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What are people doing with their 5400RPM Hitachi Drives?

O

Obsidiank

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 8, 2011
22
0
My new 2012 2.6 I& mac mini is sitting in my receiving room, waiting for me stuff it full of Samsung 840 Pro SSD and 16GB Corsair goodness. I'm curious as to what people are doing with the included 5400 RPM Hitachi Drive. Based on various forums I'd seen people:

1. Leave it in there as a second drive for backup and storage
2. Slap it into USB 3.0 enclosure as backup and storage
3. Fuse it to SSD to make fusion drive
4. Add second SSD and forgo it all together.

I'm just wondering what you decided to do and why? Is there a performance perk to putting it in a USB 3.0 enclosure vs leaving it in there?

Thanks.
 
I chose option two. I put it in a USB 3.0 enclosure and use it as a portable storage drive.
 
Obsidiank said:
My new 2012 2.6 I& mac mini is sitting in my receiving room, waiting for me stuff it full of Samsung 840 Pro SSD and 16GB Corsair goodness. I'm curious as to what people are doing with the included 5400 RPM Hitachi Drive. Based on various forums I'd seen people:

1. Leave it in there as a second drive for backup and storage
2. Slap it into USB 3.0 enclosure as backup and storage
3. Fuse it to SSD to make fusion drive
4. Add second SSD and forgo it all together.

I'm just wondering what you decided to do and why? Is there a performance perk to putting it in a USB 3.0 enclosure vs leaving it in there?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I got a data doubler kit and put it in the second bay. It is comparable in price to an external enclosure but it keeps my desk a little neater. The disk will run full speed regardless of internal or external. USB 3.0 and SATA III are both way faster than the read/write performance of the disk. The portability option is really the only benefit that I see putting it in an external enclosure.
 
michasss8 said:
think about fifth option:

Selling it.
Click to expand...

+1 (did this with the first three and paid for a large chunk of the SSD that replaced it)

or leaving it in and using it for backup (which I did with my last Mac mini)
 
I purchased a samsung 840 pro, a hitachi 1tb 7200 rpm drive and threw those into the mini... The 5400 rpm is sitting in a drawer as a backup drive if I ever need it for something...

I couldn't stand the thought of putting a SSD in there and leaving a 5400 rpm drive next to it... the 7200 probably isn't insanely faster but it is faster.... Working like a charm...
 
I went with a 500gb hybrid
and a 1tb 5400 as a backup tank holding my media.

But Im a mid 2k11 mini

sold whatever was in it before :)
 
I removed my 500 GB drive and replaced it with a 750 Hybrid drive, then added a second 750 drive with the OWC kit.

The original 500 GB drive is in an external enclosure and holds a disk image of my operating system.

I'm pretty happy!
 
I put mine in a enclosure and use it in my car. I've been kind of surprised that HDD can operate at 19 degrees F..
 
Obsidiank said:
My new 2012 2.6 I& mac mini is sitting in my receiving room, waiting for me stuff it full of Samsung 840 Pro SSD and 16GB Corsair goodness. I'm curious as to what people are doing with the included 5400 RPM Hitachi Drive. Based on various forums I'd seen people:

1. Leave it in there as a second drive for backup and storage
2. Slap it into USB 3.0 enclosure as backup and storage
3. Fuse it to SSD to make fusion drive
4. Add second SSD and forgo it all together.

I'm just wondering what you decided to do and why? Is there a performance perk to putting it in a USB 3.0 enclosure vs leaving it in there?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I did #3. Added Intel 180GB SSD, kept stock 500GB HDD, made 680GB Fusion Drive.
 
sedril said:
I couldn't stand the thought of putting a SSD in there and leaving a 5400 rpm drive next to it... the 7200 probably isn't insanely faster but it is faster.... Working like a charm...
Click to expand...

The 7200 I put into it, a WD Black, IS insanely faster. I put it in as it was 60 bucks at 750Gb, cheaper than any reasonable sized SSD, to see what it does. It made me skip the SSD plans altogether. I have 3 times faster booting, and a super snappy feel to the system, where the 5400rpm Hitachi made it a horrible slouch. Still I can store up to 750Gb at super speed. Skipping through MKV 1080p movies is super fast (horrible on both Fusion and 5400 drives).

I did option 6: put in in the cheapest USB 2.0 case for backup. 10 bucks.
 
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