Hello everyone,
I want to build a new Plex rack server but need advice on the hardware to use. It is supposed to be used in my home but also provide about 10 friends acces to my content. Especially for the latter, I think the server needs to be able to transcode up to 10 parallel 4k to 1080p streams. The local streams will be direct play.
I realize I need hardware transcoding so would it be advisable to use one or maybe two Nvidia Pxxxx graphics cards (is plex able to use more than one?) or would it be sufficient to use QuickSync (which processor or dual processor should be used?)
I realise it will not be cheap but I do want a high-end solution with over-capacity, ready for more. The content will be stored on a separate Synology Nas so storage is not an issue.
I now am running the Plex server on an Ubuntu desktop:
I7-4770 haskell (QuickSync)
Nvidia Quadro P2000
32gb
As the processor is pretty old it does hw transcode H.264 1080p files but HEVC / 4k are transcoded thru the cpu thus not powerful enough.
As hw transcoding is not available from within a docker container (afaik, the workarounds don’t seem to work properly), is a native install on linux as a service the best option?
Thank you all for taking the time to read and hopefully respond with your experience.
