Thanks Jim, I know you are a very knowledgeable person .... sooo, I am guessing the 2011-12 ones are as fast as the new ones cause I know that processor speed and all the rest peaked around that time.. so what is your recommendation? A Mac Pro?
EDIT;
the MOTU is Thunderbolt!
That's one of the things I'm looking at (processor speed). The SSD is the big advance a few years ago that removed the largest bottleneck from the system.
The price tag on Apple in the past included high end gamer grade hardware and what has seemed to be a pretty robust OS. The professional audio and video community embraced it and absolutely shunned Windows. If you didn't have a very strong level of DIY savvy with Windows you'd end up paying 3x or more at the end of the day between Rip-Off Squad "cleaning" fees and other scams than you would have for a top of the line Apple.
Fast forward to today.
Apple prices are just as high (if not a little bit higher). The hardware build quality is low end Dell-like now. OSX apparently has more development time spent finding ways to disable the older pro Macs from running it than moving forward. Feature regression across the board for all the hardware.
All the arguments for justifying the premium price (which were a stretch for some to begin with) have vanished.
So...
If you need a computer for a music server, you don't need a lot of processing power.
Maybe one of the modern $300 - $400 Windows restricted machines with a Linux install could be a good fit?
It would be new. Some DIY required with the Linux thing. You could use it out of the box with Windows I suppose. There would be at least some level of operation and access to modern-ish software that just worked.
So that's one argument.
It doesn't just sound crazy.
A con would be the Windows experience. Complete luddite computer users seem to get shut down with Windows quicker than they get shut down with OSX. (But I've seen some just as stupid stuff from certain OSX users. I remember a guy that had MacKeeper (malware) downloaded and installed within 4 hours of getting a new machine.)
Paying $2k or $3k for a Mac for a music server though? And it's one of the new degraded ones?
That's a tough sell for me even if I don't consider Windows a reasonable option! This option sounds... crazy!
Now paying that $300 - $800 for a used genuine Jobs-era Mac is making more sense.
Those machines will outlast the new ones as a rule. Making even more sense!
What could go wrong?!
The usual things with buying used of course!
Missed something.
Got scammed.
Some bits got significant use and are more used up than expected.
But then there's the math part where you could get scammed on 4 used machines in a row but you're still ahead because 5 used machines were still cheaper than buying a new one!
Are you at least a little tech savvy?
Is making a USB installer for whichever version of OSX no big deal?
Keeping clones of your various systems with Carbon Copy Cloner? Also no big deal?
If that's all good, treat yourself to one of the 2011/2012 Macs. Put a new SSD in it and enjoy the genuine Apple experience for another decade while everyone else flounders around and spends too much money doing it.
If your response to those questions is "I don't have the slightest idea of what you're talking about!", maybe consider something else. Maybe it isn't the best, but it will be new and there will be some hand holding available. A computer with something wrong with the OS install (or some quirky hardware issue) is a paperweight.
The 2011 & 2012 Mac Mini machines have 2 2.5" SATA drive bays and support 16GB ram.
Fine little machines for the price.
The 2018 Mac Mini Disposable features a soldered onto the logic board SSD and no drive bays. Not good.
Mac Pro?
I love my 2009/2010 Mac Pro!
It's a lot of hardware. You'll kind of want to justify that kind of a purchase. It's grossly overpowered for the audio work I do in general. Multitrack recording in a studio setting. Running live sound (including simultaneously recording all the multitrack). Mixing large projects (300+ tracks). Various other whatnot. These machines were more aimed at video editors. I just wanted to treat myself to something over the top 10 years ago now. I was thinking of upgrading the 2 quad core CPUs from the original 3.33GHz to dual 4.something GHz 6 core one of these times. Can't justify that either right now though.
A machine like this would be a bit over the top for a music server! Plenty of hard drive bays though! These go for $1400 - $1800 these day which is a killer price if you need one!