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What are you using your mini for?

What do you use your mini for?

  • Primary desktop

    Votes: 19 47.5%

  • Secondary desktop

    Votes: 9 22.5%

  • Media center

    Votes: 16 40.0%

  • Server

    Votes: 16 40.0%

  • Other (see thread)

    Votes: 5 12.5%
  • Total voters
    40
  • Poll closed .
MultiFinder17

MultiFinder17

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 8, 2008
2,840
2,235
Tampa, Florida
Just out of curiosity, what do you have minis around your home doing? I have two at my home right now; a 2012 serves as my home media/file/backup/web server, and a 2009 serves as a secondary desktop to toy around with and occasionally hook up to the TV. Previously, I had a 2009 mini as my primary desktop for four years. What are your minis up to?
 
My CD Mini is my primary desktop. It also is my most powerful desktop since I run mainly laptops. It's in my man cave with all my project PPC Macs. It's my iFixit/music server haha.
 
I use my 2012 quad i7 as a headless Plex server. My hopes for another quad core i7 mini are pretty much non-existent at this point. When the mini can no longer keep up, I will have to look elsewhere for a plex server.
 
Bought 2012 MM to upgrade(?) my G5 Mac (Power PC). I knew that I would want to go with newer software updates. Maxed it out with 16 ram and will probably soon go to SSD. Bought as I knew that the next mini released would have some limitations.
I still use my G5 as there are several photo and graphic apps that I use.
 
I have the Mac mini 2012 base model, this is my only computer. This is my first Mac and I use it for pretty much everything (web surfing, email, movies, office work, graphics, etc.). I moved from Windows to Linux in 1999, haven't touch a Microsoft product since then, and moved again from Linux to OS X in 2014. I'm quite happy that I moved everything to iOS and OS X and I'll never look back. I plan to buy another Mac mini and move the current one to the living room to serve as an entertainment system.
 
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I've taken mine and used it to fill the space within the box it came with..
Or to put it another way, it's now redundant and was replaced by an old PC i had laying around to run as an iTunes server.
The PC on W10 is more reliable and performant.
 
Well the heater I removed from inside the enclosure was 9 watts, and the 2012 Mini idles at 11 watts. So the Mini is much closer in wattage (and size!) than a Mac Pro.

I mean, it's not just a heater. It's also a file server, media server, and runs automated backup processes for itself and my Mac Pro.
 
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I use mine to manage our iOS devices, light computer usage, and as a media server. It is installed on my tv stand. (Media center). It's also the mid range model.

Trajan81 said:
I use my 2012 quad i7 as a headless Plex server. My hopes for another quad core i7 mini are pretty much non-existent at this point. When the mini can no longer keep up, I will have to look elsewhere for a plex server.
Click to expand...

Why do you need a quad core i7 to use as a Plex server ? Most people buy the entry level Minis to use as media servers.
 
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MrWillie said:
I use mine to manage our iOS devices, light computer usage, and as a media server. It is installed on my tv stand. (Media center). It's also the mid range model.



Why do you need a quad core i7 to use as a Plex server ? Most people buy the entry level Minis to use as media servers.
Click to expand...

I share my server with several friends/family members and require a CPU that keep up with 3-5 concurrent transcode streams. Dual core i5 is nowhere near enough to support that. To transcode a 1080P movie, you need roughly a passmark score of 2000. The 2014 dual core models top out at a passmark of 4959 for the dual core i7. My 2012 quad i7 mac mini has a passmark of 7373.
 
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Trajan81 said:
To transcode a 1080P movie, you need roughly a passmark score of 2000.
Click to expand...

Er, what??? I'm not sure what software you're using, but I haven't seen a transcoding application that will balk if it doesn't like the CPU. A slow CPU should simply mean a slow transcode, nothing more. (Are you talking about some sort of real-time video modification?)
 
jpietrzak8 said:
Er, what??? I'm not sure what software you're using, but I haven't seen a transcoding application that will balk if it doesn't like the CPU. A slow CPU should simply mean a slow transcode, nothing more. (Are you talking about some sort of real-time video modification?)
Click to expand...

Plex transcodes in real time unless you ask it to generate optimised versions of videos ahead of time. So if you have 2 or 3 people watching 1080p movies on iPads you need something with a bit of grunt to handle it.
 
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Nospig said:
Plex transcodes in real time unless you ask it to generate optimised versions of videos ahead of time. So if you have 2 or 3 people watching 1080p movies on iPads you need something with a bit of grunt to handle it.
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks! I've always just used Handbrake for transcoding. I guess I've never really seen any value in trying to do such things real-time...
 
jpietrzak8 said:
Ah, thanks! I've always just used Handbrake for transcoding. I guess I've never really seen any value in trying to do such things real-time...
Click to expand...

It's useful if you have a 1080p version of the movie but have many different devices you want to watch on, some that can't handle 1080p. You only need 1 copy of the movie on your server. I run my Plex server on Ubuntu running on a Skylake Pentium G4400, just enough to handle one H.265 stream.
 
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I use mine as a download mule and media host. Download media to a 4-bay USB 3.0 enclosure, play it on my MBP in the other room. I'm not using Plex, just file sharing.

I have enough free storage I could probably set myself up as a CrashPlan endpoint for my brother as well as for my MBP, then we don't have to pay for the service (the app is free to use for P2P backup destinations).
 
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