I have a QNAP TS-253D (Celeron J4125, 4GB RAM) hosting all my files. I used to have Jellyfin running on it in a Docker container, but it performed really poorly (which is expected ig). It used to take forever to stream a 1080p movie, and seeking back and forth would freeze the whole thing.

Then I moved my Jellyfin setup to my desktop PC (i9-10850k, 16GB RAM, 2080 Super), the files are still on my NAS. It performs much better now, streaming is a breeze and it almost never freezes or anything.

Problem is, it eats up all my RAM. My RAM usage is 99% almost all the time someone uses Jellyfin and it significantly hampers my regular work on my desktop. I can upgrade my RAM to 32 or 64 GB, but would that solve the problem?

If not, what is the cheapest mini PC or home setup that I can do that’d free up my desktop but still give me similar or at least good enough performance?

Thank you for your advice.

  • Krieg@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    I run Plex on an N100 MiniPC, including hardware transcoding. I have the media in another system running TrueNAS.

    • machetie@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Make sure you get a box that can be upgraded to at least 32GB, made that mistake got the beelink s12 pro, not enough with 16GB.

      • griphon31@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        16 runs fine for me. I transcode to an SSD and run home assistant and airsonic and emulatorjs and immich and frigate and monitoring software like glances and uptimekuma and and and.

        Ram is at 70%, could use more, 8 isn’t enough but 16 will get you going

        • machetie@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          Oh, I don’t want the SSD to die. Transcoding to ram and caching Rclone with buffer to ram also. Have at least 10 users to share with my Plex.

      • discoshanktank@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        if it’s just plex i’ve been running it on an old laptop with 16gb soldered ram and it runs everything without issues

      • umataro@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Because of jellyfin? Mine is restricted to 3GB and runs happily on raspberry pi 4. I’ve even had it run on 2GB pi4 and it only struggled occasionally.

    • Invayder@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      How do you connect the 2 machines together? This is something I’ve been interested in doing so I can technically keep expanding by adding more “carriers”.

    • RoRoo1977@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Transcoding what? UHD? Atmos? Or something else.

      I’m looking for a cheap solution since 1 tv in my household needs those files transcoded and my NAS can’t 😞

      • Krieg@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        4k x265 down to 1080p (x264). Basically any Intel CPU that supports quicksync can do several simultaneous hardware transcodes.