I am completely new to both Plex and this forum so I hope I am not posting this incorrectly. I want to build a new Plex Media Server but torn on the appropriate hardware. I will have at the most 2-3 simultaneous streams on the home network and 1 remote stream (very rarely) to a laptop, tablet or phone.
Most of the content will be ripped DVDs that I currently own, a few Blu-ray disk rips, nearly everything 1080p but may have the occasional 4K movie/tv stream as well.
I wanted to use the old workstations that I have, HP Z800 with dual Xeon 5690s, however the power consumption is very high for the overall system. I have a few Quardo P5000 GPUs laying around as well.
Having said that, I have been looking at AMD and Intel CPU’s and do not want to spend a ton of money building something. I have been leaning towards AMD Ryzen 3 2200G, AMD Ryzen 3 3200G, Ryzen 5 2400G or AMD Ryzen 5 3400G.
I have not yet looked at Passmark Scores for Intel yet, though I do have an old pile of parts laying around…Intel 3960X and Asus Rampage Black Edition and an Asus Sabertooth X79 board, neither of which I being utilized right now. I also have a few i3 CPUs on Dell boards but I do not know the models off hand, or if they are even operational.
Ultimately, I need to know what will work, what will NOT work. I need to go the least expensive route as the storage will be costly. (4 WD Reds or Ironwolf HDDs, 3 6TB and one 8TB for parity as well as either 2 500GB SSDs or a QNAP Dual M.2 2280 with 500GB M.2s for cache). I hoped to run Unraid but that is still up for debate.
I would greatly appreciate any help. The more detail the better.
Thank You,
Mistie
Mod-Edit: removed some formatting tag that made the whole post appear like code
I have 2 nearly identical Plex servers up and running using Ryzen 7 CPUs. One is a 1700 the other a 3700, both with 32GB of RAM with FreeNAS as the host OS. Your selection of CPUs is lower power but should do fine from my experience. Direct play streams (ones that are not transcoded) use very little CPU. When I transcode and stream to my phone or tablet I am usually using 10-15% CPU with no hardware transcoding. There are articles for hardware compatibility and issues etc with hardware transcoding, but I don’t think you should be worried about over taxing your server with some of the hardware you have listed. My experience with FreeNAS is the more RAM you have the better, your experience will vary depending on your host OS so read up on using Plex with that OS and HW etc. Good luck and good viewing.
Intel 3970x - 3rd generation - will give you 1080p, H.264 hardware transcoding. HEVC did not begin until -6xxx CPUs. -7xxx CPUs (KabyLake) gave us UHD (10 bit color) capability.
Per your Nvidia GPU cards, you need to check on the Nvidia site and confirm it has the transcoding capability you want.
Do you have / will you get a plex pass? If the answer is yes then you can use hw assisted video transcoding from intel or nvidia. It really helps when you have a server CPU that is not able to keep up with your transcoding requirements. If you will run into that situation depends on the amount of horsepower in your server CPU, the choices made when you ripped your source media, and the clients you chose to play back. The horse power of your CPU is pretty easy to determine (Passmark score) but it is important to pay attention to both the single threaded and the mulithreaded performance. While most plex server tasks are well threaded, a few are not. when you ripped your media what video coded did you chose? Some are quite easy for your CPU to handle and others are much more difficult. What bitrate did you chose? higher bitrate, more calculations and thus harder on your CPU. The last one is by far the most important, what client you will use to play back your media. Some clients are amazing handle virtually most types of files natively, and rarely need the server to transcode (like an nvidia sheild, a new iphone, or a PC) if you use the proper plex application. Some clients are the opposite, they support few files natively and force the server to transcode everything (like a web browser.)
The situation you describe, you should be able to run the proper plex applications everywhere, and thus you will likely not need a lot of transcoding.
If it was me I would spin up one of those old z800’s install your os of preference, any HDD you happen to have, and start using it. The only money I would consider spending would be on HDD, as those can move to a replacement solution if the z800’s suck. It will not take long to get going and start enjoying plex. You will see what works well and what does not. You will know how much transcoding occurs and use that to influence your purchase. If you buy a plex pass, you can add in one of those quadro cards and do hw assisted transcoding.
