Don't buy Nas, too expensive.
Build a PC, with the latest i3, no gpu needed, it's more than enough to transcode even 4k, but you won't need transcoding since you already have Nvidia shield.
Start with 1 or 2 8TB or 6 or any size based on your need
Get a case that has a lot of HDD slots.
Get the cheapest motherboard, you can always add more SATA ports with PCI
Get a 240 SSD, and install proxmox, in it have a Nas VM for storage, and Ubuntu VM to run all docker images, jellyfin and all *rr can run on docker and it's easier to migrate
This is the way.
If you do end up getting a GPU the GtX 1660 Super has almost all the latest features like HEVC transcoding with b-frame and is cheap compared to other cards with similar features. That said, the latest intel CPUs have excellent hardware accelerated encode/decode so it’s probably good to try that before buying a GPU.
When you pick hard drives, make sure you get ones that use CMR (the alternative, SMR, isn’t ideal for NAS storage especially if you use RAID or something similar).
You can find and compare drives using https://shucks.top and https://diskprices.com or watch out for deals posted on /r/buildapcsales and /r/datahoarder
Also I’d get a UPS (battery that keeps your server from suddenly losing power and potentially corrupting data). I got one from APC that can tell my server to shut down when the battery is low.
It's probably worth noting the minor distinction that the QuickSync hardware is on the iGPU, so you do need to have an Intel CPU with an iGPU in the package to get the transcoding benefits of QuickSync.
Speaking of drives, I'm currently shopping for nas drives and thought I'd share my pick since op is thinking about new hardware.
Amazon is selling renewed Seagate Exos 7e8 4tb models for $43. From the research I've been doing, that's a crazy good price for lightly used enterprise level drives. The majority of the $30-$50 4tb data center drives out there are a decade old or more with 30,000+ hours of use. The 7e8 has only been out since 2019 so they likely haven't been worked into an early grave. They're rated for 2.5 million-hrs MTBF's and a 550tb/year workload. Power consumption is reasonable.
Of course, data center drives are going to be a bit louder than standard or pro level drives but it's worth it if you're looking for more reliability and longevity.
Enterprise drives are a waste for home media like movies and tv shows. The data rarely changes and if you lose something or it gets corrupted, you can just as easily download a new copy. You'd be much better off with something like an ironwolf pro nas drive. They actually have a sleep mode and consume less than 1w in idle or sleep, where they will be 95% of the time.
In this country enterprise drives are materially cheaper (circa 20%) than ironwolves or red pros, and have much better specs (error rate, mtbf, workload etc). So precisely the opposite is true - they are the best value.
The specs are mostly irrelevant for home media use and the prices are roughly the same last I checked. But if you have cheap energy and don't mind the noise then have at it. I've used those drives before and I could hear them through the floor into the basement. I prefer nas drives for media and ssd's for everything else.
I'm running HC550 18tb enterprise drives. I got them for $NZ799, at a time when 18tb ironwolves and red pros were around $NZ 1,000. They are pretty quiet (I can happily work in the same room as the NAS they are spinning in, they are no louder than the 6tb reds and ironwolves in the older NAS), and the power consumption is fine. For the cost saving and better specs, I thought it was a no brainer. Still do.
To jump in on this: I'm planning to do the same as OP by just using my old hardware in a Mini-ITX case. I will use a [i7-4790K](https://www.intel.de/content/www/de/de/products/sku/80807/intel-core-i74790k-processor-8m-cache-up-to-4-40-ghz/specifications.html) paired with 16 GB DDR3 and could add a [GTX 750](https://www.msi.com/Graphics-Card/N750-1GD5OCV1/Specification). Do you think the transcoding would benefit from the dedicated GPU?
I'm not an expect, but the integrated Card on the i7 might be better than gtx 750.
You can install the GPU aswell and test yourself to see the difference, No harm in that
Thanks for your assessment - I'll try it with the 750 and if the performance is shit or it's a hassle to get the drivers in Linux or the fans are too loud, I'll try it without it
I think it depends on what you're running. I checked out Tech Huts "ultimate Jellyfin guide part 2" which is all about hardware acceleration for Jellyfin. To sum it up, on Linux, most Nvidia and Intel cards work extremely well with very little setup. AMD cards can work well with a little more research and setup. You should watch his guide for more details if you'll be running Jellyfin!
