My Raspberry Pi (which I paid too much for, but they're cheap at twice the price...which they are) is finally set up taking over from my aging 2009 Mac Mini as a media server.The Mac had started to run very hot, the drive was in failure again (heat, natch) so it was time to go. I'm in love with these little ARM computers and want another one now.
@alienghic They're close. Both had 2GB, it's a RPI 4B. I don't notice any loss in performance. I'm very pleased with it. The Mac was an Intel 1.4GHz dual core, pretty anaemic honestly. It had an Nvidia 9400 GPU which was doing no work, but just sat there at 78C. Normal for that chip, believe it or not.
@sullybiker Toasty.
Ok and that's encouraging. I have an old macmini being used too and I was thinking i should replace it.
@alienghic I use plex via Chromecast, so it does a little transcoding. I did play with it a lot on my desktop and it pushed out 1080P with no real issue; it works best on H/W decode (VLC or some other media player) if you're plugging it into a telly.
Best thing about it is it is tiny, and silent!
@alienghic You can run a USB HD off it if you use the supplied adapter. It's USB 3 too.
@alienghic There's no big gotchas, really. Its pretty much a drop-in.
@sullybiker Which generation of Pi are you using to replace a Mini? How much ram did the two systems have?
Does the pi work well for this use?