I am currently using an old laptop (circa 2015) with a 250GB SSD in it, and 4GB of RAM. It runs Fedora 39 Server, and only hosts a Jellyfin instance through Docker right now (though I want to use Nextcloud later too). There is only 15GB of storage left on it, and the CPU is constantly overloaded (due to forced transcoding). I happen to have a lot of 500GB 3.5" HDDs laying around, and I want to use them in RAID 5. What hardware would be good for having 4 HDDs, and running Jellyfin and Nextcloud in Docker? I’m okay with either having just a 4-bay NAS (as long as it can handle transcoding (MKV 480p -> MP4)), or having a 4-bay NAS and a server/computer/NUC. I only have a budget of CAD$900 (USD$658 as of writing), but I am willing to go to CAD$1000 if absolutely necessary.
500GB HDDs? If you don’t need hot swap, with your budget, buy new ones. Transcoding is solved by using any modern-ish Intel CPU. I built one for $230 using a used office desktop and three 4TB HDDs plus a small used NVMe for TrueNAS.
Look at the 3 minute mark for transcoding accelerated CPUs: https://youtu.be/WCDmHljsinY