I’m looking into to building a small media server. I will be th only user of it. So I don’t need the ability to do simultaneous streams. I am planning on running Jellyfin.
Sense I am on a more limited budget I was thinking and older desktop and transcoding my files (on my powerful desktop) to be best supported and play smoothly.
Are there any specific recommendations you guys have for hardware I should keep a look out for that’s cheaper or other recommendations for cheap hardware?
Minipc is probably going to be the cheapest and most power efficient option. Check out the Minisforum Refurbished page.
Would you recommend an AMD or Intel?
Intel for QuickSync and low idle power.
Whichever really. AMD will give the best overall performance for your needs, though Intel chips IF they have QuickSync can have some hardware acceleration benefits with respect to transcoding.