[IceClass]

I have been in the market for a Mac Mini for a few months now in order to replace my rapidly dying Powerbook G4 12" that is doing retirement duties as an iTunes server to the home office nearfield/headphone rig.

I had decided to hold off on any purchases until seeing if the rumours of an updated Mac Mini were true or no.
Now that I've seen the new offerings, I'm a little disappointed by the lack of any HDMI ports but just as I was about to pull the trigger on a vanilla version at the Apple store, I wondered about the server version.

At first glance, I'd dismissed it as it does away with the optical drive but a little math showed it to be a pretty good deal with Snow Leopard software - even with the added cost of the external optical drive.

Can anyone think of any good reason NOT to go for the server version of the Mac Mini?

I did notice that in the apple store listing it does not offer the option of purchasing a remote. Does this mean that it does not work with FrontRow on the server Mini?

What choice would you folks make for an itunes and home file server?

 

[Currawong]

Mac OS X Server is overkill and unnecessary for file serving IMO. If anything, I've found it can make doing normal operations tedious. A regular Mac Mini with 1 or 2 external FW800 drives is the way to go. I'm thinking about this too.

 

[Uncle Erik]

I'm also thinking about a OS X music server. The dual 1.8GHz G5 PowerMac I just got for $120 seems to have my father's eyes on it. I'll probably build it out for him, so I'm thinking about another G5 tower, a new Mini or possibly a used Xserve - there are some good deals on them right now.

If anyone can provide some advice or direction, it would be much appreciated. Right now, I'm leaning toward another G5 PowerMac. They can't run 10.6 (

), but 10.5 is very adequate. I can drop my M-Audio Delta-66 into it and it has room for a few 1+TB drives. Then again, I wouldn't mind running 10.6 on a new Mini and the Xserve is sexy.

Also, I have heard rumors that a new Mini is coming soon. Check the whispers at AppleInsider or MacOSRumors if you want the latest. They're usually accurate.

 

[oldskoolboarder]

I would go w/ the new Mac Mini if you want new. The Server is meant if you really need to have multiple users access it for things like Web server, email servers, calender, etc. Kind of like a small office server.

A standard Mac Mini is MORE than enough to serve up iTunes (or similar) to multiple PCs/Macs. In fact, I LOVE my G4 Mac Mini that does just this. It serves up media to multiple Macs, PCs, Apple TVs and my Tivo (using pyTivo). I would love a Core Duo for the speed, but for straight iTunes serving, the G4 does the job. It's running Leopard too.

I have a unibody running Snow Leopard but have yet to run into a scenario where I needed SL vs standard Leopard.

I'm sure you can find some used deals on used Core Duo Mac Mini's after today's intro of new products.

Alternately, you could use something like HP's Media Smart Server EX490, which I'm using now. I wanted a RAID setup but couldn't stomach the cost of Drobo and needed something to work w/ Macs. HP runs Windows Home Server and it seems to work well. It can server up iTunes files to other machines as well. Very nice machine and it has 4 drive bays. You can do RAID 0 mirroring of 'folders' as opposed to entire disks. If a disk fails, it'll do a rebuild. I run it now w/ 2 TB of HDDs. I'll add more when 2 TB HDDs get a little cheaper.

 

[IceClass]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong /img/forum/go_quote.gif Mac OS X Server is overkill and unnecessary for file serving IMO. If anything, I've found it can make doing normal operations tedious. A regular Mac Mini with 1 or 2 external FW800 drives is the way to go. I'm thinking about this too.

I was initially thinking of using external FW drives but the Mac Mini only has the one FW800 port which I wanted to keep free for the Apogee Duet.
As a result, I picked up a Western Digital External 2GB RAID and will be looking at a DROBO unit when I buy the Mini.

In what way did OSX server make some things tedious?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm also thinking about a OS X music server. The dual 1.8GHz G5 PowerMac I just got for $120 seems to have my father's eyes on it. I'll probably build it out for him, so I'm thinking about another G5 tower, a new Mini or possibly a used Xserve - there are some good deals on them right now. If anyone can provide some advice or direction, it would be much appreciated. Right now, I'm leaning toward another G5 PowerMac. They can't run 10.6 ( ), but 10.5 is very adequate. I can drop my M-Audio Delta-66 into it and it has room for a few 1+TB drives. Then again, I wouldn't mind running 10.6 on a new Mini and the Xserve is sexy. Also, I have heard rumors that a new Mini is coming soon. Check the whispers at AppleInsider or MacOSRumors if you want the latest. They're usually accurate.

What? Another new Mac Mini?
I too was looking at rebuilding an old Apple box from the attic but in the end, I preferred the idea of a nice compact Mac Mini in the equipment rack.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldskoolboarder /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would go w/ the new Mac Mini if you want new. The Server is meant if you really need to have multiple users access it for things like Web server, email servers, calender, etc. Kind of like a small office server.

Well part of my requirements is for the Mac Mini to do dual duty as a home office file server but does anyone know if the Mac Mini server works with Front Row and the Apple Remote?

