Tim BrayDec 1, 2022

Dear LazyMastodon: Hey, we have this ancient 2008 Mac Pro, used to be the Family Mainframe and homework machine for the kids. All It does now is feed music to a DAC and run a Plex server. But it's hot and eats watts and MacOS is so old it won't run browsers or anything useful.

I think I'm gong to replace it with a basic Mac mini and a couple TB of outboard disks. What's a good choice for those disks?

Show thread ReiDec 1, 2022
@timbray this is not an opinion but mostly a question out of curiosity. Isn’t it cheaper to pay for streaming services these days? I’ve been itching to build my own home server to satisfy my geek needs 🤓 but I find it hard to justify, unless I’m doing the math wrong? 🧐
Show threadTim Bray
@rei I have a lot of pretty unique music from obscure CDs and friends' music and so on that isn't on streaming.
Dec 1, 2022 at 5:11amWeb
Show thread ReiDec 1, 2022
@timbray you got me at “obscure” 👌 🤘🏼
Show threadAKMADec 1, 2022
@timbray @rei ^My problem exactly. And I’ve invested so much time into file metadata that I’m reluctant to change away even from iTunes.
Show threadMark GardnerDec 1, 2022
@timbray @rei #Apple doesn’t advertise it at *all* anymore but I pay $25/year for their #iTunesMatch service to either match my rips with their own content or transcode and store it in #iCloud as 256Kbps AAC. They emphasize it’s not a backup service (see: transcoding) but it’s really nice to have my unique music as accessible as regular #AppleMusic and #iTunes are. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204146
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