New Jellyfin Server Hardware Recommendations

[BoilerUp2016]

Hello,

I first set up my Jellyfin server a little over a year ago in my existing gaming PC, with the goal to own the bulk of the media I enjoy and will want to watch again in the future and cut down on/cut out streaming subscriptions. I have been ripping my ever-expanding collection of 4K UHD/Blu-ray/DVD movies & shows I've purchased using MakeMKV and hosting these remuxes as-is on my server. I have since shared access to my server with a limited number of friends/family. I don't think I've seen more than 2 other people actively streaming from the server at the same time as I am using it in-network at home. I have limited IT expertise, but I have been trying to learn what I need to as I go. 

However, I am finding I dislike having my gaming PC running 24/7 consuming power and sharing resources, and while I've only experienced issues rarely since initial setup (such as using hardware decoding for VC-1 codecs while using subtitles causing green flickering at the bottom of the screen) I've been reading that AMD hardware is not recommended for Jellyfin servers in general; Intel CPUs/iGPUs seem to be preferred to give better performance and quality. My internet upload speeds are also limited to 20Mbps or 25 Mbps where I am currently living, with no option to upgrade this speed or switch providers, which I believe is leading to a bottleneck for all of my added users outside of my network. I also find that I run into hangups in my current Windows setup on a weekly basis, usually with a program other than Jellyfin, that aren't fixed until I restart my PC. And I haven't been able to get Caddy to automatically restart at login, which is a minor annoyance but have been able to manage by manually starting it after each reboot.

While I'm not entirely sold on the need to spend capital to separate my Jellyfin server from my gaming PC, I have still been contemplating building a new computer with its primary purpose to be hosting Jellyfin. If I continue to keep it within my home network, I would also explore running a node for a particular blockchain I have in mind on this new PC as a secondary task. However, a family member in another state has offered to allow me to store the PC at their house to take advantage of their fiber internet with unlimited data usage and gigabit upload speed. This would also be beneficial to me because I could add Live TV to the server to pick up the in-market OTA broadcasts of the NFL team, whom I still follow, in this area. And then, I think it would also benefit the other users to have the server connected to a network with faster upload speeds. However, I am unsure if I will be able to remotely direct play 4K content from several states away, which is important to me since I do care about enjoying my 4K content without transcoding. 

If I do proceed with a new build, I'd want to ensure the hardware selected is modern and will not become obsolete for a long while with plenty of room to increase storage capacity, but also I want to ensure it is not overkill and leading me to spend money extraneously. I like the thought of having all of my HDDs stored within the PC case instead of in a separate DAS/NAS enclosure, and having the disc drive I use to rip my discs enclosed in the same case would be a nice bonus too. If I do build out a new PC, I would also like to start keeping redundant drives in cold storage in case of a drive failure so I don't have to re-rip anything. I do currently have a mirrored partition but it is only ~6.6TB of my total storage capacity, while the rest is not fault-tolerant.

My current hardware setup in my combined gaming PC/Jellyfin server is as follows:

• OS: Windows 11
  
• Processor: AMD 5800X
  
• GPU: AMD RX 6950 XT
  
• Motherboard: Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi)
  
• RAM: 32GB DDR4 3200
  
• Storage: 2x 14TB WD Red™ Pro 14TB NAS Hard Drive, 2x 18TB Seagate IronWolf Pro ST18000NT001 (the 2x 14TB drives are stored internally, the 2x 18TB drives are housed in this USB docking station)
  
• PSU: SeaSonic FOCUS PX 850 W 80+ Platinum
  

Hardware specs I've been considering for a dedicated Jellyfin server/possible blockchain node:

• OS: Linux Ubuntu (I have very limited experience with Linux but it seems this is one of the most recommended OSs for Jellyfin)
  
• Case: Silverstone GD08B HTPC Case (I like that it has 8x drive bays and a slot for a 5.25" optical drive if I choose to put mine in it, and it is rack mountable if I want to go that route in the future). Currently looks like its retailing at ~$200.
  
