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.
Ideally I want something with a small form-factor, but more bays for additional storage might come in handy. Definitely won’t need the DVD drive though :D I also don’t want to have to pay for that W10 license since I’ll be running linux on it. I don’t have Plex pass, but good point about the Intel 8th gen CPUs.
I like the Chromebox suggestion, I hadn’t thought of that as a possibility. Something like that might be perfect, thanks.
Just be real careful with the chromebox, an lot of them can’t run Linux and are pretty low specs so I wouldn’t want try putting everything I want to run on them. The CPU in HP gen 2 one I have is just a dual core without hyper threading. I would only even look into the a Chromebox if your thinking about Plex pass and hardware transcoding.
Also should be noted anything bought used your not paying for a Windows license though most the SFF boxes come with windows license baked into the bios.
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Ideally I want something with a small form-factor, but more bays for additional storage might come in handy. Definitely won’t need the DVD drive though :D I also don’t want to have to pay for that W10 license since I’ll be running linux on it. I don’t have Plex pass, but good point about the Intel 8th gen CPUs.
I like the Chromebox suggestion, I hadn’t thought of that as a possibility. Something like that might be perfect, thanks.
Just be real careful with the chromebox, an lot of them can’t run Linux and are pretty low specs so I wouldn’t want try putting everything I want to run on them. The CPU in HP gen 2 one I have is just a dual core without hyper threading. I would only even look into the a Chromebox if your thinking about Plex pass and hardware transcoding.
Also should be noted anything bought used your not paying for a Windows license though most the SFF boxes come with windows license baked into the bios.
Good points, thanks. I might end up getting one of those Intel NUCs instead, they look just right for the job.