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our poor mac mini is dying. need advice.

D

dazed

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
My wifes 2007 mini has led a hard life and is finally showing signs of imminent death (all usb devices are getting ejected many times a day).

We now have to decide between getting a new mini or going for a mac pro as we dont like all in one solutions like the imac (although it is very pretty 🙂 )

It's mostly used for email, surfing and some Lightroom and photoshop work and will also be bootcamped to windows 7 for the wifes accounting work. Would the new mini be able to cope with this workload or should we be getting a lowend MP ?


tx
 
Obviously the Mac Pro would be ideal but if the old Mac Mini held up then i see no reason why a new one couldn't do an equal or better job

i would recomend the Mac Mini
 
dazed said:
We now have to decide between getting a new mini or going for a mac pro
Click to expand...

Or, you could have the old machine repaired.

If you decide you want a new machine, or repairing the old one is not worth it, I would go for a new mini. Since a 3 year old mini served your needs a 2010 mini certainly would.
 
Have you tried to reinstall the OS, or boot up from the install disk to test for problems? Do you have multiple accounts on your mini so you can verify you have the same problems in all accounts?
 
The 2010 Mini will be good enough for anything that you're presently doing with a 2007 Mini. +1 on not getting the server version.
 
What is the downside of getting a refurb server? Having 2 internal hds seems like a good idea and I can swap the boot hd for a ssd.

Can I simply replace the SL server with a regular copy?
 
If you have enough money I would go for the mac pro if not I would go for the mac mini, but not the server since it sounds like you don't need the server version.
 
Mini server is just fine why wouldn't it be? Just don't enable the servers and remove them from the dock.

Installing software mostly from the Internet.
 
dazed said:
What is the downside of getting a refurb server? Having 2 internal hds seems like a good idea and I can swap the boot hd for a ssd.

Can I simply replace the SL server with a regular copy?
Click to expand...

The retail Snow Leopard disk doesn't have the necessary drivers to run the new Mac Minis (that includes the older white server as well as the new Aluminum one). You would need to borrow someone's Snow Leopard distribution disk that came with the regular Mac mini.

If you stick with the server OS you will find differences in the initial configuration that may confuse you. Once running, the configuration for file sharing, printers, and remote access are different. And, of course, you don't get the iLife suite installed.

I would guess that Mac minis with Snow Leopard Server being more available as refurbs than standard minis is a reflection of lots of them being returned by people who were viewing them as standard systems with two hard drives.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I guess I just assumed I could install my snow leopard disk on the server mini so I would just have a mini with 2 drives.

Ideally I'd like 2 internal drives so I can put apps on the ssd and user folder on the other.
 
Ordered an external blu-ray from OCW just to see what I can do with it. Attaching it via FireWire 800 onto my 4,1(2010) mini server.

Besides can bring it to my laptop to use if wanted.
 
So it looks like i have 2 choices if i want to get a mini.

I can get the server version, swap out one of the drives for an ssd and put the user folder on the second drive OR get the regular mini, swap out the drive but keep everything on the ssd.

so the questions are...

how does OSX server differ from the non server version ? Will i be missing out on any functionality?

If i keep everything on the ssd, am i just going to create a problem for myself down the line?
 
If those two drives can be dropped into the 09 server. What two drive combos can be dropped into the 10 server? One SSD and on regular
 
Last edited:
dazed said:
so the questions are...

how does OSX server differ from the non server version ? Will i be missing out on any functionality?

If i keep everything on the ssd, am i just going to create a problem for myself down the line?
Click to expand...

I basically pointed out the differences you would find in my previous post. One thing I did forget is that there are differences in what TimeMachine backs up, although since I don't use it on the server I don't remember what isn't backed up.

I've got three minis, one a server and the two others base models I use as entertainment centers. All of them are late-09 models. The server has 3 external drives connected (5TB total capacity), but that saves me from externals on any of the other systems in the house. The two internal drives are formatted RAID0 for maximum performance, but they are still slower than the single drive in my iMac. If I were paying $1000 for the mini as a desktop computer, I'd sooner pay $1200 for the entry iMac.

Keeping files on an SSD won't create any problems down the line although SSDs do wear out and become slower over time. It might be better to consider replacing the existing drive in a standard mini with the Seagate Momentus hybrid drive.
 
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