

Mini-server at home, any good hardware options other than Mac Mini? - vincentellis

I'm looking to build a small server at home. Something physically small, yet powerful, like a Mac Mini. Is there any alternatives, probably cheaper? (depending on configuration, of course)
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aidenn0
Any mini-ITX motherboard will be that size; for PSU a pico-PSU or similar is
good. Biggest advantage over a mac mini is not price, but options; you can get
dual ethernet; you can add a ePCI or PCI card, etc.

Strangely enough I find the case to be the only part that is pricy. Finding an
inexpensive ITX case can be hard.

I optimized for power consumption a bit more than performance, so I went with
a Via SoC based board (18W at the wall). They have atom and Core based ones as
well though.

~~~
hxc
<http://www.mini-box.com/M350-universal-mini-itx-enclosure>

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benologist
I have a little Lenovo IdeaCenter as well as a few minis. The Lenovo is
smaller and can be used as a media pc as well, but it's nowhere near the Mini
specs. They're not horrible though, you can upgrade the ram (I didn't) and
throw an SSD in (I did) but at the end of the day it's still an Atom.

[http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Ideacentre-Series-40814AU-
Deskt...](http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Ideacentre-Series-40814AU-
Desktop/dp/B003SCAYIA)

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almostdvs
I have a Jetway Mini-top:
[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856107...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856107081)
that is very comparable to a mac mini, and fairly reliable.

1.8ghz atom, nvidia ion2 ddr3 memory.

Mine is my media server and desktop (I don't play games). It's a little slower
running osx than other oses but if it's a server, you probably won't care
enough to put osx on it.

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acesubido
I've heard good things about the HP Proliant Microserver.

[http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/15351-15351-42...](http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/15351-15351-4237916-4237918-4237917-4248009.html?dnr=1)

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snoldak924
I think Apple may be updating the mini this fall, so I'd wait a month or two
if possible. <http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Mini>

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dictvm_
A HP Microserver N40L is a pretty decent NAS. If you're willing to tinker a
bit, you can also add some additional harddrives outside of the coldswappable
drive-shafts.

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4rt
i got one of these when there was £100 cashback, meaning the total cost was
about £130. I paid another £40 for 4gb of ECC ram so I could use it like a
real server.

It's an excellent case design - there's a huge fan at the back pulling air
over the 4 drive bays and my TB drives never go over about 25C. It's in a
cupboard and unless I open the door it's totally silent.

From what I've seen of other NAS-style devices, it's pretty much unbeatable
for value since it does all the same stuff but is ultimately a real, if basic,
server.

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noonespecial
Asus EeeBox

<http://event.asus.com/eeepc/microsites/eeebox/en/index.html>

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minm
TonidoPlug [http://www.amazon.com/TonidoPlug-Network-Attached-Storage-
Pe...](http://www.amazon.com/TonidoPlug-Network-Attached-Storage-
Personal/dp/B007JDL6CM)

