Home Media Server Help/Info

[kaiju_wars]

So I'm thinking of building a home media server out of spare parts I have lying around.  I've seen a lot of people on reddit and other forums say you don't need super powerful hardware to make one.  I have some spare parts and I slapped them together in a list:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/XwvZ74

CPU: AMD A10-7890K 4.1 GHz Quad-Core Processor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X PRO3+ ATX FM2+ Motherboard  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Memory: Crucial CT102464BA160B 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 CL11 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Memory: Crucial CT102464BA160B 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 CL11 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: *Lexar NQ100 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($16.88 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue 2 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 1 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Seagate ST1000DX001 1 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Video Card: PowerColor Red Dragon Radeon RX 550 - 512 2 GB Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Apevia X-Plorer ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart Pro RGB 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Total: $16.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-07-09 22:59 EDT-0400

 

Biggest thing is I'd have to buy an SSD for a boot drive, literally everything else I have laying around.  I know it's all used stuff as it was stuff I was using in the past.  My question is, will this work?  Like to get me started?

Obviously I can upgrade stuff in the future.

The other big thing I was looking at was what OS should I use, I know a lot of people say to use freenas, I've seen some recommendations of using Ubuntu Server, or basically any flavor of linux you like.

Thing is I don't like linux.  I know how to use it, I run it on my laptop even, but I never have great luck with linux.  My bf can do the exact same thing on the exact same specs as me, and it'll work for him almost every time, for me, "nah, ain't gonna work, screw you!" is what linux tells me.  So my other question would be could I just use windows?

 

Thanks for the help in advance.  If I have to use linux, I'll just install Ubuntu Server, I have the best luck with that one.

[SaltyAUS]

6TB is pretty good! and the setup looks good to me at the least

id personally recommend Ubuntu Server but you dont have to if you dont want to

Id recommend for a good NAS TrueNAS scale since its linux and works better and also because a fair few apps also work on it

truenas should be quite simple and work first try

cheers

 

[kaiju_wars]

1 hour ago, SaltyAUS said:

6TB is pretty good! and the setup looks good to me at the least

id personally recommend Ubuntu Server but you dont have to if you dont want to

Id recommend for a good NAS TrueNAS scale since its linux and works better and also because a fair few apps also work on it

truenas should be quite simple and work first try

cheers

 

Sweet, thank you!  I've heard some stuff about 4K transcoding, and I know for at least at home, I'd like to be able to stream 4K content to like, my TV.  Would the RX 550 be able to handle that just fine?

[johnt]

3 hours ago, kaiju_wars said:

My question is, will this work?

Yes it will totally work. So it really depends if you need to use all your drives or not. For RAID solutions, you need similar sized hard drives. Since yours are different, I'd recommend looking into UNRAID, which has several negatives, like cost, but it lets you mix your drive sizes, which TrueNAS will not.

 

Also, if you want to experiment and really go wild, you can try Proxmox Hypervisor as your host OS and then create virtual machines for Windows and containers for Linux based hosting. I'm partial to Proxmox because I feel like it has solved every problem I've ever had. My understanding is you can also create virtual machines using TrueNAS or UNRAID as well. But Proxmox is more purpose built for it. That way you won't have to choose between Linux or Windows. I'd watch some videos on it if you are not familiar.

 

 

36 minutes ago, kaiju_wars said:

Sweet, thank you!  I've heard some stuff about 4K transcoding, and I know for at least at home, I'd like to be able to stream 4K content to like, my TV.  Would the RX 550 be able to handle that just fine?

Depends a lot on the file type, the codecs your GPU supports, and the device/app you will use to watch your video. Some files will require transcoding and that's when something like the RX550 may struggle. But it is so hard to tell unless you are actually watching videos you ripped yourself. If you are sailing the high seas, then it's a toss in the air. There is software like Infuse Pro, which is sooo expensive and only on Apple devices, that will not transcode files at all. It always uses direct stream, so it plays everything I've ever thrown at it. Unfortunately it doesn't do a good job at transcoding audio for my theater. It really kills the bass so I don't always use it. I'm just mentioning it as an option and generally a complication. You probably want to start with Jellyfin and then consider Plex once you outgrow Jellyfin, if you ever do. Plex isn't free to do anything fancy even though they pretend it is (and historically it was, but everything changes).

 

Have fun tinkering! Feel free to ask any questions.

[kaiju_wars]

6 minutes ago, johnt said:

Yes it will totally work. So it really depends if you need to use all your drives or not. For RAID solutions, you need similar sized hard drives. Since yours are different, I'd recommend looking into UNRAID, which has several negatives, like cost, but it lets you mix your drive sizes, which TrueNAS will not.

 

Also, if you want to experiment and really go wild, you can try Proxmox Hypervisor as your host OS and then create virtual machines for Windows and containers for Linux based hosting. I'm partial to Proxmox because I feel like it has solved every problem I've ever had. My understanding is you can also create virtual machines using TrueNAS or UNRAID as well. But Proxmox is more purpose built for it. That way you won't have to choose between Linux or Windows. I'd watch some videos on it if you are not familiar.

