NUC/ mini pc suggestions

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Hello, just asking for some suggestions.
I currently use plex on my Thecus N2810 NAS drive. As I mentioned in a previous post, Thecus haven’t updated their software so I cannot install the latest version of Plex.
Someone suggested using a mini PC or an Nvidia shield as the server and keeping the NAS for storage purposes.

Could anyone suggest some specific models which will work well and run quickly/quietly?
The Nvidia only has a few versions but I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the different versions of the Intel NUC (or other mini pc).
Many thanks

Rob

1 Like
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Any details about your use case, such as:

  • how many parallel streams do you expect?
  • does your media play mostly directly or is there a lot of transcoding?
    • what types of media do you plan for this server (e.g. 4K h265 or 1080p h264…)?
  • are you planning to stream mostly to a single device / TV or multiple devices incl. remote / mobile streaming?

The support article describing CPU requirements gives some hint regarding the “raw power” you should expect to need for your respective requirements (using the Passmark benchmark score per transcode). Current generation NUCs should also deal well enough with hardware accelerated streaming (requires a Plex Pass membership).

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Thanks for your reply
I use it mostly for music streaming.
No more than one stream mostly
We stream to various Alexa devices in the house, but also on the android Plex app when away from the house.

Largely used for music library streaming of FLAC files.

Occasional use for video streaming, most of which are MP4 , some mkv files.

1080p would be the max

I hope that is helpful info.
Many thanks
R

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Unless you want to expand that use case, any entry level model should do the job for you.
If you want to go with a NUC (e.g. keeping the Thecus as storage), pretty much any Core i3 model should do… doesn’t even have to be a current generation model
If you consider switching the NAS, pretty much any major brand current model will do (in particular if the clients can play your videos natively). Audio transcoding will be no issue for any scenario.

5

Thanks so much for your advice!
Would a nuc with a 3rd gen i3 with 4gb ram be sufficient in that case?
Cheers
R

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You’re calling to extremes :wink:
3rd Gen i3s date back to 2011… they’re soon to be 10 years old.
I’d go with a 6th or 7th generation, e.g.

  • NUC7i3DNB w/ 1x M.2 SSD slot
  • NUC7i3DNB w/ 1x M.2 SSD + 1x 2.5" drive slots
  • NUC7JYB (Celeron J4005) w/ 1x 2.5" drive slot

The above models sport an i3 7100U that’ll handle 1x 1080p transcode (+ maybe 1x 720p). The Celeron can transcode 1x 720p – for music only and an occasional video, the latter might do.

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I agree! But still, if you’re able to get that NUC really cheap, or as a free hand-me-down, and you’re planning no more than one 1080p software-transcode at any given time, honestly it would probably be fine. But it would definitely be cutting it close.

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The CPU should actually do the job (those should come with a Core i3-3217U; I cannot find any Passmark scores for those; the Core i3-3227U has a Passmark score of 2500… so it should be slightly below that; 1080p transcode will need approx. 2000)… I was more worried about connectivity – those will still come with USB 2.0 ports :wink:

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