Oldie Computer for Server

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Looking to use a real old gaming build I have to run as a Plex server. Looking to push bunch of stuff locally to Apple TV direct and then maybe 4 tops 1080p transcodes remotely. Specs below:

  • ASUS M4A79 Deluxe
  • AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma Dual-Core 2.7 GHz Socket AM2+
  • G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
  • MSI R7770 Video Card
  • 430W Thermaltake Power Supply

Would this computer be worthwhile? I’m tired of keeping my gaming PC running all the time. I am willing to invest in a few new parts to make this one work. If it’s not gunna be worth it at all, I will look into building something new cheap. I have a Synology NAS I use for data storage.

2

You might run into some issues here. I say, try it.
Does it have windows or whatever? Install Plex and see.

3

The CPU has a 1570 Passmark, which just hits the 1500 recommendation for 720p transcoding.

However, like @NewPlaza writes, try it & see what happens. You already own it, so will not cost you any money.

4

Well that’s my problem, I have no case, hard drive, etc for it. I rescued my case for new PC. My plan is to put windows 10 on it. If I bought a 1050 would that be able to handle that many streams?

5

Don’t need, lol! I ran a collection of parts on a table for a few years. It worked, lol…

That is kinda a problem. No spares lying around?

6

True, I guess I don’t need one to test! Yep I have plenty of old ones sitting around I can run a test. Since the CPU sucks so much will getting a newer video card to handle the transcoding work?

7

If you encode your media properly the first time, so it will Direct Play, you don’t have to worry so much about CPU and/or GPU… I currently have 2 servers, each with a Core2 Quad Q9650 and 8GB RAM and can stream 3 different 1080p h264 files from either server to my 3 Roku devices at the same time without even breaking a sweat…

8

That doesn’t really help all the other people streaming from my server. I can direct locally easily, but I can’t direct stream 50GB 4K movies on a 20meg upload service to multiple people. And at this point I can’t encode 30TB worth of media, not worth it.

9

The support article, Using Hardware-Accelerated Streaming, is vague and needs updating / re-wording. It does not explicitly state that hardware acceleration is possible on systems with AMD CPUs (i.e. w/o Intel Quick Sync Video capability).

However, according to this 2017 thread / post, you can add either an Nvidia or AMD GPU to your system and take advantage of hardware acceleration.

For Nvidia, you want a 1050 or better card, one that is capable of decoding H.265 and encoding H.264 (Plex transcodes all video to H.264). You can verify the capabilities of a Nvidia card by looking at the Nvidia Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix. Note that the 1030 is not supported, as Nvidia disabled support for encoding on those cards.

Nvidia limits their GTX cards to two simultaneous transcodes. Quadro cards have no set limits. There are hacked drivers available to bypass the limit on GTX cards. Not sure where they’re located. You can probably search the forum or with Google to find them.

Not sure where to find equivalent information for AMD GPUs. It is probably in the forums somewhere. I just haven’t run across it.

Edit: Found a Sloth Tech video on YouTube. AMD GPUs apparently do not perform well when used for hardware transcoding in Plex.

10

Thank you for that detailed response. I am currently bench installing Windows 10 on my ancient PC and will run some tests. If it doesn’t work that well, I will probably try and stick a P2000 in it. If that doesn’t work, I will build something super duper cheap.

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