Done with NAS as Plex server - What is ideal Plex server that won't break bank?

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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I’ve been using a Synology DS415+ NAS as a Plex server for years, but have found it doesn’t have the horsepower to transcode or multi-task well (e.g. DVR recording, streaming, etc.). And why should it? It was built to handle files.

So, looking for an ideal Plex server setup that can handle:

Multiple streams (up to 5)
H264/H265 files
Make use of GPU HW
Dolby ATMOS 7.1
Serve files from Synology NAS

Clients would be ShieldTV (local) and Windows Plex (remote).

I prefer not to have a big beefy expensive server with Xeon processors and fans that sound like jet engines. I already have an HTPC that I can swap out the internals if the GPU had half-height option.

Suggestions on hardware and GPU?

Thx!!!

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intel i3-8100 is the best value around. buy it used. quad core, excellent igpu, cheap systemsboards all over the place, 4-8GB of any RAM,
NOT a 9100, those don’t work with GPU assisted transcode yet.

seriously, if you want value start with this, only add a GPU if you find a need, I ran the 8100 plex server / NAS for over a year with the GPU on the shelf, never found a reason to pop it in. I only upgrades because I bought a used i3-8350 that I run at 4.5Ghz for 15$ more than I got for the used i3-8100. I honestly don’t notice any difference but 15$ is nothing. I run Xpenology OS on it.

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mervincm, I’m on a budget, but not an i3 budget. I can spend more than that. I just didn’t want to buy a server and video card that cost thousands. Maybe a budget of $1,000 would be ideal. From the encoding the machine would do (for up to 5 streams), I’m not sure an i3 would handle it. That being said, the cpu generations of what I currently have to what is available now-a-days is quite a difference. :slight_smile:

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How many streams / transcodes did you get out of this?

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The score is:
8021 - similar to my AMD FX-8350 @ 8940
I might get 2 full blown (mid quality) transcodes out of it, but one full blown (high quality) and a couple of Direct Streams is probably more realistic leaving some extra horses in the barn - in case you have to go to town, or something.

The Intel is about a buck-50, the AMD about a buck-30.

BTW:
I can Play COD WWII with all the trimmings while delivering as many Direct Play streams as I have devices without so much as dropping a frame - and THAT is the goal. Transcoding is kinda like EMERGENCY POWER - when something has absolutely broken down…

If I enter a room in Doom 2016 and somebody starts transcoding something - I’m gonna die horribly… lol

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Just to chime in here that with modern Intels it’s probably not necessary to even consider benchmarks scores.
I have an i7 Kaby Lake so pretty beefy but not exactly the newest model.
There is actually a post somewhere here on the forums where I demonstrated 10 x 1080p to 1080/720p transcodes in web browser windows.

It came complete with task manager showing around 15-20% cpu usage maximum and the resulting quality was excellent.

As a side note the post was just to prove a point to someone at the time. I would easily have got far in excess of 10.

DISCLAIMER:

No x265 files were used in the test. (Because I wasn’t asked to)
No 4K files were used.
The original files used were already Remux quality and not mediocre encodes. (following the ”bad input equals bad output” rule)

Bottom line: Hardware acceleration is all. Specifically QuickSync.It’s been excellent for a very long time and improves with each generation.

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I didn’t add that info as it’s not really of value. Too little information. Each stream can vary massively. 5-10 light load streams I have seen in test. The iGPU really helps with transcode loads.

In Canada you can get a 8100 used for about 110$ a systemboard for about 70$ ram another 25$ it’s an excellent plex server, and when / if you out grow it (maybe plex adds hdr>sdr tone remapping for 4K and maybe it can’t be done without next gen GPU) you can always slot in a Quattro.


jchhenderson
Plex Pass

    August 23

mervincm:
intel i3-8100 is the best value around. buy it used. quad core, excellent igpu, cheap systemsboards all over the place, 4-8GB of any RAM,

How many streams / transcodes did you get out of this?

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i3 8100 has 4 full cores (not hyperthreading.) It also has the ADVANTAGE of 3.6 Ghz base freq (w/o turbo) This may not seem important, but only base freq is guaranteed to be available long term (by design) plus under my OS (linux based xpenology) turbo is not supported (strange but true) at all and thus only the base frequency mattered.
it also has the i630 iGPU, arguable the highest performing, widest featured, most reliable transcode engine available for PLEX.

If you want to spend more, then I suggest an 8700K. It has two advantages,

  1. 6 core vs 4 core
  2. same base freq, and adds Turbo mode

That’s a pretty small benefit for the difference in costs (110 vs 450$)

Sure sume big $$ NVidia cards are better in some situations, but currently they simply don’t kick in as often in plex (search the forums)

This i3 is not a crappy low end CPU in this context.

I have run plex on synology 1813+ (dual atom), 1815+ (quad atom), and on i3-8100 (quad and iGPU), i3-8350K (Quad and iGPU), xeon 1225v3 (quad and iGPU, xeon 1275v3 (quad and iGPU) i5-9600K (Hex and iGPU), and i9-7900 (10 core and Nvidia GPU)

The xeons were quads but had a previous gen igpu. they worked fine for years, and I only ever really noticed a problem when I tried to transcode a 4K HEVC file with FPO subtitles. This is a task the iGPU can’t handle and thus it failed.