• Processor: Intel i3-14100 (would use integrated graphics for transcoding at least to start out). $130 at Microcenter.
  
• Motherboard: ASRock Z790 Steel Legend WiFi ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (chosen due to being one of the lowest cost options that has 8x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports for each of the case's 3.5" drive bays). Currently $160.
  
• RAM: 16GB DDR5. ~$30.
  
• Storage: 1TB M.2 drive for OS and program data ($60) + would like to purchase an amount of storage equal to or greater than what I currently have to ensure all data is redundant, and add as needs expand ($800)
  
• PSU: SeaSonic FOCUS GX 650 W 80+ Gold ($100)
  

Questions I have for those of you that have made it this far:

1. Given my use case, do you think building out a dedicated Jellyfin server would be beneficial? Worth the cost? I probably wouldn't buy all of the new HDDs at the start and would just transfer the ones I already have into the new build.
   
2. Is there any place you think I could make the new build more budget-friendly, considering my use case and overall expansion/upgradeability? Or is there other hardware that is recommended for performance reasons over what I have listed?
   
3. Would Linux Ubuntu allow the PC to run indefinitely without the need to restart it?
   
4. Any experience out there from folks who run/have run a blockchain node on the same machine as their Jellyfin media server? Any issues or things to beware of?
   
5. If I do proceed with a dedicated Jellyfin PC and store it at another family member's house that has 1Gbps upload speeds, will I be able to direct play 4K media without issue?
   

I appreciate any advice and/or feedback you are able to provide me!

[TheDreadPirate]

The only criticism I have is your RAM. I'd get 32GB so you have room to grow as your knowledge and ambitions grow.

1. Reusing hardware is perfectly acceptable. Almost half of the parts in my Jellyfin server have been part of at least one other computer.
2. Consider getting an older Intel CPU? Like a 12th Gen CPU. They're cheaper, the motherboards MIGHT be cheaper, the CPUs are still fast, they have the same GPU so the same codec support, and they won't burn themselves out! And they use cheaper DDR4.
3. Linux, in general, but especially server versions of every distro, will not restart unless you tell them to. Including for updates. They will still auto-update, if configured to do so, but I have servers at work that have uptimes of over a year. At past jobs a couple servers made it to over 1000 days up time.
4. Can't answer this one.
5. As long as their are not on the other side of the world, this shouldn't be a problem.

[BoilerUp2016]

Thank you for your responses to my questions and the feedback. I'll consider getting 32GB RAM if/when I decide to build out a dedicated machine.

I did look into the i3-12100 previously vs the i3-14100, but it was only $10-$15 cheaper at the time. Looks like that might still be the case too. So I kinda decided to just go with the latest gen based on that. I think the i3-14100 can still use DDR4 RAM too if I wanted to go that route. I'll have to price out DDR4 vs DDR5 and see if its a large enough difference to warrant making a change there. I'm not really too familiar with the performance differences between the two.

One other thing I meant to ask to anyone that may know of a solution. If I locate this new built server at my family's in a different state, I will still be ripping media in my location. Are there any trustworthy/safe file consumer file transfer programs that can handle 4K remux file sizes that I could use to transfer them from my Windows PC being used to rip them in one location to the Linux server in another? I found a few websites but I've never used any, so was hoping for some firsthand experiences.

[TheDreadPirate]

If you are using Linux on the server, I'm assuming you plan on using SSH to remotely manage your server. If so, you can use WinSCP to transfer files directly to your server. It uses SSH as the tunnel to transfer files.

[BoilerUp2016]

I had initially thought to use Chrome Remote Desktop since that's what I'm familiar with, but I'll have to check out SSH. Thanks.

[TheDreadPirate]

SSH would be command line only. You can use remote desktop for day-to-day management. But setting up SSH would allow you to transfer files directly with WinSCP while also providing you a backup command line path to manage your server.