Apple Mac Mini 2011 as HomeSeer System

[Ultrajones]

After my Kingston SSD drive failed on my Shuttle XS35GT, I decided to try using the Apple Mac mini hardware for my HomeSeer system. You can pick up the base model new (when they are on sale) for about $520. A Windows 7 Pro OEM license is about $130.

This system consumes about 12-20 watts running HomeSeer which is even less than my Shuttle XS35GT.

Here are a few highlights of the system:

• Near silent operation.
• Low power consumption: 12W (idle mode) and 85W(full load)
• Fast Processor: 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
• Supports up to 16 GB Ram
• The Windows 7 rating for the processor is 6.9!
• 4 USB ports for Homeseer systems needing serial or external modems.
• Audio line out/headphone minijack (digital/analog)
• Gigabit Ethernet port.

I am running my Mac mini as a headless system with Windows 7 Pro 64bit. The overall performance is better than any other HomeSeer system I have owed to date. Web page, HSTouch and text to speech is very fast.

I highly recommend the Apple Mac mini hardware for anyone looking for a low noise, low power HomeSeer system.

Regards,
Ultrajones

[Pete]

Randy,

Nice machine. I have a similiar previous gen AOpen core duo MiniPC that I was using for MCE (XP and W7).

Its been running great.

I've recently turned it back on and installed XMBC on it. I'm impressed so far with what I see with newest gen of XMBC.

Runs great.

[rhodesep]

Thanks for Info

UJ, I have the mac-mini 2011 Server. I bought it so I had access to an apple when the wife ask questions about her laptop. How are you running Windows? Are you booting to windows? Do you think it is possible to run both the server and windows (homeseer) at the same time?


Gene

Ok, I added VMWave Fusion 4.0. Then added Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. Now have two operating systems running( Lion Server and Windows pro). I Attached spec's I have 16 GHz memory coming. My Mac Mini is a mid 2011 Server 2.0 GHz Intel Core I7, Memory 4GB

[Ultrajones]

I am using Apple Boot Camp 4.0 and booting nativley to Windows 7.

Regards,
Ultrajones

[Pete]

I've left the two Shuttle's netops on now 24 / 7; one for over a year now (its in FL) and the other one just recently replaced my wifes older PC with the Shuttle.

I've never left the Aopen PC on 24 / 7 although its meant to be a miniature MCE box.

This said; the Shuttles and the AOpen PCs are "throw aways" as it would be prohibitively expensive to fix these computers. (I have four early gen Shuttle SFF computers which I should throw away as they utilized propietary motherboards which are most difficult to find these days).

Randy; you do have me thinking though of another HS build using an I5 or I7 mITX board in a small case / similiar configuration to the Foxconn D510/D525 boxes (hot swap drive cage and picoPS stuff) just to play.

So the Apple Mac Mini is an EFI only boot machine eh? I did notice that the EFI option was on the new Asus BIOS that came with the AMD E-350 motherboard that I am using for the new NAS box.

off on a tangent of sorts here...

On a lark last week removed the first atom based CarPC that I had in one vehicle to have a look at it cuz it was "acting funny". It was a first gen Atom based Intel motherboard mITX board. Ripping it totally apart last week I noticed 3 exploding caps on it. As a project of sorts will replace the caps on it; but I did order a new mITX motherboard last week for it anyways; mostly cuz I am somewhat addicted now to having a carPC in the automobiles (even today with same said car having satellite radio, cd changer that plays mp3's, built in bluetooth, etc on it). Funny cuz I got the BT module for it in Europe and the BT connection to it allows for me to get email / text messaging etc on the HU display...where as the newest vehicle BT built in connection only allows for using the telephone / VR stuff but I can't get to email / texting on it. I tried to keep the cars though as OEM as possible. Today though you can purchase a drop in HU which runs either MS CE or XPE which do it all for a price ($600 or so); I'm old and haven't kept up though with all of the technology and still prefer to be less invasive to my automobile electronics. BTW even have OEM made for the vehicle TV modules which were plug n play still today used for limos etc made in europe..I don't though watch TV when I drive anyways....just wanted to see if I could install it....

