Need Media Server Advice

General Discussions
1

Hello,

I am new to Plex and recently started ripping my DVD collection and setup Plex on my desktop computer. Even though that computer is always on I would like to setup a dedicated server. Other than buying additional storage I really don’t want to spend money on new hardware. I have some old servers I could use, but I wanted to get some opinions to make sure the one I had in mind is up for the challenge and what the optimum setup would be.

I am currently ripping my DVD’s to raw MKV’s using MakeMKV. I will be streaming mainly to Roku’s (streaming stick, Roku 2, and Roku 3) most likely one stream at a time, possibly two.

The server I am considering using is a Dell PowerEdge SC1430 with 2 dual core 3GHz Xeon 5050 processors and I think 4GB of RAM.

Will this server be powerful enough to transcode? I noticed the CPU usage jumped up to 50% on my desktop (quad core 3GHz i7-4790k with 32GB of RAM running Windows 10) when streaming to the Roku stick. If so, what OS would be best? I am leaning towards Linux, but would consider FreeNAS or some other NAS flavor if it will give me better performance. Also, would transcoding be faster if I put the OS and Plex on an SSD?

Any suggestions and/or advice is greatly appreciated.

2

If all you ever do is ripping DVDs (instead of BluRays) then your dual Xeon should provide plenty cpu power. You will get stuttering if you go on to ‘raw’ BluRays with it, especially when you use subtitles.

Use the OS you are comfortable using.
It doesn’t make significant difference between Linux or FreeNAS.
(except when you want to get a Plex Pass and use the Premium Music features. Those are not available on FreeBSD and FreeNAS)

3

Thank you for your response. I plan on ripping BluRays in the future, but it isn’t a priority for me at this point. I currently have very few BluRays compared to the number of DVDs I have. I guess once the time comes to start ripping BluRays I will upgrade my server. For now I am happy to know that the server I planned on using will be sufficient and all I need to buy is some hard drives.

Thanks again!