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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
nolitan OP
865 posts
 
Hello Mingles,

I tried this procedure using my IPAD:

This will be the easiest way. When you're done with set up, you can remove the monitor and use your ipad or laptop to remote in and do everything you need. Here are instructions on how to set up screen sharing:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/11848.html

but for some odd reason my Ipad can't read or open my Macbook. Do i need some sort of VNC viewer ?

Thanks again for the helpful insights.

My question is, if the Macmini is off, i definitely need to turn in on, correct.After that can the ipad already access it ? do i need to put a mouse or keyboard on the macmini to do some functions, etc ?
rbstehno
1,407 posts
 
if you have your mac go to sleep after a while, make sure you set "wake for network access" under system preferences/energy saver. because i use screen sharing from my imac to the mac mini, i also use the WakeOnLan program that points to all the ip addresses on your network so you can wake any 1 of them up.
nolitan OP
865 posts
 
Thanks for the helpful tip Rbstehno.

So which is better, using pocket cloud or using the VLC on the mac to access a headless mac-mini ?
kiskaprince
6 posts
 
Neither please
Toshiba laptops are best
Esata port
i5 processor
Dedicated video card
And you are set
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.
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