External firewire hard drive to go with Mac Mini.

Dracule1 -

Sorry for posting twice. I think I'm doing exactly what you asked - recommending very quiet, cool and reliable external disk for Mac-Mini. Choice of interface is also important while backup/mirroring goes into reliability that you asked for.

Kijanki, no worries. Thanks for your input on the fantom drive.

Dracule1 - do you know we have same speakers (HPS-938)?

I bought initially Fantom for my work (backup) because of good reviews and three more for myself later - no problems so far. I bought previously external drive for my nephew from Other World Computing (macsales.com) and it works for many years without problems. Similar to Fantom - silent, heavy aluminum case. I only heard good things about them. Both Fantom and OWC come with all interface cables. Fantom comes now already formatted for Mac Extended format.

Thanks. Will look into the Fantom. How far do you sit from the Fantom drive when you listen to your system? Which model do you have specifically? I like the Seagate because it comes with 5 year warrenty, something no other hard drive maker can match.

The 938s are great speakers - really can't touch them unless you are willing to spend over $10k. I am finally moving onto different speakers which cost a lot more but better sounding.

It is GF1000T. It is triple interface but only Firewire 400 (is your MAC-Mini 800?). Warranty is only 1 year but I assume that warranty doesn't make item better (Hyundai has better warranty than Toyota) and I keep 3 copies. 1TB external drives are below $100 now. My drive is at floor level (side of the sofa) while I'm sitting on the sofa - perhaps 4 ft between my ear and a drive. I can hear when it comes-up from "sleep mode" but after that is almost silent.

I was toying with idea of drive upgrade to 1TB in my DVR. Drive that was highly recommended by users for it's quietness was Western Digital (don't remember the number). It comes with software that allows you to lower/tweak the noise even further.

My 938s are amazing. These are relatively new speakers (bought recently 6 month old dealer demo) with heavier bracing (changed design in 2004/2005). I only wish for a little more extension (both) but it might be as well an issue of my room acoustic I'm trying to fix now. What are you getting and how is it better than Hyperion? Have you heard 968?