Mac Pro as Plex server

General Discussions
1

Hi, I have seen a used Mac Pro and would love to know how good it would be as a Plex server. How many 1080 streams/transcodes could it handle and will it be fast enough for intensive usage? See image for specs.

Thanks in advance :slight_smile:
Patrick

2

I have two other options for comparison. I don’t know what the big difference between the processors is so I’d be glad to receive some knowledge.

3

You’ll want the passmark score: PassMark - Intel Xeon X5670 @ 2.93GHz - Price performance comparison

As this article notes:

Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark scores are a good guideline for a requirement:

  • 1080p/10Mbps: 2000 PassMark
  • 720p/4Mbps: 1500 PassMark
4

Another factor to take into account for, now that HW transcoding is “on the horizon”, is the graphic card. I’m not involved enough in the pros and cons to give a really good/in depth advice here, but I would urge anyone who is about to buy a server right now, with Plex transcoding as its main purpose, to look at the Alpha thread. There are differences between AMD and Nvidia for instance, some Nvidia cards can’t handle more than 2 transcodes whereas AMD can handle more. Such small details can be a decisive factor.

(Just remember, I wouldn’t recommend installing that Alpha as your main Plex server. It is meant as a test and is a bit behind right now in version (not merged with main branch)).

5

Looking at the pass mark, how is it possible that my Mac mini (pass mark around 3400) is not able to transcode a 1080p file with subtitles to my chrome cast or lg tv? Should be powerful enough?

6

That passmark score is a very rough estimate. Burning in subtitles adds extra, if it is VC1 codec it adds extra… etc etc.

7

Thanks! So for Some video’s the 3400 won’t be enough?
You Were also talking about hardware transcoding. What are the requirements for that?
I’ve got the possiility to buy a newer mac mini server (late 2012) with Intel® Core i7-3615QM Processor (Passmark 7380).
For the passmark this Will be a huge boost but Will i be Able to have HW transcoding?

8

No, for some videos 3400 will not be enough. A 30Mbit 1080p VC1 + burn in subtiles transcode to a 4Mbit 720p will req much more. The req as of now are shown in the link I gave above. Though these might change over time as it matures. A recent iGPU from Intel with Quicksync seems to be a good option.

Another option is to just expand upon your storage and reencode copies of your files beforehand, thus circumventing the need for a live transcode.

9

I run a souped up late 2008 mac pro, dual quad xeons, 32 gb memory, geforce 680 ti. Works great, run about 8 transcodes simultaniously without issues.

Cant wait to upgrade to the round model, less power consumption. At 8 transcodes the 100 mm fan for the xeons fires a steady jet stream of heat off the cpus. Heats my house.

2 Likes
10

Sounds great @NateDawg1169! Exactly what I’d want! Is it a 3.1 or a 4.1? What processors are in there exactly? Is the power consumption that bad?

11

@Peter_W Will the late 2012 Mac Mini 2.3GHz quad core with 12021 pass mark will be enough for multiple simultaneous 1080 transcodes?

12

It’s a 3.1 I upgraded them to the 3.2 GHz quads not sure exactly what model number that puts them at my system report doesn’t specify what series of xeon.

I am running a 980 watt PSU, and at a heavy load my ups reports the average wattage consumption being about 790.

13

Hmm, Thanks for al the great help! I’m really in doubt now. Not sure whether I should invest in a somewhat older Mac Pro (and accepting the power consumption) or I should buy a late-2012 Mac Mini with SSD and enough RAM (8-16). Any suggestions?

14

I’m sorry, the Mac Mini has a 12021 benchmark, the passmark is 7380! :wink:

15

Hey just thought I would add - Im using an upgraded 2006 mac pro 1,1 with a bios update to run os 10.11
here are the specs:

  • 2x 2.66ghz dual core xeon
  • 32gb ram
  • Radeon HD 5770
  • 128 GB SSD boot drive
    [all parts on ebay totalled about 500$ CAD including shipping]

im still testing it out but it seems for streaming over the internet it can handle 2-3 transcodes at a time (or more… not sure yet). My questions are:

  • what is my bottleneck when streaming over the internet? CPU, RAM, or internet connection? istat menus shows the CPU is maxing out with 2 encodes but i can do a 3rd without any issues it seems. the video card also appears maxed out all the time :S could be some kind of bug. I do not have a plex pass.

  • Has anyone had experience doing multiple simultaneous encodes over the internet with those Seagate archive drives? [model# st8000dm004] apparently they have very slow write speeds but ok reads.

I guess Im wondering if i want to stream more/faster, should I upgrade the CPUs, try a plex pass for HW encoding, or upgrade the video card first? also need to upgrade the storage soon but feel like a NAS drive might be kind of overkill if the data isnt valuable.