# Ministack came in!



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

My Ministack just arrived in the mail from Other World Computing in the USA:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/FWU2MSNL/

Even though this particular product number is for a Ministack with a "slight defect" -- no manufacturer name on the top (whoopee!), it came with the name on the top, anyway.

So, the specs are:

Handles almost any 3.5" hard drive up to 500GB (this Ministack comes empty)
Provides two more available Firewire ports
Provides three more available USB II ports

Total cost in Canadian $ including shipping, GST and a small brokerage fee:

$105.39 (GST & brokerage was only $12.81)

Not bad for a combined Firewire drive, USB and Firewire hub device that looks as slick as the Mac Mini itself  

And shipping time using the United State Postal Service (that has the lowest brokerage fees) was only a week.


----------



## redeemingspirit (Jun 20, 2005)

Cool product, have fun with that. Timely posting too, given some of us may be looking for such a product for our dual core media center minis


----------



## xorpion (Jul 26, 2002)

good to hear. cant wait till mine arrives. that logo thing is upsetting though, but not too much.


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

If you sit your mac Mini on top of the Ministack as designed to, you won't see the name.


----------



## iPetie (Nov 25, 2003)

Picked one up with/for with my neighbour with a mini from MacDoc yesterday. Pretty slick setup and the mini hums running off the Newertech FW Drive.


----------



## ArtistSeries (Nov 8, 2004)

Macaholic said:


> So, the specs are:
> 
> Handles almost any 3.5" hard drive up to 500GB (this Ministack comes empty)
> Provides two more available Firewire ports
> ...


Sounds like a good little unit - price is very attractive.


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Yes, and those port numbers are AFTER you've connected the Mini to it; the "net" port count, if you will


----------



## audiodan (Sep 26, 2005)

010101110110010101101100011011000010110000100000011101110110100001100001011101000010000001101000011000010111001001100100001000000110010001110010011010010111011001100101001000000110010001101001011001000010000001111001011011110111010100100000011100000111010101110100001000000110100101101110011101000110111100100000011010010111010000111111


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

BTW, AS, aplogies for the retun of Steve Jobs' GOD HEAD. Given the circumstances today, can you forgive me?


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

audiodan said:


> 010101110110010101101100011011000010110000100000011101110110100001100001011101000010000001101000011000010111001001100100001000000110010001110010011010010111011001100101001000000110010001101001011001000010000001111001011011110111010100100000011100000111010101110100001000000110100101101110011101000110111100100000011010010111010000111111


!!?  

Someone is becoming a pain in the rear.


----------



## ArtistSeries (Nov 8, 2004)

Macaholic said:


> BTW, AS, aplogies for the retun of Steve Jobs' GOD HEAD. Given the circumstances today, can you forgive me?


No worries (it is still freaky), but given today's show GOD HEAD is appropriate.


----------



## Fox (Oct 4, 2002)

Macaholic said:


> My Ministack just arrived in the mail from Other World Computing in the USA:
> ...
> And shipping time using the United State Postal Service (that has the lowest brokerage fees) was only a week.


Is the USPS shipping actually a courier, or is it just standard U.S. mail? Is it traceable?


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

It is The United States Postal Service; "the mailman", if you will. I'm not sure if they have a tracking service. Mine came in a week, quite fast relative to the estimated time!


----------



## tonybeak (Mar 4, 2005)

audiodan said:


> 010101110110010101101100011011000010110000100000011101110110100001100001011101000010000001101000011000010111001001100100001000000110010001110010011010010111011001100101001000000110010001101001011001000010000001111001011011110111010100100000011100000111010101110100001000000110100101101110011101000110111100100000011010010111010000111111


I think he said "Well, what hard drive did you put into it?". :clap:


----------



## comprehab (May 28, 2005)

Macaholic said:


> !!?
> 
> Someone is becoming a pain in the rear.


I think i liked it better when his account was hijaked...


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

tonybeak said:


> I think he said "Well, what hard drive did you put into it?". :clap:


LOL! And Comprehab DOUBLE LOL!

I managed to squeeze my current Seagate in 120GB, 7200rpm 2MB cache. It's fricking TIGHT however, and the all-plastic case is flexing a bit


----------



## xorpion (Jul 26, 2002)

Macaholic said:


> LOL! And Comprehab DOUBLE LOL!
> 
> I managed to squeeze my current Seagate in 120GB, 7200rpm 2MB cache. It's fricking TIGHT however, and the all-plastic case is flexing a bit


the seagate (barracuda) is slightly longer than most similar hard drives and is a known issue with the ministack.


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Well, it's in. You think I'm safe??


