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I still believe the mac mini is the perfect home server. You can now get them with 10 gig internet. They sip power so a UPS can run them for ages, almost no heat, can transcode media for plex, cheap, tiny, etc. You can also use them connected to a TV for watching media that isn't easily accessed from a smart TV or media player. The only con is either MacOS, or linux support. Besides that they are incredible. If you need more horsepower sure, not perfect.

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> cheap, tiny, etc

Lowest spec with 10 gig ethernet starts 900€, not all what I would call cheap.

Also, the power consumption does not seem to be all that low:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201897

According to apple they idle higher(?) than the 2014 model, though this value seems to have not changed all that much in a decade. For example, 11W idle was a popular pc build in 2011 already it seems that this is still a common value.

Is there any way to attach 4-6 SATA drives over Thunderbolt? One of my main uses for a home server is as a file share, for both device backups but also for photos etc. I’m still running a Gen 8 HP MicroServer because nothing since has really come close in terms of cost and form factor.

That's a file server, maybe a Synology or a QNAP. There are some thunderbolt to PCI express boxes but it gets kind of hacky.

Many ways, but the way I do it is with a Drobo. Easy to maintain and upgrade.

I always liked this idea, but do you mean newer or older ones? M1 only or the older i3/i5 ones?

My 2012 i7 Mac Mini is still alive and kicking for its intended use, which is basically media playing and launching Homekit automations. Lots of Youtube content these days, but it saw quite a few torrents and Soulseek downloads on its day. I cannot justify replacing it, even if it is running an unsupported OS.

2006 or 2007 (I forget which exact year) Mac-mini-server guy checking in. Sorry, just felt like bragging about an old computer. It had spinning disks, replaced with 2 SSDs.

Gifted to my dad 5+ years ago, he refuses to replace.

Anecdote: He thought it would be a great idea to clean up certain ports when I gave the mini to him, sprayed WD40 liberally. Then it was all wet and I suggested he put it under (2 ft away) a 60W bulb overnight. He's, well, my dad... So he placed a 100W bulb right next to it and forgot about it for an evening. The backpanel was black plastic and it melted into the mainboard. This thing refused to die, and will probably outlive all of us. Anything Apple post 2012 is yet another story at least for me.

Edit: still running, windows 10, 2 monitors

I wouldn’t go back further than the 8th gen intel minis that the m1 replaced, just to get a bit of longevity out of them (including macos support) and the price for those is close enough to the refurbished m1 models that I don’t think it’s worth bothering about intel minis.

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