Older Mac mini as iTunes server

[msh]

I don't think you understand what I am doing. I am not storing any data on the local (internal) Mac mini drive. All data is stored on a very fast remote ZFS pool consisting of 4 x 4TB 7200 rpm drives in a striped mirrored pair array. In spite of that the old Mac mini HDD still labors to perform its very limited function in caching streams. Hence, I recommend that people run, not walk, to an SSD replacement.

 

[jpietrzak8]

I don't think you understand what I am doing. I am not storing any data on the local (internal) Mac mini drive. All data is stored on a very fast remote ZFS pool consisting of 4 x 4TB 7200 rpm drives in a striped mirrored pair array. In spite of that the old Mac mini HDD still labors to perform its very limited function in caching streams. Hence, I recommend that people run, not walk, to an SSD replacement.

You're right, I don't understand. I do not, and have never had, any problem streaming data from an HDD drive, even on ancient Macs. A striped RAID should be faster, not slower, than a single HDD. If you're having more trouble retrieving data from a RAID than from a lone HDD, I would submit you need to take a look at your RAID hardware.

If you're trying to go from remote HDD -> local computer -> local HDD (for caching?) -> back to local computer -> to display, I've gotta ask: what is this "caching" role? You should be able to display video directly from the remote drive, there's no point in involving local drives for that...

Having the drive remote should not make a difference, unless you've got an extremely slow LAN, or are having communications difficulties.

Again, this is what I'm trying to say: you were able to fix your problems by adding an SSD to your system. But that doesn't mean that an HDD was the root of your problems; HDDs can and do serve video just fine, if used properly.

 

[msh]

Again, this is what I'm trying to say: you were able to fix your problems by adding an SSD to your system. But that doesn't mean that an HDD was the root of your problems; HDDs can and do serve video just fine, if used properly.

I agree. I think the issues were probably the JRiver media streaming software which wants to use the local drive for caching some stream data in spite of the copius available ram. I didn't mean to exaggerate the video issues on the old HDD as they were few and only in demanding situations. But now with SSD there are none.

 

[other games]

All Macs, including Mac mini, iMac, Mac Pro and MacBooks are MINI TOSLINK , the headphone jack is a combination jack that is also your optical audio out , so if you have a tv that is only DVI and you have a sound bar or a tv that has an optical input, you can get an adapter to run it from the mac's headphone port

I can't believe this fact has escaped me for so many years.