Hi all,
what is the maximum disk size i can build into my mac mini 2.1?
- for capacity: 1 tb or 2 tb?
- for physical dimension: 15mm, 12.5mm, 9.5mm, 7mm?
and ... is it a standard sata connector?
Thank you!
greetings from germany
Chris
Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11)
It is a standard SATA connector but your model only has SATA I or II speeds but not the newer SATA III (3 GB/sec speed). SATA II disks will work fine.
The Mac will take disks that are 9.5 mm or less in height/thickness.
A SATA II disk will work fine but not at its rated speed. Also not that few disks, especially the 5400 RPM HDs get close to SATA III speeds, SSD do come close
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/
However, you'd be better off going with a SSD. There would be a noticeable improvement with performance. But, it would be an expensive upgrade for a 9 year old Mac.
9.5mm, thank you.
And the capacity? Some older sata control chip / bios combinatzions had been limited in sector count, so some older computer only can acces 500gb or 1tb discs. How about the mac mini 2.1, does it have such a limit, or can i build in 2 tb, either rotating magnetic thingies or ssd?
Speeeedy discs are not the criteria, the mm2.1 itself is slooooow ;-)
greetings from germany
Chris
Speeeedy discs are not the criteria, the mm2.1 itself is slooooow ;-)
Yes, they are. The stock 5400 rpm drive is the main reason that the MacMini 2.1 is slow.
Thank you for the link, but here in germany i have good, cheap, and reliable hw vendors.
Yes, even a big 2tb magnetic thingie will be more expensive than the macs remaining value ;-)
greeting from germany
Chris
in the moment the mm has not the stock drive, it has a small 340gb 7200rpm race car. Nevertheless it is slow.
greetings fro germany
Chris
Compared to a SSD, even a 7200 rpm drive is slow.
some years ago i have been thinking about a raptor drive, but their heat had been deterring (oops, right word? in german: abschreckend).
greetigs from germany
Chris
raptor just have higher rotation speed which help seek time it will not help you in terms of sustained transfer rates SSD is to raptor what a 7200rpg hd's is to 2700rpm discs is to 5400rpm ones
I believe the current biggest capacity 2.5" drives are 2TB although bigger ones will of course be on their way. With regards to firmware limits 2TB is usually below such thresholds so I would expect a 2TB drive to work fine.
A Seagate Spinpoint M9t 2Tb 2.5" Internal Hard Drive ST2000LM003 would be a 9mm 2TB 5400rpm drive that therefore should fit and work. I do not believe there are any 7200rpm 2TB 2.5" drives as of yet.
As others have mentioned even though your old Mac mini is limited to SATA II which is 3Gbps an SSD drive would still give better performance although not as much as if you had a newer Mac mini which supported SATA III. SATA based SSD drives like the Samsung 850 EVO are now also available in capacities of 2TB and are also thin enough to fit, they are of course much more expensive.
Perhaps you should consider upgrading to a newer model Mac even if it is a second hand one, e.g. a 2012 model i.e. a Mac mini 6,1 or 6,2 which supports SATA III.
maximum disk size for mm 2.1?
