Need help with Plex Server build!

General Discussions
1

I’ve been using a Macbook Pro with External Drives plugged in for Plex however I’m fed up with the constant wiring and the loud fan noise when watching stuff so deciding on building something for Plex. This first build of mine will be for my basically a HTPC and NAS in one - Plex Media Server and Media viewing - no gaming.

Budget around the £500 mark with parts from the UK.

After watching YouTube videos and reviews I originally went for the AMD FX-8350 CPU in this build due to the Passmark score and the benchmarks for Plex Transcoding, and also as multicores/threads should benefit? However not sure if it’s worth it for 24/7 usage and heat people say it produces. Also not sure if the Motherboard is decent for it and if the Video Card is good enough.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type Item Price
CPU AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor £134.00 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard ASRock 970M PRO3 Micro ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard £64.97 @ Amazon UK
Memory Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory £34.40 @ Amazon UK
Storage Samsung 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive £45.96 @ BT Shop
Storage Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive £92.97 @ CCL Computers
Video Card EVGA GeForce GT 610 1GB Video Card £30.99 @ Ebuyer
Case Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case £83.30 @ Kustom PCs
Power Supply Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply £42.99 @ Amazon UK
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total £529.58
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-22 17:38 BST+0100

After further looking around I made an Intel Build with an i3-6100 which has lower passmark but cheaper and less power use.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type Item Price
CPU Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor £105.59 @ Novatech
Motherboard Asus H110M-A D3 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard £54.62 @ BT Shop
Memory Kingston HyperX FURY 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory £32.00 @ Amazon UK
Storage Samsung 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive £45.96 @ BT Shop
Storage Western Digital Red 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive £92.97 @ CCL Computers
Case Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case £83.30 @ Kustom PCs
Power Supply Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply £42.99 @ Amazon UK
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total £457.43
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-22 17:45 BST+0100

Will these also have up to 7.1 surround being Dolby Digital or the new HD formats, or will anything else be needed?

Any advice please? Thanks in advance! :slight_smile:

2

You say NAS… but I don’t see where you talk about how you’re doing the “NAS” side of things. What NAS software are you intending on running? That will dictate a lot and perhaps force change on your hardware choices.

Other thoughts:

  • Not an AMD fan anymore, used to be but not now, especially where performance and power usages are an issue
  • don’t use Kingston RAM. I’d play it safe and go Crucial, but I’d still go with other brands before Kingston.
  • Good choice of HDDs, and that’s a nice case.
  • Never cheap out on power supplies. Ever. Go SeaSonic.
3

@sremick said:
You say NAS… but I don’t see where you talk about how you’re doing the “NAS” side of things. What NAS software are you intending on running? That will dictate a lot and perhaps force change on your hardware choices.

Other thoughts:

  • Not an AMD fan anymore, used to be but not now, especially where performance and power usages are an issue
  • don’t use Kingston RAM. I’d play it safe and go Crucial, but I’d still go with other brands before Kingston.
  • Good choice of HDDs, and that’s a nice case.
  • Never cheap out on power supplies. Ever. Go SeaSonic.
    Sorry, HTPC and Plex, not NAS. Basically I’ll be using Sonarr and Transmission/Seedbox to download and Plex to play and to send it to other clients.

Regarding the CPU, would the Intel be fine as it doesn’t have as good multi core performance in comparison to the AMD which I read Plex utilises. Both are good for cost/performance so I wouldn’t mind either, but wouldn’t the AMD be able to handle more?

I’ll read into the other RAM and Power supplies - is there anything needed in particular?

4

Go as cheap as possible.
I have an:
Intel Core i3-4010U
4GB Ram

Runs everything I have perfectly fine. With plenty of room to do more.
The specs you have posted both look fine.

5

Is there anything specific I should be looking for in the motherboard other than Sata 3 ports and HDMI? How do you know whether it supports 7.1 surround and the likes of Atmos and DTS:X?

6

Dolby Atmos requires an HDMI 1.4 connection.
I don’t see how your requirements justify a dedicated Plex & Multimedia PC with such a high price.
In my opinion you should go with a used business solution like the HP Elite 8300 Ultra Slim (prices are usually around $150 for the i5-3470s version with a passmark of 6000+) as a server and optional a good client like the Nvidia Shield (if you want to use the server as the client, you’ll need a Displayport 1.2 to HDMI 1.4 adapter). I just checked Ebay and there seems to be one auction for an HP Elite 8300 in the UK right now, sitting at £50.

  • i5-3470S (Passmark 6191)
  • 2x Displayport 1.2, 1x VGA
  • 4x USB 3.0, 6x USB 2.0
  • 1Gbit Ethernet
  • DVD Super Multi Drive
  • 7200 RPM 500 GB hard drive
  • 8 GB DDR3 RAM

There are also many other editions available. For example with 4 GB RAM, a i3-2120, 320 GB hard drive…

7

I agree with wiidesire, lower the price and spec of the media pc and let the client handle the playing of files and sound etc.

I actually use a hp machine similar to the 8300 mentioned

8

So do you mean just use this as the server? I’d like to buy brand new and use it both as the server and player - so would you say that the CPU in the builds are overkill?

9

No, I’m saying that the hardware you listed isn’t worth the price. At least not for what you’re planning to do with it.
Get an HP Elite 8300 or similar with an i5-3470s for ~£150 and just buy a good client if you want to (you can use the box as the client as well, you just need a Displayport to HDMI adapter).

10

Man, I’m glad I found this thread. Was about to drop some money on an i5 NUC, glad I don’t need to do that.