[sfdoddsy]

I have been trialling a Mac Mini as a music server. It is an older 1.66 Core Duo which my work gave me for nothing.

I've been somewhat surprised how overwhelmed it seems to get with fairly simple tasks involving iTunes. I have a largish library of 150G. The actual media files are held on a NAS server, but it took the Mini a very long time to add them to a new library. Obviously there was no physical file transfer, but the ancillary processes such as album artwork and gapless took more than a day.

Even with the library installed, simple changes will lock it up.

In comparison, my PC laptop (2.4 Core 2) is light years faster.

So I'm pondering upgrading the Mini to a new 2.26 Core 2 Duo. For some bizarre reason MIni used prices are so high this will not cost me much.

So will I get the major improvement I'm expecting?

[skunark]

It's hard to say... Did the mac mini and the NAS use a wired connection or a was it set to wireless.    I would also check to see how much RAM the mac mini has, that probably might explain the "lock ups" you are experiencing if you are running out of memory.

I've never had any speedy results with two different NAS solutions I've tried and just decided to direct connect the HDD to the mac mini then have that serve the files to the rest of the network. 

As for upgrading to the latest mac mini, I would hold off if you every plan to connect it directly to a TV.  Latest round of macbook pro laptops have audio built into the display port video connection and you can now get HDMI adapters.  So I would hold off until the next mac mini refresh to see if Apple pushes that goodness down to that model.   To me at least, that's a huge deal.

[andrewbee]

initialize the HD and install 10.6 (snow leopard).
Max the ram - 2gb iirc.


It will never be a hot rod but should be more than good enough as a music server.

[Crimson]

IME, iTunes doesn't play well with large libaries on NAS unless overloaded with RAM (8GB+). Even worse if via wifi. Best to keep the main libaries local (external FW).

[kenreau]

Would a SSD help the situation? 

I just ordered 4GB of RAM and a 80GB Intel SSD.  These SSD are $219 now.

My plans are to have a NAS (with FW) for iTunes library to share around the home network.  My current pc music library (squeezebox) size is approaching 1 TB and expected to go to 1.5TB later this summer.  Due to my original WAV & FLAC file code ripping and lack of some id tags, it has been a slow pig for squeezebox access on my pc.  I do need to finish tagging and convert files to AIF or something loss less.  I'm really ticked Apple doesn't support FLAC files.

Work in progress.

[pardales]

initialize the HD and install 10.6 (snow leopard).
Max the ram - 2gb iirc.


It will never be a hot rod but should be more than good enough as a music server.

I agree. If possible do a clean install of 10.6 and go from there. It will perform much better.

[andrewbee]

Would a SSD help the situation? 

I just ordered 4GB of RAM and a 80GB Intel SSD.  These SSD are $219 now.

IMO a total waste of money. You can get a 1TB 2.5" WD for ~$200.00 and 640GB for less.

I just installed one for a client in his new MBPro yesterday (1TB).

A cheaper and slightly slower option would be an external 3.5" FW 400 enclosure with a drive size of your choice (2 TB even) as your startup drive.

The EXT FW 400 is not that much slower than the SATA in the real world for your intents and purposes, plus as said before by Crimson, if you keep it all local then all the better.

If you want a NAS then get a "bad" Time Capsule, they are easy to repair and being an Apple product simply works better together with the Mini. The only thing slowing you down in this case is the lack of wireless "N" in the Mini but thats no biggie either.