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NAS vs. Always-On MacMini for serving media

M

m021478

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 23, 2007
379
5
Is there any reason to purchase an NAS drive to serve all of my iTunes Music & Movies on my LAN, when I also have a Mac-Mini that is switched on 24/7 which can serve the same content on my LAN by sharing its drive via AFP?

Please advise. Thanks!
 
One consideration is the 2.5" hard drive that's in the Mac Mini. It may not last as long as a typical 3.5" drive in a NAS. Plus it would be more difficult to replace if and when it does fail.

If you already have a Mini and you're willing to use it as such, then sure, why not. I chose to buy a NAS because it was cheaper than buying a Mini. I could have bought a cheap used PC to do the same job, but the power consumption there would have been much greater. Power consumption will be a factor in the Mac Mini, as well, but probably not as much as a bigger PC.
 
m021478 said:
Is there any reason to purchase an NAS drive to serve all of my iTunes Music & Movies on my LAN, when I also have a Mac-Mini that is switched on 24/7 which can serve the same content on my LAN by sharing its drive via AFP?

Please advise. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I use my Mac Mini as a HTPC media center and as a 24/7 NAS. I have a FW800 dual drive enclosure hooked up to it for mass storage of media/files... the internal stock drive in the Mini is left just to run the OS/Apps. It's a great home server platform!
 
One thing to remember is that with snow leopard and an airport router you no longer need to leave the "server" running 24/7. The router will advertise the services available on the mini even if its sleeping, and wake it on demand, (when files/services are requested from it). I use this with my TV, and it works well.
 
notjustjay said:
One consideration is the 2.5" hard drive that's in the Mac Mini. It may not last as long as a typical 3.5" drive in a NAS. Plus it would be more difficult to replace if and when it does fail.
Click to expand...

I've had two minis running 24/7 for the past few years and it appears there may be some longevity issues with the hard drives. In both cases, I had to replace the drives after about 3 years of constant use. The external drives (with fans) power down on idle and have never had any problems.

That said, I'm not going to change what I do. It may be "more difficult" to replace a hard drive in a mini than in some NAS device, but it isn't "a lot more difficult".

A.
 
VirtualRain said:
I use my Mac Mini as a HTPC media center and as a 24/7 NAS. I have a FW800 dual drive enclosure hooked up to it for mass storage of media/files... the internal stock drive in the Mini is left just to run the OS/Apps. It's a great home server platform!
Click to expand...

+1

This is my exact setup as well, feeding my macbook and 2 :apple:TVs and it works great. As downinitjr stated, you can have the mini setup to wake on demand so it's not running continuously. My externals sleep after a few minutes of inactivity and spin right up as needed. Takes a few seconds but no big deal.
 
downinitjr said:
One thing to remember is that with snow leopard and an airport router you no longer need to leave the "server" running 24/7. The router will advertise the services available on the mini even if its sleeping, and wake it on demand, (when files/services are requested from it). I use this with my TV, and it works well.
Click to expand...

How do I go about setting this up on my Mac-Mini running snow leopard? Does it do it by default, or are there any special system preferences checkboxes that need to be checked?
 
rgarjr said:
won't the waking up every time put more wear and tear on the hard drive since it has to spin up and then down when it goes back to sleep.
Click to expand...

A different kind of wear and tear, maybe?

I don't have a Mini but I do have a NAS with a 1 TB hard drive that holds my MP3's and other documents. It's set to sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity.

A typical day for me: I come home from work around 8 or 9pm. I start some music playing until 11 or 12, then I go to bed.

I think (hope?!) having the hard drive spin up for 3 hours, then spin down again, is better than having it spin constantly for 24 hours.
 
It is also a question of what type of files you want to serve and where. If it is just a place to access your iTunes library then a NAS is exactly what you want. If however you want to add things to your library via Internet, ripping or whatever than a mini would be better.

I use the mini+drobo combo and it is very good for what I want.
 
rgarjr said:
won't the waking up every time put more wear and tear on the hard drive since it has to spin up and then down when it goes back to sleep.
Click to expand...

That depends on the type of hard drive that you are using.

Consumer drives are not supposed to run 24/7, the are made for continuous spin ups and downs.
Enterprise class hard drives, like the WD Raid Edition, can indeed fail earlier when they are turned on and off frequently.

There are several 24/7 2.5" hard drives on the market. That's definitely the way to go for a 24/7 running Mac Mini that does not wake up on demand.
Another, even better, option would be a very small SSD. It can be a very slow one and 32GB should be enough for the OS and apps on a server.
I've got 8GB in use on my Snow Leopard Server.
 
