I realize that by owning a PowerBook I’m biased, but I can’t help but think that the new Mac mini would be an ideal dedicated build server for some small to medium-sized projects that lack available machines. It’s conveniently missing everything you don’t need in a build server: display, keyboard, and mouse. Yes, the hardware you do get is proprietary, but it runs a UNIX-based operating system that’s conveniently loaded with everything you want: a rich command-line environment with shells for commanded automation, dynamic languages such as Ruby and Python that excel at project chores, other programming languages such as Java and C/C++, secure connection protocols such as ssh, cron for scheduled automation, and the Apache web server for monitoring builds and serving up RSS feeds.

At $499 for the 1.25GHz model, I suspect the Mac mini would pay for itself the first time it detects an integration problem that would have thrashed the team for an hour. Most projects will need to pop for more memory (it ships with 256MB), but even the low-end model has enough horsepower to compile code and run tests. And if the throughput of builds becomes an issue as your project grows, you could buy a bigger box or cluster a few minis together to make an inexpensive build server.

Out of the box, plugged into your network, the Mac mini is almost ready, obviously willing, and certainly able to devote its life to continuously baking fresh builds and doing other project chores. I recognize that lots of IS departments won’t be OK with this. Please choose a machine that works best for your project. The point is you really can’t afford not to have a dedicated build server, and if cost is an issue, then you might consider starting here.