You don’t even need a 12th/13th gen chip tbh. I went from a server with a GTX 1660 to one with an i5-8600 (Well, multiple actually - it’s a kubernetes cluster). They can handle multiple 4k transcodes just fine.
I use a VPS as a homelab gateway of sorts from the outside.
Essentially, the VPS runs a Wireguard server that I connect to on my OPNSense Router. The VPS then reverse-proxies all incoming traffic through the tunnel to my homelab. All my DNS entries point to the VPS’s IP. This pretty much gives me a static IP, hides my real IP, and lets me do some light caching on the VPS. Kind of like a DIY cloudflare.
I also run Uptime Kuma on the VPS, since it will continue to work if my local network is down.
You don’t even need a 12th/13th gen chip tbh. I went from a server with a GTX 1660 to one with an i5-8600 (Well, multiple actually - it’s a kubernetes cluster). They can handle multiple 4k transcodes just fine.