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My Mac mini m1 is a fantastic home server. Years ago I realized running a 100W PC all the time was REALLY expensive, so I switched to an old linux laptop at 30
by 8xeh 23d ago
My Mac mini m1 is a fantastic home server.
Years ago I realized running a 100W PC all the time was REALLY expensive, so I switched to an old linux laptop at 30W (about $4/month). That helped, but I moved to the m1 mac specifically for the power efficiency. It does all the things my linux server did, and it does them at 6W (75¢/month).
I've found no competitor with similar performance that can run in such a low power footprint. M4 mini's are way better at power/performance, and I imagine their price is about to come way down since the M6 mini just got announced.
Software-wise, it's different, but mostly equivalent. Homebrew or macports has a similar software inventory to debian. And Apple's container framework is a welcome improvement over colima for running most container workloads.
- frollogaston 22d agoThat too, it's either Mac mini or Rpi if you care about power, and the Rpi is very limited.
- praseodym 22d agoMy home server is an ASUS NUC 14 Essential which idles at 5W with a bunch of services running. Its peak performance is probably less than the Mac Mini, but the hardware is cheap (at least it was before RAM/storage got expensive) and it’s a great platform to run Linux on.
- frollogaston 22d agoNUC is good too. Having x86 is surprisingly important in Linux.
- entrope 22d agoIt takes almost 8 years for $3.25/mo of electricity savings to break even with a $300 difference in up front cost. Assuming the time value of money is zero, that is.
- frollogaston 22d agoYeah, the reality is you never break even. It's only a thing if the two options are similar pricing.