Mac Mini

Peerzy

Peerzy

Peerzy

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Joined
9 Nov 2008
Posts
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Was about to purchase a 1TB Mac Mini to act as my HTPC (I currently have a Win 8 PC that is overkill and too big) but I noticed on Mac Rumors it says not to buy.

I only use the HTPC for browsing and watching videos so the Mac Mini is ideal (especially as we have 2 MBA's in the household so are familiar with OSX).

MR has something about an unreleased 'mid-2014' Mac Mini but as nothing has been mentioned by Apple yet and (as far as I know) they have no events planned am I likely to be waiting a long time for a replacement?

I'm not massively bothered about a spec upgrade, but equally would be annoyed to spend £700 and find the system is updated in 2 months time.

On a second point, the current HTPC has a 2TB HDD with backups and a movie store - I'm thinking of getting a NAS and streaming videos off it to the Mac Mini (meaning I can get the 500GB version), is this likely to cause any problems or should I be able to stream 1080p content without issues?

Opinions?
 
Peerzy said:
Was about to purchase a 1TB Mac Mini to act as my HTPC (I currently have a Win 8 PC that is overkill and too big) but I noticed on Mac Rumors it says not to buy.

I only use the HTPC for browsing and watching videos so the Mac Mini is ideal (especially as we have 2 MBA's in the household so are familiar with OSX).

MR has something about an unreleased 'mid-2014' Mac Mini but as nothing has been mentioned by Apple yet and (as far as I know) they have no events planned am I likely to be waiting a long time for a replacement?

I'm not massively bothered about a spec upgrade, but equally would be annoyed to spend £700 and find the system is updated in 2 months time.

On a second point, the current HTPC has a 2TB HDD with backups and a movie store - I'm thinking of getting a NAS and streaming videos off it to the Mac Mini (meaning I can get the 500GB version), is this likely to cause any problems or should I be able to stream 1080p content without issues?

Opinions?
Click to expand...

I have a Synology Nas and stream 1080p content to a Mac Mini with no problems. The Mac Mini is connected via Ethernet to my Network and I use VLC to play all my video files.
 
Peg said:
I have a Synology Nas and stream 1080p content to a Mac Mini with no problems. The Mac Mini is connected via Ethernet to my Network and I use VLC to play all my video files.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's pretty much the same setup I'd have so a NAS for streaming sounds ideal.

I'm guessing I can use the NAS as file storage and TM backup at the same time?
 
Peerzy said:
Thanks, that's pretty much the same setup I'd have so a NAS for streaming sounds ideal.

I'm guessing I can use the NAS as file storage and TM backup at the same time?
Click to expand...

Yep, just create separate shares for TM and your media - it's worth setting a size cap / quota for the TM share because it will just keep eating more and more disk space if you don't. On a related note, the Synology NAS boxes are absolutely fantastic bits of kit, the UI and feature set is superb (especially being able to grow the volume as you add more or larger disks).

I run Plex Media Server on the Mac Mini, which will then let you stream to any DLNA device on the network. It will remember where you paused across devices, so you can stop a video in the lounge and then resume watching in another room, or even stream over your broadband connection to a mobile device while you're out and about. Plex Home Theater works great on the mini too.
 
Short answer is we don't know. There were references in a boot camp support document about 6 weeks ago to a mid-2014 Mac mini, which were pulled pretty quickly after it hit the rumour sites.

Macs tend to get an update in the October. I've got a hunch a refreshed Mac mini will well get launched at the same time as Yosemite. I'd give it a month.
 
It'd be a good idea to air on the side of caution and not buy a Mini until after the announcement in Oct, but I don't think they're going to refresh the Mini at all. It still has a place in the market and people still want them, but I think they'll go the way of Thunderbolt displays and be pushed aside in favour of other stuff. Why spend £700 on a Mini when you can spend £3k on a Mac Pro? :D
 
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