Hey guys,
I am considering upgrading my hardware to handle more streams. However, before I spend more money on a new system I want to provide my setup to see if there is a bottleneck that could be fixed to help speed things up now. My current problem is that every now and then I’ll bump into buffering issues when there are 2 simultaneous streams going on. Mind you this is my first novice setup that I’ve been using for several years and I have been starting to outgrow it.
- Plex server is installed on an Intel NUC D54250WYKH1 (1.3 GHz Intel Core i5-4250U Dual-Core 16GB RAM 128GB SSD SATA)
- USB 3.0 connected to NUC RAID 1 configuration 10GB useable 2x 10GB WD RED 5400 RPM (Plex Library and where transcodes happen )
- Use hardware acceleration is checked since Intel NUC supports it
- Internet speed is 100Mb/s down, 20MB/s up
- I mostly playback locally while others playback remotely
- Mostly MKV/MP4/MPEG file types at 1080p. Normally 1-2 simultaneous streams
I understand there are a lot of variables that go on like video file types, quality I want streamed and the like. But from the provided information there could be some bottlenecks that I could take care of right now or at least know about.
For instance maybe the RAID 1 setup is slowing things down considering not only is the HDD RPM 5400 but also RAID 1 slows the drive down a bit to mirror everything to the backup drive.
Or maybe Plex transcodes shouldn’t be transcoding to the RAID 1 setup but instead to the SSD? What about SSD caching would that help?
Or my PC is just too old and what once worked for my situation 5+ years ago just can’t cut it now and I just need to get a new PC considering the CPU on the Intel NUC is soldered on and cannot be upgraded. So then feel free to provide some models of mini PC’s or recommended CPU’s that would allow for 2-3 simultaneous 1080p transcodes.
I appreciate everyone’s feedback. Take care.
