I have done in this example. In order to use SATA hard drives with this enclosure, you will need to use an Addonics SATA to IDE Converter (ADSAIDE) on the end of the ATA/133 IDE cable. An AMUG review of the Addonics SATA to IDE Converter is available on-line if you are interested.

How Many Drives Can I Install?
The Mac mini is limited to two drives on the ATA/133 IDE cable. With the Mac mini installed in the Addonics Storage Tower you can easily fit two drives in the enclosure. A master and a slave. While I have not tried it, you may be able to get three drives in the Storage Tower. The Addonics Storage Tower (ST5ESA1US) comes with a USIB port that can support FireWire 400, USB or SATA connectors. The USIB connector is screwed to the Storage Tower connector. It could be removed and attached to the back of an internal DVR and a Firewire/iLink USIB interface cable (AAFWC406) could be attached to it and run out of the back of the enclosure to attach to the Mac mini FW400 port. You would need to connect a two pin power feed to the USIB board as well. This could be done if one hard drive was mounted in the second from the bottom bay with just brackets and another hard drive and a DVR were mounted above it. You would need to monitor how this setup would effect cooling but it may be possible. Hardware Monitor is a great tool for displaying internal hard drive temperatures. It can help you decide which setup keeps your hard drives the coolest.

If you want the option to use removable hard drive trays with the Super-mini enclosure they are certainly available. Addonics makes a series of mobile rack enclosures that work with the Super-mini. The IDE Saturn Mobile Rack II (AESMRIUS) $52 can provide an easy method to swap IDE drives into the Super-mini enclosure. It accepts an IDE hard drive in the enclosure and an IDE connection is also provided on the rear of the Drive Cradle (AASIDEBY) that comes with it. You can install the cradle in the Super-mini and connect the 3.5" ATA/100 cable to the back of it. Once that is done the enclosure slides into the cradle for a solid connection to the Mac mini IDE bus. This makes hard drive swaps very easy with the Super-mini. If you want to use SATA hard drives with a mobile rack in the Super-mini, the Addonics Saturn Mobile III for SATA or SATA II hard drives (AESMRSAUS) $62 provides this option. The Saturn Mobile III (AESMRSAUS) is an aluminum enclosure that supports SATA hard drives and provides an IDE connection for the Mac mini on the back of the IDE Drive Cradle (AASIDEBY) that comes with it too. As you can see both enclosures use the same IDE Drive Cradle (AASIDEBY). As this is the case, you can mount either an SATA or an IDE hard drive in this cradle as long as you have both enclosures. Extra IDE (AASIUSCS) enclosures are available for $44. Another nice feature that is available with both of these Addonics Saturn mobile racks is the ability to use the hard drive outside of the Super-mini. On the back of these two enclosures is an Addonics USIB connector. If you connect a Firewire/iLink USIB interface cable $45 (AAFWC406) and a 110/220 power adapter $19 (AAPAC12V) to the rear of either of these enclosures while they are not mounted in the Super-mini they can become an external FireWire 400 hard drive. It is very nice to have a mobile rack with the flexibility to be used inside or outside the Super-mini enclosure at any time. The Addonics Saturn Mobile Rack adds a lot of hard drive mounting options to any Super-mini enclosure.


Cooling
The Addonics Saturn Mobile III for SATA (AESMRSAUS) with a Maxtor 300GB SATA hard drive mounted inside was stress tested for 60 minutes using Drive Genius 1.1.5 to randomly write 16MB data chunks to the hard drive. After the test was completed the Maxtor reported a temperature of 116.6 degrees Fahrenheit. This is well within the 131 to 140 degree temperature limits that most hard drive manufacturers recommend. This same test was done in a non-mobile configuration by mounting the Maxtor 300GB SATA in the Super-mini enclosure using hard drive mounting brackets (AAHDMK53) and a Vantec 3.5" Aluminum Hard Drive Cooler on the bottom of the hard drive. In this setup, the Maxtor 300GB reported a temperature of 102.2 degrees Fahrenheit after the same stress test. While the Saturn Mobile Rack adds very nice internal and external hard drive mounting capabilities, it may not keep the hard drive as cool as when the same drive is used with a hard drive cooler.

