When we decided to replace our PLEX server, which was running on our Synology DS716+II, we did some internet searches, which provided a shortlist of replacements. We really liked the look of Emby, it looked like an almost direct replacement for PLEX. The monthly fee presented the main stumbling block.
Whilst looking into Emby, we came across a software fork, which was open-source and, best of all, zero monthly fees. Jellyfin, that’s a memorable name for software. This media server was, for us, a perfect replacement for PLEX.
The initial plan was to create a Jellyfin server on a Raspberry Pi 5, though we did find some comments that the Pi might struggle if it had to do some serious transcoding of video. With a question mark about the Pi 5 performance, we did some cost calculations. Here are the rough costings at the time of writing this:
| Component | Cost |
| Raspberry Pi 5 4Gb | £57.30 |
| Raspberry Pi 27W USB-C Power Supply | £11.40 |
| Active Cooler for Raspberry Pi 5 | £4.50 |
| NVMe Base for Raspberry Pi 5 | £13.50 |
| WD Green 240GB M.2 Internal SATA SSD | £36.50 |
To make a Jellyfin server based on a Raspberry Pi5 would cost approximately £125
This £125 cost got us thinking, what other options could there be for running a Jellyfin server? Many people proposed another hardware option, a NUC mini PC. On Amazon, there was just so much choice in hardware and price-wise.
Two key factors, overall cost and power consumption in the hardware, were used to direct the decision of which hardware platform to choose, which would be running 24/7.
From what we could glean from the internet, Intel was the slightly better option because of some hardware for video processing. Then, the choice became N95, N97, N100 or N150. We finally decided on this Mini PC.
Mini PC Win 11 N150 GMKtec G3 Plus Intel processor N150(3.6GHz, beat N100), 16GB DDR4 RAM 512GB PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD, Mini Computer with 4K Dual HDMI Display/4x USB3.2/WiFi 6/BT5.2/RJ45 Ethernet
We selected the G3-N150-16+512B-Black variant, which includes 16Gb DDR4 RAM and 512Gb NVMe SSD. Once vouchers and discounts have been applied, it brings the price of this PC down to approximately £150.
The N150 PC offers much better performance as a Jellyfin server than the Raspberry Pi 5 for only £25 more.
Once we removed the Amazon packaging, the GMKtec packaging impressed us; it brought to mind the saying “If it looks right, it is right“. The build quality of the G3+ is excellent; it is easy to access the insides, just a matter of prising the top off.
We replaced the internal NVMe drive with a 1Tb SSD we had that was spare, since we were going to install Ubuntu 24.04 while wanting to keep the Windows 11 Pro license. Knowing the easiest way to install Ubuntu is via an ISO file, we purchased these flash drives as we thought they were a bargain. We purchased the Yellow and Orange 64Gb sticks.
You can purchase these USB sticks on Amazon by following this link.
We use Rufus to install ISO files onto USB drives because Rufus makes it really easy to create bootable USB drives. Just a matter of downloading the Ubuntu ISO file, selecting it in Rufus and choosing the USB device you want to make bootable.
We edited the BIOS settings so that the initial boot device was the USB stick. It was then just a matter of inserting the USB stick and rebooting the G3+ and following the prompts.
Update on the Integral USB 3.0 sticks.
Came to use the orange stick, had problems with it. Ran some tests, and the stick has an awful lot of errors. I thought Integral was a decent brand. My thoughts now are:
Do Not Buy integral
Continuing the JellyFin journey and integrating an Open Media Vault server to host all of Ian and Sandra’s Media
