Hey folks. I've been running a media and torrenting server off an Odroid HC2 running OpenMediaVault 6 on Armbian. It's been doing pretty great, and I have it set to run docker containers for qBittorrent, ProtonVPN, the *arrs, etc.
The problem I'm running into is that the HC2 has an arm32 CPU that is not supported by most apps, so I'm stuck running old images. I want to upgrade to a newer mini PC/SBC that is more future-friendly. I'd like it to be capable of running Plex streaming at 4K, Radarr/Sonarr/Prowlarr, etc. as well as other apps as docker containers. I might repurpose the HC2 to just run self-hosted NextDNS.
Here are my questions:
What mini PCs or SBCs would you recommend? I'm leaning strongly towards a mini PC over an SBC because it would be more powerful, I don't need specialized software for it, recovery and backups are much easier, etc. I'm not too concerned about power usage unless it's extravagant.
Which OS would you recommend as a media server?
What is the simplest way to transfer my server over with minimal fuss? I use private trackers, so I'll have to very carefully stand up the new server and transfer over torrents, etc. in one fell swoop. I'm guessing I should just be able to install the apps and then transfer over the configurations and media files and change permissions, etc.
Anything else I need to consider?
Thanks!
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25 comments
Why not build a new PC or buy an old pc? One with ryzen 5 5600G, 8gb Ram, 250GB ssd should cost ~250USD whether you buy new/old, i recently checked the prices, cause I needed one and they were similar. This should take you a long way. As for storage just pick a case with enough ssd/harddisk slots.
You can also go much cheaper depending on what you get.
The advantage is you can add a GPU like the intel A380 for av1 encoding of video if you feel like you need it.
For OS depending on what you are doing there are a few choices:
True nas: mid difficulty
debian: i just use this with docker, does the job
alma linux/Rocky linux
ubuntu
yunohost: if you would be interested in hosting activitypub apps, easy
casaos: easy
The main concern with using a PC would be size, noise, heat, etc. If I can build something with a tiny form factor and minimal fuss, that could totally work.
You can get pretty sleek mini-pc in the price but, there performance is sub-par compared to the price they are asking for.
While itx for factor is very expensive, m-atx is cheaper and there are quite few sleek cases for them.
If you are looking for prebuilt mini pc, asustor flashtor is pretty sleek if you only want m.2 storage.
I want to support my existing HDDs as well as M.2s, so the Asustor is out. m-atx is interesting, I like that it's flexible for ongoing upgrades.