Are they powering them with USB-C? I didn't think that was possible/supported.
Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers
41–50 of 106 posts
Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers
#42Todays game of was it AI generated? > The compact size of the Mac mini, which packs a powerful System on a Chip (SoC) into a tiny footprint.The energy efficiency of Apple silicon (M-series) chips, which allows high density without overheating or excessive power draw. This really adds nothing to the article, and looks like AI fluff to me. Combine that with there being a bold section in like every single paragraph, I'm…
OTOH, empty human-generated marketing slop has been around for a LOT longer than empty AI marketing slop and also reads exactly like this.
Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers
#43Unlike the old rack mount options for the trashcan Mac Pro units (eg https://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros ), it doesn't seem like much thought has been given here to a front-to-back airflow. I'm also surprised they're touting the density of this solution— seems like the obvious thing would be to put the Minis on their sides. A 4U chassis has 17.5cm vertical space in it, and a Mac Mini is 17cm wide. With the Mini…
Yep! I would have thought about doing a 3d printed "tray" that goes under the mini and routes front/cold and back/hot air to the exterior of the rack...
Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers
#44Todays game of was it AI generated? > The compact size of the Mac mini, which packs a powerful System on a Chip (SoC) into a tiny footprint.The energy efficiency of Apple silicon (M-series) chips, which allows high density without overheating or excessive power draw. This really adds nothing to the article, and looks like AI fluff to me. Combine that with there being a bold section in like every single paragraph, I'm…
The thing that got me was always referring to Scaleway in the third person. e.g. this read like the response I get when I ask AI to review code: > Scaleway’s solution to that problem was ingenious: embedding a Raspberry Pi module with each Mac mini. (I realize this may be an artifact of a corporate style guide, but I'd much prefer "Our solution to that problem was embedding . . ." Both because the "was ingenious" doe…
To me, it just reads like their marketing person's first language is not English. Which tracks because I believe the whole company is based on France.
Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers
#45Are they powering them with USB-C? I didn't think that was possible/supported.
That's just for control, in the photos they still have no power connected, not even for the Raspberry Pi...
Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers
#46Unlike the old rack mount options for the trashcan Mac Pro units (eg https://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros ), it doesn't seem like much thought has been given here to a front-to-back airflow. I'm also surprised they're touting the density of this solution— seems like the obvious thing would be to put the Minis on their sides. A 4U chassis has 17.5cm vertical space in it, and a Mac Mini is 17cm wide. With the Mini…
This is what MacStadium does. Here's a drawer design for the previous gen intel macs:
https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/687e650a56916806eaaf8f62/...
You can find a bunch more detail in their related patent filings:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20240397658A1/en?q=(%22m...
Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers
#47What do people use mac servers for?
Running CI for Iphone / Ipad dev?
20 years ago the company I worked for used a Mac-Mini for video transcoding, because there was some DRM issue we had to deal with, I don't remember the specifics.
Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers
#48What do people use mac servers for?
To compile and test software for Mac.
Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers
#49We also have a video of how we built the (then-M1) infra at GitHub: https://youtu.be/I2J2MzKjcqY?si=piMVam3qUpJGeW9Q With 60 minis per rack, and custom sled cases.
Oh nice! That quite more complex, but I like it!
Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers
#50I was interested in provisioning one of these a few months back through Scaleway, but couldn't navigate their sign-up process without it dumping me back to the start everytime. Nor did I receive a reply when I e-mailed their support e-mail. I don't know if that's changed (they had odd pricing too, like Startup vs. Business, of which the difference wasn't clear), but aware. I hope someone has more success than I did.
Scaleway's site and support is horrible, as you've found. But their pricing and offerings are solid and their network is... OK. For the price, they're better than Hetzner... if you can get signed up!