

Cool, well then I can at least share what I went with that has worked really well: GMKtech N100 NUC from Aliexpress with 16 GB of RAM.
It’s hosting Jellyfin with transcoding, PiHole, Home Assistant, Heimdal, a Valheim server and loads of other small LXC’s in Proxmox.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen it break a sweat.
The NAS holds the .arr stack and Qbit, but that’s it.
I cannot speak to the longevity of it, but I repasted the CPU once I got it and it’s chilling below 45 degrees all day long, so I expect it to last for many years. I also enabled C-states to get idle consumption as low as possible, around 7-8W.
Best of luck with whatever setup you end up with mate!
I’m using a Chromecast with Google TV, simply because that’s what I had when I started.
Hoping a new Shield will come before it dies, alternatively I need to find something else.
After I migrated to a N100 that does all transcoding for me, the media device itself is more about codec support, a nice UI and response times and less about raw power.