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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Desktops > Repurposing a MacMiniG4.... questions...

Repurposing a MacMiniG4.... questions...
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Hawkeye_a
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Aug 13, 2014, 05:01 PM
 
My folks have a MacMini G4(2005/6) gathering dust ever since they switched to iPads. It occurred to me that it could be re-purposed as an iTunes server/ home share. Had a few questions.......

1. Will i be able to turn on home sharing and share music and videos on the local network?
2. The 'clients' will be iPad2s and iPhone4S
3. I think the MacMini G4 had USB2 ports, will it be able to power an external 2TB drive? Or would it be better to get a desktop drive with its own power supply?

Unfortunately I do not have physical access to the MacMini (its on the other side of the world), so i can't test any of this out for myself.

If there's anything else i need to keep in find, please share....

Cheers
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Aug 13, 2014, 05:31 PM
 
Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a View Post
My folks have a MacMini G4(2005/6) gathering dust ever since they switched to iPads. It occurred to me that it could be re-purposed as an iTunes server/ home share. Had a few questions.......

1. Will i be able to turn on home sharing and share music and videos on the local network?
Sort of. You're limited to iTunes 10, so this will mostly work. Expect some slowness.

3. I think the MacMini G4 had USB2 ports, will it be able to power an external 2TB drive? Or would it be better to get a desktop drive with its own power supply?
Get a desktop drive. Be sure to format it correctly for OS X, don't leave it in native FAT or whatever they come in these days.
     
P
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Aug 14, 2014, 11:32 AM
 
Generally you should be able to power a 2.5" drive (ie, laptop size) from the USB ports, a desktop drive (3.5") will be faster and cheaper (at that size), and if you get on with an external PSU, it doesn't have to have a fan. I have had good experiences with WD's MyBook series.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Hawkeye_a  (op)
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Aug 15, 2014, 08:35 AM
 
Thanks guys. I just hope the software (Leopard and whatever version of iTunes) will be able to serve this purpose.

Cheers
     
   
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