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MacMini vs. MacPro - Power Consumption....

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jg:
Anyone have first hand experience using a MacMini as a server versus a 2008 MacPro with 2 1 gig drives with Apple's RAID card.  The room I have this in gets quite warm and I'm thinking of getting a mini instead as it seems, based on Apple's tech notes, that it might use 10% of the power of the MacPro.  This machine also handles Security Spy (interesting that both apps come from the UK) with 8 cameras, its on 24/7.  I pay 14 cents per kWh.

I might partner it with a Seagate Thunderbolt Flex drive for TM backups, just in case I have a failure.  I'd give up the RAID card redundancy but would save a lot of power (and money, I think).

Would love to hear your thoughts.

WCDev:
Yep, my station here, serving simple web pages (http://trixology.com/live_weather/simple/ ), custom web pages ( http://live.trixology.com/custom/ ), custom CGI (http://live.trixology.com/watch_weather.php), Wunderground and CWOP along with a bunch of scripts and alerts runs on an Intel Mac Mini with 1GB of RAM - it uses typically 30 watts of power, versus my Mac Pro which can peak at over 500 and 'idles' at 200 watts. If you can get one second hand at a good price, it makes a fine weather box.

elagache:
Howdy JG, Stu, and WeatherCat fans,


--- Quote from: jg on August 06, 2012, 03:33:01 AM ---Anyone have first hand experience using a MacMini as a server versus a 2008 MacPro with 2 1 gig drives with Apple's RAID card.  The room I have this in gets quite warm . . .
--- End quote ---

 ;) And what's wrong with that?  It doubles as a space heater!!   [lol2]


--- Quote from: WCDev on August 06, 2012, 05:05:29 PM ---Yep, my station here . . .  on an Intel Mac Mini with 1GB of RAM - it uses typically 30 watts of power, versus my Mac Pro which can peak at over 500 and 'idles' at 200 watts. If you can get one second hand at a good price, it makes a fine weather box.
--- End quote ---

Not quite the same scenario but close.  For almost a decade, I had a beefy PC tower running LINUX as the home network server.  It had a big power-supply as I had delusions of stuffing it with hard drives for network backups and stuff. Ya' know this room would all get quite warm!!  This was before we installed central air conditioning and it would get so warm in the summer - that I fried a hard drive once on a hot summer's day!  :o

I've switched to a Mac Mini as the house network server and not only using about 1/10 the power, but the room is noticeably cooler!!

So, unless you really need a space heater  [lol], yeah try to get your paws on a Mac Mini instead!!

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

P.S. Oh, ya' know, the mini is so much quieter than that monster PC tower with all those fans!!

jg:
This is in a closet, my "office" is in the same room and I have an old MacPro version 1,1 for my main computer, two monitors.  I would love to swap this one out too.  Imagine two MacPros in a room about 6x10 feet, below grade, well insulated.

WCDev:
Absolutely, whilst we were away one of the cats woke the Mac Pro (a 1,1) - I immediately noticed on our iPhone a 2?C (3.6?F) rise in the temperature in that room and it stayed that way until we got home :(

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