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Show me the reviews!Mac mini Centris Drive Dock
How to: Use Vintage Macs as a Drive Dock to Enhance Mac mini Performance
By Arthur Whalem
In a previous article titled, "Mac mini using a 3.5" Drive on the Internal IDE" I showed you how the Mac mini can perform considerably faster using regular 3.5" hard drives. In that article I used Adam Eberbach's 2.5"->3.5" IDE adapter to attach a 3.5" 160GB Maxtor hard drive to the Mac mini and compared its performance to the Mac mini 1.42GHz 2.5" 80GB stock hard drive. While the combo drive was removed in my previous tests you can also leave it connected if you still want to use the slim DVD/CD combo drive that comes with a stock Mac mini. I have found slim DVR's to be quite a bit slower than a standard 5.25" DVR and they are more expensive. In this article I will show you how to recycle an old Apple Centris 660 computer into a drive dock for your Mac mini. If the looks and size of your Mac mini are more important to you than its performance this dock may not be for you. For myself, I find the performance increases and the upgrade savings of using the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock very nice. The Mac mini has a great processor and a fast ATA/100 bus that can perform much better with standard desktop drives.
The IDE Adapter
Adam Eberbach (aeberbach@hotmail.com) produces adapters for $23 that convert the Mac mini 2.5" IDE port into a 3.5" IDE port. These adapters are sold "as is" from Adam Eberbach. Understand that while the adapter has worked great for me any modification you may make to your own Mac mini as a result of reading this article is your sole responsibility. I want to make sure you understand that making these alterations can result in damage to your Mac mini if not done properly. In that event, I would not expect Apple to honor your warranty. You are totally on your own if you should try to duplicate this setup and have a problem. Understand that before you proceed.
Centris 660 AVThe Macintosh Centris 660AV was introduced in July 1993 by Apple computer. They also had a Quadra 660AV which was pretty much the same computer. It was a great little computer in its time. This same design was also used by the Centris 610 that shipped in February 1993 for $2,500. In October of 1993 the Quadra 610 was introduced with the same foot print. In January 1995 the PowerMac 6100 was introduced with this same case also. I purchased my Centris 660AV new and still had it in my closet as a parts machine for old Macs. You can find these computers in Mac User Group members closets, garage sales and on ebay searching for Apple 6100, 610 or 660. They typically go for $10-$20 on ebay plus shipping. Why would I want this? The Centris 610/660 is a perfect drive dock for the Apple Mac mini.
The Centris 660 already has built in drive mounts for a 3.5" hard drive and a 5.25" DVD drive with an opening for the DVD drive tray. It also has two power cables for the drives. I used a 24" round ATA/133 copper cable to connect the Pioneer DVR and a 160GB Maxtor hard drive to the Mac mini. The Mac mini fits perfectly in the back left section of the Centris 660.
Centris 660 ConversionYou will find the conversion of the Centris 660 case very easy. First you take out the drives by sliding them toward the front and removing them from their sleds. You do not care if the Centris you get works or not. All that needs to function is the power supply which powers your drives and the case should be in good shape. Many old Centris models have failed logic boards by this time. If yours does not you can sell it on ebay for about $10. You remove the logic board screws and unplug any connectors on it to remove it from the case. Be sure you are grounded and store the logic board in a static bag if you plan to sell it. When you
have gotten this far your case should look similar to the image on the right. There is a raised screw hole area circled in red on the image to the right. I used a counter sink drill bit to remove most of the raised area and flatten that section of the case, as Mac mini will sit there. You can see the small piece of metal to the left of the red area. This is another screw hole that I used with a metal flange to hold the Mac mini in place while in the dock. No screws were used to attach the Mac mini directly to the case so that I can remove the Mac mini from the Centris Drive Dock at any time and return it to its stock configuration. The next step is to use a dremel or
a file to enlarge the rear opening for the Mac mini. You will remove all of the tin shielding from the back of the Centris case and cut an opening about a 1.25 inches tall and stop before you get to the SCSI connector. You will also leave enough plastic so that the PCI cover at the top of the opening can still plug in. This allows your Mac mini connectors
easy access while in the Centris Drive Dock. Now that your Centris case is ready you simply remove all of the plastic bits out of the case from your dremel work and clean it up.Getting the Mac mini Ready
In order to install the 2.5"->3.5" IDE adapter you will need to open the Mac mini with a putty knife, remove the three screws in the drive tray, remove the screws holding in the fan, remove the six screws in the combo drive and the four screws in the 2.5" hard drive. With this done you can remove the combo drive and the hard drive. Put them in anti-static bags to keep them safe. Next, bag and label the screws so you know where they go if you want to restore your Mac mini back to its original condition later. The best video on how to take the Mac mini apart, that I have seen is posted at the OWC Mac mini upgrade web page. Watch the video a few times to get the hang of it.
