Anyone using a Mac Mini as download/file transfer slave?

[300D]

Hmm.. My G4 Cube doesn't have enough slots for additional cards.

Hmm...nobody was talking about a cube. Last time I checked, it wasn't called a PowerMac.

 

[velocityg4]

The mini would work though I would consider a used first gen for price. You don't really need that much CPU power for file transfers.

Personally I would just build a cheap Windows machine and control with Remote Desktop Client which MS provides free for Mac OS X. Though you will need XP Pro, Win Vista Business or Win 7 Business.

The Single Core Socket 775 celerons use only 35W. Otherwise the Pentium Dual Cores run at 65W. But you can get a higher end Pentium Dual Core then drop the multiplier and voltage to save more energy and still have plenty of horse power for file transfers.

Now if you want to use 25W Core 2 Duo mobile CPU's for the best in energy savings. Then you might as well stick with the Mini. Unless you can get a good deal on Socket P motherboards. The best I can find is $200 US then the cheapest CPU is $220 US. Though you may still want to build yourself. If this is a file server you may want to build a RAID 5 array which you can do under Windows Vista and 7 with dynamic discs in computer management.

For a PSU I would go with one under 300watts that is 80+ certified or better. As I recall the higher watt supplies still would drain more energy since they have a minimum draw for AC to DC conversion based on their wattage.

For hard drive's 2.5" drives should be fine now due to how cheap the 500GB models are. Unless you need a lot of storage in which case you will need the higher energy usage 3.5" drives.

 

[UltraNEO*]

Hmm...nobody was talking about a cube. Last time I checked, it wasn't called a PowerMac.

Really? Where you hear that non-sense?
Looking on the back of mine, what do I see?

If you disagree, feel free to complain to Steve about the mis-print 😉


BTW, it's called a "PowerMac" because...

All Power Macs prior to 1997 used PowerPC 60x-series processors, and 4-digit model numbers (e.g. Power Mac 8600). In 1997 the first third-generation ("G3") Power Macintosh was introduced, using the PowerPC 750 processor. From this model onward, Apple no longer used a numbering scheme to identify their Power Mac models, but instead referred to them by their PowerPC processor generation number (i.e. G3, G4, and G5). Later models based on the same generation of PowerPC processor relied on descriptive characteristics to differentiate them, e.g. the color scheme ("Power Macintosh G3 - Blue and White") or a technical feature of a particular model ("Power Mac G4 - Gigabit Ethernet"). This same identification scheme was used in the iMac, PowerBook, and iBook lines of Macintosh computers.
The marketing name was changed from Power Macintosh to Power Mac with the introduction of the G4 models, meaning all G3 and earlier models are Power Macintoshes, while all G4 and G5 models are Power Macs. Not all Apple documentation follows this rule, but the vast majority does.


source: wiki

 

[UltraNEO*]

Update!!!

The mini would work though I would consider a used first gen for price. You don't really need that much CPU power for file transfers.

Personally I would just build a cheap Windows machine and control with Remote Desktop Client which MS provides free for Mac OS X. Though you will need XP Pro, Win Vista Business or Win 7 Business.

The Single Core Socket 775 celerons use only 35W. Otherwise the Pentium Dual Cores run at 65W. But you can get a higher end Pentium Dual Core then drop the multiplier and voltage to save more energy and still have plenty of horse power for file transfers.

Now if you want to use 25W Core 2 Duo mobile CPU's for the best in energy savings. Then you might as well stick with the Mini. Unless you can get a good deal on Socket P motherboards. The best I can find is $200 US then the cheapest CPU is $220 US. Though you may still want to build yourself. If this is a file server you may want to build a RAID 5 array which you can do under Windows Vista and 7 with dynamic discs in computer management.

For a PSU I would go with one under 300watts that is 80+ certified or better. As I recall the higher watt supplies still would drain more energy since they have a minimum draw for AC to DC conversion based on their wattage.

For hard drive's 2.5" drives should be fine now due to how cheap the 500GB models are. Unless you need a lot of storage in which case you will need the higher energy usage 3.5" drives.

Decided I won't buy a MacMini for this purposes, instead I'm gonna use one of the MacBooks. Should be fine, I have three.. hehe. Considering the MacBook White (pre-nVida) is the slowest of the systems, and the least used machine, I figure it'll be perfect!! It even has space for a second internal HD and a UPS (so-to speak).

.. just need to find wall bracket so I can place it there and leave it to do it's thing.

 

[rgarjr]

nice. Yeah if you already have a few of those just use it for that.

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

.. just need to find wall bracket so I can place it there and leave it to do it's thing.

Sounds neat. I'd find a way to hide the cords in the wall and run it to a TV.

My neighbor uses a headless MacBook (probably GMA whatever) to store movies, music, etc.