I am looking to self host my own media server (Jellyfin), a personal page and something more in the future and I need to choose my server hardware. I have decided on buying a single board computer to save on energy, space and, perhaps, cost.
Jellyfin docs recommend a computer with a Rockchip RK3588 / RK3588S processor. I would also need ethernet, USB for external storage, at least 4GB of RAM and maybe a M.2 slot for the OS and more space.
I know about Armsom and OrangePi, are they any good?
My budget would be up to 150 euros and I live in the Netherlands. Any suggestions?
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Honestly with 150€ you could get a second hand intel NUC which will have all the things you want. Of course this means x86_64 and not ARM but for jellyfin I would say it’s a plus.
You’d be miles better off with a mini pc with an intel processor than an RK3588 SoC. Drivers are sketchy at best whilst an N100 or similar will just work, plus they will easily take an ssd and other hardware much easier. Yes more power hungry but way easier to work with unless you want to tear your hair out with silly things. OrangePi are decent boards, for example, but they are way behind even a Pi for software support. If you must go ARM I wouldn’t look past a Pi5, a decent one with a HAT for nvme/m.2 should do the job
most N100/150 mini pc only consume 6-8w on idle (check reviews on YouTube), I wont say it is “power hungry”
RK3588 consumes less at idle and full power. I said more power hungry and it is exactly that. The n100/150 can be twice as power hungry when on load, you can spin anything if you want but they consume a lot more. Add in extras and it can add up to quite a lot more hungry, I have seen certain n150 setups use 4 times a similar setup on an RK3588 board for example - that is a significant difference
Hate to be the guy that says “why don’t you just do <different setup>?” But unless you are on solar, I wouldn’t worry about power consumption. Jellyfin is a resource-intensive program and you’ll have a better experience with a dedicated graphics card (as recommended in the docs). I also recommend SATA or PCIe storage I/O instead of USB.
Buy refurbished / used Mini PC with at least 16GB RAM and 1Gbit network card. Don’t bother with M.2, SSD is enough.
I have right now refurbished hp g4 ryzen 5 mini pc. There is 12 docker containers running there and couple applications in screen, I just add things. Don’t do ARM, as far as I remember running on ARM is compilation hell. Stick with x86. You want it to ease your life and not to make it harder.if you need to buy it, for that budget i’d choose something like an used Lenovo m910q tiny that banks and offices are throwing to the landfill because Microsoft said that everyone needs to buy a new PC. Half the price, similar power consumption (in idle, otherwise much more), much more powerful, comes with nvme and sata slots, hdmi and usb 3
I just built a mini rack with 3 Thinkcentre tiny PCs I bought for $175 (USD) on eBay. All work great.
