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Another minimum hardware recommendation


TerryG

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Hi there,

 

I have searched the forums without luck for my specific questions. I am looking to move over to a mac mini based music server. It will be wired to to my NAS and be used exclusively as a music server controlled by an iphone. Would I be able to get away with the early Mac Mini G4 with 1.25GHz and 1gig of RAM?

 

Thanks,

Terry

 

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Hi Terry - A Mac Mini G4 could be difficult. If you already have one then it's free to give it a shot. I wouldn't purchase one though. The G4 will be able to play 44.1 CD music just fine with iTunes. Higher sample rates may be difficult. Amarra won't run very well on that system. Plus, there is no Snow Leopard support for G4 or G5 based Macs.

 

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I have that exact specification Mac Mini G4, bought way back when it was new. For the last couple of years it has given me great service as a music / tv / internet computer. I have it wired up to a 32" flatscreen tv and control it using vnc / itouch / wireless keyboard and mouse depending on what's convenient. Itunes for playback of red book cd rips, and Spotify for exploring. Audio has been via Apogee Duet (firewire), DACMagic (usb) into a Tivoli Model 2 or B&W Zeppelin, all nice components but a long way from the high end.

 

We've had a lot of fun out of this setup, so if my description matches your plans then go for it. But as stated above I wouldn't recommend you search out a secondhand G4 mini for this purpose: The ram is maxed out at 1GB (rules out higher end playback software like Amarra or Pure Vinyl), it lacks the mini toslink optical output that the later intel minis have (rules out a whole lot of 'legacy' dac options), and the processor struggles when, for example, using the itunes visualiser when listening.

 

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