Resolved Which MacOS for Mac Mini 2012 as Plex Server?

[surfnode]

Hello,

I am looking at setting up my 2012 Mac Mini as a Plex Media server and am wondering what variant of macOS I should be running in terms of performance? I appreciate I can update it to newer with OCLP but wondering what overhead that will cost me overall?

Specwise it has 16GB ram, 500gb SSD and 1TB SATA storage.

All my media is stored on an external NAS with dual gigabit ethernet with both the Mac and NAS connected into the same switch for fast connectivity.

I've been toying around with Linux and Docker on my mini for the last few days and have got a bit fed up and frustrated with the complexities of which I don't have to worry about if using MacOS instead.

Thoughts and suggestions welcome!

 

[Honza1]

Plex media server requires 10.13 or higher (High Sierra or higher), I would install highest version Mac Mini can run without any additional work and used that. I assume that is 10.13 or higher?
As far as I know Plex does not care much about OS, it cares more about cpu capabilities and if it can do hardware encoding.

 

[McScooby]

I couldn't be bothered messing about with stuff, part of the reason I've got a Mac, so traded the 2012 for a base M2.

It runs like a champ, if it's not enough I'll upgrade it to a M3 next year.

On the 2012 it took ages to do a library scan, on the M2 we're talking seconds.

In answer to your question though there's this.

 

[surfnode]

@Honza1 - I've just used OCLP to flash 10.13 to a USB to install onto this 2012 mini. Will see how that goes.

 

[mcnallym]

Bit late however have you considered just setting up Plex media server on your NAS.

I use my Mac Studio as iTunes Server but have the media stored on a NAS and automount the share.

however installed Plex media server on the NAS and don’t bother turning on the Mac unless using it actively.

I get that already have the mini however just a suggestion that may make life even simpler if the NAS has a Plex Server available.

 

[Insidious]

I would guess Catalina as it's the latest you can update to, but Monterey works super great on a 2012 via OCLP.