Suggestions for a Mini PC

C

ckkartik

Beginner
Hey guys! Looking for a lil help with my home setup. Right now running Home Assistant on a Rpi 4 and want to upgrade as I have ordered a host of devices (35) to add to Home Assistant. I also have been procrastinating about working on a NAS for my needs. Looking for suggestions on how to go about it. I'll be using it for NAS(maybe a couple of 6TB Drives should work I suppose), JellyFin, HA, PiHole(Or Adguard).

At first, I thought I'd have to build 2 separate Mini PCs to accomplish this but I'm doubtful if it can be done in a single one. I have a 300 Mbps ISP Line so ethernet port can be a 1GBPS but not necessary. I was just stuck between what kind of Mini PC should I take cause I thought a N100 wouldn't work for my use case due to Jellyfin and Transcoding. I can get it Imported as well if needed. I did also consider DIY and I'm fairly familiar with building so that should also work out if needed. Do not want to overkill on the Mini PC but want it to be reliable in any case.
Thanks!
 
If you plan to use SATA ports on a motherboard, the 12100T would be your most suitable choice. Alternatively, if you prefer a lower TDP or a mini PC configuration, you could consider the 1215u or 1235u.
 
You haven't given us a budget to work with and how long you plan to hold on to the system.

At the bare minimum, don't go below a 7th gen Intel processor.

For your usecase, an i3 should suffice. All Intel processors in a generation (and across 2-3 generations) have the same iGPU, so their transcoding performance will be absolutely the same and hence the higher cores don't benefit us. With this method, we avoid the need for an additional GPU and it's cost and power consumption.

For 11,000 you'll be able to get a decent i5-7500t mini PC with 8 gigs of RAM and a 128 GB ultra basic SATA SSD as a boot drive. You can connect your drives to this via USB and call it a day. However, you will not be able to RAID the drives. USB is bad for RAID.

If you're building it, go for the 12th or 13th gen. The 14th and 13th gen i3 are exactly the same. Avoid the F processors, they do not have the iGPU.

Make sure you get a quality PSU, 450W and 80+Bronze should suffice. If it's 80+Gold even better.

All the best with your build and let us know. :D
 
ckkartik said:
6TB Drives
Click to expand...
Those would be 3.5 inch drives .. and the small cases which can support two of those would be something like these -
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If you can make do with 2.5 inch drives then smaller options are available.
 
N100 mini pcs can do transcoding and would work for your setup. How many live transcode stream do you want to run concurrently?

Also theres no need to import, there are options available here. Look for skullsaints mini pcs. Their barebone n100 starts from 13k.
The one disadvantage with them would be the upgradability. Ram is limited to 16gb (1 slot) while only 1 m.2 slot and 1 sata.

If you want more juice than look for more powerful minipcs on electroniksindia though that would be outside your budget.

If you want more upgradability then look for 8th or 9th gen pcs of dell, lenovo of ultra slim form factor.
 
Maverick0193 said:
N100 mini pcs can do transcoding and would work for your setup. How many live transcode stream do you want to run concurrently?

Also theres no need to import, there are options available here. Look for skullsaints mini pcs. Their barebone n100 starts from 13k.
The one disadvantage with them would be the upgradability. Ram is limited to 16gb (1 slot) while only 1 m.2 slot and 1 sata.

If you want more juice than look for more powerful minipcs on electroniksindia though that would be outside your budget.

If you want more upgradability then look for 8th or 9th gen pcs of dell, lenovo of ultra slim form factor.
Click to expand...
I might have maybe 2 concurrent streams for transcoding at maximum. I think I'll have to go with 8th gen and 9th gen sff or n100/n5105 if they support upgradation with rams and SSD.
 
ckkartik said:
I might have maybe 2 concurrent streams for transcoding at maximum. I think I'll have to go with 8th gen and 9th gen sff or n100/n5105 if they support upgradation with rams and SSD.
Click to expand...
You will be able to transcode 2 streams with n100. It can transcode upto 3 4k BD remux concurently in plex. Rest your setup will depend upon how much upgradation do you want.
 
ckkartik said:
Budget is approx 20-25k for barebones. Will slowly add HDDs for NAS. Tdp is not of much worry for me but was trying for a small form factor if possible.
Click to expand...
In this budget, you can get the following barebone mini pc:

NUC 11 i3 1115G4 Processor (Approx INR 23000)
NUC 12 Pro i3 1220P Processor (Approx INR 28000)

For more information of stock and price for mini pc (branded and custom), please communicate directly.​

 
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