I am pretty new at all this. But I got jellyfin and such setup on my window box. I have a roku client and all that working. So now it is time to look into a standalone box to run 24/7. But I don't know what specs matter.
I have read that I need at least a 6th gen intel i7 or i5 to take advantage of a feature that helps with this sort of thing.
But outside of that. Does ram matter? How much of a drive do I need on the box? (Going to get a NAS for real storage). Any other specs that matter? I am hoping to go fanless (not because I know anything, but cause I want it to be silent), is that ok? And which flavor of linux is the most popular?
As long as you have enough RAM, you won't get much more speed. 4GB should be enough. A minimal Linux install plus Jellyfin takes less than 16GB on disk, and anything is fast enough.
Fanless Intel runs a little hot for my taste, but it's your build. I've run tiny/mini/micro systems that were virtually silent but still had a CPU fan to help move heat out.
I just check the git page, it's now using .net 8. Which is great. Maybe I can turn off the rebooting then. I did this to protect my self from mono lol.