Specification of Mac Mini

Posted on
Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:12 pm
practiful offline
Posts: 5
Joined: Aug 20, 2017

Specification of Mac Mini

Hi Guys,

Im new to the forum and new to indigo.

I am currently renovating our home and having sold on the several gateway controllers that I had been using previously a while ago have decided I would like to give Indigo a try out.

From the looks of the reviews and mentions on the seller sites comments and the general consensus here, I am expecting to be happy with the choice.

To that end then I shall be needing to purchase a mac mini to run it, which I think I will also run Plex on as a media server.

What would you guys suggest as a minimum spec for a machine to start out with?

I would rather get the lowest cost for value machine to start with and upgrade next year as I am spending a lot on the house and don't want to run out before I am done!

Many Thanks

Tim

Posted on
Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:21 pm
Different Computers offline
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Posts: 2533
Joined: Jan 02, 2016
Location: East Coast

Re: Specification of Mac Mini

I have run Indigo on a bunch of different Macs, but most of the time, it has been running on a 2009 era Core 2 Duo mini with either 4 or 8 GB RAM. I'm currently running an external SSD as the main boot disk, but I'm unsure this gives much benefit. (I bought it to be an internal, but the internal SATA bus wouldn't put up with it.)

This works fine for Indigo, rarely using more than 25% of the processor as long as I don't use the Security Camera plugin, which requires a LOT of processing power for image processing. I'm unaware of any other Indigo plugins that require significant horsepower, but they're probably out there. I do notice that HomeBridge response seems a bit slow. This Mini is also my iTunes Server.

I also run Plex, but on a separate Mini of the same vintage. If you plan to run Plex without a lot of transcoding, you should be fine with one of these old models as your Indigo server too, but it's probably wise to go up to an i5 model if you do any transcoding at all.

FYI, my signature with specs, below, is out of date and for some reason won't update.
Last edited by Different Computers on Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

SmartThings refugee, so happy to be on Indigo. Monterey on a base M1 Mini w/Harmony Hub, Hue, DomoPad, Dynamic URL, Device Extensions, HomeKitLink, Grafana, Plex, uniFAP, Fantastic Weather, Nanoleaf, LED Simple Effects, Bond Home, Camect.

Posted on
Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:22 pm
FlyingDiver offline
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Posts: 7189
Joined: Jun 07, 2014
Location: Southwest Florida, USA

Re: Specification of Mac Mini

I run Indigo, Plex, Security Spy, and a few other things on a Late 2012 Mac mini. 2.5 GHz i5 with 4GB of RAM. Works fine. When I get a chance, I'm going to upgrade the memory in the box. Current models are not upgradeable, however. If you're planning on buying new, I would get the mod-range ($699) model with 8GB. But if you can get a deal on a slightly older one on eBay, that would work fine too.

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Sat Aug 26, 2017 2:58 pm
practiful offline
Posts: 5
Joined: Aug 20, 2017

Re: Specification of Mac Mini

Thanks for the guidance.

Im hopefully going to integrate cctv into the system so may look to the higher end for that but I could wait for that.

Im also not sure if I will need to do any transcoding but as I am also in the beginning of building my own personal library of films (as compared to subscribing) I guess I can choose the format.

I think I shall copy your specs and get looking on eBay.

I think I will go for a pre fusion drive mac as well, as then I could just up the ram and ssd instead of a new machine next year.

I have another question regarding alarm systems but I will start another thread.

Many Thanks

Posted on
Sat Aug 26, 2017 4:42 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Posts: 2794
Joined: Jul 20, 2009
Location: Colorado

Re: Specification of Mac Mini

Me.

Screen Shot 2017-08-26 at 4.41.33 PM.png
Screen Shot 2017-08-26 at 4.41.33 PM.png (134.87 KiB) Viewed 2633 times

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Sun Sep 17, 2017 1:26 pm
Turribeach offline
Posts: 429
Joined: Feb 06, 2015
Location: London, UK

Re: Specification of Mac Mini

Hi, a new MacMini is heavily rumoured to come out at an Apple event in October. Of course it's just a rumour and may not happen but given that we are a month away from any potential MacMini refresh I would wait. The MacMini was last refreshed in 2014 so is looking very outdated. If you are going to run Plex Server you want a decent CPU since Plex can transcode any format to match a format that your Plex clients support. So for iPhone watching it usually needs to transcode content downloaded off the web (unless it has been specifically ripped to be iOS compatible).

The advice on the Mac community is also to Don't Buy:

https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Mini

Posted on
Sun Sep 17, 2017 1:46 pm
yassi offline
Posts: 468
Joined: Sep 06, 2015
Location: Germany

Re: Specification of Mac Mini

I have Indigo running on a MacMini 2009 (Core2Duo) with 4GB with an internal Samsung SSD (120GB)
Runs without issues!
Had Indigo 6 running on an old 2005 MacMini, but wanted to upgrade to 7 so, bought the used 2009 Mini for 120 € and sold the SingleCore Mini for 60€

Yassi


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Posted on
Sun Sep 17, 2017 3:15 pm
Turribeach offline
Posts: 429
Joined: Feb 06, 2015
Location: London, UK

Re: Specification of Mac Mini

This is my MacMini:

Untitled.png
Untitled.png (58.79 KiB) Viewed 2382 times


Running Indigo 7 without any issues. SSD a necessity. Not so for performance, but it's going to be running 7x24 so HDDs generate a lot of heat and noisy hence why an SSD will be a much better choice. I refuse to buy a new MacMini until Apple adds support for proper 4K (60fps). Hopefully that's coming on October...

Posted on
Thu Oct 12, 2017 9:21 am
siclark offline
Posts: 1960
Joined: Jun 13, 2017
Location: UK

Re: Specification of Mac Mini

I have been running on a 2007 core 2 duo with 2Gb RAM and HDD, which worked fine for Indigo, but struggle with Security Spy at the same time. Worse, even without Security Spy running it would sometimes fail to allow either Team Viewer or VNC to connect (I was running it headless) and so I would have to hard power off and on to get it to respond again, although Indigo was still running fine, I just couldnt see it!

Hadnt thought about trying an external SSD on it but have instead moved to a 2014 i5 4Gb which I hope will help. I also ran a LOT of plugins which did seem to use a lot of resources in total.

2007 core duo 2Gb was £80, 2014 i5 4Gb was £200, really shouldnt have tried to save that money up front. Hopefully no need to upgrade for a while, but then I use my NAS as Plex server and music library for Sonos.

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