tldr; Is anyone running Plex on a base M4 Mac Mini? I’m talking about the 10‑core CPU and GPU, 16GB Unified Memory, 256GB SSD Storage, absolute base model. If so, how is the experience?
We’re supposed to get snowed/iced in this weekend in Atlanta, so I’m taking the opportunity to move my Plex server off the iMac where it currently resides and to a Mac Mini.
The main reasons are:
I have another use case for the iMac that I didn’t have before (and it’s a pretty maxed out version)
The iMac currently lives downstairs in my daughter’s room (where the fiber connection comes in) and I’d rather the Plex server live on our media shelf so I don’t have to go down there or deal with VNC to access it for simple tasks.
I’m fairly confident that Plex will be more than fine on the base model, and the price of the project doesn’t work for me if I need to upgrade to a better one. I tend to overbuy on specs, but this is a single purpose machine and if ever I think I should stick with the base model and save the money, this is the time.
I’m using an M1 studio as a Plex server and it’s great, no problems whatsoever.
You’ll probably need an external drive to store your media on.
Also got a HDHomerun plugged into it and it works fine.
I should have mentioned in the last post that all my media is stored on a NAS and isn’t moving as part of this. I just need the horsepower and RAM to run the server itself.
Completely depends on your content and your bandwidth. If you don’t need to transcode, you can run it on a raspberry pi. I run mine on a 2011 Mac Mini running debian, works flawlessly. But I have a decent mesh at home, good upload speeds and live in a city with decent internet on the whole.
If you have to transcode a lot of content due to bandwidth limitations and high user numbers, I’d still expect an M4 base mac mini to be able to transcode down at least 10 4K streams at once.
I’m running Plex on an M1 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM and an external disk enclosure.
It runs fine, sometimes it struggles a little immediately after loading into the web browser, but that may be because I have more than 1000 films, tens of thousands of TV episodes, 20 thousand music tracks, and other bits and pieces in it.
The hardest part is ensuring that the 256GB HDD doesn’t fill up.
But if you have an M4 with at least 16GB, it should be fine.
I would be surprised if an M4-based computer was unable to handle the demands of Plex as a home server. Your biggest bottleneck is probably going to be the network bandwidth of retrieving files from the NAS and then sending them back out on the same network port, but I would expect 4K video to be just fine over gigabit ethernet.
As others have noted, the limited storage is likely to be the biggest issue, but since you are storing your files on you NAS, also a non-issue.
I’m running Plex Server among other things on a near base M1 Mini (8GB RAM, but 1 TB SSD though). Absolutely no problems. Been running Plex Server for about 15 years on low-end Minis.
I’ve been running Plex for 15 years in this house, so I don’t have storage or bandwidth concerns. But I’ve always been running it on an older, but “higher in the lineup” chip and upgraded RAM. Good to know the base model can do it just fine.
I used to run Plex Server on an old base model Intel mini. And even for a time, on a $350 no-name Windows PC. Unless the software has changed significantly in the last few years, IMO, it should run satisfactorily on just about anything.
Asking seriously, not trolling - what’s the current use case for Plex (or similar tools)?
I’ve had (probably still have) a Plex server running with a lifetime license, but haven’t used it in years.
In my case: All music is streamed from Apple Music, no local CD or Vinyl collection, all photos are in Lightroom, and I recycled all my actual DVD’s a long time ago.
Video media is watch once mainly, and I’m fine with streaming services or affordable ($5-ish) onetime rentals of special movie or content once or twice a year.
YMMV, but I don’t rip movies, and I don’t download or trade any pirated stuff, even if not available in local copyright zones, etc.
Without wishing to state the obvious, if you don’t have media to stream, it’s not going to be much use. I have about 13TB of media, if you include audiobooks and music, so it’s does a good job for me.
Understood - we just have a different use case and set of priorities than you (which doesn’t include pirating anything). The tldr; is in bold throughout
We had kids 5, 3, 1. Then they were 6, 4, 2, etc. Kids rewatch movies over and over, so owning them made a lot of sense. We built up quite a collection.
Then we wanted to introduce them to “grown up” movies, without giving them free rein of Netflix or HBO. It’s nice to be able to have “libraries” of movies they can gain access to as they age that aren’t just “appropriate,” but good.
We have very little interest in most modern TV series but great affection for series of years gone by. Our Plex library goes from I Love Lucy to Parks & Rec. It’s been very nice to have access to those from any of our TVs or other devices for the last 15 years.
Also, I’m a Phish fan. I have the recordings of nearly every concert they’ve played that’s publicly available. While I do use Spotify for other music (and some Apple Music since I get it for free), I use Plex Amp most of the day at work to stream Phish concerts in my office.
Lastly, we put our home videos here. We’ve got a bunch of family videos over the years taken on cameras, iPhones, and digitized from childhood recordings. Plex has been a good place to keep them since I have plenty of space on the NAS.
I don’t like paying for streaming services because I’m mostly paying for things I’m not going to watch. I’d rather buy what I want or - like you - rent it if I think I’ll only watch it once. But very often, the cost of buying a used Blu-ray and putting it on my Plex server is as cheap as any rental.
As with others, over the years I’ve bought media and wish to continue using it.
I want to be in control of whether I can watch it or not rather than find out that what I wish to watch has either moved to a different streaming service I don’t subscribe to or even worse isn’t available at all to me.
For Music, I’m very specific. Rate with 5 stars, have live albums which aren’t available on streaming, and had issues with iTunes Match where the album I have isn’t the album that Apple Music offered under the same name.
I also have some Vinyl rips which I prefer to the CD equivalents.
Yes, using a M4 as Plex Server is bringing a gun to a knife fight, I can’t come with a media serving scenario where the M4 would be not enough. The only concern is the storage amount but if you’re seving from a NAS that is taken care of.
Adding to what others have mentioned, Plex combined with an HDHomeRun tuner gives local TV stations with TIVO-like functionality (record now, watch later, skip commercials).
You can backup your Apple Photos (to Linux at least) easily enough. But yeah there’s other benefits to staying Mac only. Largely depends on whether you’re going headless or not. I wouldn’t use a Mac for a headless server personally, but if was using it as a backup Mac and wanted server facilities as a bonus, that’d be a great fit.