 

[grawk]

I'm sure the mini server works with the remote, since it has the ir receiver there on the front. But unless you have a need for the specific features of the mini server (mail server, chat server, web server) AND you know you'll never need the optical drive AND you don't want to use external storage, then you're better off with a maxxed out regular mini.

 

[IceClass]

There's an external optical drive for the Mac Mini Server.

 

[grawk]

Ok, so it seems like you really want the server even tho everyone else suggests it's not the right choice. Go for it and report back

At least it's a steal given the value of the OS X Snow Leopard Server

 

[oldskoolboarder]

You could go DIY on an external optical drive. Get one of those USB to IDE/SATA adapters, got one at Fry's for $20. I use it for backing up to bare HDDs. I ALSO use it to provide a ghetto HDD for my Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh during installs. Find an old optical drive from a desktop and use this adapter. Voila, optical drive. If you have other Macs in the house, you 'might' be able to use Remote Disc on the Mini Server, much the same way you do w/ Macbook Airs. Then if you have another Mac around, it'll use that DVD drive.

I'm w/ Grawk, doesn't sound like you 'need' the server but if you want it, have at it. If it were me, I'd use the saved $$ for more equipment, like a NAS backup.

Bear in mind that the Drobo is DAS (direct attached). You have to pay $200 more for Ethernet. Many other solutions already have the ethernet built it. I struggled w/ this, since I REALLY wanted Drobo. But $550+ for a NAS shell w/ no drives was hard to stomach. I got my HP EX490 w/ 1 TB for the same price. And the new s/w works well w/ Macs.

 

[IceClass]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ok, so it seems like you really want the server even tho everyone else suggests it's not the right choice. Go for it and report back At least it's a steal given the value of the OS X Snow Leopard Server

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldskoolboarder /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm w/ Grawk, doesn't sound like you 'need' the server but if you want it, have at it. If it were me, I'd use the saved $$ for more equipment, like a NAS backup. Bear in mind that the Drobo is DAS (direct attached). You have to pay $200 more for Ethernet. Many other solutions already have the ethernet built it. I struggled w/ this, since I REALLY wanted Drobo.

Without being overly lame and wishy-washy, I have to confess to being a wee bit irrationally attracted to the server option.

Money isn't the dominant factor in my choices as I'm underwriting the costs with a side project.
With the external optical drive, it's only $20 or so more than a maxxed out regular Mini according to my snoop at the Apple store and this is mainly what makes the choice of the server version seem like a no brainer.

The two internal drives can be mirrored.

The external optical drive is USB2.0 powered leaving the single FW port free.

The inclusion of OSX Leopard server software is a pretty good deal and does allow me to explore the options in running my own home/office file/media server at no extra expense.

On the downside, I'm getting a Mini for the neat and small form factor in my rig and external optical drives add clutter.
There's still not much info from Apple on the external optical drive such as whether it stacks neatly under the Mini or not.

OSX server apparently makes some things tedious but with no experience of the software I can't vouch whether this is a problem or not (and should my experience with OSX server suck then I can simply install the regular Snow Leopard OS).

I'm going the Drobo route for ease of use and convenience. I'd love a DroboPro but that really is stretching the financial limits.

Thus explaineth my erm..reasoning so far...

 

[grawk]

If all you're doing is file and media serving, regular os x does that just fine. No differences to speak of, really.

The optical drive is the one for the macbook air.

And finally, a maxxed out mini has a faster cpu and more memory than the mini server.

 

[IceClass]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif If all you're doing is file and media serving, regular os x does that just fine. No differences to speak of, really.

So what fancy schmancy stuff -that regular mortals might use- does one get for all the extra dough that server OS costs over regular flavour?

Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif The optical drive is the one for the macbook air.

Erk, Fail! If it don't stack nice n'neat on top of or below the Mini I'm not interested.

Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif And finally, a maxxed out mini has a faster cpu and more memory than the mini server.

It does??
The speed difference is pretty small but granted. They all max out at 4GB of RAM - which is too bad.

I think all things considered, the convenience of the one box approach is what will swing the day.
Grawk, kind sir I believe you have sold me on a maxxed Vanilla Mini.

I shall report back promptly.

 

[Currawong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IceClass /img/forum/go_quote.gif In what way did OSX server make some things tedious?

If you want to do something like add a user or share a printer in regular Mac OS X, it's dead simple to do in System Preferences. It's not dead simple to set up users and whatnot in Server. While there is the Admin utility, there are a lot more options and despite Apple saying that it's easy, if you don't understand what the options mean, or you want to do anything remotely more exotic (like have the user's home folder on a server or log in using the server's authentication, or set up web sites for different domains) then you're in for a rather painful learning curve if you've never set it up on any other kind of server before. It is certainly fun to play around with though.

The Mac Mini Server as a concept is just genius though.

 

[gilency]

I use an old PowerBook g4 as a server and will be switching to a MacBook when I upgrade my laptop in the next few months. It works great with an external drive for music access and it connects not only to my music system and speakers but with 4 other Macs we have in the house, sharing iTunes music and pics. It is pretty sweet. If you have an old computer gathering dust, it is a cheap alternative.