New Jelly Fin user

[Chattrat]

I am in the process of trying to set up a media Server in my home. I plan on using JellyFin and KODI. I will be using old old Dell Desktop mini PC 3250. I will be running Linux Mint 21.1 Mate. I am some what technical but limited ......dumb questions to follow.

This pc motherboard has 8 Gb on board memory. It has 2 SATA data ports. One at 3 Gbps and the other at 6 Gbps.

I have a Tosiba 1 Tb hard drive and  1 Tb SanDisk SSD drive.  My thoughts are to use one of the drives to store media and the other to run the Jellyfin and any other apps.
I had read that it was better to use the higher performance SSD for running the apps and the lessor performance disk (hard drive) for storing media.  

Thoughts?

 As I begin this process to set up and use a media sever, I appreciate any help or recommendations

Sorry ahead of time...dumb questions to follow.....

[bitmap]

I had read that it was better to use the higher performance SSD for running the apps and the lessor performance disk (hard drive) for storing media.

Yes, 100% use the SSD for hosting apps. Reading/writing media happens at 1x when streaming direct. Much higher when transcoding, but that's a different story. The apps, however, you want to respond as quickly as possible to user input. This means reads/writes happen as quickly as the slowest bottleneck in the pipeline.

No dumb questions but those left unasked.

Make sure to consult the install guide and the docs: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/installation/. (Updates coming soon-ish...I'm trying to find free time to help with a revamp.)

[Chattrat]

Thanks for the quick response. I have 2 SSD drive 1 120 Gb and the other 1 Tb. If I can get way with it (trying t save some expenses) I'm thinking of using the smaller 120 Gb attached to the 6Gb SATA data port to host Linux mint and Jellyfin. That leaves me with the 1 Tb SSD to store media and a ! Tb hard drive Toshiba to supplement it for storage. I will have to get a 3 way splitter for the power connection. My power supply is small (180 watt) but I'm hoping the use of SSds will modify concerns. I already have been running this pc with 2 drives and the 180 watt power supply.

I do not expect to be doing any heavy or intensive stuff off the 120 Gb drive.

[bitmap]

One thing to think about is space for transcodes, cache files, etc...

If you enable trickplay, you'll tear through that 120 GB in absolutely no time.

Code:

bitmap@chromaserv:docker$ du -sh jellyfin/
217G    jellyfin/

Granted I have a fairly sizable library, but that's my config dir.

[Chattrat]

Thanks for replying. I am very much a "newbie". I am doing " babysteps" with Linux Mint 21.1 and Jellyfin. As I understand it trickplay allows you to scan through a movie, etc.. more incrementally. Based on a comment on line (with in the last year) a user saying that the trickplay function is so slow as to be unusable.

My hopes are that the 120 Gig ssd would be be fast enough and storage enough to Run Jellyfin on my Linux Mint PC to access pre recorded movies on another drive (same PC) and that the performance requirements for storing and accessing movies, etc... on a 1 Tb Tosiba hard drive would not be so stringent as to adversely affect a decent Jellyfin performance.

Does not being able to use trickplay make using Jellyfin (backend) and Kodi (front end) less enjoyable/feasible?

Sorry about the very basic nature of my questions? I am in the process of the learning how to set up Jellyfin and trying to understand how the folders are set up. I am doing tutorials. thanks for the help.

[bitmap]

Thanks for replying. I am very much a "newbie". I am doing " babysteps" with Linux Mint 21.1 and Jellyfin. As I understand it trickplay allows you to scan through a movie, etc.. more incrementally. Based on a comment on line (with in the last year) a user saying that the trickplay function is so slow as to be unusable.

I wouldn't say I agree. It depends on the client as well as support. If you set up Trickplay generation in the background, it won't slow down anything while it's doing its job. Trickplay provides images while scrubbing through media to give some context of where you're at. It runs absolutely fine on my setup, though the Trickplay images are on an  NVME drive. YMMV.

My hopes are that the 120 Gig ssd would be be fast enough and storage enough to Run Jellyfin on my Linux Mint PC to access pre recorded movies on another drive (same PC) and that the performance requirements for storing and accessing movies, etc... on a 1 Tb Tosiba hard drive would not be so stringent as to adversely affect a decent Jellyfin performance.

It would be best to minimize the OS footprint by going with something like Ubuntu Server minimized. There are plenty of distros out there, but adding a GUI is unnecessary and harmful if you're hoping the 120 GB SSD is enough. Turn off all of the extras: Trickplay, chapter image generation, media segments, etc... These will just add additional storage burden.

Does not being able to use trickplay make using Jellyfin (backend) and Kodi (front end) less enjoyable/feasible?

It's a very new feature, so -- as somebody who has been using Jellyfin for at least four years -- I'd say no. You just won't get a small preview image while scrubbing.

Sorry about the very basic nature of my questions? I am in the process of the learning how to set up Jellyfin and trying to understand how the folders are set up. I am doing tutorials. thanks for the help.

No need for apologies, that's what these boards are for: questions, from basic to advanced.

[Chattrat]

I have a San Disk 1Tb SSD. Would this be a better choice? I really like Linux Mint so hopefully this would work. Do I need to consider something larger? I am trying make sure that my system will be very usable while using as much of the components I have.

I have 8 Gig board memory. Do you recommend upgrading to 16?