You will attach a 24" round ATA/133 IDE cable to the IDE adapter with the empty header on the PCB board treated as the top. The key on the IDE cable should be on the bottom. On the other side and bottom of the IDE adapter will now be your 2.5" male connector. I plugged the 2.5" IDE pins into the daughter board connection where the Mac mini hard drive normally goes with the empty header up and toward the empty mini combo drive connector. The Mac mini has an ATA/100 bus that the stock DVD and hard drive share. The new ATA/133 round IDE cable will connect the Mac mini to my 160GB Maxtor 3.5" hard drive and the 5.25" Pioneer DVR 109 in the Centris Drive Dock.
Mounting Mac mini into the Dock
In the image on the left you will see three red circles. The circle on the right side shows where the Centris case has two prongs on this side. I bent one over and the prong closest to the back fit snugly into a Mac mini bottom case slot. The red circle at the bottom middle shows where the Centris audio plugs help secure the Mac mini case into place. The middle top red circle is where I attached a piece of metal to an existing case screw hole to hold the Mac mini into place there. None of these attachments modify the Mac mini case yet they keep it in position when attaching cables to it from the rear. Once the Mac mini is in place and the IDE adapter and the round 24" ATA/133 IDE cable is attached you can insert your drives.
Set the hard drive as master and the DVR as slave. Next, screw the drives into the drive sleds that came with the Centris 660 case and slide them in. Now attach the ATA cables and the power cables. In the image above a Pioneer DVR 106 is shown. Later, I acquired a Pioneer DVR 109 for this project. The Pioneer DVR 109 is faster and is 1/2" shorter providing additional clearance between the DVR drive and the Mac mini. While the Pioneer 105, 106, 107 and 108 will work in the Centris Drive Dock, I would suggest getting the Pioneer DVR 109 if you are going to buy one. They are available for as little as $63. The Pioneer A09XL has two features that the Pioneer 109 does not have. It plays CDs and DVDs quietly and it does not have a 4x limit on copying DVDs. You can get the Pioneer A09XL for $111 minus a $30 mail in rebate until April 30, 2005 or you can convert a Pioneer 109 to a Pioneer A09XL using a PC with directions found here: http://www.amug.org/amug/store/cgi-bin/simpleforum.cgi?fid=2&topic_id=1114044371
Testing the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock
Drive Genius was used to record the performance of the original 80GB 2.5" provided with the Mac mini compared to the 3.5" 160GB Maxtor used in my Mac mini Centris Drive Dock. My old Maxtor is not the fastest, it is just an IDE drive that I had. You could use a fast 300-400GB drive with the Centris Drive Dock for even better performance.
Sustained Read Test
Green = 80GB 2.5" mini drive. Blue = 160GB Maxtor 3.5" mounted on internal Mac mini IDE.
As you can see in the sustained read test above the 160GB 3.5" Maxtor hard drive performs 70-100% faster than the original 80GB 2.5" drive that was original equipment the Mac mini 1.42GHz.
Sustained Write Test
Green = 80GB 2.5" mini drive. Blue = 160GB Maxtor 3.5" mounted on internal Mac mini IDE.
In the sustained write test above the Maxtor 160GB is about twice as fast as the Apple provided 2.5" drive when used with the Mac mini. In real usage I noticed quicker handling from the Mac mini. Everything works a little faster and smoother. The Mac mini in the Centris Drive Dock performs much like a fast single processor PowerMac G4.
Xbench tests
The Mac mini 1.42GHz with 512MB of memory used in this review provided the following results. Xbench Mac Mini an overall score of 117.41 using the standard 80GB 2.5" internal drive. Once the Mac mini was installed in the Centris Drive Dock the Xbench overall score climbed to 150.42 using the internal 160GB 3.5" hard drive. That is a substantial increase in performance. I wondered how the 160GB 3.5" hard drive would perform simply attached to the Mac mini in a FireWire 400 enclosure. The FireWire 400 connection did increase Mac mini performance if you used it as the boot drive but the same Maxtor 160GB on the IDE port was still faster.
