Max out your mini with matching drive and speaker system

We always thought the whole appeal of the Mac mini was that, you know, it's small. Silly us. Almost from the launch of the diminutive desktop, peripheral makers have been putting out matching hard drives, bases, skirts and other add-ons in an effort to build that little box up into a skyscraper. The trend reaches its apotheosis with this setup from Japan's Greenhouse, which adds a hard drive enclosure, speaker system with subwoofer, and, of course, the obligatory USB and Firewire hub. We plan on stacking two of them for quad sound and a few extra ports, if we can get away with it without hitting our ceiling.

[Thanks, Roamerick]

[Varun Seth @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

defeats the purpose of having a mac mini really...

[Samuel McConnell @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

The Mac mini's appeal isn't only that it's small...it's also cheap.

[gorkon @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

My biggest beef with some systems, expecially powerbooks and the Mac mini is that they do not have enough USB ports. A hub is a requirement for my Powerbook setup. Anyone know of a great hub? Mine's starting to be flaky.

[petro @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

would make a really pretty [yet limited] stereo system, but there's no screen?! how the hell would you find any of your music?

[brandon @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

"would make a really pretty [yet limited] stereo system, but there's no screen?! how the hell would you find any of your music?"

In no way is this add-on supposed to be a stereo replacement

[Kroc Camen @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

The lack of audio in, and one-more USB port sorely need fixing. It's easier to build accessories around Apple products than it is PC ones - which is a good thing for Apple.

[Roamerick @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

It's customary to link the tipster :)

That aside, this thing is pretty cool if you're after the whole "Media Centre" experience, but until the Mac mini gets FrontRow and a few decent hi-def outputs, it all seems a bit... redundant.

[SideSwipe @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Fugly much?

[vectorbug @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

"My biggest beef with some systems, expecially powerbooks and the Mac mini is that they do not have enough USB ports."

I know you're referring to the pbook and mini but the apple displays have 2 ports and so do the apple keyboards. They also both work with windows systems. Might be a bit expensive but they're REALLY high quality usb hubs in such cases.

[jnasato @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Iii don't think I'd want to be blasting a sub woofer right under my computer.

Techno for 24/7 = hd failure!

[Pnarse @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Look at the size of the thing, that ain't no subwoofer!

I'm guessing it's gonna be about 10 watts and barely produce more bass than your average pc squeaker ;)

[David @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

I agree w/ Varun. If you add enough stuff, it's no longer very mini.

[Jason @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

the 2 usb ports in front wreaks the sleekness of the mini, they shoulda used a cover to cover up the ports or something.

[Jin Kim @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Do the cases have to be that thick? Alone, the cases are not thick, but stacked up high like that, well, it becomes rather thick, or high. Make them half as thick. I'm sure it is possible with very-small profile hard drives. Another thing: Like Jason, I don't like the looks of the nasty-looking USB ports on the front. How about a small LCD for temperature information, hard drive information, wireless information, etc.?

[Fallen Love @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

WOW, it look very sleek, i would dont mind to have that but what the heck with that front USB!? it ruin the sleek look of mac, it made it so ugly with that USB, they should design a cover for those USB or stray the USB port to silver to make it blend in the design of the Mac Mini

Where i find this mac mini "tower" im surpised Engadget didnt add a link... *using Jar Jar Binks voice* SO RUDE! ;)

[Fallen Love @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

WOW, it look very sleek, i would dont mind to have that but what the heck with that front USB!? it ruin the sleek look of mac, it made it so ugly with that USB, they should design a cover for those USB or stray the USB port to silver to make it blend in the design of the Mac Mini

Where i find this mac mini "tower" im surpised Engadget didnt add a link... *using Jar Jar Binks voice* SO RUDE! ;)

[Oscar @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Looks pretty cool but it doesn�t make sense since it�s supposed to be mini :)

[Fallen Love @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

http://www.green-house.co.jp/products/mac/index.html

Here the site to that product, GreenHouse is the japanese company that made that product.

Let you know, it in japanese language, you need BableFish or Google Translate to translate those japanese to english