I wonder what sort of server I should get to run Plex Media Server on. In past years I would buy servers that were being sold at auction. I prefer using a rack mount server as they could do all the things I had them do. They may have given me a headache but it was nice how many drive bays they had because I typically have a bunch of media saved something like 30 TB or more. It would be great if someone gave me recommended system stats. Thank you for any assistance. I’m looking at servers on Amazon and haven’t been able to choose.
Lots of people use retired Dell R-series servers they get from eBay and other refurbishers. Keep in mind if you want to take advantage of hardware-accelerated transcoding you will want to get a system with an iGPU, though. Probably best to aim for something that supports AV1 encoding in Quicksync as that will be coming eventually. You can see the support chart for various Intel architectures here.
Also, don’t use Windows.
I was looking at R730XD and wondering if I should get a graphics card for it. I just think a server with lots of spaces for hard drives would be best so I could have 1 server instead of what would be 3 servers. It would be set up to download a lot of things so it made me think it should have really good processor.
It’s hard to recommend hardware without knowing more about your use cases.
The number of simultaneous transcoded streams is an important factor in your plans. Even more important is the number of simultaneous tone mapped streams (HDR to SDR). Tone mapping is very demanding.
If you are only playing files at original quality, you do not need transcoding or tone mapping and you can run the server on a toaster.
Or, maybe your goal is like mine–keep one high quality file but play it on ANY screen without ANY work up front–in which case transcoding/tone mapping are mandatory. In this case, any semi-recent Intel CPU with iGPU and Quick Sync provides great performance.
OR, maybe you are one of those people who refuse to use GPU transcoding/tone mapping, in which case you need the absolute fastest CPU possible.
My first server was an i3-7100. It was a toy that consumed barely any power, and it was so small and quiet I forgot it was there. It also could serve 3x tone mapped streams simultaneously.
I since upgraded to an i5-10400. I never bothered to find out how many clients I can serve – it’s more than enough. The CPU is a lot faster so other tasks, like Sonic Analysis, are speedy. It’s also small and quiet and efficient.
If someone gave me an R730XD for free, I wouldn’t use it for Plex, my iGPU system meets my needs perfectly. YMMV.
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