 

 

Depends a lot on the file type, the codecs your GPU supports, and the device/app you will use to watch your video. Some files will require transcoding and that's when something like the RX550 may struggle. But it is so hard to tell unless you are actually watching videos you ripped yourself. If you are sailing the high seas, then it's a toss in the air. There is software like Infuse Pro, which is sooo expensive and only on Apple devices, that will not transcode files at all. It always uses direct stream, so it plays everything I've ever thrown at it. Unfortunately it doesn't do a good job at transcoding audio for my theater. It really kills the bass so I don't always use it. I'm just mentioning it as an option and generally a complication. You probably want to start with Jellyfin and then consider Plex once you outgrow Jellyfin, if you ever do. Plex isn't free to do anything fancy even though they pretend it is (and historically it was, but everything changes).

 

Have fun tinkering! Feel free to ask any questions.

Yeah, I just used the biggest hard drives I had laying around. Two 2TB HDDs and two 1TB HDDs.  I was more looking towards Jellyfin because it is free.

 

As far as experimenting, this is already a big experiment for me as is lol.  I don't want to go too far out in the weeds just yet.

 

For what I'm wanting to do, obviously be able to use it locally at home from say my main PC or on my 4K TV in the living room.  My TV is the only 4K screen I have, so really I only need 4K streaming for that.  I want to be able to remote in from say, my phone or computer at work to watch movies from it that way as well, if that is even possible. (My job lets us play games or watch movies when it's slow, so that's why that would be appealing for me).  

[johnt]

7 minutes ago, kaiju_wars said:

As far as experimenting, this is already a big experiment for me as is lol.  I don't want to go too far out in the weeds just yet

Heh setting up a streaming service is a headache and a half. You're already in the weeds

 

 

 

7 minutes ago, kaiju_wars said:

For what I'm wanting to do, obviously be able to use it locally at home from say my main PC or on my 4K TV in the living room.  My TV is the only 4K screen I have, so really I only need 4K streaming for that.  I want to be able to remote in from say, my phone or computer at work to watch movies from it that way as well, if that is even possible. (My job lets us play games or watch movies when it's slow, so that's why that would be appealing for me).  

You will want to do some research on what apps your TV (or streaming device) has that supports Jellyfin. It's not as widely supported. For remote streaming from your phone, you will need to open a port that is forwarded to Jellyfin, and it will almost 100% require transcoding to work. The tough part about the RX 550 are a few things: 1) is there still driver support for Windows or Linux? That may dictate which OS you use, and 2) are there any third party drivers that are also supported by Jellyfin for transcoding. These aren't necessarily super easy questions to find answers to. I would head over to an AI site and start a convo with a bot to help you find the details. Sorry I don't mean to scare you into any of this, there is just a lot to consider. You may want to focus on streaming 1080p content when away from home to help make it easier on your media server. Transcoding 4k is a GPU's job, but only if your GPU is still supported.

[kaiju_wars]

3 minutes ago, johnt said:

Heh setting up a streaming service is a headache and a half. You're already in the weeds

 

 

 

You will want to do some research on what apps your TV (or streaming device) has that supports Jellyfin. It's not as widely supported. For remote streaming from your phone, you will need to open a port that is forwarded to Jellyfin, and it will almost 100% require transcoding to work. The tough part about the RX 550 are a few things: 1) is there still driver support for Windows or Linux? That may dictate which OS you use, and 2) are there any third party drivers that are also supported by Jellyfin for transcoding. These aren't necessarily super easy questions to find answers to. I would head over to an AI site and start a convo with a bot to help you find the details. Sorry I don't mean to scare you into any of this, there is just a lot to consider. You may want to focus on streaming 1080p content when away from home to help make it easier on your media server. Transcoding 4k is a GPU's job, but only if your GPU is still supported.

Lmao fair enough, I guess I am!

 

As far as streaming content when away from home, yes, it would just be 1080p content.  I'm only needing the 4K content for when at home.  I do know Polaris GPUs are still getting driver updates from AMD on Windows and I see the latest driver for Linux on AMD's site.  So drivers are still good there!

 

I know transcoding 4K content is hard work!  I just was wondering about for at home use only for that, or if it would even be needed since it'd be locally.  

[SaltyAUS]

1 hour ago, kaiju_wars said:

Sweet, thank you!  I've heard some stuff about 4K transcoding, and I know for at least at home, I'd like to be able to stream 4K content to like, my TV.  Would the RX 550 be able to handle that just fine?

im not a GPU guy but i think it would be okay for most tv's if you have a 4k tv and you are streaming 4k content there will be no transcoding

when i use my server (10-15 YO Intel XEON server that is) that has only integrated graphics it works okay most of the time 

[kaiju_wars]

2 minutes ago, SaltyAUS said:

im not a GPU guy but i think it would be okay for most tv's if you have a 4k tv and you are streaming 4k content there will be no transcoding

when i use my server (10-15 YO Intel XEON server that is) that has only integrated graphics it works okay most of the time 

Oh sweet, thank you!  

 

I'm settled on my hardware then.  Just gotta order a new SSD for a boot drive and I'll be ready to go on that side.  Just gotta look more into an OS and software I'll be needing.

 

Appreciate the help!