I've used the megathread to make a super basic proof-of-concept for my own streaming setup, and I'm not sure where to prioritize upgrading first and in what way. Any help is appreciated!
Current setup: I got a subscription to a VPN, so I figure I'll use that until it runs out. I have that with my main PC (a laptop, I haven't been able to save for a proper gaming PC yet), a torrent client, and Plex. I tested it out with one TV show and one movie with the Plex app on my TCL Series 4 Roku TV and it seems to work! The video and audio quality work even better when I turn my VPN off and it can tell my server is "nearby", but whatever.
Possible Improvements I've Seen People Talk About: I figure I should split off some of these services from my main laptop. I don't really want to keep it on 24/7, and I should save the room on it for games and other projects. I'll put things I've seen people talk about below, but not sure what order to do stuff to make the best Netflix replacement.
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I can buy another smaller machine or two I can use as a server. Not sure whether to put the torrent parts on it, so it can torrent while I'm at work and stuff, make it host the Plex server, or both. And even then, I'm not sure whether to use an NAS, raspberry pi, NUC, Nvidia Shield TV Pro, buy or find an old cheap laptop, a ThinkClient I saw another post suggest, etc. I need something super small and quiet because I am splitting a small place right now. Should I get 2? One to torrent things while I'm gone and one to host Plex, or can I put them on the same machine?
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Or should I start improving other parts of the torrenting and streaming experience? I've seen people mention Sonarr, Radarr, and other applications that I haven't experimented with yet.
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Or should I just port all of this into a seedbox hosted by someone else even though I have the VPN subscription for awhile longer? It would clear up some room but I'd hate to be tied to a subscription.
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I know I'll also need to buy more storage soon to make it a viable library, too.
What do you all think should prioritize next?
Absolutely set up sonarr and radarr. They made the experience 100x better. And something like overseerr and prowlarr for more ease of use. If you need help setting anything up feel free to reach out. Im more than happy to help.
So id invest in a second machine first. Honestly anyone telling you to get a nuc is full of shit for your first go at it. Pick up an old optiplex off ebay or your local store. Try to get one with a 4th gen or higher CPU and if it has an igpu, even better. Find some cheap ram (ddr3 or 4) and you can put the whole thing together for $200 before storage. Run ubuntu server or whatever flavour of linux you like and set up docker. Its the easiest way to do it. You could use truenas scale as well but for a first go Id say ubuntu server/Docker.
After that maybe consider setting up usenet along side torrents and go from there.
The main reason why I mentioned a NUC is it gets them familiar with distributed roles for each system, but you're right, I'd definitely go pure whitebox & setup unRAID that has a nice GUI for Docker for newbies to understand.
Thats fair. Full of shit was a bit harsh sorry.