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Add up to 500GB to any Mac mini
A review of the WiebeTech Maxelerate Max-250 Enclosure designed for Mac mini
By Arthur Whalem
WiebeTech is shipping the Maxelerate enclosure that allows you to add an additional hard drive to the Mac mini using FireWire 400 or USB 2.0 connections. In addition, the Maxelerate has three FireWire 400 and three USB 2.0 ports allowing it to be used as a hub for additional computer peripherals.
During this review, an Apple Mac mini 1.42 GHz with an 80GB hard drive and 512MB of memory was used with the Maxelerate Max-250 enclosure. This article will examine how the Maxelerate 250GB enclosure performs in various configurations with the Mac mini.
System Requirements
Works with Mac OS X, Windows XP and Linux with FireWire support.
If purchased without a drive the user will need to provide a 3.5" hard drive.
Requires a computer with FireWire 400 and USB 1.1/2.0 connections.
Install
If you purchase the WiebeTech Maxelerate enclosure without a hard drive or want to upgrade to another hard drive later you will need to open the enclosure to install it. The first thing you need to do is set the new 3.5" ATA hard drive jumper pins to master using the proper pin configuration provided by the hard drive manufacturer. Next, turn over the Maxelerate and unscrew the four screws on the outside bottom edges which are located inside the rubber feet.
Once the four screws are loose you can separate the bottom plate from the Maxelerate enclosure. If an existing hard drive is already mounted you will need to disconnect the 4 pin molex power adapter and the IDE cable before the bottom plate can be removed from the Maxelerate enclosure. Unscrew the four inner screws on the bottom plate to remove any existing hard drive and attach the new hard drive using the same screws. Mount the new drive with the IDE and power connectors facing toward the side where the IDE and power is located in the enclosure as shown below. Attach the connectors and then place the aluminum bottom back on the enclosure and screw it in place with the four screws. Your Maxelerate enclosure is now ready for use. Wiebetech sells the Maxelerate enclosure in several hard drive configurations including a 160GB, 250GB, 400GB, 500GB or as an empty enclosure.
Looking Inside
As you can see in the image above the Maxelerate provides room for a single 3.5" ATA-6 or ATA-7 hard drive within the 6.5" x 6.5" x 1.5" enclosure. The Maxelerate enclosure uses an Initio 1530 chipset for USB connectivity and a Cypress CY7C65640A chipset for FireWire 400 connections. The enclosure has an external DC (+12V / 3A) power supply that uses a DC jack. On the left side of the image above a 1.125 inch, 0.11 amp, 12VDC two pin fan is mounted. Two round vent openings on each side of the back of the enclosure supply ventilation. The fan blows air into the enclosure when the Maxelerate is turned on. On the lower right side you can see a 3 pin red, white and blue cable that feeds a multi-colored light which is embedded behind a clear WiebeTech logo. This light displays drive activity on the front of the Maxelerate enclosure when it is powered. In the image above you can see the lower bridge board which has the Initio 1530 chipset mounted on it. In the cut away image below you can see that a second board is located horizontal to the first board. This is where the Cypress CY7C65640A chipset is found. The frame of the enclosure is cast aluminum which helps dissipate heat.
Connections
The Maxelerate enclosure functions as an enclosure and as a hub. You can connect a FireWire 400 cable between the Mac mini and the Maxelerate to add a hard drive and still have two free FireWire ports available for Mac mini usage via the Maxelerate rear FireWire ports. This also works for the USB 2.0 ports. The Mac mini only comes with one FireWire 400 port and two USB 2.0 ports so you may find the FireWire/USB hub functionality of the Maxelerate enclosure a nice expansion feature. One USB and one FireWire cable are included with the Maxelerate enclosure. The design of the Maxelerate allows for daisy-chaining FireWire 400 devices which provides additional device support. As expected, both USB 1.1 and 2.0 devices are supported but USB 2.0 capable devices will operate a little faster.
Performance Test #1
The Maxelerate model MAX-250 with a Hitachi 250GB 3.5" hard drive installed inside was used with a Mac mini 1.42GHz with an internal stock 80GB 2.5" hard drive, 512MB of memory and Mac OS X 10.4.2 in all of the performance tests that follow. The Maxelerate enclosure is bootable using FireWire 400 and is designed to work with the Mac mini. Drive Genius 1.1.5 was used to create the graphs below. This first test shows how the Maxelerate Max-250 enclosure (green) performed using FireWire 400 compared to the stock Mac mini internal 2.5" hard drive (blue) which is a Seagate 80GB model ST9808210A.
Sustained Read
Green = Maxelerate MAX-250 over FW400. Blue = Stock 80GB 2.5" IDE Mac mini internal.
