My Setup for the M4 Mini as a Secondary Mac (NAS, Media Server, and Light Gaming)

[Erlend]

This weekend I did the setup for my new Mac Mini, and I documented the process, and made a little write-up, if anyone’s interested.

I also have a question: Would it still be able to do its job if I let it go to sleep, or do I have to make it stay awake?

[sangadi]

@Erlend all I can say is “I want to replicate this.” Excellent.

[tomalmy]

It must be awake. I’ve got a “headless” M1 Mini I use as a server. Settings vary a lot depending on model and macOS version (I’m still on Sonoma on this Mac). I did the following:

Screen Saver disabled, display not turned off when inactive.

These probably aren’t necessary but better safe than sorry: Prevent sleeping when display is off. Don’t put hard disks to sleep when possible, Wake for network access.
Start automatically after a power failure.

[pantulis]

@Erlend

Would it still be able to do its job if I let it go to sleep, or do I have to make it stay awake?

Once everything has synced, I don’t see anything in your setup that would be thwarted by sleep. But fear not, if the computer is doing something important, macOS will not let it go to sleep. Not that you would care, because in the case it is simply idling overnight it’s <5W.

On the other hand, given your write-up, did you consider installing macOS on the external disk and booting from it? That would simplify things, I think.

[Erlend]

@tomalmy

These probably aren’t necessary but better safe than sorry:

Yeah, I have settings like this currently! I just wondered if I really had to, hehe.

@pantulis

Once everything has synced, I don’t see anything in your setup that would be thwarted by sleep. But fear not, if the computer is doing something important, macOS will not let it go to sleep. Not that you would care, because in the case it is simply idling overnight it’s <5W.

I guess I’m specifically thinking of things like my laptop starting a Time Machine backup, or starting watching something through Jellyfin. Would it then wake from sleep to allow me to access these things?

@pantulis

On the other hand, given your write-up, did you consider installing macOS on the external disk and booting from it? That would simplify things, I think.

Hmm, not really. I mean, I have to use the 256 GB for something ! And would that really simplify things? Now I have things pretty separated: Time Machines, games and media files are all on the drive.

[karlnyhus]

My old 2014 Mac mini (Intel, of course) would not reliably serve as a Time Machine target, respond to remote access, etc., unless I kept it on all the time. But Apple Silicon Macs do not sleep the way that Intel Macs did. They frequently, and often briefly, wake themselves up, rarely sleeping for significant periods of time.

[tnetha]

Great write up! Have you thought about installing something like EmulationStation as a front-end for retro games? Retro Game Corps just did a video about the new Mac Mini and what it can emulate: https://youtu.be/kwOz4VCXzD8?si=q7sQRYYDhSJ25pDG

[Erlend]

Thanks!

Haven’t thought about it that much – as I even now have more games than I need, heh. (And both the Anbernic, Delta (iOS) and the Switch has a bunch of retro stuff.)

But it’s absolutely interesting! That video popped up on my front page recently.