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+--- Thread: Need upgrade advice (/t-need-upgrade-advice)
Need upgrade advice - gelliss - 2025-06-13
I've been running plex and now jellyfin for a while. My needs have been pretty simple with just a couple of streams at a time. Mostly 1080p but as more and more 4k videos are available and my current PC running jellyfin is old, I'm looking to upgrade.
Current system running 24/7 is a 13yr old gaming PC that's been upgraded or repaired multiple times. It has an i5-2500k processor with 32gb of ram, an Nvidia 1050ti and a 1TB SSD and a 4TB platter drive and 2TB external drive for storage. It's fine for 1080p and even some 4k videos on direct play but not for transcoding.
I'd like to be able to transcode a couple of 4k streams at once and am looking at mini PCs to replace the aging system. These are two options i've looked at:
GMKtec Mini PC Intel N150 (Turbo 3.6GHz) 16GB DDR4 1TB PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD, Intel i226-V Desktop Computer 4K Dual HDMI Display/4x USB3.2/WiFi 6/BT5.2/RJ45 Ethernet Nucbox G3 Plus
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQ4C9ZY1?tag=toptenreviewed-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&keywords=plex%2Bmini%2Bpcs
GMKtec Mini PC Intel i5-12450H(Turbo 4.4 GHz) 32GB DDR4 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD Intel i225v Mini Computers, USB 3.2, Type-C/WiFi 6, BT5.2, RJ45 2.5G/ 4K Triple Display Desktop PC
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWQ941FC?ref=emc_p_m_5_i_atc&th=1
My idea is to buy something like this and just add an external 8TB drive to it. Would either of these meet my needs or can anyone recommend something else?
Thanks
RE: Need upgrade advice - 34626 - 2025-06-13
I dont know much on this area, but if transcoding is needed, you might just need to buy a intel arc graphic card and configure hardware aceleration with Intel Quick Sync - 4k is not as easy as 1080p to transcode especially if you have mutiple transcodings running.
RE: Need upgrade advice - gelliss - 2025-06-13
Do you mean add an intel arc card to the old pc in place of the Nvidia card or buy something new with an intel arc card? It's so old I don't even know if one would work in that.
RE: Need upgrade advice - I-G-1-1 - 2025-06-18
I'm also confused on this topic: every time I see some "gaming" video on youtube regarding Intel-ARC they say DON'T buy if your system doesn't support to enable "resizable bar" on bios.
So I'm asking to whoever own this card: Is this a gaming only issue or we need "resizable bar" also for h.265 and AV1 encode/decode?
I own a lenovo m720q with a i5 8400T and a PCI-E free that could accomodate a single slot half-size Intel-ARC graphic card, but I don't know If these cards work without resizable bar.