Looking at the sustained read chart above the Maxelerate Max-250 is out performing the Mac mini internal.
Sustained Write
Green = Maxelerate MAX-250 over FW400. Blue = Stock 80GB 2.5" IDE Mac mini internal.
In the sustained write graph above the 80GB internal is slightly faster than the Maxelerate Max-250.
Random Read
Green = Maxelerate MAX-250 over FW400. Blue = Stock 80GB 2.5" IDE Mac mini internal.
In the random read results above the Maxelerate Max-250 is significantly faster than the Mac mini 80GB internal.
Random Write
Green = Maxelerate MAX-250 over FW400. Blue = Stock 80GB 2.5" IDE Mac mini internal.
In the Random Write test above the Maxelerate Max-250 once again easily out performs the Mac mini internal 80GB. Based on these Drive Genius 1.1.5 benchmark tests, I would expect the Maxelerate Max-250 to perform substantially faster than the stock 80GB Mac mini internal. I would also expect that the Mac mini would perform quicker using the Maxelerate Max-250 as a boot drive over FireWire 400.
Performance Test #2
In order to see how the benchmark results above compare with real world usage a number of disk intensive functions were recorded with the same Mac mini 1.42GHz. Each drive was tested while it was the boot drive. Tests performed include time to startup, time to repair permissions, duplicating 4.25GB and several other tests.
| Mac mini 1.42 boot drive test | mini 2.5" 80GB | Maxelerate Max-250 |
| Startup | 2:09 minutes | 1:10 minutes |
| Repair Disk Permissions | 52 seconds | 37 seconds |
| Duplicate 4.25GB | 7:36 minutes | 4:55 minutes |
| Launch Safari (1st time after restart) | 7 seconds | 3 seconds |
| Launch EyeTV | 8 seconds | 8 seconds |
| Save EyeTV file to disk (32 minute file) | 55 seconds | 53 seconds |
| Xbench Drive score | 46 | 93 |
| Xbench Overall Score | 113 | 126 |
In the startup test above the Mac mini was started up a few minutes after a complete shutdown. The Mac mini was set to open the user desktop automatically and launch EyeTV and Eyehome. The test was ended when the EyeTV screen was playing in full size mode on the LCD. This may be considered an extended startup but I have found that OS X can still be busy even though the system appears to be booted. Launching an application at startup can better reflect the boot process time. As you can see, booting with the Maxelerate Max-250 was almost twice as fast. In the "Repair Disk Permissions" test the Maxelerate Max-250 was about 30% faster. Next, Two video files were placed in a folder with a total size of 4.25GB. The Maxelerate Max-250 duplicated the folder in 4:55 minutes while the Stock 80GB took 50% longer at 7:36 minutes. In the next test Safari was launched for the first time after a reboot. The 80GB took 7 seconds while the Maxelerate Max-250 took 3 seconds. After Safari boots the first time it caches the data so that subsequent launches are faster. In the second launch of Safari the Maxelerate Max-250 was only one second faster. The EyeTV launch test was a tie. This may be a result of the EyeTV hardware needing the time to display the TV on screen. Saving an EyeTV file to disk was also very close. However, the Xbench drive scores were twice as high for the Maxelerate Max-250 and the overall scores were 11% higher.
What About USB 2.0?
The implementation of USB on the Macintosh is very slow in comparison to FireWire 400. USB 2.0 can be as much as 20% faster on a PC but that is still slower than FireWire 400. If you read the USB 2.0 specs and see that it is rated up to 480Mbps while FireWire 400 is only rated up to 400Mbps you may be led to believe that USB 2.0 is faster than FireWire 400. However, when you test USB 2.0 hard drive enclosures against FireWire 400 enclosures you soon find that USB 2.0 can be as much as twice as slow as FireWire 400. In addition, a USB 2.0 connection is unable to boot a Macintosh computer.
For these reasons, I will not use a USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure with any Macintosh computer I own. While USB 2.0 is fine for getting pictures into a Macintosh, printing and even scanning, it is a poor interface for Macintosh hard drives. To demonstrate the poor performance of USB 2.0, I disconnected the FireWire 400 cable from the Maxelerate leaving only the USB 2.0 cable connected and started up the Mac mini which forced the Max-250 to mount using the USB 2.0 connection. Then I ran Drive Genius 1.1.5 to benchmark the differences between the Maxelerate 250GB FireWire 400 performance shown in blue below as compared to the USB 2.0 connection displayed in green.
Sustained Read
Green = Maxelerate MAX-250 using USB 2.0. Blue = Maxelerate MAX-250 using FireWire 400.