----------



## xorpion (Jul 26, 2002)

Macaholic said:


> Well, it's in. You think I'm safe??


i wouldnt expect anything to go bad, but i dont know for sure. i havent heard of anything seriously bad happening from those drives.


----------



## audiodan (Sep 26, 2005)

Sorry there macaholic  But, I think that through time, the plastic will get warped if it is too tight! I would say, get a nice, slim, 500GB Hard Drive! Hehe!


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Oh I've no problems with the Seagate brand. Audiodan's on the right track, there  The case doesn't sit quite flat on the table; it wiggles a wee bit... like a restaurant table does. Ya know? The drive is crammed in there. I'm wondering if a severe physical shock would cause the drive to crack the plastic housing of the Ministack? Or, if drive temperature might cause the plastic to soften and the pressure from the drive to warp the housing.


----------



## xorpion (Jul 26, 2002)

you can see a small blurb here under Product Specifications > Application

it says nothing regarding potential damage or side affects.


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

On that page (which is linked in my sig, BTW), it does say this:

_"*Some* (but not all I guess -- Macaholic) Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 and 7200.8 drives will not physically fit into the enclosure. We recommend Hitachi, Western Digital, and Maxtor drives for this enclosure."_

Well, my 7200.7 fit -- but JUST fit. Oh well, I'm leaving it for now.


----------



## HappyDude (Jul 24, 2004)

If you don't need the extra firewire ports, I recommend the Antec Nexstar GX. I picked up this case at a new computer store in Pacific Mall. Originally $60, it was on sale for $49. 

Here's a link to the product: http://www.vantecusa.com

It looks exactly like the Ministack, just no firewire slots in the back. Fit and finish is very nice, but the fan can be quite loud if not set to automatic mode. I'll try to take pics later on tonight.


----------



## Fox (Oct 4, 2002)

HappyDude said:


> If you don't need the extra firewire ports, I recommend the Antec Nexstar GX. ...


I presume that this drive doesn't have a firewire connection to the Mini either. Unfortunately, this means you can't use it as a startup drive, so the speed gain by putting in a 7200 rpm drive is somewhat nullified.


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Yeah, I'm booting off the Seagate in the Ministack (a zippier Mac Mini  ), plus I have an iPod that I want to connect via Firewire and also have external FW backup drives. That Antec is a nice looking case, however... not quite a match like the Ministack is, but a great deal if you don't need FW.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

Macaholic said:


> Yeah, I'm booting off the Seagate in the Ministack (a zippier Mac Mini  )



How's the speed on the mini with a 7200rpm Hd?
Run any tests?


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

The FW drive clocked in at almost double the score of the internal on Xbench 

Now, that's a Seagate 7200rpm with 2MB cache model # ST312002.

See screenshot for Xbench results and click here for a photo album of "Mini-Frankenmacstack"


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

nice!


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Did you check out the photo album I did of my setup? I just tweaked it, adding another pic:

http://www.ehmac.ca/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1194&cat=540


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

Yes I did. Looks slick.

BTW, Happy Birthday!


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Hey THANKS!


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

You're most welcome.


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

How did you know. I've got it turned off here -- did TCM tell ya??


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

Yup


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

What's happening on your tv with Steve?


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Eh?! Why, it's none other than Steve's Macworld keynote address from last week! That's Intel CEO Paul Otellini, delivering a whack of intel wafers for Steve to use in the newly announced Macintels! The Mac Mini is connected to the TV, playing the stream smooth as silk.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

I gotta try that sometime, my mini is next to my computing tv.


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

The adaptor was fairly cheap. but, I'm going composite into the line-on of my VCR then onwards to the TV. Not the best of viewing conditions. large things like full-screen playback is fine, games are fine, iPhoto slideshows are fine, DVD playback etc., but web surfing isn't that great. Someday, I'd like to get a minimum 27" widescreen flat panel with digital inputs. THAT would be nice.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

I have the adapter, just never bothered.
27" widescreen flat panel with digital inputs would be good!


Did you clone the mini stock hd onto your new hd?


----------



## soon2bemac (Nov 2, 2004)

Just curious, with booting off the firewire drive with your mini. Is it setup to automatically boot off that drive all the time, or do you have to select it anytime you boot it up?


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Boots automatically, as per the settings I made in the Startup Disk preferences. There is no System on the Mini's internal disk. I have an additional _real_ external FW drive that I clone both the Mini's drives to as a backup.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

Did any cables come with this kit?