| Xbench Scores | Mac mini 1.42 stock | Mac mini 1.42 boot from FW400 | Mac mini boot from 160GB 3.5" |
| Overall | 117.41 | 134.57 | 150.42 |
| CPU | 167.71 | 172.07 | 173.32 |
| Memory | 128.86 | 141.33 | 143.03 |
| Quartz | 178.11 | 176.33 | 176.32 |
| Disk Test | 51.30 | 78.53 | 133.62 |
DVD Copy Tests
One of the reasons I wanted to attach standard drives to the Mac mini was because of the slow DVD copy times I discovered in my original AMUG Mac mini review. The Mac mini Centris Drive Dock makes huge improvements in this area. The results are below:
Copy 4.2GB from DVD to Hard drive
| Computer | DVD Drive | Time |
| PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | Pioneer A09XL | 5:33 |
| PowerMac G4 Dual 1.42GHz | Pioneer A09XL | 8:40 |
| Mac mini 1.42GHz stock | Apple CW-8123-C | 15:36 |
| Mac mini 1.42 Centris Dock | Pioneer A09XL | 6:14 |
| Mac mini 1.42 Centris Dock | FW 400 Pioneer A09XL | 8:13 |
The stock PowerMac G4 MDD has a 33Mhz optical drive bus while the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock uses an ATA/100 bus for both the hard drive and the Pioneer A09XL. This allows the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock to out perform standard configured PowerMac G4 MDD models when copying from a DVD. While you can increase the PowerMac MDD DVD copy speed by moving the DVD drive to the 66Mhz or 100Mhz bus these changes reduce the number of drives that can be mounted in the PowerMac MDD. In the last test above the Mac mini used the 160GB 3.5" Maxtor while in the Dock and the Pioneer DVR was put in an external FW400 enclosure. That test demonstrated that having both the hard drive and the DVR on the same Mac mini ATA/100 bus performed 30% faster than when using the external FW400 port for the DVR. The Mac mini Centris Drive Dock provides major performance advantages.
Overall System Comparisons
In order to see how the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock compared in performance to other Macintosh computers several different tasks were timed. All of the Macintosh models had the Pioneer DVR A09XL installed except the stock Mac mini 1.42. The following results were recorded:
| Task | PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 | PowerMac G4 Dual 1.42 | Mac mini 1.42 Centris Dock | Mac mini 1.42 stock |
| Startup | 46 seconds | 35 seconds | 44 seconds | 59 seconds |
| Shutdown | 14 seconds | 10 seconds | 12 seconds | 21 seconds |
| Safari Open | 2 seconds | 1.5 seconds | 2 seconds | 2 seconds |
| Zip 648MB | 1:25 minutes | 1:46 minutes | 2:20 minutes | 3:12 minutes |
| Import CD to AAC | 2:45 minutes | 3:43 minutes | 4:06 minutes | 7:42 minutes |
| Burn Audio CD | 3:08 minutes | 3:54 minutes | 4:59 minutes | 5:59 minutes |
| Import CD to AIFF | 2:31 minutes | 2:31 minutes | 2:31 minutes | 7:42 minutes |
| Duplicate 648MB | 13 seconds | 13 seconds | 27 seconds | 72 seconds |
| Import 4.2GB DVD | 5:33 minutes | 8:40 minutes | 6:14 minutes | 15:36 minutes |
| Convert 96 min. DVD to AVI | 1:26 hours | 1:42 hours | 4:21 hours | 4:21 hours |
| AVI speed | .90xVideoTime | 1.06x | 2.63x | 2.63x |
| Cinebench CPU | 220 single 397 dual | 135 single 242 dual | 131 | 131 |
| Cinebench 4D shading | 268 | 167 | 158 | 158 |
| Xbench Overall | 211.97 | 172.84 | 150.42 | 117.41 |
| Xbench Disk | 135.98 | 115.68 | 133.62 | 51.30 |
| Xbench CPU | 193.36 | 176.11 | 173.32 | 167.71 |
Headless Server
Many users have been looking for a low cost headless Mac server for years. You can purchase a $499 or $599 Mac mini, add an IDE adapter and an IDE cable for about $30 and attach up to two internal 250GB IDE drives or bigger. You could also use the FW400 port for even more storage. You could sell the 2.5" drive and the slim combo drive to pay for most of the 3.5" drive costs (if you do not already own them). Using the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock as a server is an inexpensive option with high performance. You could easily spend twice as much using a PowerMac for this same function. The Mac mini Centris Drive Dock adds 3.5" drive power to the Mac mini whether you use it as a server or a personal computer.
