DIY Plex Server

Rusty_Shackleton · 6 May 2020 at 11:29

Hi there,

I currently have a Seagate Personal Cloud for running Plex - it's low power but has been fine for 4 years, but now I'm thinking about an upgrade. I'd like to build my own server, but servers are completely new to me other than dealing with my NAS. I've been googling, but so much of the info is either years out of date or just affiliate sales pages for various OTS devices, so I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction

My setup at the moment is a 4k smart TV and 3x chromecasts elsewhere in the house. I don't currently use Plex remotely but might do in the future. My library is entirely x264 (had to be for the Seagate NAS) but the new system needs comfortably handle x265/HEVC. Only needs to be able to handle 2-3 concurrent streams.

I also have a CCTV system but it's not IP cameras. In the future I'll upgrade this, so the ability for the server to run 2-3 IP cameras as well would be ideal.

In terms of budget, it'd need to be under £1k but i'd prefer nearer the £500 mark. I'm not in a rush to upgrade so the cost isn't the primary consideration, I just want to get the system right.

Rusty_Shackleton · 6 May 2020 at 19:18

Thanks for your reply

Apologies in advance for the number of questions below!

BigT said:
Your first decision is whether you want to buy off-the-shelf or build your own at this price point

My intention was to build my own, primarily due to performance being better for the money. I'm comfortable building PCs but an OS other than Windows will be new for me.

BigT said:
just look for a CPU/Mobo/Ram combination you like, perhaps paying attention to the requirements you have with future transcoding compared with Plex's reference: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201774043-what-kind-of-cpu-do-i-need-for-my-server/

Thanks for this link, it's exactly the sort of information I've been looking for.

I'm happy with the 2nd gen Ryzen 5 in my PC, so my first thought is a Ryzen 3 3200G (Vega 11 onboard graphics) - I'd prefer to use onboard graphics rather than a discrete GP. I've read that transcoding is a lot harder on a CPU and more efficient through a GPU, but how much difference does it make in practice taking into account onboard graphics? Thinking about it, I do have an old GTX 760 card in an old PC - would it be worth using that or? Is any of this overkill?

The 3200g has a passmark of 7283, so would that stop me transcoding x265/HEVC? Just to check I've understood transcoding correctly, if I have a file thats x265, that'll play through my 4k smart TV, but if I put it through a chromecast onto a 1080p TV, that requires transcoding to lower the quality for that equipment (and presumably is where this processor would be underpowered?)? Is the sensible option to address this then to use a discrete GPU?

As for Operating System then you have lots and lots of choices. My personal preference, even though it isn't free, is UnRaid.

I've seen a lot of good things about UnRaid and don't object to the cost. I've not looked into OS's much, but my main consideration here is ease of installation and use.

BigT said:
If you went down a home build route I guess maybe £7-800 would get you 4x4TB disks in a nice chassis with appropriate components and UnRaid.

Am I correct in thinking that UnRaid would be a good choice for adding hard drives later on? I have 1TB free (out of 4) on my current NAS, so to spread cost I was thinking of starting with 2x 4TB (mirrored), and then adding another 2x later once I need the space. Do you have any preference between WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf (or others)?

Rusty_Shackleton · 7 May 2020 at 15:28

Thanks for your help BigT - it's good to hear I shouldn't struggle with a non-Windows OS, and I think I'm sold on UnRaid.

Now just to decide on components

Rusty_Shackleton · 7 May 2020 at 23:15

Avalon said:
My personal view on an efficient Plex server is 6th gen i3 or newer (I personally go with an 8th gen i3/i5), the UHD630 is capable of transcoding tens of streams if required, it's power efficient and scales better than a Ryzen in this specific usage case, Ryzen APU and AMD GPU's suck for Plex when it comes to transcoding. The other option if you have older hardware or are set on Ryzen is a Nvidia GPU, consumer cards are restricted to two transcodes officially, but driver patching is a thing. As Big-T suggests, use a SSD, AHCI SATA and NVMe are largely interchangeable if it's just for basic OS + Plex.

Thanks for the suggestion re: Intel and iGPU, could I ask your opinion on this build? https://uk.*****(dot)com/list/MqBNjp

^pc part picker (why wont it let me post a link them?)