Hardware Advice for a Newbie

[Elarem]

Been experimenting with Jellyfin for about a month now, hosting the server on an old MBP I had lying around. However, I think I'm ready to move forward with a dedicated hardware solution.

Does anyone have any advice on hardware to use? Or even what sort of specs I should be looking for? Any advice or help is appreciated, so thanks in advance!

[TheDreadPirate]

What is your budget and how many users do you expect to have?

[JustAnotherDude]

Intel CPU 10th gen or newer would be ideal. I ran an Intel 6700k for a while on a headless server, single stream was flawless, two people streaming made it stutter. I now use an amd Ryzen 7600, four people stream at once with no issues. Intel is generally better at software video decoding.

Intel Arc GPUs are great and cheap. I just recently got an Arc A380, four people pulling 4k av1 files at once with no trouble. I got mine for just under $100 USD.

There is no such thing as too much RAM or too much storage. I ran with zero trouble on 16gb RAM until recently, I upgraded because my neanderthal brain said big number good.

You can find everything you need by looking at used office workstations and a cheap Intel GPU.

[DeanoVIP]

At 1080p using Intel QSV I can run 2-3 streams no issues around the house. Ideally minimum is 7th gen Intel which can support most formats with QSV.

[Elarem]

What is your budget and how many users do you expect to have?

Budget is ~600 USD, preferably including the harddrives. I'm planning on running RAID 5, so will need at least 3 drives too start.

As far as users, I'm planning on just two users with a maximum concurrent streams of 2

[TheDreadPirate]

Oof. Including hard drives in that budget is tough since they're so expensive now. Do you have any left over hardware we can re-use? A case? Power supply? Memory?

For your needs, we don't need a lot of compute power. But if you want to do a locally attached RAID array that limits the form factors we can do.

[Elarem]

Oof.  Including hard drives in that budget is tough since they're so expensive now.  Do you have any left over hardware we can re-use?  A case?  Power supply?  Memory?

For your needs, we don't need a lot of compute power.  But if you want to do a locally attached RAID array that limits the form factors we can do.

I guess I've been second guessing the RAID aspect lately as you're right, hard drives are pricey these days. Is it too risky to go without the whole array thing and just invest the money into better GPU/Mem/Storage? Form factor is definitely an important aspect to me

[JustAnotherDude]

Intel 10100, $40 https://www.ebay.com/itm/387950493902?_s...R9bt_8mkZQ
Motherboard, $50
https://www.ebay.com/itm/286205667053?_s...R57Zh8qkZQ
Case, get the cheapest one that has space for 3 drives, $50?
Power supply, cheap non-modular 600w, $50
Graphics for HW acceleration, Intel A310 or A380, $100
16GB of ddr4, $40?
ssd boot drive, patriot burst elite 128gb, $15?
CPU cooler, anything will work as long as it fits the LGA1200, $10

That puts you at $365, so $230 left for drives. For reference, three 4tb in raid5 will give you 8tb of usable storage.

Three 4tb WD Blue at $75 each, $225
https://www.westerndigital.com/products/...u=WD40EZAZ