zlacker

>>websku+(OP)
I find myself a bit overwhelmed with hardware options during recent explorations. Seemingly everything can handle what I want a local copy of my Bandcamp archive to stream via jellyfin. Good times we’re in but even having good sysadmin skills, I wish someone would just tell me exactly what to buy.

>>notesi+Vb
> I wish someone would just tell me exactly what to buy.

I’ll bite. You can save a lot of money by buying used hardware. I recommend looking for old Dell OptiPlex towers on Facebook Marketplace or from local used computer stores. Lenovo ThinkCentres (e.g., m700 tiny) are also a great option if you prefer something with a smaller form factor.

I’d recommend disregarding advice from non-technical folks recommending brand new, expensive hardware, because it’s usually overkill.

>>devonh+Wh
I spent so long trying to make Raspberry Pis work but they just kind of suck and everything is harder on them. I only just discovered that there are an infinite supply of these micro desktops second hand from offices/government. I was able to pick up a 9th gen intel with 16gb ram for less than the cost of a Pi 5, and it's massively more powerful.

>>Schema+ro
Pi’s are incredible little basic home servers but they can’t handle transcoding. Great option for places with very expensive electricity too.

>>jacobt+1q
I just found their proprietary hardware and being ARM too limiting. I wanted to set up full disk encryption to set up nextcloud on, and found that on the pi this is an incredibly complex process. While on an x86 PC it's just a checkbox on install.

And then you can only use distros which have a raspberry pi specific build. Generic ARM ones won't work.