That is an interesting symptom.
If it was just that the CPU was under-powered for the task I would expect the streams to not load or have a lot of lag, The fact that the entire server crashes and reboots suggests that the CPU or some other component is most likely overheating or possibly drawing more power than can be cleanly supplied.
Are you able to monitor temps while the server is running? It is possible that pulling off the cooler, cleaning the heatsink and the cpu, and applying fresh thermal paste will reduce your temps significantly.
Additionally even though the N5105 is a low power / low performance CPU the iGPU it has is fairly modern and should be able to handle transcending multiple streams without issue. I’m guessing that you may be doing software (CPU) transcoding instead of hardware (GPU) transcoding which would be a challenge for the processor.
As for your questions:
- The main reason that these builds are mostly Intel because of Intel Quick Sync Video which offer better transcoding performance and support more video formats than AMD iGPUs and even most discreet add-in cards. The 3D gaming performance of the AMD G series Ryzens is actually not bad, but video transcoding is AMDs Achilles heel.
The Ryzen processors are a newer product line and for a long time there wasn’t much of a used market for them, but that has changed and today the AM4 platform is quite attractive in terms of performance / price as well as performance / watt. If you were considering using an external Quick Sync box or are planning on using a discreet GPU anyway then an AM4 based Ryzen server could be a good choice. If you want everything converged into a single system and you want transcoding you will want to go with Intel.
- The ebay seller RTG is a member on these forums and does occasionally post new deals in the Marketplace Section but it has been a while. You might be able to reach out to the seller and see if they would be interested in posting some new deals.