Plex Free With A
Plex Software On A
Plex Portable Hard Drive

When you initially set up the Mac mini, you need a display, keyboard, and mouse, but youll be setting it up so that you wont needs these items later.

With the arrival of the fourth-generation Apple TV, I found myself trying out the Plex media server, and I realized that using Plex is one of the best ways to watch media on the Apple TV.

Plex Software On A

You can install the Plex server software on a variety of devices: your Mac, a PC, a NAS (network attached storage device), and more.

Heck, you could even set it up on a Raspberry Pi.).

If you have a large media collection, you may want to use a Mac as a dedicated device to run Plex.

Plex doesnt need a lot of horsepower to manage and stream your media, unless it transcodes video.

If you do have a lot of videos that need transcoding, a NAS might not be a good fit for Plex.).

In this article, Im going to tell you how you can set up a Mac mini as a dedicated Plex server.

You can, of course, use that Mac mini for other things, such as using it as a file server, or for Time Machine backups.

Its small form factor and quiet operation makes it easy to integrate into a home entertainment system or use as a server stashed away in a corner.

The current model, starting at 499, includes Thunderbolt and USB 3 connections, and while it doesnt have the largest (or fastest) hard drive, its 500GB might be enough for your media collection.

But the entry-level model with a 1.4GHz processor is a bit pokey.

For 699, you get a Mac mini with a 2.6GHz processor and 1TB hard drive, which will handle most peoples media collections.

Im running a 2011 Mac mini that I tricked out with the fastest available processor when I bought it.

The 2.7GHz Core i7 is fast enough to transcode video and handle several other tasks at the same time.

I also bought the Mac mini with a 256GB SSD and a second internal drive of 750GB.

You can probably find a similar model used for a few hundred dollars.

Remember, Plex cannot play any DRM-protected videos purchased from the iTunes Store or elsewhere.) My music library, as well as my iTunes Store movies and TV series, are stored on my iMac, but Ive shunted the rest of my videos to the Mac mini.

If you buy a current build-to-order Mac mini, you can get a 2TB drive in the most expensive model, but that would cost you 1100.

Its cheaper to get a less expensive Mac mini and use external hard drives.

You should have one for your media, and another to back up the first drive (and the operating system; you can use Time Machine so this runs automatically.).

Plex Portable Hard Drive

For about the same price, you can get a 3TB USB 3 WD My Passport portable hard drive (or a 2TB model for less than 100).

These drives are compact, and only need to be plugged into a USB port; no power cables are needed.

With these portable hard drives, its a lot easier to transfer lots of data from another Mac; instead of transferring files over your Wi-Fi network, you can plug one of the drives into another Mac to copy movies youve ripped.

No matter what, make sure that you have a second drive to back up your movies, unless youre keeping copies on another computer.

Plex Free With A

My Mac mini runs OS X Server (20, or free with a paid Apple developer account), which allows me to use it for such things as caching software updates, and storing Time Machine backups of other Macs.

You may not need this; the standard version of OS X is just fine.

How To Install Plex For Mac