Mac mini for iTunes and iPhoto only

[dukiebluedoc]

I am using iTunes for music (large library on external USB drive) and iPhoto (large library on external USB drive),both on my 2017 MBP running Mojave.
I am thinking about getting a Mac mini to stay on Mojave just for iTunes and iPhoto, so I can then upgrade my MBP to Big Sur when available.
I do a little bit of post processing on the photos, no large rendering.
I would keep the music and photo libraries on external drives, which I back up very frequently, so would not need large amount of internal storage for the Mac mini.
Which year mini would I need, how much RAM (I am thinking 16gB but don't know if I need that much)?

thanks for any advice.

 

[Boyd01]

I am using a 2014 2.8ghz i5/8gb/fusion Mini for this, but I split the 128gb SSD from the fusion drive and use it for my system disk. All my media is on a 4tb external USB SSD that is cloned to an external hard drive nightly. But prior to that, I had the (much maligned) base model 2014 1.4ghz/4gb/500gb hard drive Mini and it was also fine as a server (but pretty much worthless for anything else).

I don't think you need much RAM for a simple server like this and anything more than 8gb probably won't make a difference. I am also running Mojave on the 2014 Mini. A 2012 Mini would also be fine for this, it cannot be upgraded past Catalina, but that shouldn't matter. If you decide to use a 2018 Mini then you should be aware of the problems with Mojave

Mac Mini 2018 Kernel panic bug_type 210 after Security Update 2020-002

Hello everyone, since installing the Mojave Security Update 2020-002 I do get a message that my Mac Mini 2018 was restarted because of a problem even I shut it down normally. The Mac Mini 2018 was running fine for 3 months. The Apple Hardware Check does not show any errors. Also tried to reset...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[dukiebluedoc]

I am using a 2014 2.8ghz i5/8gb/fusion Mini for this, but I split the 128gb SSD from the fusion drive and use it for my system disk. All my media is on a 4tb external USB SSD that is cloned to an external hard drive nightly. But prior to that, I had the (much maligned) base model 2014 1.4ghz/4gb/500gb hard drive Mini and it was also fine as a server (but pretty much worthless for anything else).

I don't think you need much RAM for a simple server like this and anything more than 8gb probably won't make a difference. I am also running Mojave on the 2014 Mini. A 2012 Mini would also be fine for this, it cannot be upgraded past Catalina, but that shouldn't matter. If you decide to use a 2018 Mini then you should be aware of the problems with Mojave

Mac Mini 2018 Kernel panic bug_type 210 after Security Update 2020-002

Hello everyone, since installing the Mojave Security Update 2020-002 I do get a message that my Mac Mini 2018 was restarted because of a problem even I shut it down normally. The Mac Mini 2018 was running fine for 3 months. The Apple Hardware Check does not show any errors. Also tried to reset...

forums.macrumors.com

Thank you Boyd01 for the detailed reply--VERY helpful!

 

[hfg]

I also bought one of the 2014 2.8ghz i5/8gb/fusion Minis when B&H had the $500 sale on them. I split the fusion drive and use the 128GB SSD as the server system disk. I replaced the internal 1TB hard drive with a 4TB SSD to hold my music, video, and photo libraries. I backup to an attached hard disk and to a NAS server. The media server is shared to all of the family computers and AppleTVs. It is headless and just sits there quietly doing its thing! Works great.