Hi. I have a media server, it’s running Windows Server 2012 R2, 42 TB storage, an old Opteron 2.6ghz CPU and 4 GB RAM. Last time I installed Plex (a year or more ago) I pointed it at the video drive and let it index. It ended up croaking.
I decided I wanted to try again. What CPU would you recommend for Plex? I don’t want to spend more than $500, but obviously I’d like to keep cost down if possible (but not at the expense of performance). What would you recommend?
Also, do you think it crapped out because of that slow CPU or trying to index 42 TB? After I rebuild the box and try again, should I maybe index videos\movies\A first then videos\movies\B, so on and so forth? I’m hoping it was more CPU/RAM because I have a lot of media and would really just rather point it at root and let it run for a few days.
See here for the official line, or have a search for the dozens of existing threads. Ultimately it comes down to how many transcodes you expect to be doing at the same time - more of those require more CPU power. Obviously you have to consider that you can’t just replace the CPU, but will also need to replace the motherboard.
Heavy CPU use shouldn’t cause the system to fail by itself. If it does, then it usually indicates a lack of cooling. Heck, folks run Plex Media Server on Raspberry Pi systems, they’re not exactly powerful.
Finally, watch your folder structure doesn’t cause you issues. Separating films into sub-folders by first letter, genre or anything else can cause matching issues later if you poing Plex at the top level folder. If however you add each individually to the library (eg videos\movies\A, then videos\movies\B rather than just videos\movies) you’ll be fine.
Well, when I say the system croaked I didn’t mean it BSOD’d or anything. Plex just stopped working. Other functions on the box were working fine.
Thanks for the tip. I do use alpha folders to keep it clean when browsing it via explorer so I’ll be sure to add each individually instead. I just installed it, guess I’ll find out lol. Thanks again.
