I've used the megathread to make a super basic proof-of-concept for my own streaming setup, and I'm not sure where to prioritize upgrading first and in what way. Any help is appreciated!
Current setup: I got a subscription to a VPN, so I figure I'll use that until it runs out. I have that with my main PC (a laptop, I haven't been able to save for a proper gaming PC yet), a torrent client, and Plex. I tested it out with one TV show and one movie with the Plex app on my TCL Series 4 Roku TV and it seems to work! The video and audio quality work even better when I turn my VPN off and it can tell my server is "nearby", but whatever.
Possible Improvements I've Seen People Talk About: I figure I should split off some of these services from my main laptop. I don't really want to keep it on 24/7, and I should save the room on it for games and other projects. I'll put things I've seen people talk about below, but not sure what order to do stuff to make the best Netflix replacement.
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I can buy another smaller machine or two I can use as a server. Not sure whether to put the torrent parts on it, so it can torrent while I'm at work and stuff, make it host the Plex server, or both. And even then, I'm not sure whether to use an NAS, raspberry pi, NUC, Nvidia Shield TV Pro, buy or find an old cheap laptop, a ThinkClient I saw another post suggest, etc. I need something super small and quiet because I am splitting a small place right now. Should I get 2? One to torrent things while I'm gone and one to host Plex, or can I put them on the same machine?
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Or should I start improving other parts of the torrenting and streaming experience? I've seen people mention Sonarr, Radarr, and other applications that I haven't experimented with yet.
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Or should I just port all of this into a seedbox hosted by someone else even though I have the VPN subscription for awhile longer? It would clear up some room but I'd hate to be tied to a subscription.
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I know I'll also need to buy more storage soon to make it a viable library, too.
What do you all think should prioritize next?
Amazing, thanks so much, this is all very helpful!
That all makes a lot of sense, and I've been checking out eBay to see what's about. Looks like there's some decent stuff there, an i5 NUC with 8gb of ram and a 2 bay QNAP NAS for around $350 AUD. I'll do a bit more research into what I actually need, but you've given me a great place to start, so thanks again!
And I'll definitely look into 3-2-1 backup when I start storing actual data that I'd be sad to lose.
You’re very welcome! Feed free to reach out if you need any more help :)
Not sure if that NAS is used (and already filled with storage) or not but that price might not include the HDDs. $350 + $300 for a couple large HDDs is most of the way to just building your own PC with lots of storage and infinite more flexibility than a NAS with a fixed bay size.