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Help choosing PC for server (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by deczzz@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/homelab@selfhosted.forum

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Hi hosters,

First timer here - just found this nice little instance.

I'm looking for a semi budget PC as my new server. I currently have a raspberry pi 5 for syncthing and torrent client and a Synology 1515+ for storage (used to also host nextcloud, jellyfin, bitwarden, but became too slow for jellyfin encoding). Will probably run opensuse, fedora or mint.

Budget is flexible, ~280-380 euros. The primary requirement is that it can do both 264/265 ~~encode~~ transcode and stream to two concurrent clients without any problems. 1080p is a need to have, 4k nice to have. Will also run torrents, maybe a game server and some kind of file sync. Media files will be stored on Synology nas. Will be buying used or refurbished. I have been looking at the following in different price ranges:

EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini (i5-9500T)
M710q Tiny
OptiPlex 3060 Micro
ProDesk 400 G4 Mini

Which of these would you chose? Or other suggestions?

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[–] Nach@midwest.social 0 points 4 months ago

Get a used AM4 based board and CPU. Upgrade options will remain until the DDR5 prices return to normal.

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

First, if you want to stream video, having video on a NAS instead of the server may introduce a bottleneck. It'll be your call as to how to address that (depends on your network performance, may not even happen).

I haven't done the math, but I suspect an inexpensive Small Format-Factor desktop with an upgraded video card will probably work.

Streaming requires much less performance than one would think, especially if you carefully convert videos to formats your devices can easily handle (basically avoiding transcoding as much as possible).

I regularly stream from a 2019 i7 SFF with no video card, with transcode (for subtitles) to a 65" TV and that barely shows on CPU, disk, or network (gigabit).

Simultaneously converting videos, and copying files all over the place including sync with Resilio, Syncthing and running VM's rarely causes video issues. I have to really push on the network for video to stutter.