Need advice for fast mac that can handle streaming & down/uploading at the same time.

[Greenwink]

What I do with my computers is a lot of streaming while up/downloading lots of data - all home use, no business. My media library is 6TB‘s and growing at a slow, but steady rate.

My current setup is 2 old win 10 towers that can’t upgrade to windows 11. One is super slow, & one is starting to glitch. It’s time to get a new computer(s), and I much prefer Macs. 1 computer is for working on - regular web surfing/research (I regularly have a lot of tabs open at once), social media, & music, ebooks, & miscellaneous data storage. My slower computer is what I use to play music or videos in the background while going about my day. My current daily use computer is not fast enough to do everything at once, which is why I use 2. I don’t use heavy software like media editing, photoshop, etc.

So, what I’m looking for is:
- a computer that can up/downloading lots of data while web surfing with multiple tabs open & either streaming or playing stored media - all at the same time. While not having to wait more than about 5 seconds for something to start after I click on it.

- If 1 computer can’t do all that, I’m willing to use 2 computers like I am now.

- I have all the peripherals for 2 computers, & I prefer my monitors 3 - 10 feet from me, so I’m leaning towards a Mac Mini or the like (or 2).

- I have lots of data I store & access. Some of it daily (like my music & videos), and some I access seldom & irregularly. And I’ll need a minimum of two backups for everything for safeties sake.

My questions:

1. Can 1 Mac Mini do all I’m asking for? How about a Mac Studio or Pro?

2. Should I get a Mac Mini for my daily computering, and use an NAS to store, play, & backup my data?

3. I’m hoping to get an older Mac that is still supported to save money. What’s the minimum specs I need to look for that’ll do what I want: cpu speed, ram, etc.

I hope I was clear enough. If not, just ask me for the info you need.

Thanks.

 

[Bigwaff]

1. Can 1 Mac Mini do all I’m asking for? How about a Mac Studio or Pro?

All the above.

2. Should I get a Mac Mini for my daily computering, and use an NAS to store, play, & backup my data?

Reasonable plan.

3. I’m hoping to get an older Mac that is still supported to save money. What’s the minimum specs I need to look for that’ll do what I want: cpu speed, ram, etc.

Any Mac from 2018 or later w/ 16GB RAM. W/out knowing your budget, it's impossible to say.

 

[mmkerc]

Interesting question, and while I do not know the answer I suspect the issue is less about which computer you use but more about you available band width. Anecdotally with three active computers on my network, one hardwire to router, and two on wifi the jump from 100-200mbs to 1gbs made a significant difference. My wife streaming Apple TV on her Air, while surfing the web for stuff, my child playing streaming online games on her MBP, and me having Zoom meeting sharing network based active files on a Mini (all M1 machines) went from being hit or miss to non events. Occasionally, using more streaming devices, Apple TV, Sonos system the wifi devices will slowdown a bit and have the pause you mention but as indicated I think it is less a computer issue and more a network issue.

That said I think any of the M series computers will do what you need, and even some of the newer intel based computers though considering end of life issue I would stick with a M series computer w/ min 16gb ram, personally I also would not go less than a TB hard drive, though with external drives or network based storage less can be made to work.