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Author Topic: mac mini vs mac mini server?  (Read 15569 times)

HSakols

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mac mini vs mac mini server?
« on: October 30, 2012, 10:51:20 am »

My 2007 Imac works with LR 4 but is pretty sluggish especially scrolling through images.  The new Mac Mini's look enticing.  Sorry if this is a dumb question but does the mac mini server need to be used with another machine?  Why use the mac mini server over just the mac mini?

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Christopher Sanderson

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Re: mac mini vs mac mini server?
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2012, 01:47:51 pm »

No, the MacMini Server is used as a stand-alone or more likely on a LAN.

You are paying a premium for the OS X Server software installed and the second hard-drive - otherwise now pretty much identical to the single HD MacMini.

HSakols

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Re: mac mini vs mac mini server?
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2012, 03:25:04 pm »

Thank you. I understand now.
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francois

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Re: mac mini vs mac mini server?
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2012, 04:05:39 am »

Thank you. I understand now.

The premium is about the second hard drive. OS X Server can be purchased for a modest $20.
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Francois

mac_paolo

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Re: mac mini vs mac mini server?
« Reply #4 on: October 31, 2012, 06:13:02 am »

The premium is about the second hard drive. OS X Server can be purchased for a modest $20.
Exactly.
If you have a spare hour and the will to enjoy a surgery, there are cheap kits with everything you need to mount a 2.5" HDD.
It's much cheaper than the premium Apple requests for the 2nd drive upgrade.
Setting up the software RAID for the HDD couple is an easy move too.
Upgrading RAM is a matter of opening the cover and swap it.

Buy the CPU upgrade if you really need and keep the rest as default.
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francois

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Re: mac mini vs mac mini server?
« Reply #5 on: October 31, 2012, 07:29:59 am »

Exactly.
If you have a spare hour and the will to enjoy a surgery, there are cheap kits with everything you need to mount a 2.5" HDD.
It's much cheaper than the premium Apple requests for the 2nd drive upgrade.
Setting up the software RAID for the HDD couple is an easy move too.
Upgrading RAM is a matter of opening the cover and swap it.

Buy the CPU upgrade if you really need and keep the rest as default.

It's not even too difficult to install a second hard drive in a Mini. iFixit.com has a video for the mid-2011 model and will probably update it for the latest Minis.
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Francois

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: mac mini vs mac mini server?
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2012, 02:09:54 pm »

.. Why use the mac mini server over just the mac mini?

Can anyone actually answer the OP question (or at leas my reading of it)?

While everyone concentrates on the spec differences (i.e., extra drive and different software), what I (and i think OP) want to know is "why server?" When given the choice, why would I go for a server version of anything? And please do not tell me "because it has an extra drive, etc."

I fully admit my ignorance of the subject, but here is one possible angle: is it because I could host my own website that way? Again, my apologies if that sounds stupid, but just wanted to indicate the type of answer I am looking for.

mac_paolo

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Re: mac mini vs mac mini server?
« Reply #7 on: October 31, 2012, 02:56:13 pm »

Can anyone actually answer the OP question (or at leas my reading of it)?

While everyone concentrates on the spec differences (i.e., extra drive and different software), what I (and i think OP) want to know is "why server?" When given the choice, why would I go for a server version of anything? And please do not tell me "because it has an extra drive, etc."

I fully admit my ignorance of the subject, but here is one possible angle: is it because I could host my own website that way? Again, my apologies if that sounds stupid, but just wanted to indicate the type of answer I am looking for.
Being a Computer engineer I would be glad to fill pages and pages of reason, but not knowing what you use or need, it's hard to tell -why/how- you should use it.
In general it's a low wattage Mac which could be used 24/7 unattended and reached via Screen sharing/file server when you need it.
Mail server, directory server, chat server, web server, file server, multimedia server, Final Cut Pro X cluster, you name it.
Any SoHo environment could be managed with a Mac mini, especially if your clients are Mac machines.

Mac mini and Mac mini server are essentially the same, where the latter has OS X Server pre-installed (which you could install an a mini anyway) and the second hdd. That's it.
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RobSaecker

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Re: mac mini vs mac mini server?
« Reply #8 on: October 31, 2012, 03:15:15 pm »

I fully admit my ignorance of the subject, but here is one possible angle: is it because I could host my own website that way? Again, my apologies if that sounds stupid, but just wanted to indicate the type of answer I am looking for.

Yes, you could host your own website on a Mac Mini server. But you could host it just as well on the non-server version, everything you need is either already included or can be easily obtained for free.

There are a couple other things that need to be considered, though. For one, does your ISP allow you to run a server on your account? For most non-commercial accounts, the answer to that is no. And for another, running a server is not a trivial task. It's nothing that can't be learned, but it's definitely not something one does casually.
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HSakols

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Re: mac mini vs mac mini server?
« Reply #9 on: October 31, 2012, 03:41:02 pm »

Slobodan,
Thanks for asking again.  Rob and Mac thanks for the explanations.  I'm glad to here that later if I want I can turn a mac mini into a server for less than apple would charge.  For now I don't need the server, but I have read about users who have gone with the server version. 
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JBerardi

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Re: mac mini vs mac mini server?
« Reply #10 on: October 31, 2012, 07:54:10 pm »

Slobodan,
Thanks for asking again.  Rob and Mac thanks for the explanations.  I'm glad to here that later if I want I can turn a mac mini into a server for less than apple would charge.  For now I don't need the server, but I have read about users who have gone with the server version. 

Up until last week, you had to buy the "server" model in order to get a quad-core processor. Now the only reason to buy it is if you want two internal drives without having to perform any surgery on the thing.
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Justan

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Re: mac mini vs mac mini server?
« Reply #11 on: October 31, 2012, 09:26:28 pm »

Being a Computer engineer I would be glad to fill pages and pages of reason, but not knowing what you use or need, it's hard to tell -why/how- you should use it.
In general it's a low wattage Mac which could be used 24/7 unattended and reached via Screen sharing/file server when you need it.
Mail server, directory server, chat server, web server, file server, multimedia server, Final Cut Pro X cluster, you name it.
Any SoHo environment could be managed with a Mac mini, especially if your clients are Mac machines.

Mac mini and Mac mini server are essentially the same, where the latter has OS X Server pre-installed (which you could install an a mini anyway) and the second hdd. That's it.


I haven’t read about the Mac server OS platform recently and accordingly their server platform has come a long way.

http://www.apple.com/osx/server/features/

Do you know if this integrates with Windows ActiveDirectory and permits interoperability?

To the OP, if you want to publish to the web from your home network and maintain a degree of security, this is a good and entirely Mac way to do that. All by itself, that is saying something. In addition, it appears, a good way to do most of the functions that many smaller network servers do. It looks pretty cool.

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