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MacBook Pro or Mac Mini as music server

Currently have apple extreme server. Also using the Olive Media Olive 4HD and Olive 2.
Thinking of adding either the latest Macbook pro or the mac mini as a music server for my cd collection.
Which of the two would be better suited to my task ?
I'm leaning towards the macbook pro 13" with 2.3 GHZ but then at almost half the price the Macbook min 2.4 is a steel but i wouldhave to add keyboard, a monitor and a mouse so cost would be close to the macbook pro.
Anything else am missing here ?
For the Dac, i plan to use either an I-Nova or a Bel canto designs dac 2.5. An esoteric D-07 is also not far fetch.
Would greatly appreciate some advice as i'm just starting out on this hobby (computer audio) just now.
Thanks guys-
nolitan
rutgar
5 posts
 
I see a lot of votes for the Mini. However, I think one big advantage the MacBook Pro has, is that you can add the 512GB Solid State Drive, and 8GB of RAM. Which is a big plus in my book.
johsti's avatar
johsti
102 posts
 
Rutgar, you can do the same with the Mac mini. I have 8gb of ram and an ssd in mine and it works great. You can do this yourself or have Apple do it if you're worried about warranty.
rutgar
5 posts
 
Ah, okay. The Apple web site doesn't show that as optional on the mini.
rutgar
5 posts
 
Okay, I went back and took a closer look. I did find the 8GB option on the 2.66GHz model. But not the 512GB SSD option. But you're saying that the SSD can still be added?
johsti's avatar
johsti
102 posts
 
Rutgar, I don't think Apple offers a preconfigured mac mini with a 512 SSD option, but you can easily add your own or have an Apple approved tech do it for you. I can assure you it would be much less expensive then buying a mac mini preconfigured with an SSD. You may be able to ask the Apple store to instal the oem 512gb SSD and maintain the warranty, but it would be ridiculously expensive.

I installed my 64gb SSD and it is working great. The SSD is for the operating system and apps only. I use the oem 320GB hard drive in a bus powered firewire enclosure for my music files. The music player (Audirvana) loads songs into memory before playing them, so I don't need a large capacity SSD for my music files. This is much more cost effective than buying a large capacity SSD and there is no audible hard drive noise when the music file is playing since they are loaded into memory first.

Apple made it very easy for the customer to upgrade ram in the new mac mini. It is as simple as rotating the bottom base a few degrees and inserting the new memory. No screws to remove and can be done in a couple of minutes if that. I paid $100 for 8gb of ram compared to $400 from Apple. Considering the premium you pay for ram from Apple, I would definitely buy the base version with 2gb ram and install your own sticks of ram. This is a no brainer since it does not void your warranty according to Apple.
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