Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Could a MacBook basically work the same as a Mini?

dmk1974

dmk1974

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 16, 2008
2,486
539
Just curious...if I decided to use a MacBook (say, the white 2010) as an "always on" server computer instead of a 2010 Mac Mini (I like that last year's model had a built in disc drive), is there any risk to leaving the MacBook on? Would it basically work the same as the Mini?

I have an HDMI out adapter to the big screen and a USB mouse/keyboard combo. A benefit would be that if the power goes out for a short period of time, at least the MacBook has an integrated battery. Anyone try this? Thanks.
 
Should work with no problems.

The only thing bad that would happen is kill the battery in it because it's not being used correctly(drain, recharge) so the life of the battery won't be long if always plugged in.
 
sure. the mini is just a screen-less macbook(pro) with additional ports (internally they always used the same/similar components) in a different form factor.
 
It'll work just fine. As mentioned before, the only bad thing would be the early death of the battery. You'll have to cycle it about once or twice a month and even then, it may not be enough.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
That'll go through a lot of cycles though. Ideally you only need to drain it once or twice a month. When I had an iBook that was relegated to mostly plugged in duty I just set an iCal alarm to remind me to do it monthly.

You could pull the battery as mentioned (losing the power outage benefits)...but you lose CPU power that way. I have an old 2006 or 2007 2GHz MacBook with no battery and I believe it runs at 1GHz. I have no clue how much the newer ones clock down though.
 
japtor said:
That'll go through a lot of cycles though. Ideally you only need to drain it once or twice a month. When I had an iBook that was relegated to mostly plugged in duty I just set an iCal alarm to remind me to do it monthly.

You could pull the battery as mentioned (losing the power outage benefits)...but you lose CPU power that way. I have an old 2006 or 2007 2GHz MacBook with no battery and I believe it runs at 1GHz. I have no clue how much the newer ones clock down though.
Click to expand...

The older non-Unibody Macbooks don't suffer from performance degradation when their battery has been removed. Even if the battery is out, it'll still die a premature death if it isn't used.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. So basically, the main concern would be the battery life in the MacBook. Aside from that though, it sounds like the MacBook should work just fine in this manner. Thanks!
 
dmk1974 said:
Thanks for the replies everyone. So basically, the main concern would be the battery life in the MacBook. Aside from that though, it sounds like the MacBook should work just fine in this manner. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yes, the Macbook will be fine.
 
japtor said:
That'll go through a lot of cycles though. Ideally you only need to drain it once or twice a month. When I had an iBook that was relegated to mostly plugged in duty I just set an iCal alarm to remind me to do it monthly.

You could pull the battery as mentioned (losing the power outage benefits)...but you lose CPU power that way. I have an old 2006 or 2007 2GHz MacBook with no battery and I believe it runs at 1GHz. I have no clue how much the newer ones clock down though.
Click to expand...

the timer i linked has a once a week setting. so he could drain and charge once a week.
 
I had a macbook 2008 unibody, that was my always on server. It worked great and would have been greater if I did the optical drive swap on it for more space. I had it as a server for almost a year with very minimal battery degradation. I did however eventually trade it in for a Mini to not have all the clutter of an entire notebook on my desk. Now my mini fits on a shelf out of site and nothing but a monitor sits on the desk, nice and clean. I was also able to trade my macbook in for $630 credit at Best Buy which allowed me to get the mid range mini for only $100 out of pocket......the decision was a no brainer, especially to upgrade to an i5 system....
 
you can always use Coolbook to manually set your cpu speed/voltage.

i used an older non-unibody c2d macbook pro for a couple months without a battery in it and the cpu continued to adjust speeds based on load. 1ghz on idle and 2.33 ghz on heavy load.

i feel like this thread belongs in the macbook forum.
 
I use my MBP as a desktop full-time - except when traveling of course. I wanted a laptop but couldn't justify buying both an iMac and a MBP so I just got the MBP and hook it up to a monitor and use a full-sized keyboard and Magic Trackpad.

I have it plugged in and powered up 24/7 and in 2 years of using it like this, my battery was still at 93% capacity according to coconutBattery. I would only charge it and discharge it once or twice every 6 months. Still worked fine.

YMMV
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back