4 ms·

Because minis are very commonly racked in bulk, and its both very irritating for that use case, and entirely unnecessary

cguess 2y ago
Minis are rarely racked in bulk unless you're running a server farm, which is not the use case they design for. The MacMini is first and foremost a desktop computer for non-professional people or at least not sysadmins. If people want to rack them, go ahead, but in that case how often are you hard rebooting a machine vs soft reboot anyways? Macs aren't known for freezing up too much. Either way, it works for the use case its designed for.
evilduck 2y ago
Why not just rack them upside down then?
rgovostes 2y ago
Some of the rackmount kits for previous generations already reroute the power button and connectors to the front, like this https://racknex.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/with-power-button-zr-pbk-001-racknex.jpg https://racknex.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/with-power-bu.... (Though why not just install it backwards?) I guess they will be able to run a little lever under the M4 model the same way. Actually, the M4 model is a little taller so it no longer fits in a 1U rack mount. Whereas before you could fit 2 horizontally in 1U, now you'd possibly fit 8 or 9 vertically in 3U. (Edit: This company says 10 per 2U https://www.racksolutions.com/m4-mac-mini-apple-hypershelf.html https://www.racksolutions.com/m4-mac-mini-apple-hypershelf.h....)
- matt-p 2y ago
  I think the airflow for more than 3 per 1.33u, or 8-9 per 3u will necessarily suck. I have designed for both, I think both have great use cases. 2 x 8 in 6u is really neat and tidy, I just don't love the concept of sitting the fans on their side, though I think they'll still last 5 years.
astrange 2y ago
In that case wouldn't you rather have a managed power switch / iDRAC / restart over ssh, than send someone to go press buttons in person? (I've only ever racked things remotely, so don't know if this is common.)
- matt-p 2y ago
  Can't do idrac of course but you can do managed power port, kvm and ssh. The most efficient is managed power + serial + ssh and probably the best to go for.
matt-p 2y ago
In that case then they should be on switched pdu ports and plugged into permanent kvm. I'm sorry but this is nonsense, if you're really racking them in bulk the above is obvious.

cguess 2y ago

Minis are rarely racked in bulk unless you're running a server farm, which is not the use case they design for. The MacMini is first and foremost a desktop computer for non-professional people or at least not sysadmins. If people want to rack them, go ahead, but in that case how often are you hard rebooting a machine vs soft reboot anyways? Macs aren't known for freezing up too much. Either way, it works for the use case its designed for.

evilduck 2y ago

Why not just rack them upside down then?

rgovostes 2y ago

Some of the rackmount kits for previous generations already reroute the power button and connectors to the front, like this https://racknex.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/with-power-button-zr-pbk-001-racknex.jpg https://racknex.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/with-power-bu.... (Though why not just install it backwards?) I guess they will be able to run a little lever under the M4 model the same way. Actually, the M4 model is a little taller so it no longer fits in a 1U rack mount. Whereas before you could fit 2 horizontally in 1U, now you'd possibly fit 8 or 9 vertically in 3U. (Edit: This company says 10 per 2U https://www.racksolutions.com/m4-mac-mini-apple-hypershelf.html https://www.racksolutions.com/m4-mac-mini-apple-hypershelf.h....)

matt-p 2y ago
I think the airflow for more than 3 per 1.33u, or 8-9 per 3u will necessarily suck. I have designed for both, I think both have great use cases. 2 x 8 in 6u is really neat and tidy, I just don't love the concept of sitting the fans on their side, though I think they'll still last 5 years.

astrange 2y ago

In that case wouldn't you rather have a managed power switch / iDRAC / restart over ssh, than send someone to go press buttons in person? (I've only ever racked things remotely, so don't know if this is common.)

matt-p 2y ago
Can't do idrac of course but you can do managed power port, kvm and ssh. The most efficient is managed power + serial + ssh and probably the best to go for.

matt-p 2y ago

In that case then they should be on switched pdu ports and plugged into permanent kvm. I'm sorry but this is nonsense, if you're really racking them in bulk the above is obvious.