Performance Upgrades To Use Mac As Music & Home Entertainment Server

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Mac mini Model A1176 Repair (Early 2006 - Mid 2007)

1.5 Core Solo, 1.66 or 1.83 Core Duo, or 1.83 or 2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor. This covers the first Intel-based Mac Mini models from Early 2006 to Mid 2007.

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John Lige @johnlige

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Posted: Mar 22, 2015

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Performance Upgrades To Use Mac As Music & Home Entertainment Server

I have a (2006 Mac Mini Model-A 1176 2.0 GHz) that will be solely used as a (Music/Video?On Line Server) and only for these purposes!

Now with the (General Supplied Info) I have given you I need to know what is the very best (Upgrade Machine Performance Option) I can make to my (Mac) for the specified purposes I have mentioned? I want to upgrade to the (Best SSD Drive) for my tasks or needs! Also can my (Processor Be Upgraded) to a much faster (Processors) since all the information I have found states I can do this because my (Mac) is a (2006 Model) if so what is the fastest processor I can install in my (Mac)? And through my research regarding (High End Mac Minis For Servers) all the (High End Developers) stat that the most needed change to any (Mac Mini Server) is to get rid of that (Crappy Switching Power Supply) and (Install A Linear External Power Supply) but they cost so much and there has to be some (Viable Affordable Power Options) that can do the same job as these overpriced (Third Party High End Power Supplies)?

I am after the best (Affordable Audio/Video Options) I can find to make my (Mac) a super performer in the areas I have specified! And I would appreciate being pointed to any and all companies you know of including yourself that can help me achieve all my goals with the needed upgrades needed so my (Mac)is going to perform at its highest levels of performance!

Where can I find an (Affordable Super Nice External Linear Power Supply) for my (Mac) that does not cost a fortune?

I would appreciate it!

John

Answer this question I have this problem too

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John its best not to post your phone number.

Mar 22, 2015 by Dan

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Dan @danj Rep: 480k Self employed contract worker 35 329 971 · Answer 1 · 2015-03-22T16:31:08-07:00

I think you have things twisted about here. 'Servers' don't need to be speed demons when they are a file server (i.e. iTunes server) which is what you are asking about here. What they do need to do is offer the data being asked for as fast as possible.

So that gets into the storage aspect of your system. Most of these systems have a relativity small drive in todays terms (160 GB being the largest in this series).

As an example: in my home Mac mini I have has two 2 TB drives which are mirrored for a media server for iTunes. You also talk about wanting to install an SSD which offers very little here unless you are planing on using an external hard drive RAID setup. Then I could see using the SSD as the boot drive.

But before we even go down this path of making this a server you have some issues which you can't over come here. If you have a Core Solo or Core Duo based system you'll need to rethink your direction as neither can support anything higher than 10.6.8. And you can't upgrade these series CPU to over come this. In addition the higher end version of this model had a Core 2 Duo but it too can't run anything higher as the systems firmware is not 64bit clean.

I strongly recommend you look into finding a newer mini (one that can support Mavericks at least) at you'll want to run the newer iTunes on the system.

The other direction here is scrap the idea altogether and setup a standard PC running Linux as your server and then map the drive over your home network to your mac.