Mac Mini Server as a stand alone desktop

[Captain Carrot]

I want configure my Mac Mini as server for my office network. What I was doing before is using a Windows server. This was every week gets infected with virus which has cause a great issue with my system. By reading out some articles I found Mac Mini as the most secured option. I can keep this running in the background and configure some applications which can backup my data. Now what are the advancements does this device will provide me when I configure this as server. What are the benefits of the same. Which is the most recommended configuration you will suggest for this. My prime work is to configure my data on the mac server. My application runs for the whole day so security is needed. While on Windows the security application consumes a large amount of resource.

[Big Fish]

Yes Mac Mini can be configured on the server. It is a exceptional product in terms of its finish and assembly.You can also check the component of your Mac Mini by opening up the panel. A very compact system which is highly capable for performing major task. In Mac Mini Server the fan system and ventilation is well designed and access to memory is also very simple. The major new design on the side clearly shows you the new case made up of aluminum. This is quiet strong and portable to carry the same also. The new updated Mac Mini Server comes on a great price. ! Unlike the Mac Mini that it is far too expensive for its configuration upgrades. So you can simply choose for a server which will comes with a 4 GB of memory and 2 hard drives of 500 GB each at 7200 rpm each. You will also get license Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard with it with some additional charges. It is increase the RAM to 8 GB. But there are other things which are limited to the screen and connection. There nothing can be done to upgrade. In the terms of connection you can also get a HDMI and a SD card reader. But for the server I does not think that this one is really recommended.

[Shen]

Mac Mini on server can fulfill your requirements. The new Mac Mini Server does not waste energy and all knows that a server remains on 24H/24H is an important point in choosing a machine. The system draws less than 10 watts. There is no system that can match this specifications. Mac mini is made of highly recyclable aluminum, the redesigned chassis and light in weight allows to optimize the mobility of the machine. So here you does need to carry out big cases and assemble everything all again if you plan to move to new space. In my office the Mac Mini server is configured to share our files and both disks are configured in RAID 0 which allows us to obtain better performance. I had noticed a valuable time in handling of large files in Photoshop or when working on video projects with Final Cut. That is the main test of a system when you work heavy video editing software's. So here there are chances of taking a better advantage for those who deals with video production and animation work. Like other system there is a indeed a similar issue where on a RAID 0 configuration if any of the one hard drive is not working or fails then it is impossible to get the data from that driver.

[Steve123]

Basically the choice of Raid depends on you. It is right that by some reasons if any of the hard drive is gone dead then it is not possible to extract data from that. But if you are looking for performance then it is possible to configure the 2 internal disks on the Mac Mini Server on RAID 1 in order to better protect your data directly in the machine. By that you can utilize those both the hard drives and use the same for a largest disk capacity. I had myself tested the Mac Mini Server by myself. It has good power of manipulating files on high resolution with very large sizes writing on the discs and the same is much faster than what you get on any other hard drive of normal assembled system. The system is really nice and quiet a powerful for a network system. There are some inbuilt utilities that comes with the operating system which helps you configure the server on the network. The same is too compatible with other network protocol also. There are other most supports in the server provided. You just does not get only file sharing support. It is possible to share mails and contacts. The Server is much more secure as compare to the other system. The administration of the new version of Mac OS X Server is much more simplified. It is easy to manage user groups and other options in the server. You can simply configure the same with a single utility. Recent updates also keeps your system fix for various issues.

[Visala28]

A single version of Studio is provided on Mac Mini Server. There is no confusion between different versions of a document. Mac is well designed for standalone version. It is bet suited for server systems. The first step is to configure the hard 2 hard drives in Raid 1 or Raid 0. The same can be done easily with installation DVD and Disk Utility. The configuration is simplified and in 3 hours time we set our main services file sharing and backup. You can also try to use the installation guide which is easier to configure. I particularly recommend the SSD models for more robust system. So I set up a mac mini and just think that you do not necessarily need a 6.10 client. Here it is possible to share the screen in that. The more expensive model of the Mac Mini is equipped with a 2.53 gigahertz processor and four gigabytes of memory. For the hard drive you get 320 gigabytes of storage and higher if you want. But the model is very expensive. The server which I found using at my client side is equipped with two hard drives with 500 gigabytes. The models which I am talking about has five USB ports, Firewire -800 port and two monitor ports. It is also possbile to upgrade the same. I found the upgrade of the same is very expensive. There are some security settings which must configure on your server.