The Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server
The Mac mini doesn’t look like a server—it doesn’t have a redundant power supply or an ethernet port. Up until the current generation, the mini still had an AC power brick. Heck, this server version of the Mac mini doesn’t even have an optical drive. However, in spite of all the things it doesn’t have, the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server is a highly useful box that’s perfect as a utility server, or a do-it-all small office/ home office box. It doesn’t require a rack, it doesn’t take up a lot of space. and it doesn’t use a lot of power.
What You Get
What you got is a small box that ships with a 2.66G Hz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB of RAM (upgradable to 8GB), dual 500GB 720o-rpm hard drives, one gigabit ethernet port, a FireWire 800 port, an HDMI-out port, a Mini Display- Port, four USB 2.o ports, an SD Card slot with SDXC card support, and an nVidia GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM.
What You Don’t Get
The Mac mini has no optical drive, no redundant power supplies, and no ethernet ports. You can work around these limitations. however. If you have to have an optical drive, you can get the Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive ($99). Although with technology like NetBoot, that’s no longer as necessary as it once was. If you simply must have dual ethernet ports, you can again borrow from the MacBook Air and use the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter ($29). Apple says that the Mac mini server supports both the optical drive and the ethernet adapter for the Air, although you’re obviously not going to get the same speed from a USB ethernet adapter as you are from gigabit ethernet.
What It’s Good For
The base cost of a Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server is $999, the base cost of a Mac Pro is $2500. and the base cost of an Xserve is $3000. For the cost of a single traditional server, you can get two or three Mac mini servers. But comparing them that way is missing the point. The Mac mini server is not designed to replace a Mac Pro or an Xserve. It’s designed for the times when either of those two boxes are simply overkill, or when you lack a server room.
Do you have a company with 1000 users and need a mail cluster that talks to a SAN? The Mac mini server is not for you. Have a company with 15 users and need a basic, simple server that can take care of light storage, some e-mail, and basic user management? The Mac mini server will do the job. Need a utility server that’s only going to do one thing (Wikis, Chat, Calendaring, internal Websites, light Podcast Producer work, Mobile Access Server, even e-retail) but can’t justify spending $3000 or more for that task? The Mac mini server is a great fit. Need a server for a small satellite office? The Mac mini server’s great for that too.
Buying Advice
The Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server is an outstanding small utility server. It can handle a couple hundred users for almost any single service. (Mail, Chat, Open Directory, and so on). It’s also a good ‘do it all server for smaller networks with up to 25 users or so. The only real knock against the Mac mini server is that replacing a hard drive is a bit more tedious than it is in a Mac Pro or Xserve. Other than that, for the target audience, this Mac is close to perfect.
Price $999
The Mac mini doesn’t look like a server—it doesn’t have a redundant power supply or an ethernet port. Up until the current generation, the mini still had an AC power brick. Heck, this server version of the Mac mini doesn’t even have an optical drive. However, in spite of all the things it doesn’t have, the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server is a highly useful box that’s perfect as a utility server, or a do-it-all small office/ home office box. It doesn’t require a rack, it doesn’t take up a lot of space. and it doesn’t use a lot of power.
What You Get
What you got is a small box that ships with a 2.66G Hz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB of RAM (upgradable to 8GB), dual 500GB 720o-rpm hard drives, one gigabit ethernet port, a FireWire 800 port, an HDMI-out port, a Mini Display- Port, four USB 2.o ports, an SD Card slot with SDXC card support, and an nVidia GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM.
What You Don’t Get
The Mac mini has no optical drive, no redundant power supplies, and no ethernet ports. You can work around these limitations. however. If you have to have an optical drive, you can get the Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive ($99). Although with technology like NetBoot, that’s no longer as necessary as it once was. If you simply must have dual ethernet ports, you can again borrow from the MacBook Air and use the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter ($29). Apple says that the Mac mini server supports both the optical drive and the ethernet adapter for the Air, although you’re obviously not going to get the same speed from a USB ethernet adapter as you are from gigabit ethernet.
What It’s Good For
The base cost of a Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server is $999, the base cost of a Mac Pro is $2500. and the base cost of an Xserve is $3000. For the cost of a single traditional server, you can get two or three Mac mini servers. But comparing them that way is missing the point. The Mac mini server is not designed to replace a Mac Pro or an Xserve. It’s designed for the times when either of those two boxes are simply overkill, or when you lack a server room.
Do you have a company with 1000 users and need a mail cluster that talks to a SAN? The Mac mini server is not for you. Have a company with 15 users and need a basic, simple server that can take care of light storage, some e-mail, and basic user management? The Mac mini server will do the job. Need a utility server that’s only going to do one thing (Wikis, Chat, Calendaring, internal Websites, light Podcast Producer work, Mobile Access Server, even e-retail) but can’t justify spending $3000 or more for that task? The Mac mini server is a great fit. Need a server for a small satellite office? The Mac mini server’s great for that too.
Buying Advice
The Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server is an outstanding small utility server. It can handle a couple hundred users for almost any single service. (Mail, Chat, Open Directory, and so on). It’s also a good ‘do it all server for smaller networks with up to 25 users or so. The only real knock against the Mac mini server is that replacing a hard drive is a bit more tedious than it is in a Mac Pro or Xserve. Other than that, for the target audience, this Mac is close to perfect.
Price $999
