Now that we’ve got upgrade installation videos for the Late ‘09 MacBook and iMacs, we are turning our attention to the other upgraded model – the Mac mini. While we’re hard at work on the upgrade videos for the new Server model, those of you with the standard mini aren’t being left out in the cold. In fact, the videos for your mini are ready to go!

As it turns out, the internals of the Late ‘09 mini are identical to those of the Early ‘09 model. That means the take-apart is exactly the same, too. So whether you want to put in a larger hard drive or bump up the RAM, the free video instructions can be found both in our Tech Center and on our YouTube channel.

Of course, if you decide after watching the process, you’d rather have this upgrade professionally done, we can help you out there, too. Our Installation Service offers swift turnaround and professional results, all at a reasonable price.

Even though your Mac mini isn’t one of Apple’s “flagship” products, it doesn’t mean it can’t be a heck of a workhorse. Maximize your mini’s performance with upgrades and a little help from OWC.

Continuing on with our series of instructional videos, this week we take a look at another common upgrade for the 2009 MacBook—putting in a new hard drive. You can always use more storage space, so adding a new hard drive is something you may want to consider if you’re “feeling the pinch” of too little room.

Fortunately, unlike with the new iMacs, upgrading the hard drive on the new MacBooks is easy to do. All you need are the right materials and the knowledge of how to perform the upgrade.

First, you’ll need a compatible hard drive.

You’ll also want to have the appropriate tools – in this case, a #00 Phillips screwdriver and a Torx T6 screwdriver (both of which are available in the NewerTech 11-piece Toolkit).

If you plan on transferring the data from your old drive, you’ll need some way of accessing it, either via a docking device like the NewerTech Voyager Q or S2, an external drive enclosure, or a simple USB adapter, such as the NewerTech Universal Drive Adapter. Personally, I’d suggest the enclosure, as it lets you continue to use the old drive for other purposes.

The final thing you need is knowledge, and that brings us back to where we came in. Our latest instructional video will walk you step-by-step through the installation process, and you can find it both in our Tech Center and on our YouTube Channel.

Since we’ve started with the price dropping blog posts around here, we’ve never before seen a product win the “Triple Crown” of price reductions.  On June 25th, we watched as the 4.0TB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro RAID FireWire 800/400+USB2 storage solution triumphantly crossed the finish line with a $70 price drop.  On August 27th, we marveled as this same 4.0TB unit gave an impressive victory with an additional $100 knocked off the price.  Now, we’re pleased to report that one more $60 price drop today will have earned this product a $230 total reduction in price since Summer!

Quality, Performance, Reliability.

OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro RAID FireWire 800/400+USB2 storage solutions utilize the latest high-performance, custom Oxford based bridge coupled with the latest Serial-ATA HDD technology to provide overall superior reliability and performance. These solutions are further backed with an industry leading 3 Year Full Solution Warranty.

Now available with up to 4.0TB (4000GB) of capacity, Elite-AL Pro RAID is a sleek and compact Aluminum design of only 9.3″ Long x 2.8″ Wide x 5.6″ High. These Elites are Fully A/V Certified as well as EMC Retrospect Backup Certified for all your Audio/Video, Backup(Time Machine Ready), Graphics, Music, General Data needs and more! With 2 x FW800 Ports, 1 x FW400 Port, 1 x USB 2.0/1.1 Port – solutions are also fully Bootable and provide excellent data accessibility via any of the available interface ports, whichever best/desired interface is available on the system(s) it’s being connected to with complete interoperability of read/write functionality and accessibility.

Current OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro FW800/400+USB2 RAID prices:

• 640GB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer – remains at $179.99
• 1.0TB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer - remains at $199.99
• 1.0TB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer – was $254.99, now $249.99 $5 Drop
• 2.0TB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer – remains at $269.99
• 2.0TB 7200RPM with 64MB Data Buffer – $287.99, now $279.99 $8 Drop
• 2.0TB “Enterprise Class” 7200RPM w/64MB Buffer – remains at $379.99
• 3.0TB 7200RPM with 64MB of Data Buffer – was $379.99, now $349.99 (a $30 price drop!)
• 4.0TB GreenPower w/64MB of Data Buffer – was $579.99, now $519.99 (a $60 price drop!)
• OWC Elite-AL Pro RAID SATA HD x 2 enclosure kits are also available without drives as ‘Add Your Own Hard Drives Kits’ starting from $107.99, and have user configurable options for different RAID and non-RAID modes.

See the complete line up here.

Solutions all include the full retail version of Prosoft DataBackup III ($59 retail value) for OS X and NovaStor NovaBackup ($49 retail value) for Windows. Also included in the complete Intech HD Speedtools performance suite and Carbon Copy Cloner. None of these applications are required to use the Elite, but excellent applications to have in your utilities library & the DataBackup can hardly be beat. FireWire 800 connecting cable, FireWire 400 connecting cable, USB connecting cable, and 3 Year Warranty also included.

As with any major sporting event, there is always a prize over and above the satisfaction of winning.  In this case, we give the extra prize to you, our customer…

Special Offer:   OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Solutions qualify for Prosoft Drive Genius OWC Exclusive Offer!

Buy Drive Genius now for s low as $25 with purchase of a qualifying storage product – That’s up to 74% off retail price, up to 37% off OWC’s lowest normal selling price! Details online here: http://eshop.macsales.com/special_offer/prosoft_Drive_Genius

Breaking it down to its simplest forms, there are two main reasons to add a RAID setup to your computer system. Performance and Redundancy.

Let’s break these down individually:

Little Johnny was acting up in class and his teacher made him sit in the hallway while all the other kids went to recess. If he could finish writing “I will not put frogs in the teacher’s desk ever again” 100 times on paper before the rest of his classmates came back to class, little Johnny would be able to join them in the playground. more…

There are very few certainties in life. Death and taxes are, of course, the most popular, but right up there is the fact that – barring mechanical failure – your hard drive is going to fill up.

With all the music, movies, files and other stuff we tend to collect on our Macs, it really is a matter of time before you start running out of space. While it is fairly simple to gain some more space by cleaning out some of the accumulated junk, sometimes its preferable just to upgrade to a larger hard drive instead.

OWC has instructional videos for replacing the hard drive in a large number of Macs. This week, we’ve added yet another one: The 17″ MacBook Pro (non-unibody). If you’ve been feeling the hard drive pinch, but haven’t yet made the leap, check out the video in our Tech Center or on our YouTube channel, and see how easy it is.