The 8100 allowed the playback without issue. It was by far the best bang for the buck, and nothing better has improved the experience in a significant way for me.
The 8350 is the same with the advantage of a much higher base freq. I currently run mine at 4.6Ghz (yes I overclock my plex server :slight_smile:) The only advantage here is quicker times to do things like generating the thumbnails etc.)

The 9600k is not as well supported yet. so I wouldn’t suggest a new purchase of a current gen intel CPU for a plex server

The i9-7900 is my main system, and even with 10 cores, a GTX1070, and optane storage, plex really didn’t perform that much better than the i3-8100.

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…and then there is the new Intel “Comet Lake” and “Ice Lake” processors coming out at the end of the year. Wondering if it would be worth it to wait as they are advertising processing 4K UHD with them. :expressionless:

mervincm, thank you for your expertise! It will definitely help me making a decision forward. Thx!

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if you start cheap there is no reason to wait. buy a used i3-8100 and a motherboard for 150$, use it and enjoy. wait for
-next gen to be released
-confirm it has a feature your 8100 does not
-confirm all plex subsystems have added support
-confirm plex has added support

buy one and sell your 8100 and systemboard , lose what about 30$-60$
worth it to me :slight_smile:

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Ok, I’ve waited long enough…

Stop fiddling around and get that server you REALLY want:

16968-DataCenter3
(may require the robbing of a bank)

Carry on…

:wink:

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So…now that the new transcoder came out, what system do you recommend now? Intel CPU to do the work…or let a P2000 do it?

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Well leasing a server in that data center isn’t out of most people’s budget.

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Currently I run a core i7-8700K, 32 GB Ram (about 24GB of overkill for Plex) nVidia GTX-480 video card(left over) on a 240 GB M.2 SSD. I have a crap load of music, movies, videos, pictures all being served to local and remote clients (only 3-4 at a time). When I bought the parts in July '18 it was still the most recent architecture out. Even at that the total cost was about $710 for what I listed. I threw it in an old case/PS I had laying around (figure $50-100 to replicate). And voila, instant Plex server.

The Core i7 has the UHD 630 graphics, but dropping in a crappy old, leftover GTX-480 made a HUGE positive difference in transcoding. I have a GTX 1660 ti laying around that I might drop in instead.

But while building a server is one way to go… You might also look at buying a newer laptop. I see Windows 10 based laptops with 8th Gen Core i5s, 8-16GB Ram, 250Gb SSD and discete nVidia Geforce graphics cards all the time for about 500-650. As long as it has a 1GbE NIC along with Wifi it should be good to go. Hook it up to your media storage and GO.

One thing to consider though is that when yo buy a laptop, it is what it is and it will never be more. Whereas a desktop box you build with generic parts can build, expand, morph as time moves on. It’s a choice.

My Plex server also has 12 8TB Hitachi drives in Raid5, bunches of fans and lives in the spare bedroom far away from everything else. It is not completely silent, but it doesn’t have to be either. It also started life as a Windows Media Server back in the 00’s. It has morphed, grown, expanded over the last 15+ years.

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p2000 is old gen tech. The new Nvidia turing series NVENC chip encode and decode faster and in higher quality.

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mervincm,

I have been scrolling the forum for the past month trying to figure out my next Plex server build and feel you probably have given the best advice so far, so I just wanted to see your thoughts (and since it is a topic on a new build, maybe help out the OP)

Need a smallish, quiet plex server, going to have my files on a NAS, so really only need space for a 2.5 SSD to run the system on. Would you recommend something like an Intel NUC, or should I just build my own using your recommended i3-8100? Seems that installing a discrete GPU doesn’t really matter much, but if I build my own in a small case, I would have that option to add one later while the NUC’s really don’t have that option.

TIA

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I typed in a big response and deleted it :slight_smile: In all honesty, I think you have identified the only issue I would have with a NUC (no DGPU option) and if you need something now I would say go for it. If you can wait, we should see nex- gen NUCs soonish, and rumours are that we will see hw based tone remapping in their iGPU.

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That’s super enticing. I think I am going to price out a home made, smallish computer with the processor you recommended (the great part is that the motherboards for those usually support newer i7s if I ever want to upgrade) and compare it to a NUC. I hate buying all in one type things because of the inability to upgrade individual parts. Thanks for the advice!

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I’m in a very similar situation to OP. Most probably going to go the NUC route with the 8100, but prices here (in AU) are currently the exact same for the 8100 vs 9100 ($200 AUD new).
So I feel i3-9100 is obv choice given it’s just the newer model of the same thing, but @mervincm, you mention:

Is this still true?

Also, you mentioned:

What were you referring to here? Has this eventuated yet? (sorry for all the q’s, don’t follow this stuff that closely, so no idea what to search for to check myself)

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I don’t know if there is still a problem with the 9xxx series. It was an item that was supposedly fixed, but I have not yet tried one. I kinda doubt it is still an issue.

Here is the QSV article

and the line
Version 7 (Ice Lake)

The Ice Lake (microarchitecture) adds VP9 4:4:4 decoding, VP9 encoding (up to 10-bit and 4:4:4), HEVC 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 decoding and encoding,[15] HDR10 Tone Mapping[16] and Open Source Media Shaders.[17]

I have not seen any released yet, but there are leaks that look promising

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15110/intels-frost-canyon-nuc-revealed-sff-pc-w-comet-lake

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