Parts suggestions for converting rig to media server

Darr2cool78

Darr2cool78

Darr2cool78

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I have had a Haswell 4770k rig since 2014, going to get a new gaming rig soon and I want to convert this one into a dedicated Plex server, i7 may seem like overkill but I multi-stream and watch 4k HDR / HVEC content often, so sticking with it. Graphics card will come out and I will just use the integrated CPU gfx.

I think to do this I need a micro ATX case, compatible power supply, 1151 socket micro atx motherboard and some inexpensive CPU cooler (current one is massive)?

Fancy it being as neat, quiet and portable as possible. Will probably sit beside the tele for the rest of days.

I came up with the following: (2 case variations but only need one of course)

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £227.17 (includes shipping: £17.22)
​

Any suggestions on the best parts to do this as cheap as possible would be greatly appreciated :)
 
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That cooler simply ain't gonna cut it if you have a 4770k and it's actually being worked hard. And it won't be quiet even if it's surviving. Small, quiet, and powerful are usually a pick-2 arrangement at best. On a budget? Pick 1 and a half.

I don't mean to knock your idea down - just that it'll be challenging, and might be worth identifying compromises you're happy with. Is the i7 really utilised fully? Is it overclocked?

You could downgrade CPU for a tidy profit, even down to 4460/4570 you could make £50 and put it towards a sensible cooler.

Also it's socket 1150 not 1151. Non-Z series board can be had cheapish (£30-50, look for H81) but non-basic boards are still going for up to £100 as they get rarer :(

I'd look into a more £30-40 cooler (will the Kolink accommodate 147mm coolers? Cryorig H7 fits into a 4U server case).

Happy to poke a bit more when I'm home - more than likely you'll be needing a second hand motherboard though.
 
LuckyBenski said:
That cooler simply ain't gonna cut it if you have a 4770k and it's actually being worked hard. And it won't be quiet even if it's surviving. Small, quiet, and powerful are usually a pick-2 arrangement at best. On a budget? Pick 1 and a half.

I don't mean to knock your idea down - just that it'll be challenging, and might be worth identifying compromises you're happy with. Is the i7 really utilised fully? Is it overclocked?

You could downgrade CPU for a tidy profit, even down to 4460/4570 you could make £50 and put it towards a sensible cooler.

Also it's socket 1150 not 1151. Non-Z series board can be had cheapish (£30-50, look for H81) but non-basic boards are still going for up to £100 as they get rarer :(

I'd look into a more £30-40 cooler (will the Kolink accommodate 147mm coolers? Cryorig H7 fits into a 4U server case).

Happy to poke a bit more when I'm home - more than likely you'll be needing a second hand motherboard though.
Click to expand...

Thanks for getting back mate. I thought a wee dinky cooler would be ok if the CPU wasn't overclocked but maybe not? There is an overclock on it now but I would not be applying that when it becomes a media server.

I may have exaggerated the need to do cheap haha I can spend a bit extra to do it right.

Oops my potato eyes, quite right Haswell was indeed 1150! After I read your reply I looked on eBay and saw a H81 chipset board for about £30, it is no brand though and could be load of rubbish :(

One of the reasons for this change is, my graphics card (780GTX) is wildly out of date now, I really want to get a 2080 super but I think the 4770k would probably bottleneck that graphics card, so decided to move to a new rig and re-purpose this one. I could be wrong though?
 
Sell the chip, buy something more suitable.

Assuming we are talking about Plex (presumably with Plex Pass as you mention making use of the iGPU), then you should be aware that 4th gen (while better than earlier iGPU’s) doesn’t have the best HW transcoding quality, doesn’t support HEVC decode and HDR transcoding is broken as tone mapping isn’t functional in the transcoder, also transcoding outputs H264 1080, so you have a performance hit to decide it via CPU, transcode it out via CPU and if it’s HDR it’s unwatchable.

The trick with a media server is to direct play content, that requires proper curation of your media to ensure it is directly playable by your client and suitable connectivity between your server and client and that your server can read and send the data quickly enough. If you do that, then you don’t need to transcode. If it were me with that sort of budget, i’d likely get a later gen budget CPU/board. How are you planning on storing your media?
 
Avalon's advice looks very competent - I'd rather be transcoding media as I store it, than on the fly. Assuming it's not unreasonably large to store that way. The tricky thing is that any newer chips will need DDR4.

That said, I expect you could bag a CPU/mobo/RAM combo for a similar price to what you could sell your current setup for. I'd be looking into whether Ryzen midrange does your media tasks better than Haswell i7. I believe the Ryzen 5 2600 is comparable to the i5-4690k but runs on newer architecture and has more threads. Just as an example.

If you go down the not-live-transcoding route, you may get away with an even simpler CPU like a 2200G. Do bear in mind that non-G Ryzen CPUs need a graphics card, although they can be had cheap. Your GTX 780 is no slouch either, for daily tasks and simple gaming.

