So, I plan on upgrading my old ALienware Aurora R4 and found a HP Z800 with Dual XEON 2.66GHz. Some guy on IRC told me that Plex won’t run smoothly because the lack of cores. Is he right, will it not run smoothly on a debian OS?
This CPU type is 10 years old. In computing, that is an eternity.
It also doesn’t have Quicksync – so if you want to use hardware transcoidng, you’d have to add an external GPU.
The performance can nowadays be topped by a top class Core i5. Not to mention the new Ryzen multi-core CPU’s.
This machine is more efficient as a room heater than a video transcoder.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+X5650+%40+2.67GHz&id=1304&cpuCount=2
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201774043-what-kind-of-cpu-do-i-need-for-my-server/
If I may augment Otto,
The CPU has a combined Passmark score of 3021.
NAS CPUs typically have this, or more, processing power.
So, for someone who doesn’t know what half of that ment: is it OK for a Plex Media Server?
I would not recommend it.
Read the link I’ve set about what kind of CPU you need.
OK, thanx. Off to find a better one 
I might be able to get a newer one, a HP Z640. About 2 years old, would it be more suitable?
What kind of CPU is in it?
Look it up on https://www.cpubenchmark.net/
Intel Xeon E5 2650V4, got around 9.000 score
Which clock rate?
I found one with 12150 points, so where from did you get the 9.000 points?
(The CPU in this link will be good for a Plex server, if you avoid 4K. HEVC will be usable with low bitrates and only 1 session at once.)
I clicked the wrong CPU. Well then, another Z640 for the server room. The one I had from before, came with a NVIDIA Quadro M4000 which I replaced for a 1080 since I have it for gaming. WOuld that GPU work, or shouls I buy a 1080?
You cannot use the GPU in Plex, if you don’t have a Plex Pass.
Ah, so the quality of my movies streamed locally doesn’t change alot with lower quality GPU’s?
Locally, you should have plenty of bandwidth, so there won’t be a need for transcoding – except when you use a type of client which is incompatible with your content.
e.g. trying to play HEVC, MPEG2 or VC-1 video in the web app.
Ah, ok. So I should probably be good for now then. Thank you for all your help, it has been REALLY usefull! I allmost carried home the HP Z800…and its one heavy mofo. Now I’ll get the Z640 instead and have a working streaming server. Thank you
A HP Z640 can be upgraded to a E5-2537 CPU, 0.4GHz more then the one it ships with. I can get one for 500 SEK, about $50. Is it worth it?
I can’t tell you. Compare the passmark scores. But I doubt it’ll be an earth-shattering difference.