More Super-mini Options
The beauty of using the Addonics Storage Tower as a Super-mini enclosure is that it is totally customizable with inexpensive PC parts. There are lots of drive mounting options available for 5.25" drive bay openings. You decide what configuration works best for you. You can create a dual mobile rack Super-mini system or a simple single hard drive with DVR setup. If you want to spend very little you can get hard drive mounting brackets (AAHDMK53) for $3.50 and use any exiting DVR or hard drive(s) that you may already have. If you place a hard drive in the top drive bay it should be used with a hard drive cooler of some type as heat always rises to the top of any enclosure. When not using a hard drive cooler, I mount the Pioneer A09XL in the top bay and the Maxtor 300GB SATA in the next lower bay to keep the hard drive temperatures below 110 degrees Fahrenheit. If you like to try new 5.25" drive trays and accessories the Super-mini is a lot of fun. I plan to add fans and use a fan controller in the bottom bay to get a good mix between quiet and cool. There are so many different devices available for 5.25" drive bay openings that the user can easily customize the Super-mini enclosure to fit his or her individual needs. As AMUG tests different configurations we will publish articles on those configurations that work well with the AMUG Super-mini enclosure.

Sustained Read

Sustained Write

Random Read

Random Write

Performance Test #2
In order to see how the benchmarks above might compare with other tests and real world usage, a number of disk intensive functions were recorded with the same Mac mini 1.42GHz. In this test, the Super-mini with a Maxtor 300GB SATA and a Pioneer A09XL installed was compared against the stock Apple 2.5" 80GB hard drive that comes with Mac mini, the WiebeTech Maxelerate Max-250 FW400 enclosure, a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz using the same Maxtor 300GB and a Dual Maxtor 300GB SATA stripped RAID mounted in the Super-mini. Each setup was used as the boot drive during testing. Tests performed include time to startup, time to repair permissions, duplicating 4.25GB and several other disk intensive tasks.

Mac mini 1.42 boot drive test	2.5" 80GB	FW 400	Super-mini	PMG5 2.0	miniRAID
Startup	2:09 min.	1:10 min.	57 sec.	59 sec.	59 sec.
Repair Disk Permissions	52 sec.	37 sec.	25 sec.	25 sec.	30 sec.
Duplicate 4.25GB	7:36 min.	4:55 min.	2:58 min.	2:52 min.	2:11 min.
Launch Safari (1st time after restart)	7 sec.	3 sec.	3 sec.	3 sec.	3 sec.
Launch EyeTV	8 sec.	8 sec.	7 sec.	7 sec.	7 sec.
Save EyeTV file to disk (32 minute)	55 sec.	53 sec.	34 sec.	20 sec.	33 sec.
Copy 4.2GB from DVD to Drive	15:37 min.	15:37 min.	8:15 min.	5:53 min.	9:54 min.
Xbench Drive score	46	93	143	149	188
Xbench Overall Score	113	126	146	220	152
Disktester 1GB Write 40% full MB/sec	19.2	33.1	55.8	62.5	90.2
Disktester 1GB Read 40% full MB/sec	19.7	38.2	51.2	62	88.5

