Which Mac Mini For My Media Server Needs?

[OmegaRed1723]

I'm looking to centralize the media storage in our home and would love some feedback on which Mac Mini would best suit my needs, which are pretty modest. The goal is a machine that will:

• House all our media (iTunes, movies/tv) for streaming to two MBPs & one TV
• Be the central location for Time Machine backups on all 3 computers
• Run Air Video Server live conversion for streaming media to iPad
• Run Plex for viewing media on attached HDTV
• Ability to simultaneously stream media to TV in one room while live encoding HD source material for playback on iPad

Regardless of which Mini I end up with, my plan is to remove the Superdrive and install two 500GB Momentus XT hybrid hard drives (Raid 0?) with Time Machine backups for all the computers on external FW800 drives that I have. That said, will an early '09 Mini with the 2.0 C2D have enough horsepower, or do I need a current gen model?

 

[Hellhammer]

The CPU difference isn't that big in new models... Any C2D Mini should be fine.

I would build a cheapish PC for that purpose as you get more power and a lot more HD space, but that's just my opinion. You can get one for about the same price as Mini

 

[Tilpots]

I would build a cheapish PC for that purpose as you get more power and a lot more HD space, but that's just my opinion. You can get one for about the same price as Mini

I don't think a PC will accomplish the things the OP is looking for; Time Machine, Plex, etc. It appears he's working in an all Mac environment so their choice of a Mini should fit in well. But I do think you're right that any Intel would work fine.

OP, get the best one you can afford. I'd personally go for a 9400 one, for hardware acceleration, but that's just me.

 

[Hellhammer]

I don't think a PC will accomplish the things the OP is looking for; Time Machine, Plex, etc. It appears he's working in an all Mac environment so their choice of a Mini should fit in well. But I do think you're right that any Intel would work fine.

OP, get the best one you can afford. I'd personally go for a 9400 one, for hardware acceleration, but that's just me.

I'm not sure but I think you can backup to shared PC's HD as well with TM and there are plenty of alternatives for Plex. I was just throwing out my recommendation because with Mini your disk space is limited while most ATX PCs can easily take 6 HDs. Nothing bad with Mini of course, just showing OP some other options

 

[Tilpots]

I'm not sure but I think you can backup to shared PC's HD as well with TM and there are plenty of alternatives for Plex. I was just throwing out my recommendation because with Mini your disk space is limited while most ATX PCs can easily take 6 HDs. Nothing bad with Mini of course, just showing OP some other options

There is no alternative for Plex.

 

[OmegaRed1723]

I realize that for the same money I could build a quad-core PC, but I'm in an all-Mac environment and would prefer to stay that way. Good to know that any old C2D will work, but I'll start looking on Craigslist for cheap one with a 9400 GPU to get to work on. Though I might, just might, do some research on running Time Machine on a Windoze box.

 

[talmy]

I'm not sure but I think you can backup to shared PC's HD as well with TM

I did that when Leopard came out since I had a Windows PC I was using as a server. It turns out it wasn't reliable -- it's prone to corruption and then you lose everything in it. I then went to externals, but with my recent purchase of the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server to replace my 8 year old Dell I've aggregated all the TM backups to that one system.

I don't recommend the MM with SNL as a media server, unless there are other server features to make the pain worthwhile.