As you can see in the image above the USB 2.0 sustained read performance is about half of what the FireWire 400 performance is. The same 250GB hard drive and enclosure are used in this test. Only the connection is different.
Random Read
Green = Maxelerate MAX-250 using USB 2.0. Blue = Maxelerate MAX-250 using FireWire 400.
In the random read test above you can see the results are not much better. When you use USB 2.0 for hard drive connectivity with a Macintosh you handicap your performance and remove the ability to boot from the hard drive.
Cooling
The Maxelerate enclosure body is created from cast aluminum and the bottom hard drive mounting plate is aluminum as well. A small 12VDC T&T 1.125 inch fan model 3010M12S is mounted on the rear left side of the enclosure. A second vent opening is on the right rear side. The fan blows air into the enclosure. The aluminum enclosure functions as a large heat sink to help dissipate heat. After the Maxelerate enclosure was running for more than eight hours the exterior aluminum case had a temperature of 99 degrees Fahrenheit and the hard drive was 111 degrees. These temperatures are very good and allow the Maxelerate enclosure to support 24 hour usage without heat issues.
The coolest way to run a Mac mini is with it sitting on its side. In this orientation, the temperature of the bottom of the Mac mini is 102 degrees and the internal hard drive is usually between 109 and 112 degrees when idle. If I place the same Mac mini flat on a desk the temperature of the bottom of the Mac mini rises to 111 degrees. Placing the Mac mini on top of the Maxelerate enclosure increased the idle temperature range of the Mac mini internal hard drive to between 113 and 115 degrees over several hours. While I prefer lower temperatures, most hard drives are rated for up to 131-140 degrees. As such, placing the Mac mini on top of the Maxelerate should not create a heat issue even though it may increase the Mac mini temperature by a few degrees when idle. In addition, I found when booting the Mac mini with the Maxelerate enclosure and performing disk intensive tasks like compressing or exporting video, the Mac mini internal hard drive temperature actually decreases. This happens as a result of the Mac mini CPU becoming warm and the internal fan increases in speed to reduce the heat. As the Maxelerate is doing all of the hard drive work, the idle Mac mini internal hard drive temperature dropped to 107.6 degrees when it was exporting a two hour video from EyeTV.
While stacking the Mac mini on top of the bootable Maxelerate enclosure may slightly increase the Mac mini idle temperature, the Mac mini actually operates cooler and faster when performing disk intensive tasks if the Maxelerate is the boot drive. With this setup, the Maxelerate enclosure provides the hard drive services outside of the Mac mini case. If you want to keep the Mac mini as cool as possible you may want to mount it on its side and place the Maxelerate enclosure next to it. Your space limitations and usage will help you decide what is the best way for you to setup the Mac mini with the Maxelerate enclosure.
Acoustics
The Mac mini performs quietly in most situations. That is one of its key features. With that in mind, any hard drive enclosure designed specifically for the Mac mini needs to consider how quiet the enclosure will be as well. This leads to the discussion of what is more important, heat reduction or silence. In the case of the Maxelerate enclosure, I found that the fan sound is about the same as other small FireWire 400 enclosures with fans that I have. I opened up the Maxelerate enclosure and turned on the fan to listen to how it performed without a hard drive attached. The Maxelerate fan was quiet. Fans usually produce some noise from wind tunnel effects and can become louder with age, but if you can start with a fan running silently in an open air environment your enclosure should operate with minimal noise. I pulled the Maxelerate fan out of it's designated space and listened to it in open air. It was very quiet. The fan cable uses resistors to slow the RPM speed of the fan. I reinstalled the fan back on the dual sided tape that holds it in place in front of the enclosure vent. The fan produces a little more wind sound in that location because of the air restriction created by the round aluminum ventilation opening. While you can hear the 250GB Hitachi hard drive when it is accessing data inside the Maxelerate Max-250 enclosure, fan related noise created by the Maxelerate enclosure is minimal. You could decrease the RPM of the fan to make it quieter using higher resistor values but that will usually increase the temperature of the hard drive and the enclosure. Using the Mac mini with a Maxelerate enclosure is a much quieter solution than the AMUG Mac mini Centris Drive Dock. The Maxelerate Max-250 enclosure provides a nice balance between quiet and cool, while significantly increasing the Mac mini storage capacity.
Sleep
When using sleep mode with the Maxelerate the hard drive powers down inside the enclosure but the fan continues to run. You may want to turn off the power button on the rear of the Maxelerate enclosure while in sleep mode to turn off the fan too. If you use the Maxelerate as a boot drive as I do, it would be nice if the fan would turn off automatically while the Mac mini is in sleep mode, but it does not. Before waking from sleep the Maxelerate enclosure will need to be on or the Mac mini may become confused, display the turning beach ball and require a restart.
