Hey all, I started hosting my own media server using jellyfin on a raspberry pi. This was mostly because I was new to the space and didn’t want to invest heavily in hardware only to drop the project or find that I couldn’t make it work for some reason.

I’ve now got it all set up and working, but the pi is absolutely not able to handle any sort of transcoding. So I’m now looking to upgrade the hardware.

Currently, I only need something that can handle transcoding two sub-4k streams concurrently. But I don’t want to fully shut away the possibility of streaming 4k media. I should have the space for it, my current limiting factor is processing power.

Reading the jellyfin docs on recommended hardware, my understanding is that I should be OK if I get a recent Intel i7 CPU as long as it’s got integrated graphics?

I am currently planning to build a small form factor PC and run it as a headless Linux (possibly Debian) server with jellyfin and everything else running in docker.

Mostly, I want to ask: does anyone with experience doing this have concerns or advice? In particular:

  1. Is just the CPU processing power sufficient for everything if the CPU is chosen correctly?

  2. If the CPU is not sufficient, is it difficult to set up a dedicated graphics card on a headless server?

  • @RizoidEnglish
    5•7 months ago

    I use a GPU but that’s only because my CPU is a first gen ryzen with no graphics. I highly recommend any recent Intel CPU that supports quick sync. You’ll have an easier time and pull way less power. i7 might even be a bit much honestly I’d look at i3’s or even celerons. They’re easily capable of what you want but you can always get something better just for future use.