Feasibility of running Mac mini m4 as a home server

Home Tech Home Lab & Servers
1

I am looking to replace my ageing Dell optiplex 7060 with a second hand M4 Mac mini, mainly for the power draw and efficiency. I have never used an Apple device so I was wondering if is possible with my setup or if anyone else have done it here.

Here’s what I’ll be running

Proxmox :-

An instance of Ubuntu

windows 10 with lowest requirnment (need to use basis)

Truenas

Docker

Immich

Jellyfin

2

Don’t think proxmox is supported on Apple architecture yet

3

You are talking about running Proxmox (Linux) on Apple Silicon (ARM), which is balsy on itself, let alone running a homelab on that platform. I absolutely wouldn’t recommend it. I suppose you probably can run homelab, but not with proxmox.

Circling back on power draw and efficiency, what does it look like right now?

4

I am fine with alternative setups compatible with apple’s ecosystem.

With all things running easily 60~70 watt.

5

So it suggests that your current setup is eating more than 60~70 watt? What’s the spec on that machine.

Even my PVE Node + NAS (2 drives) is consuming around ~35w. The former is a mini PC and the latter is HP Prodesk SFF.

6

i7 8th gen

64GB Ram (I don’t need this much)

1 NIC

1 Pcie Sata controller (Runs really hot!)

4 HDD, 1 SSD, 1 Nvme

Althought I just did the bill calculation after your reply and I think it comes around 3k yearly if I am correct so I guess power should not be my concern now??

7

More power == more heat, which is a concern in any case. I would recommend checking C States and seeing if the PC is properly sleeping or not. Running powertop --auto-tune or autoaspm might help. Lowering your power consumption might be the best option for you.

8

Thanks for the Input! but this PC never sleeps I have installed Proxmox on bare metal and it runs 24/7. Heat is not an issue as I have a proper server rack with fans as intake and exaust. Maybe I’ll try spinning down the HDDs.

9

Servers are meant to run 24/7, and by sleep, I meant reaching C7/C8 state. Spinning down will only harm your drives in the long run.

10

You don’t need to have a Proxmox or other hypervisors to run a Home server.
It all boils down to your work and things you are trying to do.

  • You need a file server you can enable it on a MAC Mini.
  • You need AI related tasks it can be done.
  • Media Server.
  • Home automation.
  • Torrent Machine
  • Dockers

Just install Homebrew as a package manager and your life would be sorted. Yes, you don’t have freedom in terms of Hardware but you have a rock solid stable and secure operating system to tinker around.