I run 1080P streams to my laptop or phone when I’m away from home. For now, I’m the only user that is using the server that’s being ran on my dedicated gaming rig.
I wanted to know if it were possible to buy a machine (either new or used) for under $150 just to run a dedicated Plex Media Server? I was hoping to get a machine that is an all-in-one PC like the M93p because of it’s size and it has everything internally.
I would be using Ethernet.
I estimate that I would need about a 500 GB hard drive for the amount of files I have, and I’d be fine.
Can a $150 computer be a dedicated PMS box? Yes!
Transcode anything? Probably not! Going to have to DirectPlay or maybe DirectStream everything due to CPU limitations.
If you’ve already got a dedicated gaming rig, smart configuration will allow it to work perfectly fine as a non-transcoding PMS server concurrent with running games. That’s bound to be a far better solution than any results you could obtain from a separate $150 box.
I’m not really too familiar with transcoding. I thought a PMS only connects your media to a server that is accessible via an outside network. I know PMS can downscale the resolution of a video in order to adapt to an individual’s current streaming capability. That’s all I understand about PMS so far.
I run the Plex Media Server on my gaming rig 24/7 now. Does that mean I’m already using DirectPlay while I’m remotely watching videos?
If I’m not using transcoding, should I set that up?
Plex Media Server, or PMS makes a wonderful connection between your media files and an end Plex (client) player of your choice, such as a Roku or Android tablet. Tons of Plex clients out there.
If your file isn’t naturally compatible with what your end device can play, PMS will convert (this is called a transcode) the file to make it compatible. There is no need to set anything like that up. Plex handles it automagically. Part of the brilliance of Plex.
All is not lost if you don’t have a big budget for a processor that can handle the work… You can manually convert your files to something compatible with your end device. A free program is available out there called Handbrake that serves this purpose nicely.
My Plex Media Server is based on an AMD FX 8130 8 core CPU (circa 2012/2013…to be technically correct it is 4 core and 8 threads…). I bought the basic box (CPU, motherboard, case, power supply) used off Craigslist for $150 Canadian (about $110 US). You don’t need a fancy graphics card, even if you are watching video on the server , and surprisingly, you don’t seem to need large quantities of RAM. I only have 4 gig, but will be upgrading it soon to 8 or 12, depending on what I can find. I have added a 250 gig SSD, and some 4 TB Barracuda drives that obviously put it over the $150 threshold, but you don’t have to do that. You can get a 60gig SSD for about 30 bucks, and USB3 external 4 TB HD’s can be had on sale in the low $100 range. Its not the ultimate machine, but it is working for my household (2 rokus and a chromecast…plus I watch most of my video on the server). You can also get some good deals on used Xeon workstations from about the same time period…a bit more expensive, and a little noisier and power hungry, but still a decent choice.
It’s easy to find a system for $150 that will serve as a great Plex server.
As you have already identified the absolute best value system for PMS is to get an ex-corporate desktop PC used on eBay. These are very well built, dirt cheap & even a five year old systems will have plenty of CPU power for transcoding using hardware (if you really must transcode). I recently bought an i3-4130 system with 8GB RAM & a 320GB disk for just £70 but here is a similar one which sold for £74.99 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-ProDesk-400-G1-SFF-Desktop-PC-i3-4130-3-4GHz-4GB-1TB-SATA-DVDRW-Win-8-Pro/112987195034?hash=item1a4e8fc69a:g:EGQAAOSwGV9a9ZjW
You really don’t want to transcode if at all possible not least because it rescues the quality. Choose decent clients & you can Direct Play everything. Your Plex server can be very modest. I used to run PMS on a 4TB Seagate Personal Cloud which must be the lowest powered NAS available that can run PMS & I successfully tested this with five simultaneous 1080p video streams (all Direct Play of course).
@AmazingRando24 said:
If your file isn’t naturally compatible with what your end device can play, PMS will convert (this is called a transcode) the file to make it compatible. There is no need to set anything like that up. Plex handles it automagically. Part of the brilliance of Plex.
The end devices I use is compatible with my media files. I have a laptop, iPad, and Android phone (which I rarely use with Plex so far) I only use Plex for video files so far. Direct Play of course.
So, it sounds like I don’t need to transcode at all if I make sure to have the correct file format? If that’s the case, then ANY computer should be fine along as Im not doing transcoding. I technically don’t even need a good GPU. Therefore, I could buy a cheap computer with any processor and hook up an external to it if I’d like.
@nigelpb said:
You really don’t want to transcode if at all possible not least because it rescues the quality. Choose decent clients & you can Direct Play everything. Your Plex server can be very modest. I used to run PMS on a 4TB Seagate Personal Cloud which must be the lowest powered NAS available that can run PMS & I successfully tested this with five simultaneous 1080p video streams (all Direct Play of course).
How do you know if you are transcoding or not? Will it be obvious? I normally just have files that are common video formats.
(Links)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LENOVO-ThinkCentre-M93P-Core-i5-4570T-2-9GHz-8Gb-500GB-DVDRW-USFF-Tiny-Desktop/123152799328?hash=item1cac7a9660:g:jRgAAOSw3bxbB2Sd#viTabs_0
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkCentre-M93p-Intel-i5-4570T-2-90GHz-8GB-RAM-500GB-HDD-Win-8-Pro/292579205618?hash=item441f1461f2:g:EbEAAOSweLBaW8Te
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LENOVO-ThinkCentre-M93P-Core-i5-4570T-2-9GHz-8Gb-500GB-DVDRW-Tiny-Desktop/382469965857?hash=item590cfc8821:g:NK4AAOSwC19bBMHb
My server is on my Gaming Rig - running 24/7. Wouldn’t change a thing.
The great thing about having a big server with lots of horsepower is you can wade through the Handbrake encodes you do for Direct Play like a dozen Amish Farmers through an acre of wheat…
Then, once everything is in Direct Play, I can get my head ripped off in Doom 2016, or COD 48 (WWII), while delivering several streams, without dropping a single frame. I have one machine to do maintenance on (even though I still have an auxiliary machine doing storage and TV Tuner duties - you probably won’t have that).
Somewhere along the line, something is going to happen, out of the blue, wherein your entire library is going to suddenly transcode for no reason at all. Hey, It’s Plex. Know your enemy. Best to have some fresh horses in the barn, just in case.
B)
