Plex Media Server 1080P On 2

Had I already owned the mac mini before getting the thinkserver then maybe I wouldnt have gotten it.

Im not sure if a 2018 Mac Mini would suffice for that purpose.

Plex Media Server 1080P On 2

Planning to do streaming 1080p on 2-5 devices simultaneously.

Would the i3 model be more sufficient or does it need to have i5 or even i7 in it Would the default 8GB RAM be enough or should I get at least 16GB or even 32GB.

If so itll depend what it does, but an i5 should be ok for most tasks, given enough memory.

Id suggest 16GB as a minimum these days - even for basic usage itll give your machine much better headroom on memory.

That said, Im generally not trying to transcode 3 different 4k videos at the same time.

I went with the i7 for longevity and because the refurbished i7 cost less than the same spec new i5 (by 60).

I havent checked lately but OSX has traditionally hamstrung Plex server in that it wouldnt allow the CPUs integrated GPU to be used for transcoding, while Windows would.

For iTunes serving you dont need much - it just serves what it has, and even transcodes on the machine are not a problem because youre not waiting for it to stream, if it takes a few minutes longer to convert before adding to iTunes youre unlikely to notice.

But if it live transcodes what its streaming (and potentially multiple streams concurrently) the cpu is going to be a bottleneck if its too slow.

Not to mention the fact that the cases have space to put hard drives in, removing the need for external storage.

Plex Media Server For Mac Os X