Examining the Performance Data
2.5" 80GB - This is the original Apple hard drive provided with the Mac mini. It is the worst performer of the test group. The original slim DVD is also slower than the Pioneer A09XL.
FW400 - This column displays the WiebeTech Maxelerate Max-250 FW400 enclosure performance. It performs very well with the Mac mini and provides an easy solution for increasing Mac mini performance when used as the boot drive.
Super-mini - This column displays the performance of the Mac mini 1.42GHz installed in an Addonics Storage Tower with a Maxtor 300GB SATA and a Pioneer A09XL. The performance is better than the FW400 setup but it has a larger foot print and can be louder.
PMG5 2.0 - This is the performance of a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz with the same Maxtor 300GB SATA hard drive installed in it. The faster PowerMac G5 CPU helps the Maxtor 300GB perform even better.
miniRAID - This column displays the results of creating a two drive RAID using two Maxtor 300GB SATA drives. The Pioneer A09XL had to be used on FireWire 400 for this test. While the duplicate speed was a little faster some other functions were a little slower. Personally, after trying both configurations, I like the Super-mini setup best when using a single Maxtor 300GB SATA hard drive and a Pioneer DVR rather than with a RAID setup.

The IDE adapter
The 2.5"->3.5" IDE adapter was used to allow the Super-mini to mount 3.5" and 5.25" drives on the 2.5" Mac mini IDE bus. If you are interested in obtaining a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter contact Adam Eberbach at aeberbach@hotmail.com. The IDE adapter is $18 + $6 shipping (outside Australia) or $2 shipping (inside Australia). If someone wants two or three units they are still $18 each, with only one shipping charge. This single shipping charge applies to up to 100 units. Use the subject line "IDE ADAPTER" when emailing Adam so that he can separate your queries from spam. Using the Addonics SATA - IDE converter with the 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter can turn the Mac mini into a great performing SATA hard drive station. If you use the adapter to create a faster Mac mini and want to share your setup with others send a note containing your experiences to sales@amug.org

Discussion
The WiebeTech Maxelerate Max-250 FW400 enclosure is a great way to improve Mac mini performance at a reasonable price with minimal effort. For those that would like even better disk performance by using the Mac mini internal ATA/100 bus with 3.5" PATA or SATA hard drives, the AMUG Super-mini enclosure is a nice option too. The AMUG Super-mini takes up more space and will be louder, but the disk performance can be much closer to that of a PowerMac. The Super-mini is not for everyone. If size is a high priority, the standard Mac mini may be the way to go. But if you would like to use Mac mini as a massive EyeTV server, file server or multimedia server, the Mac mini in an Addonics Storage Tower can provide outstanding hard drive and DVR performance. Slim DVR burners and 2.5" hard drives cannot perform as fast as their larger desktop counterparts.


AMUG Super-mini Parts List
Mac mini 1.42GHz $550.
Addonics Storage Tower (ST5ESA1US) $149.
ATA/133 IDE cable $2.20.
2.5"->3.5" IDE adapter $24.
Addonics SATA - IDE Converter (only if using an SATA drive) $29.
5 1/4" drive bay mounting bracket for 3.5" hard drive (AAHDMK53) $3.50.
3.5" Hard Drive (Maxtor 300GB SATA optional) $124.
5.25" DVR (Pioneer A09XL Silver optional) $40 - $100.
Vantec 3.5" Aluminum Hard Drive Cooler (optional) $9.99.
Antec Hard Drive Cooler (optional and a little loud) $26.
Multi fan speed controller (optional for more fan control) $25.99.

Pros

AMUG Super-mini gets 5 AMUGs out of 5!
The Addonics Storage Tower was not designed to be a Super-mini enclosure. However, it is the best fit for a small enclosure that I have seen to date. The multitude of drive options available for a Mac mini installed inside an Addonics Storage Tower are awesome. If you don't mind the extra space that the Super-mini requires or the tinkering, this project can be a lot of fun. Once you have used a Super-mini setup it is hard to go back to a standard Mac mini configuration. An AMUG review of the Addonics Storage Tower used as a normal four bay external enclosure is coming soon.

Contact Information:
Addonics Technologies
22466 Kruse Drive,
San Jose, CA 95131
Phone: 408-433-3899
techinfo@addonics.com
http://www.addonics.com/

Copyright 2005
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG)
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