Found an old mobo/cpu is it powerful enough as a server?

General Discussions
1

Hi everybody,

Around my house I’m running Plex at a local quality of 4mbps 720p and remote quality of 2mbps 720p. I’m using my 2011 MBP to transcode with it’s i5 CPU (PassMark score of 3305). It’s at 720p because that’s what my two tv’s are and I don’t see the point in going any higher on a small laptop or iPad screen.

Today I found an old motherboard and CPU I had stored away. The CPU is an Intel Celeron G550 @ 2.60GHz. It has a PassMark score of 2314. I have a few questions if anybody is kind enough to be able to help:

  1. The Plex CPU page says that ideally I’d need a Core 2 Duo at 2.0 GHz to transcode the 720p streams at 4mbps and a PassMark score of at least 1500. My CPU has 2 cores but it isn’t a Core 2 Duo so is that a problem considering it exceeds the PassMark score?

  2. What if two of us stream at the same time? That’s going to cause a problem isn’t it since 2 x 1500 passmark = 3000 and I only have 2314? Would reducing everything to 3mbps 720p fix that?

  3. If I do go ahead and build a dedicated Plex server using this motherboard and CPU, would you suggest installing the Windows, Linux or FreeBSD Plex servers? I don’t need the dedicated Home Theatre because I mainly watch through Apple TV or iPad.

2
  1. No, that will not be an issue.
  2. Yes, that will be an issue. Bringing it down to 3Mbps will not fix that.
  3. If you are capable of handling a no-gui install of a Linux dist then I’d go for that to minimize the overhead caused by the OS as such (since you’ll need every CPU cycle you can get for Plex). Pref, a dist that is minimal and has as little fluff as possible.

I wouldn’t personally make that transition, but I’m kind of allergic to old Celly’s (except for the 300A that was smooth a-f). Remember also, I’m perhaps reading too much into your wording and phrasing (not a native English-speaker), but any settings you make in the Plex Web regarding resolution and Mbps - will only affect that particular browser. Just by changing browser on the same PC will force you to set those settings again for that new browser. So, as a kind reminder, do note that Plex is client-centric which means that any settings regarding quality is done by each client.

Me, personally, I would try and make sure that all your media files and clients are compatible enough for a Direct Play scenario - thus circumventing the need for transcoding. This can be done by either altering the media at hand (reencode essentially) to suite all clients - or buy clients and connect that can play everything natively without requesting a transcode. I’ve heard good things lately about the Odroid and OpenPHT solution if you’re looking for a cheap solution - but there are others.

3

Thank you so much for your detailed reply. You’ve given me a lot to consider. Much appreciated :slight_smile: