| Apple Mac mini MC408LL/A Snow Leopard Server | 
| Brand: Apple
Category: Personal Computer
List Price: $999.00
Buy New: $939.97
as of 7/30/2010 20:43 CDT details
You Save: $59.03 (6%)
New (5) Used (2) from $829.99
Seller: J&R Music and Computer World
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 1,342
Media: Personal Computers
Operating System: Apple MacOS X Server 10.6
CPU Manufacturer: Intel
CPU Speed: 2.53
CPU Type: Intel Core Duo
Processors: 1
System Bus Speed: 1066
System Memory: 4
Memory Type: SDRAM
Hard Drive Size: 1
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Modem: None
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 8.8 x 6.9
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: MC408LL/A
Model: MC408LL/A
UPC: 008859093709
EAN: 0008859093709
ASIN: B0013FTCPU
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor | | • | Dual 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drives, 4GB of Memory | | • | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Graphics, Built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi3 and Bluetooth 2.1 | | • | Mini DVI to DVI Adapter, 5 USB 2.0 ports, 1 FireWire 800 port, Gigabit Ethernet | | • | Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard preinstalled |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
What is Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server? Exactly what you'd expect - a Mac mini specifically designed to be a server with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server preinstalled. Instead of a SuperDrive, there are two 500GB hard drives that give you all the power and storage you need to help your group work more efficiently than ever.
Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server is designed to help you communicate, collaborate, and share information. It's perfect for any small business or group - retail shops, doctor and law offices, classrooms, design studios - you name it. Now you can have your own server that supports email on Mac computers, PCs, and iPhone. Sync and share calendars and contact information. Access and swap files securely, and at lightning speed, between Mac computers and PCs. Easily create full-featured wikis and high-quality podcasts. And automatically back up all your important data. NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB DDR3 Shared Video Memory Built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet Audio - Built-in speaker, combined Optical Digital audio input/audio line in, combined optical digital audio output/headphone out Ports - 5 x USB 2.0, FireWire 800, mini-DVI output; VGA output (using Optional adapter); Mini DisplayPort Approximate Unit Dimensions - 2 (H) x 6.5 (W) x 6.5 (D) Approximate Unit Weight - 2.9 Pounds
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
 I love this machine. Competent server for bargain price. July 2, 2010
Jim Gerdy (Chicago, IL)
I defer to Apple's documentation and second Brian Stucki's Amazon review of this great product. It fills a niche of providing a real server at a bargain price. (In fact I use Brian Stucki's '[...]t' service to host my mini.)
This machine may seem a bit pricey for a mini, but it easily services at a small business level for email and other standard services. I have been running mine for just under six months without a hitch. Some highlights for me are:
1. The low power profile of the mini
2. The dual drive. Although it lacks an optical drive it allows a RAID-1 configuration (the way I set up mine).
3. The Snow Leopard Server OS. This is the next evolution of Apple's powerful UNIX-based OS's and it is especially good for me since it has the best UI yet. I got mine setup with basic services for about a dozen users within an hour. It also still has the powerful command-line controls that server 10.3-10.5 had and it's all documented well in Apple's pdf on 10.6 Server.
Elegant is The Word - Near Flawless Execution June 2, 2010
Zzyzx Oh (USA, East Coast)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the open source movement is embodied in the Apple Mac Mini Server and Mac OSX Snow leopard. But, really, nothing comes close to the integration that Apple has pulled off with the graphical interface and the solid UNIX underpinnings. At times, things seem a bit obfiscated, but you don't ahve to live with this very long to appreciate that Apple really earns the margins they pull down with these models.
Because I wanted the Snow Leopard Server operating system, I decided to do without the internal optical drive. My later purchase of a Samsung external DVD wasn't quite what I had hoped, so if I had it to do all over again I might have settled for the faster CPU and optical drive of the regular Mac Mini. But that might just be because I went cheap on the DVD drive, opting to save half the price by going outside the Apple brand.
The included documentation is sparse, so you'll be online reading hours and hours of eye-straining material if you don't buy a book like the Snow leopard Server Developer Reference. I'll review that later. Right now I'm having too much fun with the extra-cost Xcode development environment and relearning C, C++ and Cocoa Framework. This is really fun stuff. can you Gnu?
Now our house has mostly Linux boxes and a few fading Windows machines. The MAC OSX Server supports acting as a Windows Domain Controller so you can centralize control, and also acts as an Active Directory controller for your resident Macs. And, it took all of five minutes to get Time Machine to start backups to my network storage unit and reduce any concerns about losing files. Time Machine is very cool - you should read about that all by itself. Nifty interface to your backups.
So, why buy from Amazon? Well, my state has Apple stores, so I'd pay sales tax here even if I ordered from Apple. There was a special deal if you took a credit card from Amazon, so the discount was material. Of course, Apple offered the "free" printer deals, but I'll take the discount every time.
Nice product. Totally silent. Too bad the Firewire is reaching end-of-support And where is USB 3.0, you should ask.