[rhodesep]

Apple Mac Mini 2011 Server as HomeSeer System

I have moved my homeseer system to a Mac Mini 2011 Server. I tried VMware 4 running both apple and windows 7 Pro 64. It seemed acceptable, but I never tried it with the homeseer system. I wanted to get all I could out of what I had. I loaded Windows 7 64 Pro using bootcamp and I am very happy with the results. This model uses the 2.0 Ghz quad-core Intel core i7 processors, 16GB memory and dual 500GB (7200 rpm) hard drives. I have attached the performance printout just to compare with UJ's. I originally purchased this mini for other purposes. Now it is my HomeSeer system. Thanks to Ultrajones for the information. Great suggestion

[Pete]

I am really curious what the CPU temps are when running on the Mac Mini. The reason I am curious is that I have a few smaller NMT's with 1 TB drives and I have had to redo the cooling / flow of air because they got too warm. The AOpen PC with its core duo (still using more power / hotter than a cooler running Intel i7) was running a bit warm. The space inside / fooprint on the Aopen was in inself a hinderance to proper cooling. I understand that the i7 utilizes less power and runs much cooler. Still curious though what Mac did to the design of the case / flow of air to passively or proactively keep the Mac mini cooler and what the temperatures are?

[huggy_d1]

I got a new mac mini with the notion of running mac os/x with windows 7-64bit via parallels on a 2nd 3.5" sata hard drive. It's the 2.3 GHz model and it will have 8 GB of crucial.com ram (on order).

Anyone know whether all the hardware will appear to windows as if it were a native PC's hardware device?

External devices are :

z-troller (ps/2 port)
rfxcom (usb)
monitor (hdmi)
keyboard usb
mouse (usb)
external printers (usb, wifi)

Beyond that, other devices communicate via LAN (Pioneer AVR), DLNA compatible devices, wifi picture frames hit network shares, apple tv can access many aspects of the system

Before I start down the parallels vs. dual-boot mode, I'm hoping someone with some experience can guide more than just the hardware aspect since UJ already paved the way on that!

As a side benefit, it will allow me to finally use my apple developer agreement, install xcode and develop code for iOS devices.

Thanks for any ideas/suggestions.

[sphiend]

My system has been on Mac mini for over a year (in a relatively warm closet) with no issues. Most reliable HS system I have had to date. Has a second Mac mini (server edition) sitting next to it on same shelf.

Also using bootcamp. I elected to go 32 bit windows ultimate for drivers.

[huggy_d1]

My system has been on Mac mini for over a year (in a relatively warm closet) with no issues. Most reliable HS system I have had to date. Has a second Mac mini (server edition) sitting next to it on same shelf.

Also using bootcamp. I elected to go 32 bit windows ultimate for drivers.

Running dual boot (boot-camp?) or parallels or only win7-32bit?

[Ultrajones]

I am really curious what the CPU temps are when running on the Mac Mini. The reason I am curious is that I have a few smaller NMT's with 1 TB drives and I have had to redo the cooling / flow of air because they got too warm. The AOpen PC with its core duo (still using more power / hotter than a cooler running Intel i7) was running a bit warm. The space inside / fooprint on the Aopen was in inself a hinderance to proper cooling. I understand that the i7 utilizes less power and runs much cooler. Still curious though what Mac did to the design of the case / flow of air to passively or proactively keep the Mac mini cooler and what the temperatures are?

I checked the temps on my Mac mini i5 2.5 Ghz running Lion with a video playing for over an hour:

Hard drive: 95 F
CPU: 150 F
GPU: 148 F
Ambient: 122 F

I stopped the video, then checked the temps after 5 minutes:

Hard drive: 95 F
CPU: 142 F
GPU: 137 F
Ambient: 117 F

Regards,
Ultrajones

[Ultrajones]

The 2010 Mac mini just has a power cable. The Mac mini power supply is inside the Mac mini and provides about 7 amps at 12V.

Regards,
Ultrajones

[huggy_d1]

Ok, finally completed all the hardware upgrades today. Now the PC has 1.5 TB of disk space (500 GB native mac os, 1 TB for windows), 8 GB of speedy RAM, and Parallels installed. Working on getting win7-64 ultimate installed in parallels and then migrate HSPro configuration and make it all work.

As you can guess, the last sentence is the most amount of time, and apparently I'll be blazing the trail since I want to be able to use both mac and windows. The remote access of choice seems to be VNC so I can run it headless. Works for me as I use it on my current Windoze HSPro box.

Any gotchas anyone can think of would be much appreciated.

[Stef]

Hi,

I'm looking to replace my now unreliable PC Tower for a Mac Mini.

I wish it could run HS2 and soon HS3 under Parallels desktop.

Someone has this working?

[huggy_d1]

Hi,

I'm looking to replace my now unreliable PC Tower for a Mac Mini.

I wish it could run HS2 and soon HS3 under Parallels desktop.

Someone has this working?

I'm running HS2 & HS3 within the same parallels win7-64 VM with Mountain Lion as the native OS.

Had to install some drivers to get Bluetooth to work but parallels gave me the link and it worked first time.