best hardware set up 2025

[johnm0101]

Ive read through and searched posts to confirm/not what works best. I am currently trialling npvr on a raspberry pi5 16gb
Seems fine so far, I guess the 16Gb helps 
I also note that a key performance component is the SD/hard drive and because SD can be slow it might be better to boot the Rp5 from a sata disk??

I have a much bigger pc running win 10  i5 16gb with a 4  tuner sat dvb-t pci card. I started experimenting with linux because the windows set up repeatedly required  reboots - especially after a windows update  -(probably me and my settings - never got to the bottom of it but it was annoying)  that set up also has hissy fits and buffers a lot. Would a win 11 machine be more stable? 
I am a fan of linux so I wondered what the pros and const of linux v win are?

Also I note somewhere comments that the rp5 is not the most advanced SBC and a NUC100 is preferred ?

Am I right in saying one of the cons of Linux is that you cant always get the drivers for usb tuners? - Im not sure that the tuner card is all that good on my win10 set up. Obvoiusly I cant use that coard on a NUC100 or rp5 so the issue of usb tuners is important

Tia for any comments 
John M

[sub]

I'm using a N150 mini pc these days, and have also used an N95 pc. They're both pretty idea really. I was primarily using Windows on these machines but would expect them to work well with Linux too.

Form factor for these machines pretty much means you're using USB, or network tuners, or IPTV. Thankfully there is good options for DVB-T in USB format.

[SickBoy]

N100/150 Mini PC's seem to fit the bill quite well. If I was not using one of those, I'd be looking at a used 1L-form factor Mini PC - or maybe just a VM on some sort of homelab hosting.

This is with a network tuner and using separate streaming clients through Jellyfin/Kodi, btw. If one did not use the server for playback, I'd 100% recommend Linux of some sort.