I do not have anything but the free Plex App on my smart tv right now. I will purchase lifetime Plex Pass when I get a bit closer to completing my server. I know I am going to use 3x Seagate Exos 7E8 6TB drives and a Seagate Exos 7E8 for parity/back-up. I think the Z800 is a decent starting point but I am not sure it will natively support more than 2.2TB Drives but it does have both SAS and Sata options, of which I would likely use Sata. If I go the Intel route and use the i7-3960X I have laying around, the CPU Passmark Score is 8,926. If I use the Z800, the dual Xeon X5670’s have a combined Passmark Score of 10,479 (Single Score of 6,167). Either will work well I presume. I have and average speed of 600+ Mbps download and 30 Mbps upload, both of which are far less than my ISP is supposed to be providing (940ish Mbps). I have my own cable model and routers etc. but have not swapped anything out yet for optimized service. This is just information for streaming outside my internal network. Internally I have mostly 1000 Mbps switches, NICs, etc. but will install 10G network gear at some point, at least to select devices. (House is already wired for it). I plan to use 2 Samsung phones, maybe a tablet or two (Android), PS4 and TV app but those will be the least used options and not at the same time. I plan on using a dedicated media PC connected to my Denon AVR-X1600H 4K Receiver (Everything is connected this way for the best audio and convenience of centralization of all sources) Denon does support DLNA and has its own 4K upscalling features, if this matters. I really want the audio from my media sources to sound the as good as possible. I am not sure what format the media will mostly be, I have not yet burned my DVD collection because I wanted to first find the best options to do so. I will also convert tons of old VHS and Beta tapes to Digital at some point. I hope this helps provide more information to those who are helping me thus far. I greatly appreciate any and all advice as I am 100% new to Plex. The other questions that I have include, where to place the Plex Server Software, The OS, most likely Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (easier for others in my home to utilize), Kodi, etc. I am still undecided as to using Unraid or not. So if I have 4 spinning drives for media storage, can I use two SSDs in raid for Windows, Plex, Kodi, etc? Should I separate the Windows OS from Plex? Would two OS drives be better than partitions? VMs? I know how to do the work, just not the way to do it, if that makes sense.
Wow! lots of good questions. Plex Media Server is a server application that runs ontop of your OS. Chose the OS you are most comfortable with. I see no need to put your OS on one drive and the PMS app on another, however, making another RAID volume for your shares is, IMO, the proper way to set up your system & its storage. Your selection of CPUs seems more than sufficient to transcode multiple streams at once. Remember that transcoding is only needed if you don’t have the bandwidth to use direct play. On my LAN, all of my HTPCs playback with direct stream with the original resolution and full HD audio track with no issues at all(very little CPU usage). My LAN is all hardwired Cat5 w/ a 1G switch and my WAN is 1G Fios. My brother streams to his house with transcoding through a 30M/30M cable provide with no issues(while my server shows 10-15% CPU for that 1 stream). For the best audio quality your playback device needs to support bitstreaming the various types of audio tracks. DVDs support DD and DTS, BluRays added Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master, someone please correct me if I’m wrong but I believe UHD BluRays added Dolby Atmos. If your playback devices can bitstream those formats you’ve got half the process solved, the other half is ripping your source files with the proper tracks inside them. I recommend MakeMKV as it lets your select multiple audio streams and subtitle streams, is fairly easy to use and doesn’t add any compression so you retain the full quality of your original source. That is how I ripped my library. Once you have made the MKV files you can add/remove tracks or flag a specific one as the default with MKVToolNix. For your video tape library you will need to use some form of capture card to create a file from the tape source. I have not gone that route so I cannot offer advise in that area. In-so-far-as a virtual machine, just remember that it will not be as powerful as a dedicated machine because you’re sharing resources. There are also other caveats that can complicate things.
Hope some of this helps. Good luck and enjoy.
I literally just ordered the parts for my first ex Media Server, including the GIGABYTE W480 Vision W W480 server motherboard, G.Skill RipJaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3600, 6x 6TB HGST enterprise drives, and 2x 8TB drives for parity. I have not ordered the CPU yet. I am really torn on what to get. I will rarley stream to more than 2 devices while away from home, one being Samsung Galaxy phone and the other my Alienware M15R1. I will have 3-5 devices streaming at home, 1 will be a dedicated gaming PC connected to a Denon receiver, the other a PS4 in my daughters room, and a few other PCs maybe. I plan to rip all my DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K disks, and want to be able to DVR TV shows, play live TV, and stream from various sources. I will also need to run a couple of VMs, and maybe use same system as my security camera DVR but am not sure about that yet… I have been looking at the
i5- 10500, 10600, 10600K, and the i7-10700 and 10700K CPUs. I prefer to spend less money as long as I get the performance I need. I don’t know about transcoding or how many/often I will need to use it. I definitely want good audio and closed captioning. I know the K series require twice as much power, about 125 watts, and that my case choice, the SilverStone Technology Home Theater Computer Case does not have much room for big CPU coolers. I picked that case as it looks good and can be mounted in my rack. I don’t yet have a GPU nor plan to get one unless I really need it, but purchased the motherboard I did for future upgrades. I also strongly considered the W series Xeons but have had a very difficult time trying to find one for sale anywhere. They are around the same price as the 10700K, have the same integrated video capability, Hyperthreading, etc. Anyone have any experience with Xeons in Plex? Any advice on CPU choice would be greatly appreciated. Lastly, need to find a good PSU. I think I will be using FreeNas or Unraid. I know that Unraid doesn’t spin up all the drives at once. How much power will I need?
Lets start w/ the CPU. Go with what is going to give you the best bang for your $$. I have been an AMD fanboy for decades so I’m out of touch w/ Intel chips, but the i7 looks good.
In-So-Far-As the OS, I am running FreeNAS on both of my boxes so I can offer some advice.
