2011 Mac Mini as a Music Server & Roon Core?!

I aimed to upgrade a mid-2011 Mac Mini just enough to run it as a Roon Server and an all-around music hub for my digital music needs. Watch the video to find out if I was able to accomplish the task!

Parts List from the Video:

Videos that helped me along the way:

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0:00 Intro
0:31 Frustrated
0:59 The Why
1:32 Upgrades
3:01 Problem with Mac OS
5:23 Planned Obsolescence
6:39 Final Thoughts

Full Disclosure:

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[jeffkorenman]

Yes. Yes it is. Still use mine nearly every day for music

[alepozzi]

Why not use ROCK from Roon? I’ll try this weekend, on an i7 2011 Mac mini server and on a late 2014 i5. Hoping it’ll work!

[EricB]

It's weird that I cannot find your channel anymore when I type in Michael Andrew as a search term.

[ThePuka]

Was there a reason not to go to Linux Mint etc, that’s fairly Mac hardware friendly. Or do you need to read hfs plus optical media?

[HEARDIFFERENT]

I laughed so hard with the video snippets.😂😂😂

[RokkorDoctor]

I keep my older macs as off-line machines, each with the contemporary OS version on it and perpetual licensed software. Sometimes it is very handy to have older software/hardware versions lying around that can do stuff newer version cannot (stripped functionality, bugs, etc.)

[cheechlombardo]

Btw, I got mine yesterday, and made a sierra stick, and now im running high sierra

[Negiku]

Damn, nice that yours have a dedicated graphics card. Mine has only intel HD and running slow and hot on Sonoma. I paid only $18 though.

[peterlundskow]

Do you have a video where you recommend an inexpensive new mini computer to do this? Also, I just watched your DIY Class D amplifier build. I really want to do the same thing but, the link to the amplifier modules no longer works. Could you find if they still have something I could use, since I don't understand what that would be? Also, I would like to use the great binding post you used but they don't seem to come with case work. Finally, could I use Sparko Op amps in this build? I really learned alot from this video, thanks!

[qwaqwa]

Yes, cloning the drive wouldabin a good idea ;-) BUT...don't know why you were having other issues... I've got a 2011 MacBook Pro audio player running stock 10.13 and it works fine for most things, web included. My friend was using a 2012 MacBook w/10.15 as a daily driver for several months before getting a shiny new M2 machine, just to be sure she was ok with Mac (transitioning from Winblows). Seriously re using a 2011 upgraded Windoze machine? I have a later one I updated for my lab computer, and it's pretty damned sad.

[papigatitoASMR]

I use two 2012 Mac Minis with Sierra as media centers primarily for watching YouTube videos and they still work fine. But yeah, Apple's policies are horrible.

[peterlundskow]

One other question, how new a Mac Mini would I have to buy to not do this updating? I have no experience in physically updating a computer.

[dougcollins]

Why does Apple fail to support anything but the latest and greatest? The same reason they use proprietary connectors, keyboards, mouse, OS and everything else... They're dicks. They have always been dicks (except Woz, who's not a dick). They sell boutique boxes to "artists" for twice the cost of a pc that does the same job, or better, using industry standard components. Mac's were future e-waste when they were manufactured with NO upgrade path and nothing but heartache and grief awaiting those who try. There's a reason that Apple PC's occupy only a 16.1% market share in the US.

[charminbaer]

OCLP is cool af, but, nobody is buying new Macs every 2 years. I still have my 2013 15" MBPr running on Sequoia and doing server duty out of my garage. I bought that MBP new when I was in film school. I didn't replace it till 2 yrs ago when I finally made the switch to a 16" M1 Pro MacBook Pro.

[albeklik]

I had to do the same thing to My only apple product I ever own I would never, ever own apple crap, no more.😊

[pwn]

hp elitedesk 800 g4 mini and dont look back.

[JargonThD]

While at university I bought a brand new iMac all-in-one (2007) to do video editing as a film major. I switched to PC around 2013-14, but kept the iMac. (I also have a Mac ... I forget the model but it's the "platinum" blovky guy. I have not tried to start it since it sat in storage for more than a decade.) When I first tried to resurrect the iMac it told me it could not run any of the iterations of web browser I had. Later, after I moved, I set it up again specifically to play Civ III. To my surprise, it recognized the WiFi and it can reach the web, but somewhat slowly. Compared to the PC the Mac OS Orange Tabby (don't recall which big cat it is) is shockingly fast. Just opening and closing apps and files and moving things around are so fast that it shows me how slow the PC is by comparison. Thanks to you and this video, I plan to see about upgrading the OS as you did. Thanks!

[qwaqwa]

Pretty sure a 2011 Dell or whatever WON'T run Win11...

[att]

Off topic are you going to review the WiiM Ultra?

[papigatitoASMR]

I use two 2012 Mac Minis with Sierra as media centers primarily for watching YouTube videos and they still work fine. But yeah, Apple's policies are horrible.