----------



## Fox (Oct 4, 2002)

Yep, firewire and usb, but short ones, which is all you need to connect to the Mini. They're just long enough so that you can rotate Ministack 90 degrees so its ports don't line up with the Mini if you don't want them to.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

Thanks


----------



## macsackbut (Dec 15, 2004)

Macaholic said:


> The Mac Mini is connected to the TV, playing the stream smooth as silk.


 Surely, you mean "smooth as butter," no? :lmao: 

BTW, thanks for the ministack review. This is the unit I've been eyeing for months. I think you've tipped me over the edge. Can it be had in Canada?


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

macsackbut said:


> Surely, you mean "smooth as butter," no? :lmao:
> 
> BTW, thanks for the ministack review. This is the unit I've been eyeing for months. I think you've tipped me over the edge. Can it be had in Canada?



No. Smooth as silk works -- and yours should be smooth _like_ butter, IIRC 

I think MacDoc has it and CPUsed I think I recall someone saying. It looks like at Other World Computing the reduced price ones that were US$15.00 cheaper are gone. Regular price without drive there is US$75.00. Crunch some numbers and see where the best deal is.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

Yes This does seem like something I will purchase soon.


----------



## pollux (May 1, 2000)

Have had the mini stack case since the beginning of December. Like it a lot. Too bad the Western Digital hard drive I put in is SO loud 


I wanted to use Seagate but OWC mentioned SG's drive won't fit in.....so I had no choice but to go for others....


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Where did you place the heat sensor? I put it RIGHT SMAKC-DAB in the spindle. Result: fan is ALWAYS on (it's set to automatic), blowing out COLD AIR. Does the fan ever actually shut opff under cool operating conditions?? I wish it would. Any help on this, pollux?


----------



## milhaus (Jun 1, 2004)

Other than the FW ports, is there any substantial difference between the Ministack and this USB 2.0 drive from Vantec, which is priced at $45 CDN? Seems almost the same. http://www.vantecusa.com/products/nexstarGX/p_nst-370gx.html

I've got two of these, and they seem to run quiet and pretty cool. Oops, never mind, already mentioned. BTW, $45 in a small shop south of college on Spadina.


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Missing Firewire on the box is a biggie for me. Booting off of Firewire is a biggie for me.

Analog FW video bridge, iPod, DV camera into iMovie. It is nice to have the extra ports for it.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

Well I ordered one


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Awesome! but did you get a discounted one? I hit other World's site last night and I couldn't find any.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

no discount, but no biggie.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

What is the connection switch?


----------



## Fox (Oct 4, 2002)

Gives you the option to either have the device connect to the Mac with whatever cable you connect it with (auto), or to make the connection with firewire only. I suspect this is relevant when you want the drive in the Ministack to connect with firewire, but you have also connected it with the usb cable to allow use of usb ports on the stack.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

I see, Thanks.


----------



## Fox (Oct 4, 2002)

Now I have a question about the fan mechanism. Is there a setting where the fan doesn't run at all? This isn't mentioned in the instructions, but they note there, "It also has a built in passive aluminum radiator on the bottom ..., which dissipates heat away from the hard drive without having to use the cooling fan." This statement suggests that there is a way to run this without a fan, and that a hard drive inside it can be sufficiently cooled without a fan. This is becoming important to me because even the low setting of the fan is louder than I want to experience because the Mini is so quiet. Macaholic, you may be the best person to answer the fan questions because you have a drive inside yours. On the automatic setting, is the fan always running, or does it shut off when the drive isn't heavily used?

I also wonder if the fan is necessary given that two other competing drive enclosures for the Mini (Lacie and Micronet) don't have fans at all. Enlightenment anyone?


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

I have exactly the same question, Fox, to which I posed to Newertech via their website's contact page two days ago. So far there has been no response.

Where is everybody's heat sensor located? Mine is DEAD-CENTER on the drive's axle... and the Ministack blows out the coolest of air. So, maybe the heat sensor is picking up too much localized heat as a result? When I have time -- or if anybody else wants to try it -- try moving or even releasing the heat sensor from the drive and run with it for several minutes just to see what happens.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

Some ppl were saying that it was sucking up the hot mac mini exhaust.

Others tried moving the the probe to the side.
Read it here.....
http://www.123macmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1060&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=165


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Interesting. Little Feat, eh?


----------



## Fox (Oct 4, 2002)

Macaholic, with your current setup, approximately what percent of the time is your fan actually running (when you are using your Mini)? When you are not using the Mini, does the fan shut off?

One thing I did try yesterday was to hook up the ministack on the automatic setting (still without a HD in it) connecting only the USB and leave it on the table with a USB drive in it. The fan didn't go on at all, but I don't know how relevant that is to a stack with a HD in it.