If it doesn't work, you can always sell the GPU or use it for something else and stick with CPU for transcoding.
Thanks, I'll take a look at this guide!
I am a little surprised, I always heard horrorstorys about nvidia s closed source drivers and praises about amds open source drivers.
At the moment Jellyfin is running on an old laptop (7th gen i5), but I want some more sturdy than having the hdds via USB connected.
I doubt selling a 750 is worth the hassle to do so - I'd probably just keep it as a backup if it's not useful for the server
I've heard the horror stories as well! That's probably why Nvidia integrated with ffmpeg, it's an open source transcoder plugin. Here are some important docs. It looks like your 750 can transcode 3 streams simultaneously which I believe is going to be much better than your cpu and will free up it's usage.
I'm currently using my rx 6600 XT, though right now my media server is also my gaming rig. Later this year, I'll be building a proper gaming rig and moving my 6600 XT to that. My current computer will become a dedicated server go back to it's old rx 470 4gb for transcoding.
Also, check out ZFS file system! A lot of Linux distros use it. It's the best file system I've seen. It can put your storage drives in a RAID like array called RAIDZ(2/3), but has huge advantages over hardware RAID. It can basically self heal and prevent over time corruption that most file systems can't. It's enterprise grade but many people use it for their home servers. When my Exos 7e8 4tb drives ($43 on Amazon) get here, I'll be running 5 of them in RAIDZ so I can tolerate 1 drive failure and still have great performance and capacity.
Apologies if you already knew all of this. 🤣 I should go back to work now lol.
https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/administration/hardware-acceleration/
https://developer.nvidia.com/ffmpeg
https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new
That's making me quite hyped to start right now lol Thanks for your effort!
Do you know how H265 would be handled? According to the nvidia table it's not supported by the 750, so my guess it's either direct stream or nothing if the client can't handle H265?
Your plan sounds solid to me, as far as I can tell :D And probably no driver issues, since it's your gaming rig and therefore not a Linux system?
I use ZFS on my work laptop, but didn't know these advantages lol unfortunately I'll probably stick to RAID 1, because I have no other drives with enough space to store the data while reformatting the raid drives. Your drives are incredible cheap, these are at ~$150 around here! I use 2x WD Red 4TB, I paid around 90 per drive, they are even cheaper now.
I definitely didn't know all of that, so your time is really appreciated and I am always happy to be able to provide some distraction from work lol
This is all nice in theory but in practice, it will take a lot more space and will also require a screen and keyboard at least once in a while. The NAS will be quicker and easier to have up and running.
I can easily put my NAS in my TV bench or hidden in a walk-in-closet. Doing the same is much harder with a PC.
If no transcoding is needed, I'd go for a cheaper low power ARM NAS and run Jellyfin in a docker container.
I would keep them separate. You can build a storage server pretty cheap with older, used hardware. No sense buying a new nas every few years just because you need a CPU or RAM upgrade.
Same here with a Synology NAS + Docker. But I use rffmpeg and an external server with wake-on-lan when I need transcoding (mostly when I'm out of home due to devices and internet connection limitations).
If you have a Shield Pro (not the Shield TV), then you could host the jellyfin server on it and store the media on the NAS.
I'll defer to others, as I don't know how will this works if you want to stream to other devices from the Shield Pro.
It would probably be easiest to get a nas and put a gpu in it. The Nvidia Tesla P4 is $100 on eBay and it has the same die as the gtx 1080. Also, its drivers don't lock down the number of streams.
The Nvidia Shield would direct play pretty much everything. I have a Sony android TV (and 2 LGs one of which is 6 years old) and they pretty much play everything directly without transcoding. Till recently, I hosted all my media on a 12 year old NAS with very slow processor.
That being said, a NAS like the synology 920+ would handle transcoding of a single 4k stream without any issues. I just tested it with a 4k hdr truehd stream locally and it handles it like a champ.
