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Mac Mini as an alternative to NAS

U

UNCMo96

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 26, 2007
66
4
What is the oldest Mac Mini that i can use as a file server with the following uses:
1. Time machine backups
2. Plex server with 4k transcoding (only 2 streams at most)
3. General file server for video and picture editing. (I keep my media on external drives but I'd rather not have to connect every time).
 
2012 will do time machine, plex, picture and video storage fine. Editing videos on a NAS is a completely different ball game. I would focus on the mini as a storage server first and then use fast local storage for editing.
 
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The 2012 Mini will be limited to gigabit ethernet, you would get around 100MB/sec in the best case (depending on lots of variables) but it could be a lot slower. Is that fast enough for your photo/video editing? If your network can handle it, a 2018 Mini with 10gb ethernet might be a better choice for that kind of use.
 
The nice thing about connecting external storage to a single Mac Mini and using it as a network share, is everything can be backed up with the base subscription of Backblaze with unlimited storage.
If you venture into dedicated NAS solutions, you'll have to pay for backup based on how much storage you're using.

Also a pro tip, macOS has a hard time connecting to network shares for some reason, so I add my network share to my Login Items (Sys Pref, Users) so it automatically connects at login.
 
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grouch said:
I did this for a long time then just broke down and bought a synology NAS. Very happy that i did though.
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate why you are happy? My synology feels slow to me and trying to figure out why. Do you use the quick connect feature or?

Years ago I tried using a 2012 mini as a NAS, and it just seemed Apple was making it harder and harder to do so..
 
G5isAlive said:
Can you elaborate why you are happy? My synology feels slow to me and trying to figure out why. Do you use the quick connect feature or?

Years ago I tried using a 2012 mini as a NAS, and it just seemed Apple was making it harder and harder to do so..
Click to expand...
What sorts of things are you having trouble with and which model do you have?

I have the Synology NAS DiskStation DS1520+ and it's running plex server, sonnarr, radarr, sabnzbd, transmission, and a few other things. Despite the weak cpu I haven't felt any major pains.

With Plex be sure to disable hdr tone mapping since that's entirely cpu-bound. I have two volumes, one is ssd and the other is hdd - I keep my apps, metadata, and frequently accessed files on the ssd volume, while large files and media is kept on the larger hdd volume.
 
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macsound1 said:
The nice thing about connecting external storage to a single Mac Mini and using it as a network share, is everything can be backed up with the base subscription of Backblaze with unlimited storage.
If you venture into dedicated NAS solutions, you'll have to pay for backup based on how much storage you're using.

Also a pro tip, macOS has a hard time connecting to network shares for some reason, so I add my network share to my Login Items (Sys Pref, Users) so it automatically connects at login.
Click to expand...

I also suspect that MacOS has a hard time connecting to network shares. Do you have any idea what's up with that? Very annoying.
 
I use a Synology NAS. I have been glad I did this when one of the drives died. I was able to replace the drive and NAS automatically added it to the RAID array. It would have been bad to lose the data or taken a lot of time to restore it from AWS Glacier.
 
The one thing that has been stopping me from doing this is that that I want redundant drives, and I haven’t been able to find any clear information about which drive enclosure to use and how to configure it for a reasonable price.

I have seen some recommendations for JBOD enclosures and RAID solutions, but reviews are always very mixed.

I am currently using a PC with four 8 TB disks and an SSD for boot running TrueNAS that does everything I need, but I would prefer a Mac-based solution.
 
Arctic Moose said:
The one thing that has been stopping me from doing this is that that I want redundant drives, and I haven’t been able to find any clear information about which drive enclosure to use and how to configure it for a reasonable price.

I have seen some recommendations for JBOD enclosures and RAID solutions, but reviews are always very mixed.

I am currently using a PC with four 8 TB disks and an SSD for boot running TrueNAS that does everything I need, but I would prefer a Mac-based solution.
Click to expand...
What is a reasonable price? For $600 or so you can get a new 4 bay Synology or other brand NAS. They usually run all of the services (Plex, etc), VMs, multiple RAID options, etc.
 