The FreeNASinstall is pretty straight forward, just follow the wizard and installing on a SSD make’s you boot up fly. A small SSD (128GB or less) will suffice. After the install you can power off the monitor since everything is configurable through the web GUI. Also since FreeNAS is designed to be headless your GPU doesn’t really matter. (I don’t think HW acceleration is available in FreeNAS)
The more RAM the better. The FreeNAS OS will do all the RAID XOR calculations for your storage which needs RAM and EEC is recommended to eliminate errors(I am not using EEC and have not experienced any issues however), and I am running 32GB in both boxes.
The RAID setups you can configure in FreeNAS are pretty flexible. It is not like Drivepool where you can throw any odd drive in and load balancing and parity are handled by the OS, you do have to set up distinct virtual devices (VDEVs). On my boxes I decided to go with huge arrays (an 11 drive and 13 drive array 25TB aprox each) in RAIDZ3 (3 parity drives) configuration. My brother makes multiple 1+1 vdevs and then spans those to expand his pool, my arrays are not expandable (but they are upgradeable). So read the FreeNAS guide on configuring your storage pools to find the setup that will work best for you.
Installing Plex on FreeNAS is pretty simple, just install the plugin, there are lots of guides to help with that. You will also need to set permissions(ACLs) to let Plex access your files, there are guides for that as well.
Upgrading Plex to a newer version via the FreeNAS plugin channel is sorely lacking, but I did find a good guide for doing it manually. I can post the link if you’d like.
For a power supply, I have 800W power supplies in both of my boxes and have had no issues even with all the drives I am running. You might be able to get away with 600w and even that should give you a good amount of overhead. If you have frequent temporary power failures like I do, you might want to get a good UPS as well.
There is more to it than that. The i7-10700K (according to AnandTech) can peak at 200-230W. It can be much higher than 125W, so make sure to accommodate with your cooling. You will find yourself thermally limited if you use a subpar heatsink or have too little airflow. Are you worried about power use from a power cost perspective or just cooling?
Core i7-10700K: TDP is 125 W, PL2 is 229 W, Tau is 56 seconds
Core i5-10600K: TDP is 125 W, PL2 is 182 W, Tau is 56 seconds
PS I ran similar but a few gen older xeon w iGPU with plex and it worked wonderfully.
You paid a premium for ECC server motherboard but decided against buying ECC RAM?
If I were you I would buy the i5-10500 or better yet the xeon equivilent. It is a ton of power and inexpensive to the point that if you wanted to replace it once the next gen CPU come out, (huge differences, PCIE4, 10nm new gen cores, totally new iGPU that might have must have improvements for transcoding etc etc) pop it on craigs list and lose very little money.
a quality 550W power supply will be fine without a GPU in there.
I decided on both a cooler and lower power option, opting for the i7-10700. I really really wanted to use one of the new W Series FLGA1200 Xeon CPUs but could not find one to save my life. I even contacted Intel, who sent me to speak to several of their commercial sellers. No luck. The case I decided on, and have some regret even before I have received it, the SilverStone HTPC GD08B. The case itself is fantastic looking and can be rack mounted with optional brackets, which I ordered. I decided on this case as it will look good if I decided to have it housed with my Denon receiver, amp, etc. The original plan was to rack mount everything as I have 2 full size commercial 4 post racks. The issue I have with the GD08B, which I just found out, is the lack of vibration mounting options for the drives. I have 5x 4TB HGST Enterprise HDDs and 2x 6TB HGST Enterprise HDDs for dual parity. My main software will be on a 1TB PCIe M.2 with second 500GB PCIe m.2 as cache drive for array. The GD08B supports 12 drives or something like that, just no anti vibration mounting. I am not sure if that will play a major role in the drive life or not but they do have a 5 year warranty and I hope no more than 1 fails at the same time. I also went with a Gigabyte 2070 for the GPU. Likely way overkill but I decided that I wanted to use this system as a gaming PC as well. It will not get used often this way, but would be nice to have something hooked up to my giant 4K TV and for VR. I think that I will use Unraid to avoid all the drives spinning up and using more power. I hope this will also help with the vibration issues I may have in this case. I have not decided on an OS. I know Windows much better than Linux so leaning that way. I know this started out about info on AMD Ryzen as the CPU of choice, and I suppose with the RTX 2070, I could have done so, but Intel ended up being so highly recommended that I went that route. About paying a premium for a motherboard that would accept ECC RAM, I went with the notion that, though I could not find the W Series Xeon CPU I wanted, the i7-10700, which does not support ECC, can be reused or sold on Ebay, along with the RAM when I am able to get a W Xeon processor, or just use the 10700 in another build in the near future. If you happen to know what Xeon will work for the LGA1200 socket, and where to find one right now, I would definitely snag it up and pick up 16GB DDR4 ECC RAM instead. Thank you for all the advice and for reassuring me that a Xeon with iGPU will work with Plex.
Sounds like you are at the start of an adventure! time to get building and consuming some media. Sometimes I swear I spend more time on my gear and software than I do watching media!
I know I will certainly do the same. I LOVE building and tweaking, more so than actually using my computers I think. I want to post a full build guide perhaps.
