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MacBook Pro or Mac Mini as music server

Currently have apple extreme server. Also using the Olive Media Olive 4HD and Olive 2.
Thinking of adding either the latest Macbook pro or the mac mini as a music server for my cd collection.
Which of the two would be better suited to my task ?
I'm leaning towards the macbook pro 13" with 2.3 GHZ but then at almost half the price the Macbook min 2.4 is a steel but i wouldhave to add keyboard, a monitor and a mouse so cost would be close to the macbook pro.
Anything else am missing here ?
For the Dac, i plan to use either an I-Nova or a Bel canto designs dac 2.5. An esoteric D-07 is also not far fetch.
Would greatly appreciate some advice as i'm just starting out on this hobby (computer audio) just now.
Thanks guys-
nolitan

Showing 4 responses by rutgar

rutgar
5 posts
 
Okay, I went back and took a closer look. I did find the 8GB option on the 2.66GHz model. But not the 512GB SSD option. But you're saying that the SSD can still be added?
rutgar
5 posts
 
I see a lot of votes for the Mini. However, I think one big advantage the MacBook Pro has, is that you can add the 512GB Solid State Drive, and 8GB of RAM. Which is a big plus in my book.
rutgar
5 posts
 
Ah, okay. The Apple web site doesn't show that as optional on the mini.
rutgar
5 posts
 
I see. Thank you for the information. I can see pros and cons of both methods. But I understand what you're saying about not needing such a large SSD.

My problem is all my experience is on PC's. Macs are like a foreign language to me. But a friend of mine has a Macbook Pro using Amarra, and I was impressed with its performance. The problem with the Macbook, is that it would require a very long USB cable to connect to my player's internal DAC. So I also like the idea of Mini, being able to be placed close to my player, and using a remote device such as an I-Pad. Of course, I have never used an IPad, or any other Apple hand-held. So I'm not familiar with all of the ins and outs involving such a configuration.
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