this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2025
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Personally I would just get a used optiplex, run Linux, docker, portainer, qbit, Jellyfin.
Thanks.
After a very quick scan on eBay it seems these are quite cheap. Which is nice.
Something to also keep in mind is the codec support of the GPU for hardware decoding and transcoding if that's important to you. The Optiplexes will mostly be fine in this regard but if you see yourself needing AV1 support anytime soon, Intel's N line is an efficient and relatively cheap option. Getting HDR tone mapping working at the hardware level might also be something to look out for.
I think around $40 depending on the model is a fair price. I have two at home and three in the works for off site backups lol. They're fun, frequently have surprising specs, and low energy draw
Interesting. The first listing I look at had the price ranging from. £80 - £185. So either very inflated price or newer model.
eBay
That listing is for a Sandy/Ivy bridge processor from 2011. I would really recommend something newer than Skylake at the minimum. For reference:
Hey, thanks so much for looking at the listing and also providing some resources.
This alone gets me on the right track and I really appreciate you taking the time.
Something else to think about is future expandability. I'm assuming you'll start with an HDD or two, but what about after that? You'll either need to purge out your library or have a bunch of external drives connected. The Optiplex is a great thin client but it only has 1 or 2 SATA ports and one will likely always be used for your OS drive (SSD) which leaves only one internal slot for an HDD.
Also just some random advice, but if you want cheap drives, keep an eye out for WD Element or WD EasyStore external drives to go on sale. These are extremely easy to remove from their case and be used as an internal drive. Something else to check out would be serverpartdeals.com if you don't mind trying some used or refurbished enterprise drives. I bought my last 14TB drive from them for something like $100 and haven't had any issues. This is generally worth the risk since you can just download your media over again if the drive happens to crap out on you.
I bought one across the pond at a university used store then some at an e-recycler. I'm not surprised ebay is different. Hope you can find a fair price!
Thanks. I’ll try look for places local to me that might e-cycle or somewhere that handles old tech at companies or universities.