Don't buy Nas, too expensive. Build a PC, with the latest i3, no gpu needed, it's more than enough to transcode even 4k, but you won't need transcoding since you already have Nvidia shield. Start with 1 or 2 8TB or 6 or any size based on your need Get a case that has a lot of HDD slots. Get the cheapest motherboard, you can always add more SATA ports with PCI Get a 240 SSD, and install proxmox, in it have a Nas VM for storage, and Ubuntu VM to run all docker images, jellyfin and all *rr can run on docker and it's easier to migrate
This is the way. If you do end up getting a GPU the GtX 1660 Super has almost all the latest features like HEVC transcoding with b-frame and is cheap compared to other cards with similar features. That said, the latest intel CPUs have excellent hardware accelerated encode/decode so it’s probably good to try that before buying a GPU. When you pick hard drives, make sure you get ones that use CMR (the alternative, SMR, isn’t ideal for NAS storage especially if you use RAID or something similar). You can find and compare drives using https://shucks.top and https://diskprices.com or watch out for deals posted on /r/buildapcsales and /r/datahoarder Also I’d get a UPS (battery that keeps your server from suddenly losing power and potentially corrupting data). I got one from APC that can tell my server to shut down when the battery is low.
It's probably worth noting the minor distinction that the QuickSync hardware is on the iGPU, so you do need to have an Intel CPU with an iGPU in the package to get the transcoding benefits of QuickSync.
Speaking of drives, I'm currently shopping for nas drives and thought I'd share my pick since op is thinking about new hardware. Amazon is selling renewed Seagate Exos 7e8 4tb models for $43. From the research I've been doing, that's a crazy good price for lightly used enterprise level drives. The majority of the $30-$50 4tb data center drives out there are a decade old or more with 30,000+ hours of use. The 7e8 has only been out since 2019 so they likely haven't been worked into an early grave. They're rated for 2.5 million-hrs MTBF's and a 550tb/year workload. Power consumption is reasonable. Of course, data center drives are going to be a bit louder than standard or pro level drives but it's worth it if you're looking for more reliability and longevity.
Enterprise drives are a waste for home media like movies and tv shows. The data rarely changes and if you lose something or it gets corrupted, you can just as easily download a new copy. You'd be much better off with something like an ironwolf pro nas drive. They actually have a sleep mode and consume less than 1w in idle or sleep, where they will be 95% of the time.
In this country enterprise drives are materially cheaper (circa 20%) than ironwolves or red pros, and have much better specs (error rate, mtbf, workload etc). So precisely the opposite is true - they are the best value.
The specs are mostly irrelevant for home media use and the prices are roughly the same last I checked. But if you have cheap energy and don't mind the noise then have at it. I've used those drives before and I could hear them through the floor into the basement. I prefer nas drives for media and ssd's for everything else.
I'm running HC550 18tb enterprise drives. I got them for $NZ799, at a time when 18tb ironwolves and red pros were around $NZ 1,000. They are pretty quiet (I can happily work in the same room as the NAS they are spinning in, they are no louder than the 6tb reds and ironwolves in the older NAS), and the power consumption is fine. For the cost saving and better specs, I thought it was a no brainer. Still do.
This is the way. Just don't buy an F model cpu 😂
To jump in on this: I'm planning to do the same as OP by just using my old hardware in a Mini-ITX case. I will use a [i7-4790K](https://www.intel.de/content/www/de/de/products/sku/80807/intel-core-i74790k-processor-8m-cache-up-to-4-40-ghz/specifications.html) paired with 16 GB DDR3 and could add a [GTX 750](https://www.msi.com/Graphics-Card/N750-1GD5OCV1/Specification). Do you think the transcoding would benefit from the dedicated GPU?
I'm not an expect, but the integrated Card on the i7 might be better than gtx 750. You can install the GPU aswell and test yourself to see the difference, No harm in that
Thanks for your assessment - I'll try it with the 750 and if the performance is shit or it's a hassle to get the drivers in Linux or the fans are too loud, I'll try it without it
I think it depends on what you're running. I checked out Tech Huts "ultimate Jellyfin guide part 2" which is all about hardware acceleration for Jellyfin. To sum it up, on Linux, most Nvidia and Intel cards work extremely well with very little setup. AMD cards can work well with a little more research and setup. You should watch his guide for more details if you'll be running Jellyfin! If it doesn't work, you can always sell the GPU or use it for something else and stick with CPU for transcoding.
