In `top` you won't notice a difference in cpu utilization for the transcoding work with an intel iGPU (as long as transcoding is being handled by it, of course).

The N100 is definitely powerful enough run a ZFS RAID array. Depending on what all you'd like to run, it might be enough. Check it out with cpubenchmark's compare feature!

I used a Celeron G4900 (also has an iGPU) as a plex server for years, and it's half as powerful as an N100. The celeron is a fairly slow processor, but for plex it was enough since the iGPU did the heavy lifting.

Very interesting, thanks! What about adding a few other server tasks, like automated backups, and running Immich (Google Photos clone)? I'm seeing a lot of conflicting information online, with some people swearing by the N100 as a home server capable of these tasks, and others saying it's just too slow and something like a Celeron 13100 is needed. Since I can't exactly build a system, and then return the motherboard/CPU if it's too slow, I'm a little afraid of under-speccing it. My goal is to have a 3-5 drive system with ZFS, and use it for NAS, Jellyfin (with 4K transcodes, because of subtitles; probably never more than 1 movie at a time though), Immich photos, and backups.

You're definitely limiting your upside with an N100, but it might be enough like I said. It'll work, it's just a matter of how fast it'll be with everything you put on it.

I'd highly recommend joining the serverbuilds dot net discord. They also have a forum with pre-specced NAS build configurations, complete with pricing. People there are very helpful and will give realistic advice.

I think Jellyfin beats Plex on 4k transcoding (tonemapping?) with the iGPU, but fwiw I do not transcode 4k and add subtitles to them just fine. I use an nvidia shield, which direct plays 4k content with the added subtitles. Hearing about transcoding 4k content just to add subtitles is news to me.