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?

  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    2·
    14 days 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.

  • Nach [Ohio]@midwest.socialEnglish
    21·
    14 days ago

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

  • mierdabird@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    14 days ago

    Any of those you tiny computers you mentioned are good choices, but I would add that you definitely want to stay Intel 7500t or greater as those generations’ quicksync chips are significantly improved for transcoding. Secondly, while I run an HP elitedesk, if I was starting over I would go with Lenovo as some of the higher end boxes like the m920q have a pci-e slot that can be adapted to use a GPU if in the future you decide you need it.

  • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    14 days ago

    I’ve had a great experience with my used Lenovo Xeon 2224G servers. The built in GPU can do transcoding. I gave one running Plex. It’s able to stream 4k h265 to a Roku while only using 15 watts.

  • tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.gardenEnglish
    1·
    13 days ago

    For that money you should be able to find a used Lenovo tiny p320 with 32GB. You can remove the GPU (was able to sell mine for 40€) and then you have a PCIe slot for further NICs or whatever you’re going to need.

    All the ones you mentioned work fine. Prioritize RAM over CPU (any quadcore will be sufficient really).

    One thing they easily overlooked in these is the some of them support vPro, meaning you can connect like with a KVM to them even when they’re “turned off”. It depends on their chipset.