[X4U] Home Server Question

[Neil Laubenthal]

I was considering getting the mini with SLS . . .in part because as a Mac consultant I thought it would be a good idea to know more about SLS. However . . .the majority of my clients are individuals and not businesses . . .so they aren't using SLS. I had pretty much discounted getting it because of that and will be getting the mini with non server SL . . .I was just wondering whether consolidating the 'file server' and the 'media server' made the most sense. I'm leaving towards consolidating . . .and hanging a 1 TB drive off of it for file shares, media (there won't be all that much stored video as most of our watching will come from Hulu, etc .). I'm still trying to figure out a decent way to capture video a la TiVo . . .Legato's EyeTV would work except most channels are encrypted until they get to my set top box from Cox . . .so unless I spring for a DVR from the cable company I don't see a good way to record one channel (History or National Geo or whatever) while watching another. I really wanted to do this with my equipment and not have the monthly payment to Cox for a DVR . . .but Cox keeps things encrypted to protect their revenue stream.

The mini/server will also collect Time Machine backups from our two laptops (they are currently going to the old G4 Mini).

The Drobo (and it's big brother the Pro) are nice . . .but so far I don't need the drive space so I'm leaving that until later.


On Jan 30, 2010, at 3:06 PM, Christopher Collins wrote:

> Option 2 should work really well, but, do you need the capabilities of the Mac Mini Server.
> 
> You can buy the 2.53 Mac Mini without SLS (Snow Leopard Server) but then you would still need to look at some sort of storage as the Mac Mini only has 500GB maximum.
> 
> Using the Mac Mini Server, you get extra storage but the inability to load DVDs in your media centre.
> 
> I use a 2.53 Mac Mini here as a HTPC, and it works brilliantly with Plex.
> 
> But then I also have a Drobo Pro for storage.


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There are only three kinds of stress; your basic nuclear stress, cooking stress, and A$$hole stress. The key to their relationship is Jello.

neil