G5isAlive said:
Can you elaborate why you are happy? My synology feels slow to me and trying to figure out why. Do you use the quick connect feature or?

Years ago I tried using a 2012 mini as a NAS, and it just seemed Apple was making it harder and harder to do so..
Click to expand...
What do you mean by slow? If you mean slow to connect then you can set the drives to not spin down when idle (HD sleep timer). If transfer speed, what is the speed of you your connection? 1 Gbps ethernet is going to yield slightly over 100 MBytes per sec.
 
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jerryk said:
What is a reasonable price? For $600 or so you can get a new 4 bay Synology or other brand NAS. They usually run all of the services (Plex, etc), VMs, multiple RAID options, etc.
Click to expand...

I built the TrueNAS I am using now after the Drobo 5N I used prior to that failed after only a few years of use and one replacement under warranty.

The TrueNAS does everything I need, so the only reason I’d switch would be to replace it with a macOS-based alternative.
 
I use a 2014 Mac Mini as a server for media and backups. It works great. There are limitations though, it can’t handle 4K 265 codecs via hardware so there is stuttering. So I make sure everything is in 264. With that in mind, it has handled everything without a hiccup.

Another advantage of this model is that there is an opportunity to add a NVMe SSD in addition to a SATA SSD internally. Furthermore, it natively supports the latest OS release.
 
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spooklog said:
I also suspect that MacOS has a hard time connecting to network shares. Do you have any idea what's up with that? Very annoying.
Click to expand...

I've never had a problem with macOS connecting to Windows network shares. Our NAS is on a Windows 10 system and it does a great job of it.
 
Arctic Moose said:
I have seen some recommendations for JBOD enclosures and RAID solutions, but reviews are always very mixed.
Click to expand...
I have a 2018 Mac mini that I use in conjunction with an OWC Thunderbay 4 that I use as my file server. The Thunderbay 4 is populated with four WesternDigital Red 4 TB drives. The four 4 TB drives are run in a RAID 5 configuration using SoftRAID.

This system works well. However, I am careful not to change MacOS until I am certain that all the bugs have worked out with SoftRAID. Currently, operating under MacOS 11.6 Big Sur.

I then back-up to another hard drive and also to BackBlaze.

This set-up has worked well for me since January 2019.

Don
 
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UNCMo96 said:
OK. So I went ahead and bought a refurbished 2014 mac mini and it's working great. It's currently on Big Sur and surprisingly is rather quick. Is there a reason why I should upgrade to monterey on it if I'm just using it as a server?
Click to expand...
I am using Big Sur on my 2018 Mac mini as a file server. Works fine. Again, I am waiting to install Monterey until I am certain that the bugs are worked out for use with SoftRAID.

Don
 
2011 MacMini running Linux here being used as NAS. More performant that macOS as its lighter weight but all running current software and security patches which Apple no longer provide. Really easy to install and setup. No real Linux knowledge needed and all Web GUI based.
 
I did end up getting a MacMini 2014 used off of ebay and it seems to work well. In a way it's more cost effective than buying a NAS since I can just use the drives I already have.
 
UNCMo96 said:
I did end up getting a MacMini 2014 used off of ebay and it seems to work well. In a way it's more cost effective than buying a NAS since I can just use the drives I already have.
Click to expand...
Exactly why I purchased mine as well, I already had my SSDs. I also like the ease of using it as a wireless and hardwired Time Machine Sever. I’ve had headaches in the past with 3rd party implementations using SMB. I feel like I got a great bargain and tons of functionality. With my old Thunderbolt 3 dock that I cycled down to this machine I even have 10 Gb USB connections and or 4K 60 Hz resolution. Although with the 4K60, the USB throughput drops as you run into saturating the TB2 port. However that hasn’t been an issue for me as I do not have any drives connected to the USB ports.
 
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