Alternate uses for the mac mini?

[James Falconer]

Never owned a mac mini, but would totally pick one up if the price was right, and I had a specific alternate (fun!) use for it.

Anyone use a mac mini for something cool and fun?

 

[robertk328]

I have had two Minis and really liked them as desktop computers. I've read of people using them for media servers for iTunes or movies (when hooked to a TV). Never did that with any of mine though!

 

[anon(9602380)]

I've never had one but I know people who have used them as servers for their websites. From what I saw of them in actual use they worked quite well.

 

[Matty]

I would say you could use it as a media centre. It's a similar size to the Apple TV but adds full Mac OS functionality on top. Maybe even give it to one of the kids to use as their first computer. All you need is a cheap monitor, mouse, keyboard and you good to go! If the mini is really old, you could even make it great drinks coaster? I'm joking of course haha. Im sure there are many other things its can be used for. Tech always has a use and one mans trash is another mans gold.

 

[Lee_Bo]

Digital signage on one of the large monitors in our showroom.

 

[jedajeff]

One wish...a PoE model. We use mac minis in our business and have PoE switches for phones and wireless access points. What a luxury it would be to use mac minis without the need for a 110V AC plug near by. We currently use them for mail server, time machine server, file server, etc. VPN and VNC are built in and work flawlessly. We even have a 2012 running Linux RHEL 7 natively with Oracle 12c installed. And, another is running VMware with Windows, Mac Server, and Linux installed.

 

[Algus]

When I buy my iMac this year, I'll be plugging my Mac mini into my television for OpenEmu

I really like this computer. With the news of eGPU support, I would hang onto it if it had TB3. I only have the base dual-core i5 model but the only flaw is its graphics capability. The Intel HD 4000 is definitely not ideal in 2017.

 

[lusid1]

I have a pair of them running VMware ESXi that I use for running MacOS VMs. They are quad core i7, 16gb machines. One is a 2011, the other is a 2012, from back before the neutering. I was hoping we would get new ones that could take 32gb of ram, but instead we got.... disappointment. I used to run a lot more on them, but these days there is just not much you can do in 16gb of ram.