Servers made easy(er) April 14, 2010
B. Fauska (Wisconsin)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This made the whole Server thing much easier and when I did have set-up questions. Apple was a great support.
 A disappointment February 14, 2010
Spike
32 out of 37 found this review helpful
I love all 7 of my Macs that I use regularly, from portables to 8 cores. I even like the MacMini very much. If you have a spare monitor, keyboard, and mouse, it is a most capable machine to have for the kitchen, basement, or for the kids. With 4GB RAM, the performance is good, and of course, you get all the benefits of OS X, its software, stability, ease of use, etc. The MacMini hardware is worth the money, given the performance. (The server version has no CD/DVD. I bought an ASUS USB external, which works, but not reliably, especially if all the USB ports are in use, and they fill quickly. The power supply for the MacMini USB ports is not over-engineered.)
But this review is for the SERVER edition of the Mini, which basically means I'm commenting on the software. I have been hosting my own domain (web, mail, DNS, file server, firewall, DHCP, etc.) on a standard Mac for about 8 years very successfully, and on a Mac running some sort of Linux before that. I bought OS X 10.4 Server (Tiger) a number of years ago, but it was unusable. With 10.6 out, I hoped that improvements would make server management easier - analogous to OS X (desktop) versus Windows. Though 10.6 Server is substantially improved over 10.4 Server, it still is a royal pain. The server edition of OS X contains a user interface (GUI) intended to simplify the configuration of unix software - pretty much the same software is installed for both desktop and server versions of OS X, hidden in the unix directories. Almost any unix programs on the server but missing from the desktop can be downloaded and installed for free. (There may be exceptions for particular features, like pod-cast production, that you'd need to investigate specifically.)
Ordinary folks who want to host a vanity site at home or share a file server among a few desktops in a small office will find OS X Server daunting and frustrating. If you do not already know how to configure DNS/BIND, you will struggle from the outset - I have a pretty good sense, and still had a hard time. Many of the "aids" that OS X Server provides are just different enough from standard unix/linux conventions that you can't easily get under the hood to tweak it - the documentation may be clearly written, but is woefully incomplete regarding details and sometimes inaccurate.
OS X Server may support all the features described in their promotional literature, but in no way is it intuitive to configure or manage (in the same way OS X desktop is). For example, the "Internet Sharing" feature of OS X automatically rolls together DHCP, NAT, IP routing, firewall functions and the like. The Server edition requires configuration of each. True, it is MUCH more flexible, but you need to be a unix/network wizard to get it to work in all but the simplest configurations. Before purchasing this product, I advise downloading and reading all the manuals; there are 7 or 8 of them, available at Apple for free. You can decide for yourself your comfort level based on them. Start with a detailed list of requirements for your needs (e.g., hosting more than one web or email domain), then look through the manuals for the information you need to configure it. Plan on needing to reinstall and start from scratch several times before getting it close. Take notes by hand so you remember what you need to do and not do.
If you only need basic services (web site, email, file sharing), I'd recommend a standard OS X machine, MacMini or otherwise, plus a few very affordable utilities from CutEdge Software, which require minimal user sophistication. If you need some of the fancy features of OS X Server, you will need considerable expertise in server and network administration, so much that free alternatives, running on Macs or cheaper hardware, begin to look attractive. In fact, if you are at that level, you may be frustrated by the idiosyncratic and inconsistent use of Apple (e.g., /System/Library or /Network) versus unix (/etc or /usr/bin/) file location conventions. Sometimes they're integrated or compatible, sometimes not. You could be looking at a big investment of time to figure it out for any given issue.
You should also be aware that, unlike the desktop OS, anytime there is a major OS Server revision (e.g., Leopard to Snow Leopard), you have to buy a new license at full price. There is no upgrade path.
Bottom line: This is a fine computer (5 stars), but the extra ~$300-400 for the software is not worth it (a half-star). For basic domain hosting on Macs, easier, cheaper alternatives exist. If you require OS X Server's more advanced features, you probably should be using more robust hardware than a MacMini ... and you are looking at a big investment of time to learn how to configure/manage them, equivalent to the effort required to learn other server software which is available for free.
Just what I was looking for! February 1, 2010
Rob (NYC)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
Couldn't have been easier to set up! In very little time I had this little wonder serving media to the entire house. I hooked up a WD 4TB Firewire 800 drive locally and then connected it to my 6TB Network Attached Storage device. The Mac Mini Server acts as the central iTunes server, photo library, Time Machine backup repository, and file storage for the whole family. It also has enough CPU Power to encode and upload videos. I rarely hear the fan kick on and it is uses very little electricity which was a huge selling point! You can either drive two 24 inch LCD displays at 1900x1200 using both the mini-DVI and mini display port connections or just use Apple Remote Desktop to run it headless in a closet.
Lastly, the iChat server is pretty cool if you have lots of kids like I do. I could see it also working great for a small office.
I would purchase this again if I had it to do all over and would recommend this to any of my friends.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
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