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Help Me Spend (Very Little) Money!

kirbyrun

kirbyrun

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 26, 2009
379
495
The situation: For a few years now, I have been using a 2011 21.5” iMac as my home server, serving up my ripped DVD collection to my TVs, as well as acting as a Homebridge server and a destination point for my wife’s Time Machine backups.

I also use it as a second monitor, connected to my 27” 2015 iMac via Thunderbolt in Target Display Mode.

Recently, the 2011 iMac has been having odd display glitches when NOT serving as a second monitor. The screen gets pixelated and often will not respond to mouse clicks. I ran AHT and Disk First Aid and everything checked out, but I’m convinced it’s the graphics card ready to give up the ghost.

So I’m trying to prepare for the inevitable.

I need to have a new rig that will fulfill all three functions — media server, Time Machine destination, and second monitor.

The wrinkle here is that money is super-tight right now, so I can’t spend a great deal. I’ve been looking at used iMacs and used Mac minis on eBay and have found several that meet my needs in the $250-350 range, which is great.

BUT…!

These machines tend to be 2014 at the latest. (No iMac after 2014 supports Target Disk Mode, so they’re not an option. And the only Mac mini after 2014 is the new 2018 model, which I can’t swing right now, especially with a monitor.)

So I’m trying to figure out what makes more sense: pick up a cheap 2014 iMac and just slot it in, or grab a 2014 Mac mini, cross my fingers that it’s a 2014 model manufactured sometime AFTER 2014 and grab a cheap monitor, too.

I’m concerned because in either case, the odds are I’m looking at a machine that is only three years newer than my current server, which means I could be looking at another breakdown in the near future.

Any thoughts/advice?
 
How much storage do you need?

With serious digging and luck, you might be able to snag a base model i3 2018 Mac Mini for $550 open box. I did at my local MicroCenter, but it only had 128gb SSD. If you have a 4k TV laying around, that can actually act as a monitor.

However, if you need a cheap monitor (could probably snag a non-4k 27 inch TN or VA panel for sub $200, maybe $100).

You then need external storage, probably get an HDD of 3-5TB for less than $100.

Still, you're not spending $350 on this plan, but the new i3 chip is quad core and at least this would be a better long term solution.

Alternatively, occasionally MicroCenter or other computer retailers may heavily discount the 21.5 iMacs as well, which would be another all-in-one. I would see if any retailers have any '17 iMacs around that they want to move. May be more after January return deadlines also.
 
Well, Target Display Mode is totally dead for Retina iMacs. That really cuts down on your options for an iMac replacement. For increased longevity plus cheaper to fix in the long run, I'm going with a Mac Mini and an external display.

I think your 2015 27" iMac has two Thunderbolt 2 ports, so that can drive a wide variety of monitors for your second display, you could pick up a used and inexpensive monitor of really good quality. Even a new Dell 27" IPS 1920 x 1080 panel is like $139 at Best Buy right now, and you can go way cheaper than that used. That's the easy part.

Harder from a cost perspective is the server/Time Machine combo. If it were me, I'm picking up a gently used MacMini. Not going to be $350 cheap, plus you are going to need external storage, no question.

How much external storage do you need? HDDs are the vastly cheaper option, but sometimes HDD platters really, really suck if being used for both media serving and backup storage. They can take many seconds to spin up, and their performance is awful when trying to both read and write, especially when bouncing around sectors. Years ago our system absolutely crawled when trying to both backup and serve on a Time Machine drive years ago, it was terrible. Replaced it with dedicated drives for backup, and for server, we used 10,000 RPM drives and never powered them down, what a difference. So no matter what you do, you need to see if an HDD, connected via the USB ports on a used Mac Mini, can serve your media at the necessary speeds (no idea what your system entails, but I don't see a slow HDD working well, or at all, for something like 4k content with Dolby Vision HDR. But maybe I'm wrong, maybe you can load content to a player connected to your TV? I'm making assumptions based on your use of the term media server). Maybe a 10,000 RPM drive can get it done? Something like WD's Velociraptor?

(The easy, longterm, reliable solution to this is, of course, an external SSD. A fantastic solution would be something like an M.2 NVMe external enclosure slotted with an internal SSD like the Samsung 970 EVO - absolutely lightning fast as an external SSD backup if you have USB 3.1 Gen. 2 port on your Mac Mini, which the current Mini has. Get this, you are set for many years to come, maybe even a decade, with 10GB/s theoretical transfer speeds. I have one connected to my 27" iMac right now, and yeah, it's really, really quick. It will cut your backup and media transfer times by a very significant amount over HDDs, and you will never go back to platters once you have uberfast external sticks for backup. The problem, of course, is price. The external SSD solution is going to be ~$500 minimum for 2 TB, if you need more than that, it's going to be really, really expensive.)
 
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Wow, thanks to both of you for your suggestions and thoughts! I should have mentioned in my original post that as far as storage goes, I'm actually OK -- I have plenty of external storage already available to me. As long as the new system has 500GB-1TB internally, I'm good!
 
I would consider getting a Synology NAS for file server, backup destination, and media server. Always on, no rebooting or fiddling.

Buy a monitor to...be a monitor.

The downside is a bit more to setup, configure and learn. The Synology has a ton of features and options. Don't have to use any, but loads there if you want it.
 
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