Using Dock Sleep
When you turn the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock on you will turn on the Centris using the front power button and then turn on the Mac mini using its power button in the rear. Once the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock is powered up, you can put the Mac mini to sleep and push the Centris power button to turn off the drives. Come back later and turn on the Centris to power up the drives and hit the space bar to wake the Mac mini from sleep and the computer is ready for action without touching its power button. This even works without a crash if I hit the spacebar first (by accident) and then turn on the drives a few seconds later. That is an awesome sleep feature for the Centris Drive Dock.
What to expect from the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock
Using the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock to connect low cost 3.5" and 5.25" hard drives and DVD burners can be a very cost effective option. As you can see from the results above, the Mac mini will be less sluggish and perform many tasks faster with a 3.5" hard drive. In addition, you can use large 300GB plus drives with the Centris Dock for large iTunes, iPhoto or movie collections. Drives mounted in the Centris Drive Dock perform considerably faster than internal 2.5" drives and faster than drives on the FW400 port. Those that want to incorporate large music and video collections into their entertainment center will find the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock fits well with other audio/video gear. It is 16.25" wide, 15" deep and 3" high. You can get a 160GB 3.5" drive for $50 after rebates that performs much faster than a $190 60GB 7200 2.5" drive. A slim CD/DVD burner will cost you almost three times what a Pioneer DVR 109 costs and it will be slower. A Centris case is free to $30 and you help the earth by recycling. The IDE adapter is $23 and the 24" round ATA 133 cable is $7. For some where between $93-$140 you can upgrade the Mac mini to a Centris Drive Dock depending on how many of the items you already own. When you compare the Centris Drive Dock cost with that of just a faster 60GB 2.5" 7200 RPM drive for almost $200 you can see the value.
The Mac mini Centris Drive Dock is not for everyone. It takes up more space than a standard Mac mini. It uses more power than a stock Mac mini. It is not as quiet as the Mac mini. The Mac mini Centris Dock kept my drive temperature between 113-118 degrees while a fanless external enclosure got as hot as 125-128 degrees over a 24 hour period. In addition, the Mac mini can stay cooler during intensive drive usage as the hard drive is not inside the Mac mini. You can take the Mac mini out of the Centris Drive Dock at anytime and put it back together just the way it was. I see the Mac mini Centris Drive Dock as a way to use fast inexpensive hard drives on the internal Mac mini IDE bus now. Once 2.5" hard drives are less expensive and are available in 300GB, I can decide if I want to take the mini out of the Centris Drive Dock and use them instead. The Centris Drive Dock will import DVDs much faster but it will not decrease video compression times for iDVD or creating AVI's. The CPU is the main issue there. A PowerMac G4 Dual 1.42 will create DVDs twice as fast and a PowerMac G5 Dual will do it three times faster than a Mac mini.Pros
Adapter costs $23.
Centris 610-660 Macs are free to cheap.
Increases Mac mini performance.
Allows Mac mini to perform many functions as fast as a PowerMac.
Mac mini runs cooler without the drive on top of it.
Mac mini fan turns on high less often.
Adapter could be used with other portable 2.5" drive connectors.
Centris Dock can turn Mac mini into a large media server.
Centris Drive Dock footprint fits well with other AV gear.
Centris Dock drives perform faster than FW400.
Allows you to upgrade drives inexpensively.
Allows you to use drives up to 400GB.
Allows you to add DVR for less than $70.
Supports both 3.5" & 5.25" drives.
You help recycle an old computer.
Cons
Larger footprint than Mac mini.
Not as quiet as Mac mini.
May void your Mac mini warranty.
Requires you to remove existing hard drive.
Will not enhance video compression performance.
Centris Drive Dock gets 5 AMUGs out of 5!
Using the 2.5"->3.5" IDE adapter allows you to increase the performance of your Mac mini using the Centris Drive Dock. Using this adapter requires some care not to damage your Mac mini but once installed it really works well. If you are interested in obtaining a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter contact Adam Eberbach at aeberbach@hotmail.com. The adapter is $18 + $5 shipping (outside Australia) or $3 shipping (inside Australia). Use the subject line "IDE ADAPTER" when emailing him so that he can separate your queries from spam. You may find other vintage computers that can perform this function just as well. Happy hunting! If you are interested in reading other articles that discuss the IDE adapter see:
1. Mac mini using a 3.5" Drive on the Internal IDE
2. Purple mini
3. Mac mini Maxi
Copyright 2005
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG)
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