Hardware advise on a Linux (VM) build

General Discussions
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I’m looking to start a new build and was looking for some specifics on hardware.

Currently my Plex Server is running on a 2013 Mac Mini 2.3ghz i7 with 16gb RAM and the HD Graphic 4000 on board, and connected to a 16TB graid over TB2.

Right now I’m streaming mostly SD and 720p but I’d like to get the machine working smoothly with 1080 and 4K.

My server is basically for me, my wife, our roommate, and then close family with remote access. There are 10 people with access to the server. It’s primarily used for my movie collection, home videos + photos, and music.

I was considering an ESXi rackmount build (so i can experiment with other servers and any addons I want to keep on a separate os install) and was hoping to get some advise on what is an appropriate CPU, GPU, and amount of RAM for 2019 with these goals.

I was looking at CPUs and was having a little trouble making a decision. Used Xeons? i7? i9? How about motherboards? What do people like?

I also am starting to realize I got so used to the current setup that I don’t actually know how I could test the speed of a new machine. What application could I even use to get a good metric as to how fast my current machine is vs a new build? I’d love some advise on how best to measure and clock this.

I have the internet bandwidth and hard disk space.

Thanks!

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I’m running a native Ubuntu 18.04 LTS box with an Intel Core i5-7400 @3Ghz and 8GB RAM with no GPU and have no issues what so ever. Video post processing and any needed transcoding does spike CPU a little, but never enough to cause us any slowdowns. All of my clients are Andriod OS based and support direct play so very little transcoding occurs.

I don’t have any 4k stuff. Max video quality on my setup is 1080p and can run 5+ simultaneous streams off it with no issues. I have not seen a need for a GPU to “boost” performance.

I also put my machine in a nice Silverstone case since it sits in the rack with other equipment tied to TV.

New server Hardware Help
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That’s good to know!

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