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Plex Server Suggestions

Craterloads

Craterloads

Craterloads

Soldato
Joined
26 Dec 2009
Posts
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Location
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I know there's a few threads about and have done some light reading, just wanted to double check before I go ahead.

After trying plex for the first time last week I was honestly amazed at how good it was, just like that all my movie and tv show rips organised, covers, dates and information at a click of a button. This is on my main PC being setup as the server, problem is I don't want it running 24/7, 5930k oced, gtx 1080 full on gaming rig. And after thinking about spending a small fortune on a custom rig I've come to my senses this is just a bit of a luxury so let's not go mad (was thinking 4k transcoding, future proof etc)

Anyhow I have a decentish HP 280 G1 desktop lying about doing nothing, only cost me £50 so thinking might as well use it.

i3 4160 CPU
8GB Ram
500GB HDD
Standard PSU
W10 Pro

I've got 2 x 4TB drives that are about 70% full so may add a 3rd down the line in my main pc which I would transfer over to the hp.

Will this setup be suitable for full HD BD rips, MKV files, and guessing some transcoding to certain players like iPhones etc?

What's the best OS to use? Its got legit W10 on it now will this suffice, can I still access the storage drives on this system from my main pc to transfer torrents over. As would want to initiate downloads on my main pc and aim downloads at the HP. HP will likely be monitorless located near router.

Will it be a power hogg?

Any suggestions on cheap devices that I can place in two living rooms that will play MKV files natively 1080p so don't require transcoding. Only got a switch currently in living rooms so no plex capable devices. Steam link I tried isn't so good for plex, no native app.
 
I went through all this, then decided it just made more financial sense to keep the Plex server on my main PC, rather than build dedicated rig (might as well use all those core for something...). Unless you are transcoding the computer is not going to be working much anyway. In fact I have loaded Plex Server on all the other PC in the house in case one is switched off.
files all stored centrally on a NAS. Most of my viewing is on the TV at home so no need to transcode, but the main rig (OC'ed 5820K) will handle multiple streams to handhelds if needed. I use Google Chromecast dongles and cast to the TV via the Plex App, using phone/ipad as a remote control.
 
I have an HP Gen8 Microserver serving as my HTPC. It fits inside the TV cabinet and is silent with the door closed, doesn't get hot and can stream to all TV's in our house simultaneously with no problem. Cost me £109 shortly after release with the cashback. I've not spent too much on it either, other than £150 to upgrade the CPU from a crappy Celeron to an E3 Xeon 1265L V2 and x2 8GB. I did cut the motherboard tray a little though, as I wanted to stick a Gigabyte GTX 1050ti in there for some light gaming. PSU is only 200w, so it doesn't consume a lot of power, but no issues with x2 8TB Ironwolf NAS drives and x2 6TB WD Red's in their. Has iLO too, which is handy, although I never switch it off, it's left on 24/7.

All in all, does everything pretty well for not a lot of money.
 
Craterloads said:
I know there's a few threads about and have done some light reading, just wanted to double check before I go ahead.

i3 4160 CPU
8GB Ram
500GB HDD
Standard PSU
W10 Pro

I've got 2 x 4TB drives that are about 70% full so may add a 3rd down the line in my main pc which I would transfer over to the hp.

Will this setup be suitable for full HD BD rips, MKV files, and guessing some transcoding to certain players like iPhones etc?

Absolutely, I have an AMD FX4300 used a plex server and it has no issue transcoding a pair of 1:1 BD Rips

What's the best OS to use? Its got legit W10 on it now will this suffice, can I still access the storage drives on this system from my main pc to transfer torrents over. As would want to initiate downloads on my main pc and aim downloads at the HP. HP will likely be monitorless located near router.

Whatever you feel the most comfortable with, Windows is fine and shares are simple to setup

Will it be a power hogg?
My plex server idles at around 75w and pulls 105-110w when transcoding. Yours will probably be 30-40w lower due to a more efficient CPU and 5 less disks constantly spinning

Any suggestions on cheap devices that I can place in two living rooms that will play MKV files natively 1080p so don't require transcoding. Only got a switch currently in living rooms so no plex capable devices. Steam link I tried isn't so good for plex, no native app.

Roku 3 have been the best Plex clients for me, although at £80 each aren't the cheapest
Click to expand...
 
W10 as came preinstalled, thanks for the replies guys I'll give it a try as suggested and see how it goes.

I was looking at the HP Microserver too and with a cpu upgrade looked decent. Case size is perfect on it.

Edit, just remembered I've got a wall power measuring thing from my mining days so can see how much juice it uses.
 
If you want to build something a little more robust. My system running freeNas.

Xeon 1260l v5
32Gb ECC
C236

If you don't need 10Tb plus of storage you could get away with 8Gb a lower end Xeon and C232.
 
just do it mate.
im running a freenas server with plex on a dell 780 with an core 2 duo 8600 and its working fine. Forget about resolution higher than full hd.. but it works fine with full hd.
Children can watch plex on their tablets or on a smart tv. I can stream my favourite shows and movies as well.. Its just so convenient to have everything in one place.
With freenas you can do much more.
Just make sure you have at least 8gb of ram and a decent hdd (wd red recommended)
my dell pulls around 30w idle and its on 24/7
 
Yup. Get a freenas install...been running one for years with a supermicro board and a bog standard intel duo, 16gb of ECC ram and 4 * 2tb drives.


Just works and costs nothing to run and sits in my garage....I clean spiders out every now and again...
 
enfo said:
I think plex might have finally brought gpu transcoding to the server :eek:
https://www.plex.tv/blog/smooth-stream-operator/

Need to get home to test it out arghghgh
Click to expand...

Ooh... excellent. TLDR - they support Intel QuickSync cross-platform (Win/Mac/Linux), Nvidia cross-platform, and ATI/AMD on Windows. Nice! It was glitchy and not working for me after update, but a quick machine reboot and it now works flawlessly for both decode and encode (1050ti). I have a lifetime Plex (and Emby) pass so this has helped justify the outlay lol. If only Nvidia didn't have a stingy 2 stream hard limit on their cards (AMD/ATI are unlimited)...
 
That’s annoying nvidia having a 2 stream limit !
I wonder how many streams gpus can handle
 
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