Mac Home Server

[Pooldraft]

Hello, I am looking at setting up a home server to share files and other stuff. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what is the best box for me. I was looking at a mini but i am worried about my upgrade ability, I was also looking into a later PowerMac but not sure how their 10.4 support is. Any advice, stories, or comments would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[jsw]

If your main interest is serving files, the only things you need to worry about are the disk space you can have in or connected to your server and the bandwidth of your local network. I would strongly consider a refurbished PowerMac (because of internal disk space) or a mini (because of low power consumption) - but you'll need to hook up external disks to the mini, because it's too expensive to bump up the internal drive, which isn't going to be all that big no matter what you buy. FWIW, a G4 mini will serve files just as well and can be found much cheaper.

Any Macs made within the past, oh, four or five years will run 10.4 just fine, particularly if you're not too worried about the graphical eye candy.

 

[jamesi]

the best choice for a nice cheap home server would be a sawtooth pm G4 with dual 450s or something. even tho that doesnt sound like much, you can always upgrade it later on b/c 3rd party companies have made up to dual 1.8s for the sawtooth. dual 450s is enough for a decent server. throw in some HDDs or even get a scsi adapter for better speed. get 1 gig of ram and tiger will shine on it.

 

[jsw]

the best choice for a nice cheap home server would be a sawtooth pm G4 with dual 450s or something. even tho that doesnt sound like much, you can always upgrade it later on b/c 3rd party companies have made up to dual 1.8s for the sawtooth. dual 450s is enough for a decent server. throw in some HDDs or even get a scsi adapter for better speed. get 1 gig of ram and tiger will shine on it.

Good points - and, in a home server, upgradeability isn't all that important anyway. Plus, of course, with the money you save getting an older G4 PM, you could simply buy a newer one down the road when the G4 has breathed its last.

 

[Heb1228]

the best choice for a nice cheap home server would be a sawtooth pm G4 with dual 450s or something. even tho that doesnt sound like much, you can always upgrade it later on b/c 3rd party companies have made up to dual 1.8s for the sawtooth. dual 450s is enough for a decent server. throw in some HDDs or even get a scsi adapter for better speed. get 1 gig of ram and tiger will shine on it.

Dual processors on a home file server are probably overkill. A single 450-600 MHz machine would be fine.