upgrading the mac mini hard drive

[vitaminthought]

I'm pretty much sold on purchasing the base model Mini, but I want to know if I should be concerned about heat issues if I upgrade it to a faster (7200rpm) hard drive?

Is anyone aware of any 3rd party Mini cases, "chill pads" or the like that I can purchase? Judging from the internal pics, there doesn't seem to be ample space to attach a fan to the hard drive itself...

I'll be doing a fair amount of video editing, so making sure the Mini stays cool is very important to me.

Thanks to any that can help.

 

[stukdog]

You shouldn't have any trouble upgrading. We do it all the time. Just be sure there is plenty of air-flow to be had around the mini. Maybe buy a small fan if you need to.

 

[richardhunt]

I have upgraded both my mini's to 7200rpm drives. The increase in the thermal signature is negligible at best, especially if you get one of the newer 7200rpm drives with the higher aural density and single platter designs, but don't worry if they are not the newer ones, I'm using a Hitach 7K200 drive on both of mine. One is on 24 hours a day and has been for the last 8 months with not overheating issues, the internal fan stays at around 1800 rpm's most of the time.

 

[gwerhart0800]

I, too, upgraded to a 7200 RPM 200GB drive. I have had no issues with heat or noise. I really can't tell that there is much of a difference in the speed with the 7200RPM drive for my daily use. This Mini serves (via an external FW drive) as my iTunes host for an Apple TV and two iPhones, Movie DVD ripping and web browsing host, so the usage is not that intense.