Mac mini Server

[L T]

Hi,

I am looking to get a Mac mini to set up a home server so I can plug in all my external storage and access it from my MacBook

I have identified the 2018 model with the i3 chip, 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD as my best bet.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

 

[velocityg4]

That'll work. Although you could just get any semi-recent with enough internal bays. Then store everything internally. Then running a NAS OS on it like FreeNAS. That mini is a bit pricey if all it is doing is acting as a file server.

 

[Boyd01]

I use a 2012 quad-core Mini for this, but even it's probably more powerful than needed. The 2018 Mini is certainly a nicer computer however and will be supported for much longer (2012 Mini support stops at Catalina).

 

[Yodabeesh]

I use a 2012 quad-core Mini for this, but even it's probably more powerful than needed. The 2018 Mini is certainly a nicer computer however and will be supported for much longer (2012 Mini support stops at Catalina).

I'm kind of in the same boat. I'm faced with either building a new NAS (which can add up to probably $600+) or just getting an older Mac Mini. When doing price comparison, I can get a 2014 Mac Mini on eBay with 1TB HDD, 4GB Memory, i7 1.4 GHz for less than $300 on eBay. (I can easily upgrade the HDD... maybe 4-8TB?)

Super basic needs:

1. Store personal home videos which I prefer to access via Apple TV - I prefer to use the "TV" app to manage my videos specifically (probably < 800 GB right now) as I can do playlists, easy sync with iPad for travel, and access via Apple TV. Probably 95+% of my music is in Apple Music. 5% is local for the rare instances where the CD isn't on Apple Music, so I don't really care about space for music. I don't care about VPN'ing into the files remotely. Essential files are already stored on iCloud.​

2. Time Machine for 2 laptops (my husband and me).​

I think I should be able to partition the HDD for TM, or alternatively hook up an external HDD (so many lying around right now) to the Mini.

The only challenges I can think of are:

1) older models can't be upgraded past Catalina to Monterey (though IDK if that makes a difference?) and
2) the # of Authorizations as my husband, sister, nephew, and I are authorized for purchases. I'm already at my limit. Probably will need to kick off my sis and nephew. I always need to enable Home Sharing for the AppleTV.​

​

Any thoughts/feedback/pros/cons are immensely appreciated!

 

[chikorita157]

I used a Mac mini 2014 that I bought in 2015 and it did the task as a server well for almost 7 years. That is until I got the Mac Studio and replaced the 2014 one with the M1 one. I prefer using a Mac mini over a NAS appliance since when the manufacturer drops support for the NAS software, it becomes a security risk. Also, I read up about these NAS devices being insecure and vulnerable to ransomware attacks, I can't really trust these prebuilt ones. The Mac mini is easy to manage since it has a GUI and is flexible.

I paired mine with a Thunderbolt hard drive enclosure, a OWC Thunderbay 4. Pricy, but it can use less power than building your own and slapping TrueNAS or Unraid, although I built a NAS to take advantage of ZFS, but it acts more like a SAN since the Mac mini still manages the file sharing and it's connected via iSCSI through 10 gigabit ethernet.Even Unraid/TrueNAS still requires technical knowhow compared to just using a Mac mini and connecting some hard drives or a Thunderbolt 4 hard drive enclosure and enabling file sharing.

 

[Boyd01]

I can get a 2014 Mac Mini on eBay with 1TB HDD, 4GB Memory, i7 1.4 GHz for less than $300 on eBay.

That is an i5 1.4ghz 2014 Mini, not an i7, although the the standard model only had a 500gb internal hard drive. Personally I wouldn't pay anywhere near $300 for one of these, they are severely crippled computers. I have one, and although it worked fine as an iTunes server, it was pretty useless for anything else. For example, it would take 40 seconds for System Preferences to open after clicking. This has been discussed extensively around here in the past. Adding a SSD will help, but you can't get around the 4gb RAM issue.

Now, it might be OK for your needs, but I sure wouldn't pay $300, maybe $100? Mine just sits in the closet now, don't have a need for it and wouldn't be worth the effort to sell.

You can use any Mac as a Time Machine destination, you configure this in the sharing control panel although it is so un-intuitive that I had to Google to figure out how to do it.

Regarding video playlists, they work fine on the host Mac (in iTunes on Mojave) and work fine on my two Apple TV's. However, they don't work in the TV app on my 2018 Mini with Catalina. The playlist is shown, but it's blank when you select it. And the TV app on iOS doesn't seem to support video playlists at all, they are not even shown.

Music playlists work fine across all devices however.

 

[Yodabeesh]

That is an i5 1.4ghz 2014 Mini, not an i7, although the the standard model only had a 500gb internal hard drive. Personally I wouldn't pay anywhere near $300 for one of these, they are severely crippled computers. I have one, and although it worked fine as an iTunes server, it was pretty useless for anything else. For example, it would take 40 seconds for System Preferences to open after clicking. This has been discussed extensively around here in the past. Adding a SSD will help, but you can't get around the 4gb RAM issue.

Now, it might be OK for your needs, but I sure wouldn't pay $300, maybe $100? Mine just sits in the closed now, don't have a need for it and wouldn't be worth the effort to sell.

You can use any Mac as a Time Machine destination, you configure this in the sharing control panel although it is so un-intuitive that I had to Google to figure out how to do it.

Regarding video playlists, they work fine on the host Mac (in iTunes on Mojave) and work fine on my two Apple TV's. However, they don't work on in the TV app on my 2018 Mini with Catalina. The playlist is show, but it's blank when you select it. And the TV app on iOS doesn't seem to support video playlists at all, they are not even shown.

Music playlists work fine across all devices however.

Thanks. I really appreciate this feedback. You're correct with the config. If you do a search for "Mac Mini 9sky" on eBay, the vendors sells them in different configurations. I figured that if I got the least expensive one, that I could at least upgrade the HDD and that it would meet my needs.

I just got a new 14" MBP. Leaving me with my old MBP - 512GB SSD + 256GB "external SSD" (I have a BaseQi adapter to repurpose the SD card slot) for a combination of ~768GB. It's "ok", but slow and I can't upgrade beyond Catalina due to age. I was thinking about repurposing it, but the storage is insufficient (probably could tether an external HDD to meet my needs), and I'd have to worry about keeing the MBP "on" all of time as it shouldn't go to sleep for the purposes of access and TM backups.

That is a thread unto itself that I'll have to research.