WD Velociraptor in a Mac Mini?

[FluJunkie]

So the Western Digital Velociraptor is actually a 2.5 inch drive in a 3.5 inch cooling chassis. And is a decently reliable drive with a long warranty and good speed - and a great deal more capacity than an SSD.

It's a little too big to fit in a laptop, and I imagine the noise would be staggering. But the non-server mini has the headroom for two drives, so conceivably you could fit a Velociraptor sans its chassis (which WD does sell) in a Mac Mini.

Has anyone tried that?

 

[philipma1957]

you would need to set the fans very high via istat menus 3.

that drive is smoking hot. I have played with it out of a heat sink it needs good fan speed for cooling. maybe 3000 as low and 4000 as high . and max if for hand brake.

those are noisy settings. Right now there is an ebay seller with 256gb ssds new samsungs . he will take 300 as an offer maybe lower. I purchased from him they arrived sealed and i was able to register them on the samsung site.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-2011-Sa...aultDomain_0&hash=item2a146616db#ht_500wt_974


I would advise this over the raptor.

 

[FluJunkie]

you would need to set the fans very high via istat menus 3.

that drive is smoking hot. I have played with it out of a heat sink it needs good fan speed for cooling. maybe 3000 as low and 4000 as high . and max if for hand brake.

those are noisy settings. Right now there is an ebay seller with 256gb ssds new samsungs . he will take 300 as an offer maybe lower. I purchased from him they arrived sealed and i was able to register them on the samsung site.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-2011-Sa...aultDomain_0&hash=item2a146616db#ht_500wt_974


I would advise this over the raptor.

I'm musing about an application where an SSD (or particularly, an SSD's capacity) makes it inappropriate, where its really a contest between the 2.5 Velociraptor and a laptop-type drive.

And a circumstance where "I bought it from some dude on EBay" won't fly >.>

 

[mdgm]

If you can't go SSD, then go with a 2.5" mechanical hard drive. Whether you go with a hybrid drive or a standard 7200rpm HDD is up to you.

As mentioned by philipma1957, Velocirpators aren't suitable for the Mini.

A good compromise can be to put a small capacity SSD boot/apps drive and a high capacity mechanical hard drive for other data in the Mini.

iFixit sells a kit to install a second hard drive into a Mini that comes with one.

 

[alust2013]

I think your best bet would be a 7200 RPM 750GB, such as the WD scorpio black. Those are still pretty darn fast, and I imagine even reasonably competitive with the Velociraptor.

 

[philipma1957]

I think your best bet would be a 7200 RPM 750GB, such as the WD scorpio black. Those are still pretty darn fast, and I imagine even reasonably competitive with the Velociraptor.

if a 256gb ssd is too small then the drive above is bigger then the biggest raptor. It is not much slower. much much much cooler

 

[shortcut3d]

So the Western Digital Velociraptor is actually a 2.5 inch drive in a 3.5 inch cooling chassis. And is a decently reliable drive with a long warranty and good speed - and a great deal more capacity than an SSD.

It's a little too big to fit in a laptop, and I imagine the noise would be staggering. But the non-server mini has the headroom for two drives, so conceivably you could fit a Velociraptor sans its chassis (which WD does sell) in a Mac Mini.

Has anyone tried that?

I was thinking about this post and realized you may be able to use the Mac Mini aluminum body as a heat sink for the Velociraptor. Not sure what is the gap between the drive and the top bay (when in the running position). However, its small and maybe thermal pads or a TEC could reach fill the gap and transition the heat.

This project seems like a waste and extreme amount of work given you could RAID two older SATA II drives relatively inexpensive and still get amazing performance. SATA III in RAID or single large drive is still expensive.

 

[scenemissing]

The thermals would be horrible. I would not recommend this under any circumstances...

If the SSD is too small, then go external.

 

[philipma1957]

You could get it to work without over heating.

turn the mini upside down take the black plastic base off.

use four rubber feet under the mini lifting it a half inch off the ground.

while the mini is in this position use one or two external thermal take usb fans


http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Mobile-Fan-External-Cooling/dp/B00080G0BK

stone cold ugly but would be cool enough.

or side mount


http://www.newertech.com/products/nustandalloymacmini.php


and try one of the usb fans blowing on the black base.

you see the nice side of the mini and the black base stays on.

you cost is 25 plus 15 or 40 bucks total for cooling


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136803


the raptor is 229 or so you would be well under 300. this may work. also buy the full kit with the heatsink as it is lower cost