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Fox said:


> Macaholic, with your current setup, approximately what percent of the time is your fan actually running (when you are using your Mini)? When you are not using the Mini, does the fan shut off?


Set to automatic, the fan runs at all times the system is booted. It never switches itself to high (thank God -- it's LOUD), and the air coming out is almost cold.

I was of the impression (but could not see HOW given the interface to the Mini) that the Ministack shut itself off when the Mini gets turned off or goes to sleep. Now, I haven't left it that long to see what happens, but the Ministack doesn't shut off. I'll try it next time.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

NewerTech miniStack v2 
Monday January 9, 2006 

NewerTech will debut its upgraded design for the miniStack at this week's MacWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. The newly enhanced NewerTech miniStack v2 is engineered to increase drive capacity 80- to 500GB while adding multiple FireWire and USB port options ergonomically divided between rear and side configurations. All miniStack models feature data buffers of 2- or 8 Megabytes (MB), the latest Oxford911+ chipset and integrated 2-Port FireWire and 3-Port USB 2.0/1.1 powered hubs. 

Each miniStack features a smart power switch so the drive turns on and off with its corresponding mini or PC and a thermal probe that automatically regulates and varies fan speed according to the temperature. The miniStack sells for less than $139.99 for an 80GB version and is available in capacities up to 500GB at 7200RPM. An "add your own hard drive" kit is also available for $79.99.

http://www.123macmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3183


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Nice to have a pair of ports on the side :clap: 

BTW, I let the Mini sleep for a while. The Ministack's fan did turn off. I still can't see why my Seagate drive itself would cause the fan to be on all the time when not sleeping. So, it might be that theory about the Mini sitting in top of it, blowing smoke up the Ministack's @$$ if you will. If so, every Mac Mini would be inflicting such heat, including the ones Newertech used to develop the ministack on. SO, WHY does the thermostat turn it off.... if it only could??


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

I wonder if I should have waited for the minstack v2 to ship. Maybe that's why they were on sale?


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

If they were on sale because of V.2, then you got almost the same thing for a lower price. having the side-ports nice, but I still love a gear bargain. That's how Frankenmac got its Radeon 9000 Pro at Clickon Macs in Toronto for about $40.00 less about a year and a half ago, and also got two new 180GB Xserve drives for $100.00 each well over a year ago.


----------



## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Yup. Cloning is easy. Well... certainly not as easy as it was in Mac OS Classic, but easy in the sense that it looks like any system can boot off of just about any installation of OS X.


----------



## Fox (Oct 4, 2002)

I ended up putting a Western Digital 200 gig drive with 8 meg cache in my miniStack. It fits fine, unlike the Seagate. Fan runs all the time but at low speed. The noise it makes is pretty minimal and it doesn't bother me. The drive itself is pretty silent except when data are being accessed it makes kind of a ticking sound. When the mini is asleep, the miniStack fan goes off and the drive sleeps. I'm using the miniStack drive as my startup. I cloned the mini drive with Carbon Copy Cloner; easy to do and the program still works perfectly with 10.4.4. The new drive is noticably faster than the 4200 mini drive. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the miniStack, although I would have preferred the newer model with the ports on the side.

One little aesthetic thing. I partitioned the miniStack drive into three volumes, one as the main volume for the mini, one to backup my Cube and one to backup my PowerBook. This puts three firewire drive images on my desktop, crowding the right side when added to the two for the original mini. I also don't care for the firewire drive icon. Since I don't need regular access to three of the five volumes, what I did was to turn off showing these drive items on the Desktop using Finder prefs. I then changed the firewire icon of the startup volume to one I liked by pasting it in the Get Information window. Finally I made aliases of the two volumes I wanted showing and put those aliases on the Desktop.


----------



## Ottawaman (Jan 16, 2005)

So I also now have a minstack up and running.
The process was easy and straight forward.

I put a WD 250 gig HD with an 8 meg cache in my ministack.
I used Super Duper to clone my original HD.

It seems faster, but it it is too soon to really say.
So far I'm pleased.


----------



## macsackbut (Dec 15, 2004)

Just got mine too and have it booted off the external. Definite speed boost, but not huge. Mostly in launching apps and accessing preference panes. And yes, fan runs at low speed constantly.


----------



## John Calhoun (Oct 5, 2003)

Is there a way to make this a wireless drive via bluetooth or something so if I'm downloading a large multi-day file I don't have to keep my PowerBook tethered to my external hard drive?


----------



## grommit (Apr 28, 2006)

does anyone know if the ministack v2 can fit the Seagate 7200.10 drives?

thanks.
g


----------

