inheriting a 2014 Mini questions

[satinsilverem2]

So my grandfather past away earlier this year and amongst the things that are being given to me are a 2014 Mac mini. its a late 2014 mid spec so 2.6 i5, 8GB RAM, and a 1TB spinner. My thoughts are to use it to replace my 10+ year old media server. I would upgrade the HDD to an SSD as thats the only thing I can upgrade. That all being said my other thought was to put it on my desk so my 2016 MBP can actually be more portable instead of docked all the time. I do quite a bit of photo and video (4K) editing on my MBP and am wondering how well the Mini would do as an everyday editing machine. I know it won't do as well as the more modern MacBook that I use but it would it be noticeably slower?. What do you guys think?

 

[getrealbro]

Apple’s spec page for your 2014 Mini says …
“Support for up to two displays at 2560 by 1600 pixels, both at millions of colors
Thunderbolt digital video output
• Native Mini DisplayPort output
• DVI output using Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter (sold separately)
• VGA output using Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter (sold separately)
• Dual-link DVI output using Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (sold separately)
HDMI video output
• Support for 1080p resolution at up to 60Hz
• Support for 3840-by-2160 resolution at 30Hz
• Support for 4096-by-2160 resolution at 24Hz”

So your 2014 Mini will support a 4K monitor (via HDMI). But it will be at 24Hz.

You might give 4k editing a try. But I’d use the 2014 Mini as a sever replacement.

GetRealBro

 

[Partron22]

It doesn't need an SSD a to work as a media server. A 512gB SSD on USB external is plenty to run the server software.
Use that old, slow terabyte to store movies and music.
If you'd rather desktop, go with an external SSD, and keep movies/music on half your internal and Time machine on the other. You'll get reasonable speed for most purposes.
I'd stop at High Sierra, but Mojave runs fine if you want the new bells and whistles.