Which mini to use as iTunes music server?

[moyanagy]

Now that pricing of older minis has come down a little, I am thinking to get one for iTunes music server in my home. I have a big collections of lossless music that I will put onto a 1TB SSD inside the mini. I will use the second drive for this, and have the OS on the first, also on a small SSD.

My question is which is a good choice for this? I would like to buy an older cheaper one for this job, but not sure of the specs to buy? 2011 server? 2012 i5? Or which?

 

[rm5]

Now that pricing of older minis has come down a little, I am thinking to get one for iTunes music server in my home. I have a big collections of lossless music that I will put onto a 1TB SSD inside the mini. I will use the second drive for this, and have the OS on the first, also on a small SSD.

My question is which is a good choice for this? I would like to buy an older cheaper one for this job, but not sure of the specs to buy? 2011 server? 2012 i5? Or which?

I'd get a 2012 i5. I had one for quite awhile, but I didn't use it as a Music server. However, I think it actually would be pretty fast.

Reasoning for a 2012 over a 2011 = better software support - runs up to Catalina natively, while a 2011 only runs up to High Sierra natively. Both run Big Sur and Monterey under OCLP.

Hope this helps.

 

[mcnallym]

Have you considered a NAS box if looking for a music server.

Most NAS vendors have an iTunes music server option.

Pretty cheap and low power usage

 

[Boyd01]

I used a 2014 Base 1.4ghz i5/4gb Mini for several years with all my media on an external disk. Worked fine, this is not a very demanding task for a Mac and you should be able to find these very cheap since they're pretty bad as a general purpose computer.

A few years ago I upgraded to a 2014 2.8ghz i5/8gb Mini when B&H Photo was blowing them out for $500. That also works fine, all my media is on a 4tb external SSD. I saw no reason to install an internal SSD since the Mini is hidden in a cabinet. This Mini has a fusion drive, but I split the 128gb SSD from the 1tb hard drive and boot the Mini from the SSD.

Initially I used a 2012 2.5ghz i5 Mini but decided to re-purpose that. But it was fine too. A NAS wouldn't meet my needs because I am also serving about 1200 iTunes videos and AFAIK you need a Mac for that.