Plex server internal upgrade

EddScott · 7 Aug 2019 at 10:36

I'm planning a small upgrade to my Plex & File server. No transcoding and no 4K content.

I have 2 4TB WD Reds for the storage in RAID1.

How does the below sound? Overkill?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD416G24= £68.99
1 x Intel Core i5-9400F 2.90GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £149.99
1 x Asus TUF B360M-Plus Gaming Intel B360 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £86.99
1 x Crucial MX500 500GB 3D NAND Sata PCIe M.2 Solid State Drive= £59.99

Total: £365.96 (includes shipping: £0.00)

EddScott · 7 Aug 2019 at 12:00

Current internals are i3 2120, 8GB DDR3, Asus P8H67 motherboard. Only running Win10 - I don't have enough experience with other OS to be confident I'm using it right.

Reason for upgrade? Only that it's a bit slow to start up and takes a while for Plex to start working when first turned on. I don't leave it on 24/7.

Disks in RAID1 for redundancy if one fails? Assumed that was a good thing to do.

EddScott · 7 Aug 2019 at 13:36

Semple said:
i'm assuming you're already backing up that data?

Photos and other important stuff is on my Google Drive. Media isnt as it's too big (costly) to backup online and can always be replaced.

However, I take your point.

EddScott · 9 Aug 2019 at 11:25

lnoton said:
None of this makes sense to me mate.

Buy a supermicro board and a pentium and install freenas. Or install freenas on the box you have. Thatll be your raid storage layer and file sharing capability. Also you can plug in s3 for remote automated off site back up. Then you can add a Plex plug in to that.

Super super simple.

Do not buy that stuff or run it on Windows.

Thank you.

I've decided not to buy any new parts. The current internals are fine.

I have a few questions if you don't mind helping out?

Is FreeNAS simple - or at least obvious enough to use?
Do I need to have the 2 3TB drives mirroring? Could one just back up to the other?
Is S3 the Amazon online back up?
When you say plug in, is that just a plug in to the FreeNAS OS?

Sorry, never really looked into much further than getting the thing going a few years ago.

EddScott · 12 Aug 2019 at 11:00

That's great. Thank for the information.

EddScott · 16 Aug 2019 at 11:55

To be honest, I just chucked it back into the rack.

I've taken off the RAID and one drive just backs up to the other. I will probably use the Amazon Glacial storage and it's really only going to be for emergencies.

I've left Win10 on purely because I have the machine working as I need it. I don't leave it on so I wake it up at home with an app on my phone or log into the router whilst out. I can shut it down after using Chrome Remote Desktop.