who else is using a mac mini based cart?

[ccsnd]

I know that there are at least a couple of you that are running either boom recorder or metacorder in your carts.

I have a i5 mounted in a drawer that I put together last winter. It's dead silent.

I keep a temp monitor up, and now that It's getting warm Im starting to see my cpu temps rising. I am starting to think a little bit more about ventilation, but so far it hasn't been an issue. My average temp stays somewhere around 60-65c.

What are your average temps? Do you monitor them?

I think my biggest worry is a runaway process. I was just stress testing my cpu and went from 62-81 in about 3 seconds, hovered at 81 for about 10 minutes, and then dropped back down as soon as the process was over just as quickly.

I keep the OS bare bones and never use the cart for anything more than location sound things. I have been running metacorder for at least 2 years now without a single incident or issue, but this is the first summer I'll be running it with the mac mini.

What are your setups?

[tonetripper]

I don't know but I've been thinking about building one with Boom Recorder.

P

[Richard Lightstone, CAS]

I've been running Boom Recorder, as a backup on a Mac mini since 2006. Mac mini's run very hot and need good ventilation. I've gone through two of them and on my third now. This is the latest iteration and is running fine. All the others had logic board failures within a year or two of use.

I have the Mac mini sitting on top of a 1Tb G-Tech drive.

[taylormadeaudio]

I've been running a MacMini for several years now with Metacorder via MOTU's 828mkll... it's been pretty solid. TC goes in via the built-in mic input (so it doesn't require a dedicated track.)

With the exception of the Liliput 8" LCD touchscreen, everything lives inside a Grundorf 10RU box, and I've had it in some pretty warm environments (inside box temp getting up to 105F a few times)... and everything held on... keeping it a dedicated system (with all other programs stripped or never in use) is a great precaution... Metacorder is a rock-solid app as well (better be for the $)... I've been extremely pleased with it thus far, and couldn't imagine doing long-form work without it.

~tt

[ccsnd]

Today I ran it for about 3 hours with a 100%cpu load. It shot up to 81 almost immediately, but stayed there the entire time. (with the drawer closed). I know these I5s run hot, but I'm still pretty far away from the max temp spec. Color me impressed. I have my backup mac with me at all times just in case. I never thought I would have gotten away with putting this thing in a closed drawer.

[Jay Rose]

FWIW, and partly off-topic:

It looks like soon the Mini will be the most powerful standalone Mac you can get. I ordered a new Mac Pro tower from my regular dealer last week, and he said the rumors are Apple is discontinuing the pro tower line. Since the Mini has Thunderbolt extending PCI access (and the Pro tower still doesn't), you'll eventually be able to do just about everything externally that used to require internal cards.

[johnpaul215]

FWIW, and partly off-topic:

It looks like soon the Mini will be the most powerful standalone Mac you can get. I ordered a new Mac Pro tower from my regular dealer last week, and he said the rumors are Apple is discontinuing the pro tower line. Since the Mini has Thunderbolt extending PCI access (and the Pro tower still doesn't), you'll eventually be able to do just about everything externally that used to require internal cards.

The Mini still uses a processor, and internal drive(s), intended for laptops. Same as the iMac. Hopefully Apple keeps some sort of workhorse machine. While I have no need for cutting edge processing power, a lot of people in our world do (on the video side at least).

Richard- Do you think the Mini would run happier if it had more breathing room and wasn't stacked on top of a constantly spinning HDD?

I just picked up one of those thermometer guns on clearance from Radio Shack and have been reading heat on everything. My cable box and Roku (stacked) were over 120F in a room under 80F.

[taylormadeaudio]

The Mini still uses a processor, and internal drive(s), intended for laptops. Same as the iMac. Hopefully Apple keeps some sort of workhorse machine. While I have no need for cutting edge processing power, a lot of people in our world do (on the video side at least).

Richard- Do you think the Mini would run happier if it had more breathing room and wasn't stacked on top of a constantly spinning HDD?

I just picked up one of those thermometer guns on clearance from Radio Shack and have been reading heat on everything. My cable box and Roku (stacked) were over 120F in a room under 80F.

I was gonna mention this as well -- I used to stack the Mini on top of a FW drive, but after exchanging drives (to smaller with more storage - yeah technology!) I was able to provide the MacMini with its own space -- I think it's wise to provide as much ventilation as possible with these, including not putting any heat-producing devices under them.

~tt

[johnpaul215]

I think the Mini is built to cool itself adequately, but putting something warm (a HDD) touching it will change things (thermodynamics), or packing it in a cart/rack is definitely not the sitting on top of a desk that Apple intended. I realize people have been stacking a Mini on top of a HDD since they first shipped, but I wonder if separation helps considering you run your Mini as a recorder for 12 hours at a time.

The zonal cooling of the Mac Pro is a few clicks above what the mini can do, but I guess a lot of that is for situations where you pack the tower with internal drives or intense graphics cards.

[Richard Lightstone, CAS]

The Mini is on small risers that gives it about 1/4 inch of space above the G-Tech external drive. It's been smooth sailing for over two years now.

[orionflood]

Might be the only one thinking this, but why do you need a mac mini for location audio?

[ccsnd]

Because metacorder runs on mac, is a solid program, works really well, Allows you to choose your own IO and preamps, etc...?

[Jay Rose]

...and it'll also keep your timesheets with automatic calculation, payment history with the client, equipment serial numbers, menus and reservations with online ordering, games, and your choice of newspapers or games while you're waiting for setups.

[ccsnd]

I try to stay away from anything other than metacorder, but having internet on my cart has been handy more than once.

[Jay Rose]

By all means, install the other apps in a different user account...

[S Harber]

I've been running a computer backup for a few years now and would highly recommend Boom Recorder.

Rock solid and no usb dongle to lose/sheer off/eat up usb inputs etc.

The new 01V96i running into my MacBook Pro gives me 16 ins and outs on a single USB cable and it's been running perfectly.

Scott Harber CAS

I try to stay away from anything other than metacorder, but having internet on my cart has been handy more than once.

[soundtrane]

The Mac Mini (marketed as Mac mini) is a small form factor desktop computer manufactured by Apple Inc. >>

Wow, we didn't know all this!

Jeff - spammer alert?

[thepiasa]

I've been using a Mac Mini/Metacorder/MOTU Traveller setup since 2005 as my main multitrack recorder. The Mini is now mounted in a rack mounted drawer with a Carnetix P1900 DC/DC regulator to run it on 12VDC. I'm still using my original non-intel Mini. It has never failed. (Although I am getting ready to replace it with a new one.) They do run hot so on occasion, when there is a very high ambient temperature, I have had to stick a cold bottle of water in the drawer to keep things cool. The only issue I've had is with the Metacorder dongle getting direct light and/or it and getting too hot...the program can crash. Do know that you must use powered hubs if you are planning to run multiple HDDs and A DVD burner. Learned that one the hard way when the computer stopped "seeing" the interface right before a take once. Although I also track to my Cantar X-1, I only burn a 2 track mix back up with it to send to telecine.

Other than that, it is a remarkably robust system that I have used to master every show I've done over the last 7 years. It is great to have the ability to record a virtually unlimited number of tracks when needed. It's perfect if you are using an 01V. I tested a setup using a Macbook/Metacorder/M-Audio Firewire 2626 with the dual ADAT card and was able to record 16 tracks continuously for hours with no problems. Unfortunately, the show cancelled before we started production so I didn't get to use it in a real production setting but the tests went great.

Metacorder is an awesome program. I highly recommend it. I am not so familiar with Boom but several friends of mine swear by it as well so I am sure it would suit your needs just fine too.