Jan 17, 2017 Just Google 'Mac mini media server' for some ideas. As a backup server, I use mine with the free CrashPlan.com option where I provide my own storage. Just hang some external storage off of the old Mac mini and setup up CrashPlan to do backups from any Mac, Windows, Linux computers you own directed to the old Mac mini. Which Mac Mini has the best performance? For music playback alone, even an entry level Mac Mini will yield excellent performance. If you are oversampling, doing digital signal processing (DSP), digital EQ, digital room correction, or converting to Double-Rate DSD (aka DSD128) or Quad-Rate DSD (aka DSD256), we recommend getting the fastest most powerful Mac Mini available. Once I got a fresher model, the old one went in the closet and served me for a few more years as my server. You can put an old iMac, Mac mini, or even laptop into service as a server with little.
The 2018 Mac mini just launched as the most powerful Mac (for the price), and it got a massive upgrade after four years of neglect. This is prompting a lot of folks to wonder if it's time to upgrade the Mac minis in their life. iOS and Mac app development teams are interested in upgrading their continuous integration (CI) infrastructure. Mac minis behind TVs, under desks, and in closets could also be good candidates for a refresh.
- May 13, 2015 Using a Mac mini as a media server is very easy and very doable, but it does have some limits. The Mac mini is versatile enough to use as a home media server or small business workgroup server — you just want to make sure you're getting the right Mac mini for the task. Aim too low, and you might not get the higher performance you need. Aim too high, and you may be spending more money.
- Apr 23, 2020 This includes media center software, Web-server software, analytics, and more. Hot-swappable drive bays: Hot-swappable drive bays are necessary so.
We've definitely seen a wave of customers making the upgrade here at MacStadium. If you're not familiar, we host over 8,000 Mac minis, Mac Pros, and iMac Pros in data centers around the world for huge businesses, small startups, and individuals that need a Mac 'in the cloud.'
So, what happens when the world starts upgrading Mac minis? It's slightly different from other technology refresh cycles for two main reasons: 1) The Mac minis from 2014 or even 2012 still run great! 2) The four-year gap since the last refresh means the new minis are way faster. This leaves us in a position where lots of people are upgrading minis, but the old minis still have a lot of life in them... so what to do?
We've put together a short list of ideas but would love to hear others. Have a good use for an old mini? Let us know! (#newlife4oldmini)
Swap or recycle minis as part of the Apple Giveback program. You can trade-in your mini with Apple in exchange for a store gift card or a refund on a new purchase. If your mini is in bad shape or isn’t eligible for credit, Apple will recycle it for free. Turn that old mini into something good for you, good for the planet, or both!
Give them away to kids, friends, or your local church or charity. Pay it forward – give new life to your old mini by passing it along to someone who can put it to good use.
Set them up behind a TV to run a dashboard or play movies. Here at MacStadium, we’ve been known to setup an old mini behind a TV or two. They are great for running sales dashboards, looping videos or slide shows, or streaming Apple keynotes on a big screen.
Setup your old mini as a media server. Use Plex to store and organize all your video, music, and photo libraries and stream them to your other devices.
Create a home automation node.Homebridge is a lightweight Node.js server you can run on your home network that emulates the iOS HomeKit API. It supports plugins that can bridge HomeKit to various 'smart home' devices, allowing you to ask Siri to control devices that don't have any support for HomeKit at all.
Use a mini as a controller for an art project or robot. Make your own Mobile Mac mini bot!
Setup a remote macOS desktop for when you're on the go (you can remote-in from an iOS device in your pocket). Check out “iPad Diaries” from MacStories. Federico shares great tips and tricks for accessing and controlling a Mac mini from an iPad.
Set a mini up as a backup server with a big USB hard drive. Mac mini, the perfect Time Machine backup destination.
Set your mini up as a web/file server. Brian Stucki published a great list of ways to use your Mac server… the possibilities are endless!
Of course, you could send in your old Mac mini for colocation at MacStadium so all of these powerful things can be done from the cloud. Or ditch the old Mac mini and sign up for a brand new, shiny, space gray version at MacStadium. See how easy it is to get started with a 24-hour free trial.
The Mac mini is versatile enough to use as a home media server or small business workgroup server — you just want to make sure you're getting the right Mac mini for the task. Aim too low, and you might not get the higher performance you need. Aim too high, and you may be spending more money than you need to spend.
L.C.B. asks:
'Is the Mac mini with 1 TB hard drive and 4 GB of RAM a viable option for a care home to use as a streaming server?'
L.C.B. explained that their goal is to be able to stream three to five videos simultaneously to their patients via Apple TVs connected on their Wi-Fi network. I do think this is within reach of the Mac mini, but not the low-end model.
Apple introduced a new $499 price point with the most recent refresh to the Mac mini — a price point not seen since the mini's original 2005 release. This new model comes equipped with a 1.4 GHz dual-core Core i5 processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a 500 GB hard drive.
I've been using this machine since last October to serve up media and files on my home network, and it gets the job done. It's a versatile machine that's good for general use, but it's really not a heavy-duty system. It requires a fair degree of patience and limited expectations. In my home, we're not trying to stream lots of simultaneous content.
The mid-range model, priced at $699, sports a considerably faster 2.6 GHz processor, twice the RAM (8 GB), and a 1 TB hard disk drive. It also has faster graphics. But if you really want to use it as a high-powered server, I'd recommend the even faster system. $999 gets you a 2.8 GHz processor, 8 GB RAM, and a 1 TB Fusion drive — Apple's name for a hard drive paired with a 128 GB SSD — providing a nice balance of speed and storage capacity.
Best Media Server Software For Mac Mini 2017
Unfortunately, with the 2014 refresh, Apple made a crucial change to the Mac mini: High-end models are no longer available with quad-core processors, which are better at handling multiple-threaded applications and multiple media streams than dual-core processors. That makes the current model a little less suited for server use than its predecessor — especially in environments where multiple users will be demanding the server's attention, as in L.C.B's case.
Of course, technically any Mac mini can act as a server. Practically, I'd restrict server use to only the high-end Mac mini model.
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So many portsPlugable's UD-6950Z Dock may be built for Windows but it saved my Mac
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I had to jump through hoops to uninstall the macOS developer beta and reinstall Catalina and the Plugable docking station made it all possible.