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Best choice between 2 mini PCs for jellyfin - THX - 2025-10-12

Hi, new jellyfin enjoyer here.

I was searching for a low-price decent jellyfin server with a price around 150€.

It would be used with 2-3 users simultaneously but I could few more in the future.
no transcoding whenever It's possible (H.264, AAC, maybe HEVC but I'm not sure compatibility wise)
720/1080p videos.
The storage would be external, on a cloud, no additional drives needed.

I came across 2 ones :
- Intel NUC7i5BNK i5-7260U (3,4 GHz – PDT 15 w) 16 GB RAM

- MSI CUBI 5 10M i3-10110U (4.1 GHz – PDT 15 w) 16 GB RAM

both with SSD and nearly same reselling price.


What should I choose between both ?
Are there even better alternatives ?

Thanks for considering


RE: Best choice between 2 mini PCs for jellyfin - pxr5 - 2025-10-12

I'd say with no transcoding get the latest and fastest. If there is any transcoding they are both (Comet and Kaby Lake) very similar in transcoding capabilities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video so a toss up between the 2. I'd get the i3 as it's newer.


RE: Best choice between 2 mini PCs for jellyfin - 34626 - 2025-10-12

You can read about recommendations for Jellyfin at:
https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/administration/hardware-selection/

But if your choices between those two, then:
- MSI CUBI 5 10M i3-10110U (4.1 GHz – PDT 15 w) 16 GB RAM

Should have better video codec support (HEVC 8 and 10 bit)

But, you could also just build amachine which you can in the future if needed add a GPU to transcode and add more Sata drives in for storage.