Hardware suggestions for a Plex Media Server running Ubuntu

Plex Media Server
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Hello experts

I have been running a Plex Server on my Windows desktop for quite some years now. The desktop runs the server, while the library sits on a Synology NAS. The desktop needs to be replaced soon and I am looking for some new hardware choices. Hence, I am asking for some advice on the hardware to invest.

As space is scarce, I am looking for a computer the sice of an Intel NUC or similar (Dell?). Since they don’t have space for a big GPU, I was wondering which CPU would provide enough power to

  1. Not consume too much power during idle times
  2. Be able to stream 2-3 concurrent HD videos (ideally even 4K). Most should be direct streams, but sometimes my current setup struggles when subtitles are used, and/or remote streams get converted

The new server would be mostly a dedicated Plex machine, but if I can move my Servarr apps currently running in docker containers on a Raspberry Pi, then that would be an added benefit.

So my main question is, what kind of CPU that is available in small form factor cases is best suited for Plex and can handle the load. Would you suggest Intel, or is AMD better? Or is a GPU really necessary to get smooth 4K streams?

The library will remain on the Synology NAS and is purely the disk space. It can’t and shouldn’t run the Plex server.

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If you don’t mind a bit of fiddling around, you can pick up a nice used i7 NUC with QSV (e.g. NUC8-i7-HVK) which is nice and strong. It will handle 3 transcodes WITH subtitle burning (I have one of these).

It will do about 600 Mbps of video transcoding simultaneously .

Any i7-7700 will be the same performing.

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