I intend to use an old desktop pc which no longer serves me for long time in order to install my future plex server.
But I have few questions to ask about this use.
First, once the server installed on the desktop, could I use it without the screen and thus manage this server from another PC in my LAN? Add more videos for example or update libraries ?
Secondly, I don’t know me very well in this field, this PC has an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8330 (http://cpuboss.com/cpu/Intel-Core2-Quad-Q8300) which is quite old. So, in your mind, is it strong enough to transcode 1080p / 10-15 mbps video ?
Thirdly, I intend to plug into this desktop an external hard drive where will be located some of my video files. But the PC has only usb 2.0 port, so this can influence the risk of playback performance with large files or not ? And so, do you recommend instead to copy all the files to the internal hard drive of the PC ?
Thank you to those who bother to answer me. And I’m sorry for mistakes, I’m a french guy.
You already have the parts for this server - correct? Put Plex on it and start using it to see what’s capable of.
I think it will work fine - nothing fancy. I think 2.0 is fine and I don’t think it will do two full 1080p transcodes.
If you’re streaming multiple files simultaneously, you’re more likely to have network bandwidth limitations than be limited by the USB2 interface.
That said, personally I would think about popping the external hard drive out of it’s case and installing it in an empty bay in the desktop, I like to simplify everything into one box.
I have 100 mbps lan connection (so it’s not a problem). If my files are saved to the intern hard drive of this desktop, do you think my processor is able to transcode two files simultaneously if necessary?
You should be fine. I ran my Plex server for a few months on an old crappy Vista machine and used Google Remote Desktop to access it. I had my files stored on a network drive on a 10mbps lan. Everything ran fine and I could watch 3 movies at the same time in my home with no buffering.
Best thing to do is try it. Only takes a few minutes to set it up. The longest part of setup is getting all the metadata for your content. Start with a folder with only a few movies in it until you have everything working then dump all of files into the folders.
Put TEAMVIEWER FREE VERSION on your machines so you can connect any time from your main PC and run it as if you are sat in front of it - make an account and keep it running - I use this for business daily and its superb.
Set up Defraggler (or similar) set the schedule to do a monthly or fortnightly DEFRAG during the small hours - tick the box that says move all files over 250Mb to end of drive, this stops the movies becoming fragmented.
once every few months click advanced and select DEFRAG FREE SPACE and do a boot time degfrag every now and then
Keeping your file consistency good will allow the PC to work faster as its not seeking continuously
If you are NOT using the PC online, don’t bother installing AV software as again this will slow the system, if you do go online use Kaspersky Free or AVAST FREE and NOT AVG - you can set it to turn off while you are streaming