FireWire 400/USB Hub
The Maxelerate enclosure provides a FireWire 400 and a USB 2.0 hub that can be utilized even when the Maxelerate is turned off. It draws power from the computer to perform this function. This gives the user a centralized location to plug in two additional FireWire or USB devices. The Mac mini only has one FireWire 400 port but as FireWire devices can be daisy-chained together, I have not found this to be a problem. However, the inclusion of a FireWire 400/USB 2.0 hub inside the Maxelerate enclosure provides the user with additional flexibility and more connectivity options. Those users that use the Maxelerate enclosure as a secondary hard drive will be happy to find that all of the hub connections will still function even if the Maxelerate hard drive is dismounted and the enclosure is turned off.
Final ThoughtsWhen you boot a Mac mini using FireWire 400 with the Maxelerate Max-250 you begin to notice that everything seems to work faster. Copying and exporting data takes significantly less time. Many applications open a second or two faster and the Mac mini starts to perform more like a desktop and less like an iBook. Your Mac mini has the capability to perform much faster using a 3.5" hard drive so why not take full advantage of the 1.42GHz G4 processor by using a FireWire enclosure? Wiebetech claims that the Maxelerate disk read and write performance is 30 percent faster than the original hard drive that comes with the Mac mini. I found that the Maxelerate Max-250 surpassed this claim. When using the Maxelerate Max-250 as a startup disk Xbench displays a 100% increase in hard drive performance and when duplicating a large file the Maxelerate Max-250 did it 35% faster than the 80GB stock internal. These tests demonstrated that using a FireWire 400 external enclosure for booting the Mac mini will increase performance. The Maxelerate Max-250 fits this need very well by providing a look that goes well with the Mac mini and a built-in FireWire/USB 2.0 hub. In addition, the small size and great cooling
characteristics of the Maxelerate enclosure make it a perfect candidate for mobile use with iBooks and PowerBooks. Many small enclosures have no fan and get very hot with extended usage. However, the Maxelerate does not have that problem. It can run 24 hours a day and still keep your hard drive cool. The Maxelerate aluminum finish also looks good with the PowerMac G5. Placing the Maxelerate on top of the PowerMac G5 looks like it belongs there. The Maxelerate could be used with a PowerMac G5 when FireWire 400 connections are all that is needed. You will probably find other ways that the Maxelerate hard drive enclosure can be used to enhance your computing experience. Anytime you need a cool hard drive enclosure with a small foot print the Maxelerate will be worth considering. Pros
Works with Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.
Allows a 3.5" ATA hard drive to be used with Mac mini.
Can be used to expand Mac mini storage up to 500GB.
Includes a FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 hub.
Hub functions even if Maxelerate is turned off.
Provides better performance than the Mac mini 2.5" internal drive.
Can be used as a FireWire 400 boot drive.
Matches the frame and style of the Mac mini.
Aluminum enclosure looks good with the PowerMac G5.
Available empty or with hard drives pre-mounted.
Includes a FireWire 400 and a USB 2.0 cable.
Small foot print cast aluminum enclosure.
Internal fan keeps the hard drive cool.
Mac mini can be mounted on top of the Maxelerate.
Multi-colored front light displays hard drive activity.
Cons
Fan does not turn off while in sleep mode.
Maxelerate Max-250 gets 5 AMUGs out of 5!
I love the Mac mini. It's small price and small profile make it a great computer. The only downside is the slow 2.5" hard drive. The Maxelerate Max-250 solution provides an additional 250GB instead of being limited to 80GB. It also increases the performance of the Mac mini, especially when being used as the boot drive. While I could use another FireWire 400 enclosure with the Mac mini, the Maxelerate enclosure looks good with the Mac mini, takes up less space, has great cooling capabilities and provides additional FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 ports. In addition, the Maxelerate also looks good with the PowerMac G5 and could be used as a small fan cooled mobile hard drive enclosure for those on the go. The Maxelerate Max-250 used in this review retails for $182.95 with a 250GB hard drive. Wiebetech also sells the Maxelerate with a 160GB ($182.95), a 400GB ($392.95), a 500GB ($539.95) and an enclosure only version for $49.95. AMUG members can save 10% by using the code in the AMUG members only area. Wiebetech makes wonderful products and stands behind them with great support.
Contact Information:
WiebeTech LLC
8200 E. 34th St. North #1404
Wichita, KS 67226 USA
866.744.8722 Toll Free
http://www.wiebetech.com
Copyright 2005
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG). Visit AMUG at www.amug.org for news, discounts and friends. JOIN AMUG!