Good Cheap Server - HP Proliant Microserver 4 BAY - OWNERS THREAD
- Thread starter dragonuk
- Start date
Soldato
It’s only if the client (Shield) is unable to Direct Play from the Plex server that the video/audio will need to Transcode, audio transcode will probably be OK, video no chance.
Wired connection is obviously best as you’ll need pretty high sustained data rates.
Wired connection is obviously best as you’ll need pretty high sustained data rates.
OK cool, I think I’m going to try and setup a Plex media server and test it on one 4K video, it will be wired Ethernet - What OS is the best to run the microserver for this scenario?
If it isn't OK (and again as already stated direct play over LAN should be fine), you can always add a low power Nvidia GPU, you just need to consider the power/heat implications, but if it's just transcoding, the GPU power usage/heat will be minimal. If you have a Shield, it can run as a Plex server and you could map the drives from the N40L to it. OS wise Unraid, FreeNAS (or it's derivatives), you could also go Debian/Ubuntu or literally anything else with a working Plex port, I like PlexGuide's custom installer, but it's more geared towards automating everything and the N40L will struggle with the likes of SAB/Radarr/Sonarr/Ombi/Tautulli running without a bit of tweaking.
How many of you share your Plex libraries with family members? I have a Nvidia Shield which can direct play pretty much anything on my Plex server but what are recommended server settings for when the server may need to transcode? I'm running it on a Debian HyperV with 2gb ram and 2 virtual processors. Should that be enough? I found that even my firestick could direct play a 1080p mkv but that was over LAN (I used Tautulli to check transcoding). The Xeon cpu I'm hosting everything on my Gen 8 is 4c/8t but I do have other VMs running.
Hey, I was wondering if someone could help.
I bought my microserver eons ago, and put windows home server 2011 as I need a windows server to do backups, data storage and run a windows virtualised software on (web crawler software).
The machine is the N36L model, it's one of the early ones and is very slow when I have vmware player running on it. Is there much to gain from upgrading to the n54L? Or should I be upgrading whole generations to Gen8? Gen10? There is a big leap in price so I am trying to keep costs down and just upgrade to n54L if I can.
Most importantly. I think n36L takes 8GB ram max. I need to upgrade to 16GB ram.
I bought my microserver eons ago, and put windows home server 2011 as I need a windows server to do backups, data storage and run a windows virtualised software on (web crawler software).
The machine is the N36L model, it's one of the early ones and is very slow when I have vmware player running on it. Is there much to gain from upgrading to the n54L? Or should I be upgrading whole generations to Gen8? Gen10? There is a big leap in price so I am trying to keep costs down and just upgrade to n54L if I can.
Most importantly. I think n36L takes 8GB ram max. I need to upgrade to 16GB ram.
Soldato
If you really want to upgrade, at this point I'd be looking at then Gen10+, socketed CPU, more RAM and at base CPU level a lot more pokey than the N36...
Does depend on your usage though...
Does depend on your usage though...
was looking for a solution other than buying a £300+ piece of hardware.
Due to the cpu restrictions and ram issues. I'll try and flash the bios to unlock 16GB ram. Also switch to freenas and run a windows in VM mode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbTrG3HRrds
Im running a plex server on my N40L playing 4k mkv's , ripped with hi-res audio and an AC3 channel. these are 40-60gb + sized files. Having the AC3 5.1 is essential for direct play on any device i have found. I can direct play from any of my samsung 4k tv's., 4k firesticks (wirelessly) or through my nvidia shield no problems as long as AC3 is selected, as it does not have to transcode this.
Firstly audio transcoding is entirely separate to video transcoding, you can need to do one and not the other on a file. Also the resources required to transcode audio are many times less than video and that ignores that the FTV devices have had well documented issues with 5.1 AC3 at numerous points, but that’s another story.
First up, all server 2011 SKU’s are out of support and have been since January this year, whatever you were doing, you probably need to re-evaluate it, the world has changed a lot in the last 9 years.
Before you spend anything on hardware seriously consider what a cheap used 6th gen onwards ex corp box will cost you (£100-150 ish), that buys you something much, much nicer in terms of CPU, and an iGPU which can help a lot with media transcoding and VM’s as well as likely having greater memory capacity and better expansion options with only a slightly higher power usage. N36-N54L’s are still decent NAS boxes, they’ll handle low end Docker stuff no problem at all, but throw anything vaguely CPU intensive at them and the whole thing becomes painful quite quickly.
Soldato
I’m out of space in my Gen8 microsever and thought I could get a HBA card and a 4 bay enclosure to put some more discs in, any recommendations out there, I’m sure I’m not the first.
Associate
NVM got a card arriving today
EDIT now the 24th and network card was picked up straight away with W10
All working as it should now
What card did you use?
I've bounced my n54l to win10 and network card won't work so looking at suitable replacement.
Matt
Soldato
UGREEN Gigabit PCI Express Network Adapter
is the one i used.picked up straight away in W10
Associate
Thanks.
I found an Intel one for little money and it's picked up perfect.
Now I have Plex media server setup on it, 16GB ram but have tried to watch a couple Of videos but it stutters a lot and eventual crashes with server not powerful enough - client is the basic Roku device.
Is it a server issue, z client setup issue or ?? Is there anything more I can do to upgrade server of is it the client - it's a long time since I originally set all this up.
Matt
I found an Intel one for little money and it's picked up perfect.
Now I have Plex media server setup on it, 16GB ram but have tried to watch a couple Of videos but it stutters a lot and eventual crashes with server not powerful enough - client is the basic Roku device.
Is it a server issue, z client setup issue or ?? Is there anything more I can do to upgrade server of is it the client - it's a long time since I originally set all this up.
Matt
Soldato
You’ll probably find the for some reason the Roku client isn’t able to Direct Steam from the Server, when the Roku client is playing can you see what the Plex server is doing?
Associate
Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
Looking at the server the, via task manager, the CPU is maxed out - or are you wanting me to look at something else?
Matt
Thanks for the reply.
Looking at the server the, via task manager, the CPU is maxed out - or are you wanting me to look at something else?
Matt
Soldato
No that’s fine, so if your CPU is maxed then you are transcoding, you need see what video the Roku client supports and ensure that matches what you’re trying stream.
If the client can stream without transcoding (Direct Play) there will hardly be any hit on the CPU.
If the client can stream without transcoding (Direct Play) there will hardly be any hit on the CPU.
Associate
Hi
Ok thanks I get it now.
Matt
Ok thanks I get it now.
Matt