I’m wondering how bad is my current configuration…
My Plex server is on an old laptop Asus X202e i3 with 4GB of RAM.
My Plex media database is on external hard-drives which are connected to my router Asus rt-ac88u
and I’m watching my videos mostly within my local network via my Xiaomi Mi box.
The server (Asus laptop and the mi box are connected via Ethernet to the router).
My problem is that every now and than I get a message that the Plex server is too slow or connection lost issue…
I’m wondering which part of my setup causing this issue. I would like to keep my hard-drives connected to the router so I will have access to my files regardless if my laptop is on or off.
Hope that you will be able to help me sort it out…
You also are beating your router to death using it for attached storage. What generation i3 processor is it? i3, i5, and i7 are “offerings” within each generation of CPU and of themselves don’t tell you everything.
That’s why I’d rather not guess because the two processors you call out are capable of decode offload assist in hardware.
Also, per the ASUS website, the 3227U was not an option (not to say the website is always correct)
Up to Intel® Core™ i3 3217U Processor
Intel® Core™ i3 3217U Processor
Intel® ULV Pentium® 987 Processor
Intel® Celeron® 847 Processor
It’s also got a USB3.0 port so he could move some storage local. Could also swap out the 5400 RPM spinner for a SSD and get some oomph back. Not an ideal setup but it may be doable/usable until he can upgrade.
“Capable of” and “designed to” are two separate things. Also you never mentioned how you connected to your network. Anyway, the amount of traffic you’re generating to write the file from the Plex Server to the router attached storage and then read the file to then send it to the client can be a significant “tax” on both your core router function and its ability to service the USB storage. You’re also adding potential latency.
What router do you have? Does it have any performance monitoring built in for packets and USB device use? What kind of network do you have built out. These all have potential for bottlenecks and latency. This also adds load to your already challenged X202E.
I’m not saying you can’t make all this work, I’m just saying there may be better ways. I’d start my attaching that storage (presumably USB) directly to the PC on the USB 3.0 port and if it’s not already in a USB 3.0 enclosure, get one (they’re cheap and often on sale at newegg).
I don’t know anything about the Mi box. However, my ROKU’s have no MPEG2 capabilities (I know, pissed me off to find out) so everything for LiveTV is transcoded to H.264. Make sure you have the hardware assist checked in the setup. You can see this in the status screen. Hover over the client in question and it will tell you if it’s transcoding and if it’s hardware assisted by showing (hw) in the status.
