Help with mutli-CPU build

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Background (skip if you don’t care):
Over the years I’ve purchased and converted A LOT of media to digital format and set it up to be streamed on my Plex server. I’ve slowly sent out invites to share my media with my closest friends and family members and watched the CPU usage and logs to try and determine if and when my hardware started capping me. I’m afraid to say that I’ve finally reached that point.

The main issue is transcodes. For the life of me, I cannot fathom why Plex doesn’t have an option to disable transcoding. I get that it’s an impressive feature and they’re very proud of it, but they have to understand it’s not for everyone. I’ve been tempted to purchase the PlexPass so I can set up a Tautulli agent to stop transcodes, but after having purchased the Plex app on too many devices already, I don’t really feel being muscled into a subscription service is a great way to address the lack of significant features.

I used to tell people they had to have a Roku , a strong internet connection, and must set their app to Force Direct Play. I required a Roku specifically because it natively supports my media formats, and because I use a Roku, I knew how to walk them through their settings/screens (every device’s Plex app is different for some god awful reason). Well, managing users is like herding cats. Even when you get them set up right, they always manage to find a way to screw everything up. They’ll reset their devices, purchase new ones, or purchase wrong ones, and I’m tired of spending time on it.

Current Setup:
Just an old gaming PC running Windows 10 I converted into my Plex Server. I’ve got 10 TBs of usable storage, 16 GB of RAM, a GTX 980, and a i5 CPU clocked at about 3.2Ghz. Home internet connection is 1Gbps u/d, hardlined. Case is an Antec 900 for lots of airflow.

My media is all 1080p, and I generally aim between 10-12 mbps for average video bitrate (variable). I code x264 into a mkv container. Audio tracks are ripped between 1500-2000 kbps DTS. The main reason I rip this way is I don’t own a 4k TV or anything fancier than a 5.1 surround sound system, and when I started this, I read those were pretty much the standards.

What I need:
I want to just build a server that can handle a bunch of simultaneous transcodes. My max concurrent transcodes so far is 6, and it had some stuttering. I’d like to prepare for at least 10 simultaneous transcodes. I’m just not sure what I need. I’m looking at building 2-CPU setup via a dual-cpu mobo, but I’m not sure if that’s good enough. Is there much of a transcoding performance difference between i5’s and i7’s (or i3’s for that matter)? Is Intel better than AMD for transcoding purposes? As far as I can tell, I don’t really need much for RAM, and the GPU isn’t even used at all. Do I need to into more of a rack system to get the performance boost I’m looking for? My HDDs are set up in a storage pool with redundancy, so I doubt I/O would ever be an issue.

1 Like
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if all you need is CPU power and you are thinking of dual CPU, go for Intel Xeon or AMDs Threadripper.
I personally went for a dual Intel Xeon setup inside a classic midi tower setup.
Check out the threadripper or Xeon 2620v4 or 2640v4.

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Don’t discount hardware acceleration.
My i7 kabylake does 7 transcodes on the built in graphics alone whilst barely touching the cpu.
When I say 7 that’s the most I have been able to test. It possibly does more.

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If Plex Pass allows you to stop transcoding completely, a lifetime sub would probably be cheaper than a new computer.

You’ll need, at the very least, a new motherboard and CPU if you’re going with the “upgrade” path, and depending on how old your setup is you might need new RAM as well (if your current stuff isn’t DDR4 you won’t be able to bring it forward).

Outside of the super expensive options (Threadripper/i9 or Xeon) you’re probably looking at something like an 8700k vs a 2700x. Both have similar Passmark scores, but I gather Intel has the upper hand because of the QuickSync hardware accelerated option.

You could potentially go with something cheaper and less powerful, but it’s likely that you’ll eventually upgrade at least some of your files to 4k/HDR, so you might as well be ready for that jump.

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Can you help me understand what you mean by hardware acceleration? Isn’t integrated graphics in the CPU, so how is it not touching your CPU? Is this an i7 specific thing, or do i5’s have the ability as well?

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No It’s not limited to i7’s
The best I can do is point you to this.


It outlines the different codec support for each generation of Intel CPU’s and some insight into how it works.
Anyway, it’s late here so I will do some screenshots tomorrow If I get chance.
But a 1080p Remux transcoding to my phone uses a peak of 5% CPU (but mostly idle) after the buffer has built up. The Graphics chip on the CPU does the rest. That peaks at around 5% also.

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