Mac Mini or Mac Mini Server?

[striggell]

ok I'm looking to upgrade my current RAID 5 Linux server to something that doesn't consume 160w at idle and I can't make up my mind between a normal mac mini or server.

 

I have a macbook, macbook pro and a hackintosh that I want to use time machine to backup to an external RAID array on the mini (most likely a Promise smartstor possibly a DROBO). I know that I don't really need osx server to accomplish this though I have used it extensively and I like it but the only real benefit I see is a slightly quicker setup for time machine for my purposes. Outside of time machine backups the mini is really only going to serve as a media server for my PS3 and as an HTPC (both are connected to my plasma).

 

The benefits I see with the server version are the faster drives (which I can mirror RAID too) faster CPU and more RAM - OSX server would just be a bonus. I don't care about an optical drive as I'll just turn on my PS3 if I want to watch a dvd or blu ray.

 

Just trying to weigh up if the extra $400 is worth it or not. That $400 would pay for my external RAID enclosure and I already have a bunch of 1.5tb drives waiting to go into the enclosure.

 

A mac mini based off sandy bridge with light peak, esata or usb 3 would be very nice but seeing as we don't have crystal balls to tell when (if) such a machine will ever see the light of day I don't see the point in waiting - I'd just use FW800 for my RAID or pull out one of the drives and add an esata cable (provided the mac mini chipset supports port multipliers - something I have't researched yet).

 

Anyway if you were me which way would you go?

 

Thanks,