this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2024
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Is Mac Mini suitable for self-hosted server? (lemy.lol)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/selfhosted
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The price seems pretty good. I don't really know much about mini PCs. Do you think there is a better alternative?

Update: ok, not price efficient. Noted πŸ‘

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[–] stuner 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I would disagree with idle power not being important for a home server. Most of the time, your system will be doing very little and wait for something to happen. I also don't think a typical server has a display attached. Wolfang explains this quite well: https://youtu.be/Ppo6C_JhDHM?t=94&si=zyjEKNX8yA51uNSf

[–] just_another_person 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm not saying idle power is unimportant. I'm saying the M-Class chips can't ever go idle with a minimal set of features NOT being engaged, because they're going to be more engaged in general vs other chips that can run truly headless. macOS doesn't allow for that.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yup. My old 1st gen Ryzen desktop system isn't particularly power efficient, but it idles <50W (I think closer to 25W, but I haven't measured for a while). And that's a desktop class chip from 7 years ago with two HDDs and a discrete GPU and PCIe wifi card, so it's not winning any awards for efficiency. Even at that, it's barely a blip on my power bill.

An AMD or Intel laptop-class chip should be able to get to 10W or so idle, and not spike too much with basic tasks. And those can be had for $200-300, less if you're okay with older chips. Run Linux headless and it'll likely stay below 15W at the wall most of the time.

[–] just_another_person 4 points 1 month ago

Pretty much exact. Lots of reviews to back that up without me spouting about it.

[–] stuner 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I don't have one (and I don't want one), but Anandtech measured the M1 version at 4.2W in idle. https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-tested I think you can also get that from other Mini PCs (e.g. NUCs).

[–] just_another_person 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Cool, so the version from many years ago related to OP's question...how?

[–] stuner 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's an Apple Silicon Mac Mini. Do you have a particular reason to think the new one is less efficient?

[–] just_another_person 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yes, because each one has been. Just because it's "Apple" and you think it's better every iteration is a mistake on your part.