Best PMS Setup for me?

General Discussions
1

I can see this gets asked a lot however after many hours of reading I still don’t think I know enough to settle on something so I’ll explain my specific situation as best I can and see if anyone has advice I can use. :slight_smile:

This house has a few items.

MacBook Pro (late 2010) with Sierra (MacOS) - this is the main computer as it’s stationary on the wall and plugs directly into a Sony Smart TV (from 2012). For a long time this was the main media server as well. It has a Mac backup drive.

FreeNAS 9.2.0 box which is on it’s way out. Intel, 8GB Ram.

FreeNAS 11 box which has finally convinced me that FreeNAS is just not the solution for me. 16GB Ram, AMD quad core something or other.

Windows 7 Ultimate Desktop which is the gaming rig.

There are two more Windows 7 laptops and a Windows 10/OpenSUSE/TailsOS multi-boot laptop. There is also another gaming rig desktop incoming but let’s avoid that for now.

I have another half dozen older desktop boxes I may use somehow or just recycle.

Too many little dinky devices like phones, tablets, but there is a Samsung Smart Blu-Ray Player that has a Plex app.

All of this connects to a crappy Buffalo DD-WRT router I wish I’d never invested in.

The usage - I need somewhere as data backup and to use Plex Pass (PMS). That’s it.

99% of the PMS usage will be on the home network however I’m toying with the idea of allowing an elderly couple to access it remotely from an android box or smart tv so they can enjoy some of my media in their final days.

So, the question is whether I take one of my FreeNAS boxes and turn the into another solution like Ubuntu, OpenSUSE server, Linux Mint, or something else OR can I just buy a large HUB and attach it to the MacBook and run PMS? I really don’t know what to do at this point and am open to suggestions. If the particular hardware is important, I can get that info except the FN11 box for which I’m just not sure other than it’s a quad core AMD with 16 GB ram. I’m not exactly finished with FreeNAS, it just doesn’t seem to be the best PMS solution.

As far as knowledge, I have cursory knowledge of Linux/BSD from a casual POV and Cybersecurity (which to be fair requires less knowledge than trying to have fun - Cybersecurity seems to just ignore errors a lot of the time - like FreeNAS which seems to always pour out errors regardless of where I see it installed). While I enjoy trying out new things, at this point I just want an easy reliable solution that will hold data and allow me to use PMS either on old hardware or a hub.

Thanks for your help.

2

If you have a rudimentary knowledge of the spare boxes you have laying around, I would think a Windows box with a CPU passmark score of 5,000 could support your needs. Plex really doesn’t need much if it’s just serving up files. It’s recommended to hit a score of 2,000 per 1080p stream give or take, so the 5k should cover you and the single remote stream with room to spare. Odds favor you could get away with much less.

My Mom is in the exact same scenario. Bandwidth at the nursing home is the hurdle, but I’ve cranked down the quality on their Roku to compensate. With Mom’s eyesight, she doesn’t seem to notice.

My first server was a crappy, old little AMD which ran two streams routinely without issues. If that’s all you’re ever going to ask, I would try to work it with the parts you have laying around first. Free is always best. If all your NAS boxes are doing is serving up files, then they should also be adequate.

If you’re wanting to get into DVR and Live TV, then you’re going to want something beefier.

3

I would take one of your freenas boxes, install windows 10, throw in a gtx1050 and call it a day.

MacBook will work but any transcoding job will get the fan spinning at max rpm and that gets annoying.

4

FYI legit windows 10 keys are available on eBay for 10$

5

@KarlDag said:
I would take one of your freenas boxes, install windows 10, throw in a gtx1050 and call it a day.

MacBook will work but any transcoding job will get the fan spinning at max rpm and that gets annoying.

Good to know. MacBooks already have issues with overheating and this one does if you leave anything fullscreen too long. There are no vents for the hot air to go except the hinge which is closed all the time.

Plus with macOS Sierra here and updates screwing with everything, it’s hard to know what Apple will do. I did install PMS on the MacBook just to see how it would go and it never created a PMS data folder I could find. It did see all the data on the FN9.2 box just fine.

6

Forget about overheating your MBP just stick all your media on Google Drive which has unlimited storage for $10/month as part of G Suite for Business. Then try Plex Cloud & if it works for you then great otherwise rent a VPS or share on a seedbox for $5-15/month & run PMS there. No need to worry about hardware cost or failures or backups plus access is intrinsically remote so your senior couple can have easy access as can anyone else you share with.

If you use a decent client that can Direct Play any media (Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Rasperry Pi with RasPlex or Odroud C2 with OpenPHT etc) then the PMS can be really low powered as no transcoding is necessary. Prior to moving to Plex Cloud my PMS was running on a 4TB Seagate Personal Cloud which must be the lowest powered NAS capable of running PMS. I tested that with five simultaneous 1080p streams & it performed admirably.