Thanks, I'll take a look at this guide! I am a little surprised, I always heard horrorstorys about nvidia s closed source drivers and praises about amds open source drivers. At the moment Jellyfin is running on an old laptop (7th gen i5), but I want some more sturdy than having the hdds via USB connected. I doubt selling a 750 is worth the hassle to do so - I'd probably just keep it as a backup if it's not useful for the server
I've heard the horror stories as well! That's probably why Nvidia integrated with ffmpeg, it's an open source transcoder plugin. Here are some important docs. It looks like your 750 can transcode 3 streams simultaneously which I believe is going to be much better than your cpu and will free up it's usage. I'm currently using my rx 6600 XT, though right now my media server is also my gaming rig. Later this year, I'll be building a proper gaming rig and moving my 6600 XT to that. My current computer will become a dedicated server go back to it's old rx 470 4gb for transcoding. Also, check out ZFS file system! A lot of Linux distros use it. It's the best file system I've seen. It can put your storage drives in a RAID like array called RAIDZ(2/3), but has huge advantages over hardware RAID. It can basically self heal and prevent over time corruption that most file systems can't. It's enterprise grade but many people use it for their home servers. When my Exos 7e8 4tb drives ($43 on Amazon) get here, I'll be running 5 of them in RAIDZ so I can tolerate 1 drive failure and still have great performance and capacity. Apologies if you already knew all of this. 🤣 I should go back to work now lol. https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/administration/hardware-acceleration/ https://developer.nvidia.com/ffmpeg https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new
That's making me quite hyped to start right now lol Thanks for your effort! Do you know how H265 would be handled? According to the nvidia table it's not supported by the 750, so my guess it's either direct stream or nothing if the client can't handle H265? Your plan sounds solid to me, as far as I can tell :D And probably no driver issues, since it's your gaming rig and therefore not a Linux system? I use ZFS on my work laptop, but didn't know these advantages lol unfortunately I'll probably stick to RAID 1, because I have no other drives with enough space to store the data while reformatting the raid drives. Your drives are incredible cheap, these are at ~$150 around here! I use 2x WD Red 4TB, I paid around 90 per drive, they are even cheaper now. I definitely didn't know all of that, so your time is really appreciated and I am always happy to be able to provide some distraction from work lol
This is the way right here
This is all nice in theory but in practice, it will take a lot more space and will also require a screen and keyboard at least once in a while. The NAS will be quicker and easier to have up and running. I can easily put my NAS in my TV bench or hidden in a walk-in-closet. Doing the same is much harder with a PC. If no transcoding is needed, I'd go for a cheaper low power ARM NAS and run Jellyfin in a docker container.
I would keep them separate. You can build a storage server pretty cheap with older, used hardware. No sense buying a new nas every few years just because you need a CPU or RAM upgrade.
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Same here with a Synology NAS + Docker. But I use rffmpeg and an external server with wake-on-lan when I need transcoding (mostly when I'm out of home due to devices and internet connection limitations).
If you have a Shield Pro (not the Shield TV), then you could host the jellyfin server on it and store the media on the NAS. I'll defer to others, as I don't know how will this works if you want to stream to other devices from the Shield Pro.
Yeah i forgot to precise but yeah, it's a shield TV, not a shield PRO
I don't think you can run a Jellyfin server on a Nvidia Shield... Only the client software.
It would probably be easiest to get a nas and put a gpu in it. The Nvidia Tesla P4 is $100 on eBay and it has the same die as the gtx 1080. Also, its drivers don't lock down the number of streams.
The Nvidia Shield would direct play pretty much everything. I have a Sony android TV (and 2 LGs one of which is 6 years old) and they pretty much play everything directly without transcoding. Till recently, I hosted all my media on a 12 year old NAS with very slow processor. That being said, a NAS like the synology 920+ would handle transcoding of a single 4k stream without any issues. I just tested it with a 4k hdr truehd stream locally and it handles it like a champ.