New Server...please help!

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Hello,

Currently I am running an old Synology server and I want to upgrade it. If money is not an issue, what would be the best rated CPU i could get to build a new PC? I was thinking the i9-11900 since its new and has intel quick sync for videos. I need a powerful CPU for transcoding whenever that might be (and future proof).

I am planning on installing Linux on it.

Please help!

Thanks!

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i9-11900

probable will be the winner.

Find the closest one to the top that still has quick sync.

Keep in mind the the intel -11xxx series have brand new media decoding/encoding tech in them so you might be in for a quirky few months until the software support matures…

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Thank you @BobSnot

When I look at that list it tells me I should really get an AMD cpu…is 'Intel Quick Sync" a must or should i go with something like the Ryzen 9 5900x?

Or an Intel XEON?

I just want the most compatible one and fastest one…

Thanks

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for bang for buck AMD is way ahead currently, but for me, quick sync is a must. Hardware transcoding makes a MASSIVE difference. You could add an Nvidia GPU and do your hardware transcoding on it (research required, don’t just buy any old one) but that’ll cost you more, and cost you more in power consumption than just going with Intel in the first place.

Nvidia info if you want to go that route → nVidia Hardware Transcoding Calculator for Plex Estimates

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@BobSnot

Thank you. So what would be the highest rated Intel CPU with Quick Sync then? The new i9-11gen or the intel xeon? Or maybe something else i am not thinking of?

Thanks

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everything quicksync → Intel® Product Specification Advanced Search

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@BobSnot

If money was not an issue, which one would you buy for best performance from that list?

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In all honesty i would never come at the config from that point of view. The server is only as good as it’s weakest point and hardware transcoding makes most processors overkill.

My server caters for ~50 people who are located globally on various devices with various bandwidths so I know there is always going to be a requirement to support transcoding.

My media is a mix of mpeg4, H.264 and H.265 so i know I am going to need serious compute to handle the H.265 and some of the H.264 - Hardware transcoding solves this. The intel 9000 and 10000 CPU models bring no benefits to the table over the intel 8000 series hardware transcoding wise (we’ll they do with some VP9 codec stuff but I’d never use it) The 11000 series does bring some advantages but it’s immature. It’s going to be the 12000 or 13000 series before I think they’ll have something to offer me upgrade wise.

And money was no objective for me for my current server.

CPU : i7-8700 (I could have gone 8800 or 8800K but it just wasn’t warranted - plus i wanted vpro for the remote management as this thing is headless is a closet)
MB: Asus Q370M-C/CSM
RAM : 128GB (I transcode to RAM not disk)
Boot disk : NVME optane
Metadata Disk : 2TB NVME
Network: 2 x 10G intel
OS: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

My media is all on a NAS also connected at 2 x 10Gb

i guess is it exploded tomorrow i would replace it with something built around an i7-11700.

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