How many times have you looked in finder and scoured your hard drive for a little more storage space? Everyone at one time or another has run out of storage space or for that matter needed extra USB/1394 ports to plug in peripherals. That’s where NewerTechnology’s miniStack v2 External Hard Drive Enclosure and Hub come in. As referenced on NewerTech’s website the miniStack v2 will:

“Expand the abilities and storage capacity of your computer without cluttering your desk. The Newer Technology miniStack v2 is just the accessory you need to do it all for your computer.

With the Newer Technology miniStack v2 0GB Enclosure Kit, you can add your own 3.5″ hard drive to this stylish Hub and expand the overall capacity and ports on your system. More hard drive space, with capacity for one 3.5″ drive (up to 750GB!), 2 more FireWire 400 ports, and 3 more USB 2.0 ports. One FireWire port and one USB 2.0 port are located on the left side, for easy access. Yes, that’s right - you don’t need any extra drive cases or hubs for all of your accessories anymore!”

The miniStack v2 has plenty to offer Mac users with a Macbook, mini or workstation systems. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run out of hard drive space or USB ports on my MacBook Pro and needed just a little more to make life easier.

My first impressions are quite positive and the device provides a clean organized interface for both additional storage and USB/Firewire (1394) hub expansion.

The enclosure holds an internal Parallel ATA (PATA) hard drive. In this review, a 500 GB Seagate Ultra ATA drive is used. One of miniStack v2’s primary advantages relates to its ability to hold any PATA hard drive that you choose to purchase.

Inside the miniStack

The drive enclosure contains a temperature sensor that is used to keep tabs on the hard drive enclosure and a Mini Box Fan that is used as primary cooling. Also note, the mounting plate used to attach the hard drive also contains a Heat Sink interface that provides additional heat dissipation.

Inside the box

Included with this system is an External Power Supply, USB and Firewire cables, Documentation and Software.

This system can be purchased preconfigured with the hard drive of your choice, or bare-bones like our model. This way, you may add your own hard drive. The bare bones package we purchased cost an additional $10, but comes with a few software additions including:

* Prosoft Engineering’s Data Backup for Mac OS x 10.2.8 or later
* Intech’s SpeedTools Utilities for Mac OS x
* NovaStor’s NovaBACKUP solution for Windows

We consider these well worth the extra cost.

Intech’s SpeedTools Utilities by itself is an excellent product providing Hard Drive De-fragmentation, S.M.A.R.T. Guard, Media Scanner and a number of other tools used to increase performance, diagnose and minimize system problems.

The only problem of note with this system relate to the short USB and Firewire cables provided with this interface. The miniStack v2 is designed to compliment systems like the Mac mini in size and form. When plugged into a Mac mini it is unlikely the cable length will become a problem, but in my particular case a 12-inch USB and Firewire cable are practically useless when connecting to a Mac Pro workstation.

On the positive note, the miniStack system runs very cool and the additional cooling fan is hardly noticeable. I suspect the cooling fan only runs when the device heat sensor registers the need for additional cooling, but so far I haven’t heard a peep. I have used many different external storage systems (USB, USB/1394, etc), but none of them were designed squarely for Mac computers.

If you need extra storage and USB/1394 Hub expansion, then the miniStack v2 is the device for you and I suspect will become very popular with Mac OS X 10 and Time Machine on its way.