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Mac Mini Server

J

JD2

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 20, 2002
26
0
Belgium
Hello there,

I am quite new at the server side of the mac but in this case this is not the main point.

I came across a dead cheap 2010 mini server but I (in my non existing knowledge of server Mac mini's) do not know if I can use this as a 'normal' mac for my kids.

Do I only have to install a new OS to get it running as a 'normal' mac?

Thanks for your replies!
 
Yes, an installation of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion or OS X 10.9 Mavericks will work too. There is no special hardware in a Mac mini Server to not allow it to run a client version of Mac OS X.
 
I don't think you need to even reinstall the OS if you don't want to. It should run essentially like a "normal mac" anyway.

Please let me know if there's more than one of these "dead cheap" MacMini servers...
 
There isn't any such thing as a "server version" or "client version" of OSX (any more).

OSX Server is just a set of applications that are installed as a package.

And there's no such thing as a "server Mac" or a "client Mac". It's just a set of hardware options that Apple thinks are appropriate for a server.

It's just a Mac. Like any Mac.
 
Back in 2010, OSX server was not a cheap app, but a variant of the standard OSX (10.6), which was pretty expensive when purchased separately (exact price depending on the number of included client licenses).

The Mac mini server came standard with a 2nd hard drive instead of an optical drive, more Ram 4 GB), an i7 CPU and the above mentioned OSX Server.

Basically you should be able to use the mini as if it had a standard OSX installed, but due to the nature of 10.6 server edition, your kids have more chances to render the machine unusable through tinkering (meaning you should have a backup at hand).

Normally it's no problem, if you carefully setup a dedicated user account for them and keep full admin rights to yourself.

If you should run into any problems nevertheless (I think I once read about problems with 10.6 server during "normal" use), you can still install 10.9 Mavericks. Some people have argued that it's increased resource demands would make problems on older machines, but as the server mini was pretty beefed up for its time (and Mavericks is available free of charge), you can simply give it a try.

In any case you should consider replacing one hard drive with a SSD as your boot drive, as that will make a huge difference in felt speed. It's pretty easy on the server, as you don't have to disassemble the whole computer, but merely remove the internal antenna to get access to the "lower" drive...
 
Neodym said:
The Mac mini server came standard with a 2nd hard drive instead of an optical drive, more Ram 4 GB), an i7 CPU and the above mentioned OSX Server.
Click to expand...

Mac Minis in 2010 were all Core 2 Duo, regardless of being a server model or not.
 
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