The Mac mini is, for the most part, a “hobby” computer. Sure, it’s used in some datacenters, where people lease Mac minis to run as servers, but this diminutive Mac desktop computer is most widely used by home users wanting to run a simple server, often to host media, files, or to use for backups. It’s small, yet it’s sufficiently powerful for these tasks.
I used one for a couple of years as my main desktop Mac. In late 2011, I bought the then current Mac mini and tricked it out with the then uncommon SSD for primary storage, a second hard drive (that model allowed you to configure it with two drives), the fastest processor available at the time, and extra RAM. That computer still runs as a home server: it hosts my media library using Plex and I use it for backups. This is the longest I’ve had a Mac in use, and it’s still running fine, even though it’s on all the time.
I considered upgrading to a newer model, mainly to have USB 3 connections, but realized that it’s not really necessary for how I use this Mac. Most of my file transfers are over Wi-Fi, and it’s connected to my router via Ethernet. If Apple were to update the Mac mini, I might buy a new one depending on what features it offers.
Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.