I’m currently researching building my own Plex server. I want to be able to transcode 3x 1080p streams stream at most, so I’m looking at CPUs with around 8000 passmark (I know Plex suggest 3x 2000 but I want a little extra to be safe). Plex suggests that RAM isn’t hugely important for transcoding (i.e. 2GB is sufficient), and since I have 2x 2GB DDR3-1066 lying around from my old Macbook Pro I thought I could put this to use, so I need a CPU that’s compatible.
So, essentially I’m asking 2 questions -
Firstly, am I correct in assuming that 2x2GB of RAM is still sufficient?
Secondly, would a 2nd generation Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4ghz be powerful enough for transcoding please? I know it’s an old processor, but I’m assuming that as all I want to do is transcode 1080p video it should be powerful enough.
I’ve had a look around on the forums, but I can’t find anything processor specific from the last year or two, so I wasn’t sure if the PMS requirements have become more processor heavy.
I’ve not listed any of my other components as I wanted to get my head around the CPU first (and check that my RAM is acceptable).
Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated!
That processor should be fine as it has a Passmark of 8478. Also the ram is more than fine. It is overkill but since you come to it with no extra cost it really is pretty good.Extra ram really almost never hurts.
The only changes on processor requirements for transcoding involve 4K streams and the exact requirements for transcoding are often expressed as a LOT more than 1080p. I suggest that 4K files be encoded to a playable format before adding them to the Plex system so they do not need transcoding.
When you look at storage remember that streaming video does not need much disk speed. Even “slow” drives are well above the requirements for even 4 or 5 streams.
I have an i7-3740qm 2.7 Ghz - 3.4 Ghz . 2 streams of 1080p at high bit (20+) rate is my maximum.
If it has only audio to do, it can do a great deal more but 2 video streams is the observed functional limit to tablets / phones.
My media is otherwise preprocessed to the best DirectPlay / DirectStream possible. You only need understand the formats, specifically codecs, your players support and take this into consideration. Remuxing and container changing is trivial compared to any transcoding of any kind.
A 3740qm is NOTICEABLY slower then.a 2600k and if the 2600k is overclocked the the 3740qm is MUCH slower. The 3740qm is a mobile platform which CANT be compared to a desktop platform, let alone over clockable destop platform. He said “build” and a 2600k was a desktop CPU, so im guessing you got mixed up because of the “extra” ramhe had from the Macbook pro.
