Are M1 Macs suited as a 24/7 home server? [SSD lifespan]

[Jim Lahey]

Hi. Looking to possibly purchase an M1 mini, but I’m concerned about the limited lifespan of integrated storage. The machine would be a home server running pretty much 24/7/365. Is non-user replaceable solid state storage suited to this kind of environment or am I risking at least a replacement motherboard in the not so distant future? I’m nervous about not being able to replace the SSD in a computer that is going to be used in such a manner.

Penny for your thoughts?

 

[jdb8167]

It kind of depends on what you are planning on using it for. If you plan on a lot of continuous writes to disk why not just get an external SSD?

 

[Jim Lahey]

It will be sharing files all over the LAN and being used primarily as a Plex Server, so it will be seeing pretty heavy use for extended periods and mostly 24/7. That said, the major data sources are network attached anyway, so perhaps you're right. It's still a factor of concern for me but I guess I can't let it stop be buying. I wasn't aware that it's writes that wear the storage more than reads.

Thanks!

 

[jdb8167]

It will be sharing files all over the LAN and being used primarily as a Plex Server, so it will be seeing pretty heavy use for extended periods and mostly 24/7. That said, the major data sources are network attached anyway, so perhaps you're right. It's still a factor of concern for me but I guess I can't let it stop be buying. I wasn't aware that it's writes that wear the storage more than reads.

Thanks!

As a Plex server wouldn’t most of the activity be reads and not writes? Outside of writing the original media file it would be all reads after that. It is writing to the SSD that causes degradation.

Writes cause all the wear on SSDs.

 

[Jim Lahey]

Yes you're right and it seems I don't have much cause for concern in that case. I still don't like the idea of not being able to replace the SSD, but I guess they are all going this way now. You've been a great help so thanks

 

[velocityg4]

It will be sharing files all over the LAN and being used primarily as a Plex Server, so it will be seeing pretty heavy use for extended periods and mostly 24/7. That said, the major data sources are network attached anyway, so perhaps you're right. It's still a factor of concern for me but I guess I can't let it stop be buying. I wasn't aware that it's writes that wear the storage more than reads.

Thanks!

As a Plex server. I expect most everything will be on external drives. There should be very few writes to the internal SSD. SSD in general are overkill for Plex. Plex just needs one or more big HDD. You'll be replacing it before the SSD goes bad. Because it can't handle transcoding 16K video or some future video codec.

 

[Spindel]

As a Plex server. I expect most everything will be on external drives. There should be very few writes to the internal SSD. SSD in general are overkill for Plex. Plex just needs one or more big HDD. You'll be replacing it before the SSD goes bad. Because it can't handle transcoding 16K video or some future video codec.

Lol yeah considering I run my Plex server on my NAS (no transcoding just direct streaming) with only RAID1 spinning disks and have no problems I would say SSD is super overkill for Plex

 

[Jim Lahey]

To be clear I’m not looking at buying a Mac mini as a Plex Server. It will be my main home computer but will double as a Plex Server so will never get much downtime. But in any case the data sources are two NAS boxes on my home LAN, and so it appears I have little to worry about ?

 

[pcfarrar]

I'm using my M1 mini as a Plex Server and also use it heavily for working from home. Works great, I have my media on a 4TB SSD connected via USB-C and its perfect as a silent server.

 

[velocityg4]

Lol yeah considering I run my Plex server on my NAS (no transcoding just direct streaming) with only RAID1 spinning disks and have no problems I would say SSD is super overkill for Plex

Yep, I just use an SSD for the boot drive and the plex server itself. Whatever you'd call the server folder with the library database, cache, thumbnails, metadata, &c. To speed up browsing. But all the actual media is on spinners.

 

[Jim Lahey]

Yep, I just use an SSD for the boot drive and the plex server itself. Whatever you'd call the server folder with the library database, cache, thumbnails, metadata, &c. To speed up browsing. But all the actual media is on spinners.

This will be the setup. The server and its database will run from the boot disk. All major data will stream from my NAS boxes. I hadn’t really considered this when I posted the thread, but it’s been made clear to me now, so I realise it‘s not a concern in and of itself ?

 

[jerryk]

I can do Plex and file serving from my Synology NAS. Does your NAS have a Plex option?

IMHO a NAS is better suited for Plex or other file serving based tasks and has the upside of being able to expand storage and replacable drives.

 

[Jim Lahey]

I can do Plex and file serving from my Synology NAS. Does your NAS have a Plex option?

IMHO a NAS is better suited for Plex or other file serving based tasks and has the upside of being able to expand storage and replace drives.

It's just the way I like to operate. "This is the way." ?

I prefer the flexibility of having the server run on my computer and having the database regularly and constantly backed up to Time Machine in a manner in which I can navigate in Finder. The Plex libraries are linked to shared network folders on two NAS units with a current total usable capacity of 22TB in Synology SHR with 1x drive redundancy in each box, so my upgrade options aren't limited by any stretch. The new setup would remain identical but the Mac mini would be a new one instead of almost ten years old.

 

[rui no onna]

Yep, I just use an SSD for the boot drive and the plex server itself. Whatever you'd call the server folder with the library database, cache, thumbnails, metadata, &c. To speed up browsing. But all the actual media is on spinners.

Yep, SSD is nice for the database and metadata cache so I wouldn't say SSDs are completely useless for Plex.

Actual movies, though, can't beat $/GB for spinners just yet.