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Considering how much Apple has been helping MacStadium and the volume of Mac minis going to rack based installs, I'm surprised Apple hasn't made them a little m

Considering how much Apple has been helping MacStadium and the volume of Mac minis going to rack based installs, I'm surprised Apple hasn't made them a little more rack mount friendly. Seems like they could just make a special case-less sled with only minor tweaks to the existing mini design. Obviously they would need to build a sled/ server chassis too with networking and power delivery.

wil421 6y ago
It sounds like upper management said no to the server market years ago and doesn’t want to sell a “server”. But they’ll happily sell you a Mac mini to build a server farm.
- rualca 6y ago
  Arguably, mac minis are servers that can be repurposed as desktops. Even in their marketing blurbs Apple advertises mac minis as build and render farms.
- shagie 6y ago
  The Mac mini isn't intended for that type of use... they do make a rack mount Mac Pro ( https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac-pro/rack https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac-pro/rack ). Give it a generation to get to the M series chips.
  - ogre_codes 6y ago
    > The Mac mini isn't intended for that type of use The mini absolutely is intended for use as a server. It's what Apple provided to Mac Stadium for OSS projects to build on. Very few Mac Pros are used for CI servers, they are mostly used for video and audio processing.
ftio 6y ago
All the big players who rack Mac Minis already have custom rack equipment that fits Mac Minis of this form factor. I suspect the design hasn’t changed at all primarily for this reason.
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  Yes, but putting the minis in a case in a rack is wasteful. Both in terms of raw materials used, and energy efficiency. Considering how much of a deal Apple makes out of saving a few power bricks from the landfill, manufacturing thousands of enclosures which end up in server racks wasting power seems out of place.
EE84M3i 6y ago
you've said it like, 4 times in this thread that apple is "helping mac stadium". What do you mean?
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  Different things at different times. In this case just that Apple knows Mac Stadium is one of their bigger Mac mini customers and works with them.

wil421 6y ago

It sounds like upper management said no to the server market years ago and doesn’t want to sell a “server”. But they’ll happily sell you a Mac mini to build a server farm.

rualca 6y ago
Arguably, mac minis are servers that can be repurposed as desktops. Even in their marketing blurbs Apple advertises mac minis as build and render farms.
shagie 6y ago
The Mac mini isn't intended for that type of use... they do make a rack mount Mac Pro ( https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac-pro/rack https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac-pro/rack ). Give it a generation to get to the M series chips.
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  > The Mac mini isn't intended for that type of use The mini absolutely is intended for use as a server. It's what Apple provided to Mac Stadium for OSS projects to build on. Very few Mac Pros are used for CI servers, they are mostly used for video and audio processing.

ftio 6y ago

All the big players who rack Mac Minis already have custom rack equipment that fits Mac Minis of this form factor. I suspect the design hasn’t changed at all primarily for this reason.

ogre_codes 6y ago
Yes, but putting the minis in a case in a rack is wasteful. Both in terms of raw materials used, and energy efficiency. Considering how much of a deal Apple makes out of saving a few power bricks from the landfill, manufacturing thousands of enclosures which end up in server racks wasting power seems out of place.

EE84M3i 6y ago

you've said it like, 4 times in this thread that apple is "helping mac stadium". What do you mean?

ogre_codes 6y ago
Different things at different times. In this case just that Apple knows Mac Stadium is one of their bigger Mac mini customers and works with them.