hey.
I want to use a mini pc as a dedicated plex Windows server with the idea it will be capable, small and more efficient then my gaming of doing double duty.
I’m currently looking at Beelink’s SEi12 i5-1235U Beelink 10 core mini pc intel 12th Generation i5-1235U mini desktop as it looks like it could handle some transcodes and be a bit future proof.
Do you lot have any opinions on using this machine for it please?
A 12th gen i5 should be fine for light transcoding and tone mapping. I was doing multiple simultaneous streams on a 7th gen i3. (Of course, you need a Plex Pass for Quick Sync accelerated transcoding and tone mapping. Wait, I think Windows can’t do accelerated tone mapping, right?)
It’s a nice little box but at >=$460 it seems a bit expensive for what it is. If you step back a couple CPU generations… which should not matter for iGPU transcoding… you can get something similar for under $300. But I guess if you want to do gaming too, the more modern system is a good idea.
All Intel CPU with a U at the end are low-voltage chips, which are tuned for low power consumption. A lower power consumption results in lower heat dissipation. Which then is exploited by manufacturers to put them into small cases with poor cooling.
The focus on low power consumption is lowering the maximum achievable performance. You cannot compare the performance of such a CPU to that of its “desktop”-class brethren.
And that is OK, if all they’ll be used for is a bit of web surfing and office work.
A Plex server is a completely different use case. Here, the CPU will sometime work for hours at 100% load.
I can only recommend you to use a device that’s been built for the task and not for something completely different.
You’ll be better off with a larger case, which can house a really large desktop CPU cooler.
Not only will it be cheaper, but much much more quiet – even under heavy load than any mini PC. And faster, of course.
Thanks. It needs to be small so that’s not really an option. Transcoding won’t be all the time, though. My current (aging) gaming PC craps itself when someone does transcode and I basically want to avoid that, while still telling my users to try not to transcode.
Thanks. Can machines like this still do the iGPU thing?
If it has the iGPU, yes. You should always double check the CPU specs at Intel Ark.
Looks good:
But, @OttoKerner is right in that a machine that is not as microscopic will have some substantial advantages.
This machine can do miracles in transcoding with Quick Sync but CPU power is still important for transcoding audio and burning in subtitles. CPU power is still great to have for generating thumbnails, detecting intros, and Sonic Analysis.
Also, since you are planning on using Windows, I don’t think windows can do tone mapping via Quick Sync, and this Beelink CPU probably cannot do even one tone mapping job with raw CPU power.
Thanks, I don’t know the terms but from Google tone mapping is HDR? That’ll do be as I use SDR on my plex media anyway.
Well, you mentioned “future proof”. And HDR is the future. Even more so than 4K, IMHO.
Fair point, suppose I can switch to linux once that future is upon us. My only experience with it right now is messing about on my Steam Deck
“Tone mapping” is converting an HDR file to show properly on SDR displays. It’s a super demanding operation, much more than simply changing the resolution/bitrate.
You may not be interested in HDR but like @OttoKerner said, it will only get more common.
If you want to spend as little as possible, require a SMALL server, and do not care at all about tone mapping or Sonic Analysis, the Nvidia Shield is about $200. It’s not a bad server under those constraints.
I see a lot of Plex hardware threads where people try hard to minimize server expenses, and I get that, I really do… It’s also neat that you can run PMS on a toaster.
But IMHO, the way to have a good Plex experience is to have a server that can play any file for any client without hassle.
I disagree. The Shield is only a server for very low demands, a small media collection and very few (or no) shared users.
It is quite a good Plex client device, though.
Not interested in HDR on plex. I have UHD discs for stuff I want in the best quality.
So for my use case - how is that device? I’m after something very small, pretty low power, not much transcoding but I want it to handle it when it comes up (we all have those users), no HDR needed, mostly 1080p stuff. Media is on the cloud via stablebit cloud drive.
Note: tried a shield as a server, didn’t love it and I don’t think it plays well with stablebit anyway.
I was worried about transcodes myself when I got into Plex, but in the last three or four years, every Apple device I got will Direct Play any content I have, especially with all local clients. For my purposes a 10 year old Celeron J1900 keeps up with streaming, and other people run a rPi 4B. My next NAS might only have a Celeron N5xxx or N6xxx or maybe a Ryzen.
Someone is making a great SFC these days, but I can’t remember the name. People keep referring to it rather than talking about the usual NUC from Intel. Maybe it’s a Dell or an HP, but it was a known brand.
It looks like we may want QSV for AV1 encodes too.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
