Hello there, I would like to upgrade my setup from a Raspberry PI 5 to something more capable of running Jellyfin properly. I also plan to host stuff like Nextcloud and some other small services.
The problem is I don’t know anything about choosing hardware. I’ve tried reading online about this stuff and come across many recommendations to buy an NUC, not knowing I would have to purchase every component individually.
I would like your comments on the setup I currently have:
- NUC Type: ASUS NUC 14 Pro Kit (RNUC14RVKI300000I)
- Operating System - Still haven’t decided yet, probably something easy like Ubuntu server
- CPU - Intel® Core™ 3 100U Processor
- Chipset - Integrated
- Graphics - Integrated - Intel® Graphics (C3)
- Memory - Adata 8GB DDR5 4800MHz CL40 SO-DIMM
- Storage - Western Digital Green SN350 1TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe WDS100T3G0C
- LAN - Intel®, 2.5G LAN
Edit 1
Some clarifications: I still haven’t bought anything, this is just what I am currently planning to buy.
I don’t live in the US, and none of my local shops have a pre-built NUC available to purchase.
I will probably upgrade the RAM to a “Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR5 5200MHz CL44” after reading some comments.
My setup was about 500 USD if I had to guess:
Used i5 9500 (mainly for QSV but you can use any modern CPU as long as the iGPU is relatively recent)
32GB RAM (more RAM = more cache for file IO)
4TB HDD
256GB NVME boot drive (recycled from my steamdeck)
Node 804 case.
TrueNAS SCALE for the OS.
I’d recommend to get double or even triple the drives I did, maybe 3x 2TB or 3x 1TB depending on your budget. Only because that unlocks RaidZ1/RaidZ2 which can give you better RW speed and redundancy should anything go splat, and you can’t retroactively convert your drive into a Z1/Z2 pool without manually transferring the data later which might take a looooong time for you.
I dont think my route was the cheapest: IMO youd do better going AMD even despite the poorer support for HW transcode only because the motherboards are insanely expensive and hard to find, whereas that money couldve given me a better CPU and later you can add an intel iGPU if you’re really struggling.