Plex server with old xeon c602

Arnold Ma

Arnold Ma

Arnold Ma

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Joined
25 Dec 2018
Posts
10
Hey guys, I noticed while research, there are some users with good media server experience here - so made myself an account!

I saw another thread people suggesting Xeon chips, specifically e5-2670, did some research and think it'd be my best option as I want to be able to transcode 4k with ease. I think I get the hardware side of things, but any suggestions on the RAM in the below would be much appreciated... something cheap and reliable, as I don't think a Plex server needs much RAM.

2x Xeon E5-2670
2x Noctua NH-U12D Xeon cooler
ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16 SSI EEB
Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Tempered Glass
Corsair RMx 850 80+Gold

The above comes to about £700 if I get CPUs off ebay - is it overkill?

Where I need the most help is the software side, I already have 3-4 HDD of various size (NAS drives), so what OS/RAID set-up shall I use to have some kind of redundancy (RAID 5 to be space efficient)? I've heard about unRAID but a bit confused, is it an OS? Do I need anything with it?

I'd also like to use it as my torrent server - so maybe good RAM is needed, I'd likely leave it on 24/7 so happy to manage it remotely.

Thanks all!
 
Thanks for the replies everyone! AND MERRY XMAS!

Xeon vs Ryzen - Dual Xeon is much cheaper than a single Ryzen, and far more powerful, I've read it's hit and miss with 1800x on 4k transcoding.

hardware acceleration via GPU - I believe the quality is not as good with this? I may try with my current set-up as i just bought a RX580 and see if it helps.

transcoding on server vs end player - I'd have to get everyone a nvidia shield or an apple TV, thought it'd be easier, for both torrent (I'd like to move away from leaving my workstation on 24/7 also) and plex if I have a powerful server that can serve all devices! Plus I get a NAS with proper redundency, i'm currently using my workstation for all 3 and it's about time I got off my ass and optimised! 1 stone 3 birds :) PS. also need to transcode 4k to lower bitrate as my internet is crap, so 10mbps 1080p is best I can serve...

@StevieP - thanks for the unRAID explanation! I saw a video on how to install it via USB and it does look relatively easy.

All comments are good please keep them coming, any more hardware options or on unRAID vs the other software options would be much appreciated (for plex, torrent and NAS).
 
Last edited:
PiKe said:
What devices are you going to be streaming to?
Click to expand...

Smart TV and firestick, plus ipads for mine and my GF's parents, mobile phones every now and then while anyone (family) wants to view content while travelling, though this is much less often, if at all.

StevieP said:
Here was my thread as I was experimenting with unRAID but if you want specifics @neodude was a massive help and the community over on the Lime Technology forum are a helpful (and responsive!) bunch!
Click to expand...

Thank you! will read through!
 
andy_mk3 said:
Forgot to mention I'm using unRAID too, it's awesome. I've gone from running like 12 VM's to having twice as many services running in docker, it's sweet!
Click to expand...

Stupid question maybe, VMs to run apps or?

PiKe said:
How are you going to deliver 4k over a WAN connection? What is your upload speed?
Click to expand...

I won't need to serve the content to myself over Plex, so retaining quality for local consumption. Rest are all remote, my upload is circa 20mbps hence ideally need to transcode down to 10mbps 1080p for remote users.
 
Thanks everyone for taking the time to input, really helpful and some interesting solutions here - I guess I just went for the lazy option of getting some cheap, beefy processors to do the hard work and transcode on the fly rather than getting creative with re-encode / two versions.

I already keep two copies for some films (but hate the space it takes, however HDD is cheap...), and yes, you can select which version to play on most Plex clients. But this is a good opportunity to move to a home server solution for reason mentioned before.

What is a good balance of price/power on consumer stuff at the moment for a home server? if not older sandy bridge Xeons.

Re unRAID, thanks again everyone, sounds like a winner, the least I need would be a few dockers for torrent, Plex and parity? any tips on parity/torrent much appreciated!

PS. I keep 4k content for local consumption, I'm a quality freak!
 
Beautiful, thanks again everyone for the candid tips! Especially @Avalon really appreciate your time. Point taken re old server chips. Remote is an interesting option as it removes my bandwidth bottleneck - will look into this. I guess I can always have a NAS at home to back up the data on the remote server? Is it viable to rent a server with 20TB+ of storage?

@StevieP got it re unRAID, liking this option more since doing a bit more research myself.
 
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