Is anyone using Plex on a Mac Mini for the user interface?

Been trying it lately, and it works well, looks great; and has several options for media sources. It even has a Upnp client (if you already have a Upnp server somewhere in your home) - not many Upnp clients out there for the Mac, strangely enough.
 
VirtualRain said:
Back up important data and don't worry about drive failure. No home usage pattern is going to stress a drive no matter what kind it is.
Click to expand...

Exactly the home usage kills 24/7 server drives. To me home usage is awaking and sleeping the computer several times a day, and that's not what the enterprise drives are made for.
 
whooleytoo said:
Is anyone using Plex on a Mac Mini for the user interface?

Been trying it lately, and it works well, looks great; and has several options for media sources. It even has a Upnp client (if you already have a Upnp server somewhere in your home) - not many Upnp clients out there for the Mac, strangely enough.
Click to expand...

Plex Rocks!!!


Transporteur said:
Exactly the home usage kills 24/7 server drives. To me home usage is awaking and sleeping the computer several times a day, and that's not what the enterprise drives are made for.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? Can you provide a link?

Here's a great white paper by Intel on this subject and they don't mention any added stress on a drive from regular spin-down/up. In fact, everything would indicate much better life expectancy from an Enterprise drive.

Enterprise class drives are largely differentiated based on their sector remapping solution (See the above white paper and this article...Link). They may also use higher tolerance parts, but there's no guarantee of this. In fact, the use of higher tolerance parts, would imply it would be more reliable whether it's run 24/7 or spun-down regularly... either way it will be more reliable.

At any rate, there's no way any drive at home is even close to being stressed as much as one used in an enterprise setting.
 
Internal hard drives

If you're worried about the longevity of 2.5" drives, just boot the Mini off the external drives you already have attached to it.

If you don't want the OS on the same drive as all your media, buy a separate Firewire external drive (whatever size is the price/size sweet spot) and use that as the boot drive.

Keep in mind that if you use a Mini instead of a NAS, you *can* use the drives attached to it as a Time Machine Backup destination as well. and if you hook the mini up to your HDTV, even if you don't use the mini with Plex or somesuch to play movies to your TV, you can use the HDTV as a monitor: get a Magic Mouse and a bluetooth keyboard and you can use your HDTV as an occasional display for websurfing, writing, etc.

Me, I have a ginormous (12" x 19") Intuos Wacom tablet that's hooked up to my mini via a USB extension cable and I use my HDTV and my mini and sit on my sofa, kicked back, and I sketch or "oil paint" or what have you.

The mini is a handy little machine to have around.
 
VirtualRain said:
At any rate, there's no way any drive at home is even close to being stressed as much as one used in an enterprise setting.
Click to expand...

Of course that depends on the setup of an average home user, but yes, generally spoken that sounds reasonable.

The spin-up/down failure might be a myth, which unfortunately (or better luckily) can't prove. I just asked our admin a few years ago about the usage of the file servers, which don't have to run day and night because no one is accessing them at night. He said that it would be possible but not appropriate due to the hard drives that may fail earlier when spinning them up and down every day because their motors are not constructed for that type of usage.
Again, I can't prove that and it would be nice if that's indeed a myth as it would save me a lot of money. ;)

Maybe nanofrog will show up in this topic and can say something to that.
I'm sure he can give us a clear statement.
 
VirtualRain said:
Back up important data and don't worry about drive failure. No home usage pattern is going to stress a drive no matter what kind it is.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree with part of this. Hard drives (not SSD) are mechanical devices and will fail. I had two WD MyBooks, which I bought together 3 years ago, both fail within weeks of each other. The part I agree with is BACK UP or be doomed!
 
Transporteur said:
Maybe nanofrog will show up in this topic and can say something to that.
I'm sure he can give us a clear statement.
Click to expand...

LOL... While I haven't seen him in this forum, he does have a nose for these kinds of threads and as you say... can usually lend some credible input! :D

TuckBodi said:
I respectfully disagree with part of this. Hard drives (not SSD) are mechanical devices and will fail. I had two WD MyBooks, which I bought together 3 years ago, both fail within weeks of each other. The part I agree with is BACK UP or be doomed!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I should have been more clear... If you backup, you don't need to worry about failure and shouldn't worry... and I agree drives fail... but it is rare, although perhaps getting worse these days. It use to be that hearing of a drive failure was about as common as a flat tire (eg. almost non-existant) but now you hear stories like yours regularly. :eek:
 
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