Mac Mini as a dedicated server

[Anonymous]

Funnily enough I noticed the gamma2 announcement after posting the comment above, it looks like an interesting project, but teeny soldering mind you. I'm really impressed with the community and products that amb create.

good luck with the DAC, once I get a bit more space I might well follow you.

 

[lordmortlock]

J.Seb:
I really would not recommend that setup without a screen.

Are you positive there would be a big difference between using an Airport extreme with the digital output to a mac mini?

It's just that every time something unexpected happens like a pop up error window, itunes crash, software update. whatever, you'll need to plug a monitor, keyboard and mouse to find out why the server is not responding.

If you do have another mac in the house, then you could use remote desktop to manage the server.

The more I think about this the more I realise that you're right. A great idea, but probably a total pain in practice. I spent some time last night carefully A/B testing lossless files streamed wirelessly vs CD originals and have come to the conclusion that rather than throw £££ at this solution I'd be better off buying a kick ass dac. The difference is very marginal.

 

[PJPro]

My personal work around for the screen would be to use the telly which will be rght next to the mini mac.

You know, there's no reason why you shouldn't use macbook pro or something. Most of the time it would be closed but you could open it if a problem occurred. Just means that the laptop needs to be on top of your hifi stack.....much like the turntable used to be.

 

[Alec]

Always thought any laptop type thingy turned off when you close them? Is that hopelessly outdated or does it only apply to apple.

 

[PJPro]

al7478:Always thought any laptop type thingy turned off when you close them? Is that hopelessly outdated or does it only apply to apple.
Does it? I only use my laptop open but others at work use theirs closed and work from a usb keyboard and external monitor. No experience of apple...so I'll assume you are right.

 

[professorhat]

the other option is to use the vnc lite app which will let you control the screen of your mac from your iphone / ipod touch. to prove it works, i typed this post using it. it's a bit limited e.g. caps lock doesn't seem to work, but would be fine for checking the screen and clicking ok occasionally.

 

[Tom Moreno]

PJPro:al7478:Always thought any laptop type thingy turned off when you close them? Is that hopelessly outdated or does it only apply to apple.Does it? I only use my laptop open but others at work use theirs closed and work from a usb keyboard and external monitor. No experience of apple...so I'll assume you are right.

The Mac laptop will work with the lid closed. Though (and I assume this is probably true of the PC laptop as well) this is only if it's A- Plugged into mains power, and B- connected to an external monitor. I've got a DVI to HDMI adaptor and HDMI cable that I plug from the output of my MacBook Pro into my LCD TV and I can wake it from sleep using the apple remote even if the TV is turned off (though this is probably because the TV lets the laptop think there is an active connection even though it's off). I imagine that a PC laptop runs the same way and wouldn't allow itself to be woken if not connected to an external monitor. There is an applet you can download for a mac (I believe it's called No Sleep) that goes into system prefs and can disable OSX's automatic sleeping on closing the lid.

 

[professorhat]

PC laptop will happily keep running with no connections when lid is closed if it's set in the Power Options in Windows. Not sure why OS X doesn't allow the same...

 

[Anonymous]

Just got me a mac mini to replace my old htpc and I am having hdmi handshake problems with my onkyo a/v. therefore I need to connect it directly to the tv - that's quite disappointing, I didn't expect this to happen.

My advice:

- If you don't want to use a screen, use an Airport Express & iPhone/iPod touch. This duo is incredibly handy.

- If you have a screen around, get an Apple TV - the good thing about it is that it is cheaper and it will sync the library, so there's no need to have the server on all the time.

- If you want to see dvds, mkv and divx files. Mac Mini.

 

[Anonymous]

PJPro:al7478:Always thought any laptop type thingy turned off when you close them? Is that hopelessly outdated or does it only apply to apple.
Does it? I only use my laptop open but others at work use theirs closed and work from a usb keyboard and external monitor. No experience of apple...so I'll assume you are right.

MacBook Pro laptops can operate in "camshell" mode with the screen closed, they need an external display attached and a keyboard, though I think that this can be a bluetooth one on recent machines. My mbp at work is usually connected to an external display with the screen closed. I think some PC laptops can do this, but ymmv.

at home I have a ungainly arrangement of an iMac for TV viewing, which is a bit noisy for music listening and a powerbook g4 for music, both perched on top of a hifi rack. When we get around to buying a TV the iMac will go.

A macmini hooked up to a TV is the other option I'd consider, the advantage of a laptop is convenience in ripping music. I think once we move I'll shift the computer stuff away from the hifi kit and use a longer optical cable to hook it in to the DAC or go with another airport express. The simplicity of wired connections between dac and computer makes things simple, too many wifi dropouts using the AE in same room as hifi, but bizarrely it works brilliantly in the kitchen. (sorry this turned in to a bit of a ramble)

 

[lordmortlock]

professorhat:
the other option is to use the vnc lite app which will let you control the screen of your mac from your iphone / ipod touch. to prove it works, i typed this post using it. it's a bit limited e.g. caps lock doesn't seem to work, but would be fine for checking the screen and clicking ok occasionally.

That would do it. Good idea.

 

[Anonymous]

On the face of it there's nothing to complex in what you're trying to achieve and the Mac Mini will happily remain powered on for an indefinite period of time.

I'll relocate my Mac mini to my lounge and give it a go to see how it all hangs together, in practice.

--

Out of curiosity how far is your TV from your HIFI?

I currently have my Mac hooked up to my LCD TV (and use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse), but it wouldn't be too difficult for me to run a fairly long audio cable from the Mini to my HIFI (even though they're in two different rooms).

 

[lordmortlock]

Hey Qwerty

I'm thinking of a set up without a TV. So there'd just be a little mac mini in with part of my hi fi system. So it seems some kind of VNC style control would be best unless I fancy a laptop on the top of the stack.

 

[John Duncan]

lordmortlock:J.Seb:
I really would not recommend that setup without a screen.

Are you positive there would be a big difference between using an Airport extreme with the digital output to a mac mini?

It's just that every time something unexpected happens like a pop up error window, itunes crash, software update. whatever, you'll need to plug a monitor, keyboard and mouse to find out why the server is not responding.

If you do have another mac in the house, then you could use remote desktop to manage the server.

The more I think about this the more I realise that you're right. A great idea, but probably a total pain in practice. I spent some time last night carefully A/B testing lossless files streamed wirelessly vs CD originals and have come to the conclusion that rather than throw £££ at this solution I'd be better off buying a kick ass dac. The difference is very marginal.

I just saw this. Have we discussed apple TV? I use mine without a screen (for reasons I won't bore you with). If the 160gb hard drive isn't big enough you can extend it with a USB drive if you install atvflash (though best to do at the beginning rather than after the fact, since it appears to then make the internal drive redundant).

 

[Anonymous]

VNC Lite works quite well, one thing to watch out for however is that if you set iTunes up to automatically import a CD and then eject, this will happen each time you insert a CD.

What I mean by this is that if you insert a CD allow iTunes to rip it and at some point insert the same CD again iTunes will want to rip it a second time and will present you with a dialog asking what you want to do. Not a big problem, but just something else to watch out for.

--

I'd agree with John that it may be worth investigating Apple TV instead, it'd be a shame to miss out on everything else that the mini can do, that plus the ATV would be cheaper.