Noise Level of Newer MiniStack vs. Lacie Mini vs. ???

I've posted at 123macmini as well, have a newerstack2 with a WD 320 I put int. The fan comes on periodically and goes off, even with no drive activity and lower CPU useage. It is not loud, but you are ceertainly aware of it in a quiet room.

BB

Also, the NewerTech miniStack2 (I have) doesn't shut down when the mini is, only if I turn it off with its power switch. The BRIGHT blue light is always on.

You can disconnect and/or replace the fan with a quieter model in the MiniStack2. I'm only using that one for firewire/usb hub though.

I have a Newer Ministack v1, and although the blue light does always stay on, the drive spins down when the Mini sleeps. It's located behind my Mini on my stereo rack, which hides the fan's noise well. Maybe it's because of that that I rarely ever notice that the fan is on. Recently upgraded to a bigger HD, and it's operation is definitely louder than the old drive. Otherwise, it's been a very quiet setup for me.

Is the quality of the v2 Ministack's fan at least smooth and easy to blend into the background?

And what size fan does it use?

If the backgound has noise in it, then yeah it blends. It is not at all whiny or anything, strictly a "moving air" sound. But you will certainly notice it in a silent room. It is several times louder than the mini's fan at it's lowest speed.

BB

Unless you absolutely need the Mini's form factor, why not go with one of the aluminum fanless Firewire/USB2 enclosures? You can get them for $40-$60 and they're much quieter. There's no reason why you couldn't put one behind a photo on a bookshelf for ultimate transparent operation. I've found heat dissipation to be more than adequate even with prolonged use.

My personal favorites are the Rosewill RX30-U2FA aluminum FW-400/USB2 enclosures, but those seem to have been discontinued or temporarily out of stock. All the currently available Rosewill enclosures are USB only and they don't look as solid. You may still be able to get a RX30-U2FA's if you look around. I've got six of them and they're rock solid. They're based on the Oxford 911+ Cypress AT2 chipsets. The drives screw into the enclosure very securely. I've gotten them as low as $40, but I'm not sure which company carries them anymore. You could email Rosewill support to find out. The're pretty slow answering emails, though.

Another decent option is the MacAlly PHR-100AC. It's available at Newegg.com for $42.99. Beware that MacAlly is vague about chipsets in its enclosures. I got one PHR-100AC that refused to power-down during sleep. I got another PHR-100ABC (Firewire-800/USB2) that works like a charm -- probably my most reliable enclosure -- but not quite as heavy duty as the Rosewills, and, again, with an unknown chipset. The MacAlly enclosures have been around quite a while, so some of the older comments you may see about them not having power switches are no longer correct. These are by far the easiest enclosures you'll ever find to install or remove HD's. They're also a bit quieter than my Rosewills, but that's really cutting whispers in half. MacAlly holds its drives in place with siliconized screws which aren't as secure as the Rosewills but which should be ok if you don't drop your drives.

Hope that helps.

That looks like a good quality enclosure... almost identical to my Rosewills. It should get the job done nicely.

wise words these.

The blue light is an annoying feature of many external enclosures. Fortunately, it's easily cured. I removed the front grill from my Rosewill drives and I taped in a small piece of cardboard in front of the blue LED. I can still see enough of the light around the cardboard to know when my drive is active but not enough to be annoying.

One feature LaCie got right on my Big Disk Extreme was having a faint blue light built into the power button on the front.... Nice styling and not too bright. Otherwise, the BDE is pretty big and noisy compared to my other enclosures.

I came to the same realization you did about vibrations & my Rosewills. They ship with silicon feet which slide out of place after a couple of months. A piece of cardboard under the metal feet elminates noise transmission to the cabinet below, which otherwise would act as a resonator like a cello body.

It's amazing how handy a couple small pieces of cardboard and some double-stick tape can be.

Ted, this isn't something I have hands-on experience with, but I don't think so. When something like that Lacie has ethernet and usb, it's only the usb that you can connect directly to a Mac--it would show up as a mounted volume on that desktop--to get it "on the network" via ethernet, you'd have to connect it into a router or switch first. Different protocols. That's one of the reasons why the new Airport basestation has potential appeal for a lot of folks--plug any drive in a standard USB enclosure into it and it'll function like a networked storage and file server, a la "Airport Disk."

The big advantage of that Lacie, though, is its gigabit speeds and faster file transfers when networked with other gigabit Macs. It remains to be seen how speedy that USB "Airport Disk" functionality will be.

That first item you linked to is just a standard external hard drive, no fan and with a 2 year warranty at that. Granted it's from a good vendor and has an Oxford bridge. I have that same chipset and it sleeps and wakes just fine. Often better to buy your own OEM drive, something enterprise class with a 5 year warranty and put it in a good enclosure yourself. That Seagate 7200.10 has a 5 year warranty--might want to ask OWC if the drive warranty will still apply after 2 years.

I think whether you'll want network storage versus something directly connected and mountable will depend on what you plan to do with it, how many other Macs you'll have on the network, and how often you'll be moving large files around.

If you look at the discussion about the newer MiniStack at 123macmini you'll see that it is unclear if they've changed anything about it except for the marketing. I have one that was purchased a week before the "quieter" announcement, which apparently was built AFTER any redesign, if there was any. I don't have an older MiniStack to compare against, but it doesn't strike me as particularly quiet. It isn't a screamer, but it is certainly louder than the Mini's fan and enough to be a minor annoyance for HTPC stuff.)

The fan seems to be regulated by drive temp, not awake/asleep status of the Mac. The fan does not come on right away when the mini wakes up or when I start accessing drive content. When I put the mac to sleep, the fan usually stays on for a minute or two, and then the drive goes completely silent. The light stays on all the time. I'm connecting via firewire.

If anyone is looking for a nice compact quiet HDD, I picked up a Lacie fanless Porsche design 320 GB USB 2.0 from Buy.com for around $100 shipped (got a discount for using Google checkout). I have it hooked up to my Xbox 360 (for music and photo playback in its Media Center functions). The drive sits on top of the Xbox on a metal shelf in my main HT setup and it makes not a peep of sound.

FYI, here's the link (looks like it's currently going for $109, but its listed 'out of stock' at the moment):

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...0&loc=101&sp=1

why not just get the new Airport Express and share the external drive(s) remotely using its USB port?..... Getting whatever drives you want -

ken