This is a SFF desktop machine, Dell 7050 Micro PC - 7th Gen i5 Intel Core i5-7500T Windows 11 pro
Any comments or advice?
I'm thinking about migrating from a Raspberry Pi 4b running the Channels built image, to the above pc for a little more horsepower.
Thanks!
Not quite exactly the same but I'm running Channels DVR on a Dell Inspiron 3880.
When I first signed up with Channels, I was like a kid in a candy store and was going crazy recording everything I could. My server was busy almost literally 24/7.
At one point, I witnessed it recording 11 different TVE streams at the same time with no corrupted recordings! Of course, that also depends on your internet connection.
I'm guessing it should work much better than your Pi now. 
Buddy, I used to run my server on a pile of garbage with some wires sticking out it and it ran beautifully:
After a massive failure, I brought everything over to my my daily driver with worse specs than what you are looking at and haven't looked back since. Nothing to worry about it at all!
Thanks guys. The very FIRST machine I used for Channels when I was evaluating it, is my every day Dell Inspiron 15, with a Ryzen 5 processor. It screamed, but I didn't want to leave it running 24/7.
I then dug a 16 year old Sony laptop out of the closet, that hadn't even been powered up for 10 years. It took about 3 days before I successfully revived the battery to keep a charge. Anyway, that's only a 1.1 Ghz mobile processor. 1Gb ram, and I had to remove the lid magnet so it wouldn't go to sleep when the lid was shut. I switched it to Debian Linux, and it also ran Channels DVR pretty good. I used that for several months, and then was offered the Raspberry Pi 4b for $50, and ran with that for my "permanent" server. I like that it barely uses any power. However, it struggles a bit with Comskip, and with watching out of the house.
So, thought this Dell 7050 would do even better, and it's fairly tiny and doesn't seem as if it'll use all that much more power than the RP does.
Most anything is powerful enough to run channels. It depends on your use case. If you need multiple remote transcode streams, then you need more cpu/gpu power. And/or you also want the fastest possible processing for com skip.
Running Channels server off a SBC like Pi4B, or on other lower powered dedicated NAS devices, are more than enough for most users, especially if you are the only user.
Sure, using an old "office pc" like a Optiplex or whatever will be fine, and those are dirt cheap or often free to find almost anywhere.
However, its the raw power usage and efficiency over time that is bad with those units.
Often idle around 50 watts and loaded over 100.
A pi4b only uses around 6 watts under full load and around 2 watts at idle.
A mini/micro pc, like a Intel NUC or off brand clones, are often low power chips, ranging from 10watts to 35watts+ under load.
If cost of electricity is low in your area, or you just don't care about your power bill, then a powerful machine may be practical enough for you. Just as long as you also have proper cooling ability. Those larger more powerful machine put off lots more heat, so you don't want to just hide them in a cubbard to fry. Also, fan noise could be an issue.
Oh yeah, what's the best version of Linux to install on this Dell mini, that supports Quicksync, etc with Channels DVR?
I don't have any issue with using Windows, except for the automatic updates and reboots that can happen. You can't shut those off long term.
Or should I just leave it with Windows 11?
Definitely Linux as opposed to Windoze
I've had great luck with Ubuntu server. You'll get better performace with Linux server as well.
I like Ubuntu desktop. Sometimes tve issues are easier to tackle with a browser on the server machine.
I prefer DietPi. They have images for many devices, including normal PC's.
No idea about having support for Quicksync though.
When I used PC I used Mint Linux and had zero issues. I did migrate to Synology NAS as I wanted to maximize storage and low power requirements while still having enough horsepower. I'm very happy with the NAS.
When you setup the new server, and move the database from your old one over to it, do all your SOURCES including TVE also move, or do you have to manually do all those over from scratch?
Everything moves over in the backup
@tmm1 Ok, thanks.
For now, my Channels Dvr server is presently running on a RP 4b, with a Western Digital 4Tb USB external drive that holds everything, including the headless Channels Dvr dedicated Linux RP image, and the recordings. Unless the operating system is actually what gets flashed to the RP with the micro sd card? Not sure.
Now, I intend on unplugging that USB drive from the Rp 4b, and plugging it into the new pc with a new copy of Channels running on Windows 11. It'll do the same duty of being my main external drive for recordings.
Do I still have to do the database backup/restore, etc, in that scenario? It's the same drive I've been using for nearly a year,it'll just be moved to a pc with more horsepower.
Bump, for answer to my last post.
Yes you click restore and pick the backup from the drive.
See Channels Support - How do I move Channels DVR Server to a new computer?