I am getting ready to take the plunge and build a machine to use as a FreeNAS with Plex server.
Can anyone tell me he CPU size and memory amount to allocate for a machine of this type. I have seen some figures for usage with Plex transcoding MKV’s but have to believe that these figures will be different with more and more 4K files.
I only plan on 2 concurrent users.
Thanks-
The amount of RAM you want with ZFS (the file system FreeNAS uses) depends on the amount of data you’re going to be storing. Ideally, you want as much as you motherboard will support. Realistically, for the type of usage a 2 person Plex server will see, 8GB of RAM will be fine. 4GB would probably work but I would go with 8.
For a CPU, anything with around >5000 passmark score should be fine (for 2x 1080p H.264). Transcoding 4K needs an order of magnitude more CPU power and isn’t really feasible. You’d want something like a Ryzen 7 for that and even then I’m not sure if it will transcode real time.
It’s probably better to get a ‘reasonable’ CPU and wait for hardware transcoding support for HEVC.