Loads of options :)
 
Just on the cooler side of things, check the TDP rating of the cooler vs the CPU you're looking to cool. That Zalman one in the first post is designed to cool up to 95w, and the 4770k has a 84w TDP. Following this through, that means the fan will go to 90% when the CPU hits max chat for an extended period of time. Whether this is too loud is something you can find in reviews, remembering all the while that this is a best case scenario; a more restrictive case will likely exacerbate things somewhat.
 
Avalon said:
Sell the chip, buy something more suitable.

Assuming we are talking about Plex (presumably with Plex Pass as you mention making use of the iGPU), then you should be aware that 4th gen (while better than earlier iGPU’s) doesn’t have the best HW transcoding quality, doesn’t support HEVC decode and HDR transcoding is broken as tone mapping isn’t functional in the transcoder, also transcoding outputs H264 1080, so you have a performance hit to decide it via CPU, transcode it out via CPU and if it’s HDR it’s unwatchable.

The trick with a media server is to direct play content, that requires proper curation of your media to ensure it is directly playable by your client and suitable connectivity between your server and client and that your server can read and send the data quickly enough. If you do that, then you don’t need to transcode. If it were me with that sort of budget, i’d likely get a later gen budget CPU/board. How are you planning on storing your media?
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, it sounds like my 780 has been doing a lot more streaming work than I gave it credit for. Just going to store media on normal mechanical HDDs for now then get some sort of raid going in the future for data loss protection.

LuckyBenski said:
Avalon's advice looks very competent - I'd rather be transcoding media as I store it, than on the fly. Assuming it's not unreasonably large to store that way. The tricky thing is that any newer chips will need DDR4.

That said, I expect you could bag a CPU/mobo/RAM combo for a similar price to what you could sell your current setup for. I'd be looking into whether Ryzen midrange does your media tasks better than Haswell i7. I believe the Ryzen 5 2600 is comparable to the i5-4690k but runs on newer architecture and has more threads. Just as an example.

If you go down the not-live-transcoding route, you may get away with an even simpler CPU like a 2200G. Do bear in mind that non-G Ryzen CPUs need a graphics card, although they can be had cheap. Your GTX 780 is no slouch either, for daily tasks and simple gaming.

Loads of options :)
Click to expand...

Thanks! after reading replies here and thinking it over, I wonder if my best plan is to just leave the computer the way it is and plonk it beside the TV stand with a LAN cable and remote desktop access! Need a full upgrade for gaming anyway so I guess doing it that way actually gives me more money to spend on that. Then in the future, I could sell Haswell rig and build a media server from those parts you recommended.

Zefan said:
Just on the cooler side of things, check the TDP rating of the cooler vs the CPU you're looking to cool. That Zalman one in the first post is designed to cool up to 95w, and the 4770k has a 84w TDP. Following this through, that means the fan will go to 90% when the CPU hits max chat for an extended period of time. Whether this is too loud is something you can find in reviews, remembering all the while that this is a best case scenario; a more restrictive case will likely exacerbate things somewhat.
Click to expand...

That is good to know thanks, I never realised you could calculate it like that!
 
For local storage I would tend to go with Unraid and put the box elsewhere, then a silent client plugged into the TV, windows you could use one of the drive pooling software solutions (not a fan personally), but as a curve ball it's £8/m for unlimited cloud storage if you have an OK connection it's great for media.
 
I wouldnt touch unraid witha Baaaaaaarrrrggggee Pole . Stick with what you have (and know), as much as poss. That 8.99 cooler may be rated at 95w (No, never ) but it would not be acceptable in either noise or temps. For quiet fans yes, its boring, but Noctua wins.
Why go M-atx when m-itx wins outs in size, portability ?
Try 2200ge/2400ge (low power use) for media server/light gaming or 3200ge/3400ge (soon to appear?)
 
GWANGY said:
I wouldnt touch unraid witha Baaaaaaarrrrggggee Pole . Stick with what you have (and know), as much as poss. That 8.99 cooler may be rated at 95w (No, never ) but it would not be acceptable in either noise or temps. For quiet fans yes, its boring, but Noctua wins.
Why go M-atx when m-itx wins outs in size, portability ?
Try 2200ge/2400ge (low power use) for media server/light gaming or 3200ge/3400ge (soon to appear?)
Click to expand...

So Zalman (a company with a well established reputation for building decent quality quiet coolers) can’t calculate basic TDP and you can just by looking at a photo? Also why would you suggest ITX? It’s smaller, but you generally pay more for less and have much less expansion options, citing it as portable wasn’t part of the op’s requirements, so why is it an advantage? Perhaps you could also share some insight into reason you don’t get along with unraid that may be useful for op?

CPU wise the 2200 can do 2x1080 H264 transcodes and zero H265 transcodes in software, AMD GPU/APU’s suck for transcoding vs intel + iGPU, so why specifically are you recommending them?
 
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