Plex pc specs

robj20 · 28 Jul 2025 at 20:03

Bluecube said:
As always, it depends on how much transcoding you need to do. I stream mainly to an Apple TV, iPhones and the Samsung TV Plex app so transcoding is hardly, if ever, required so I’ve never used a GPU or even an iGPU. Which is the long way of saying both those CPUs are major overkill for just a Plex server especially as you were managing OK with a J4105.

I'm not managing okay, anything with subtitles is unwatchable, Planet of the apes for instance.
Get the odd one that transcodes audio as well.
Won't just be for Plex, and specifically went for something with as much performance for as little power.

robj20 · 31 Jul 2025 at 21:18

Thought I'd try getting Plex up and running on Ubuntu. About ready to give up, thought I was doing well but then Plex doesn't seem the NAS so can't add media.
I can see the network drive through file explorer.

Avalon · 1 Aug 2025 at 10:46

Assuming you have indeed mounted the remote storage, you just need to point Plex to the drive in the normal way.

robj20 · 2 Aug 2025 at 06:48

Avalon said:
Assuming you have indeed mounted the remote storage, you just need to point Plex to the drive in the normal way.

I have up and installed Windows 11 Pro.
All up and running perfectly within 30 minutes. I tried Linux a long time ago, nothing seems to have improved in all that time.

MSI Cubi 1M Core 5 120U, is drawing 6-7w at idle. Thing that's about as good as it's going to get, 32gb RAM so set Plex to use ram for transcoding, save wear and tear on the SSD. Can't think of anything else that needs setting.

Bluecube · 2 Aug 2025 at 07:07

You weren’t using a Ubuntu distro from 20 years ago by any chance? Accessing network storage on a modern distro is as easy as Windows or MacOS and has been for a very long time.

robj20 · 2 Aug 2025 at 07:17

Bluecube said:
You weren’t using a Ubuntu distro from 20 years ago by any chance? Accessing network storage on a modern distro is as easy as Windows or MacOS and has been for a very long time.

No, latest off the Ubuntu website. From reading it seemed to be something to do with me using the docker style installation I forget what Ubuntu called it via the app store thing. But I just couldn't get it to see the shares. Sorted now anyway, remote desktop working nicely, I'm just too comfortable with windows.

Steveocee · Wednesday at 06:49

robj20 said:
No, latest off the Ubuntu website. From reading it seemed to be something to do with me using the docker style installation I forget what Ubuntu called it via the app store thing. But I just couldn't get it to see the shares. Sorted now anyway, remote desktop working nicely, I'm just too comfortable with windows.

Easy when a windows license is so cheap these days however if you haven't 100% given up on a Ubuntu life, have a look at Webmin, in the past I've used it to crutch my way through some things just like a network share, made life easier having a GUI and I used it how you have mentioned for a few years before migrating it all onto the same box.

robj20 · Wednesday at 06:53

Steveocee said:
Easy when a windows license is so cheap these days however if you haven't 100% given up on a Ubuntu life, have a look at Webmin, in the past I've used it to crutch my way through some things just like a network share, made life easier having a GUI and I used it how you have mentioned for a few years before migrating it all onto the same box.

Sticking with windows, extremely cheap at £0.
Using a windows tweaker to remove all the bloat, sits at 6W idle so happy with that.

Avalon · Thursday at 07:39

Sadly Plex under Windows tends to be more limited as you scale up concurrent transcodes, and historically lacked features that were available under Linux, eg HDR tone mapping. If it works for you, that’s great, but having gone Ubuntu + docker years ago, it’s the better option.