The Raspberry Pi 4 has a GPU that Jellyfin supports. Make sure you're using a new enough PiOS and Jellyfin and it works fine. I put mine on 5 GHz Wi-Fi and it streams without a problem.
The big limiting factor is RAMβnot for streaming, but for importing. A 2 GB Pi can import most stuff but will choke on movies, especially if you try to import an entire folderful of them at once. I recommend limiting Jellyfin to one or two simultaneous import processes, and (if you're buying a new Pi) getting one with 4 or 8 GB of RAM.
A suitable PC isn't necessarily much more expensive than a Pi, though. The bare-minimum Pi config is roughly $150β200 plus taxes and shipping. Used and refurbished PCs are only a little more than that.
Here's what a fully-loaded Pi config would look like:
That totals up to $134 before any taxes and shipping, and we still haven't included the HDD (add another $100 or so depending on capacity).
To trim the bill, you could skip the HDMI adapter and keyboard if you use the Raspberry Pi Imager to put your Pi on the network from first boot with SSH enabled, go without the fan case, and get the cheaper 4 GB Pi. That hard floor is $65 for a bare Pi and card only, and the HDD puts you up to about $150β165.
If you get a cheap (used or refurb) PC, you want:
- a hard minimum of 8 GB of RAM; 16 or more is better (note: Linux Mint needs maybe half as much RAM as Windows, and textmode Debian likely even less)
- a 7th Generation or later Intel processor (for video acceleration)
- USB 3.0
Broadly, you can expect a suitable PC to be in the $150β300 range, and depending on what storage it has, you might be able to skip the additional cost for a HDD.
It's easier to find PCs that match the requirements in the refurb world; used PCs often don't specify things like what processor it has (you might get βi5β or βi7β which is not enough infoβyou need the generation).
Good places to get a refurb PC include:
- Micro Center if you live near one
- Woot (that link will expire as they change their offerings out periodically; look for a similar category on Computers.Woot)
It might also be worth exploring what options exist in your local area for things like e-waste liquidators, thrift stores with computer competency, and local computer shops that sell PCs (especially cheap ones) with specs on display. You'll have to decide how much time and effort you want to spend on that.
