Hi all, I’m just about to build my new plex server, please can someone look over my planned configuration below and answer a couple of questions for me:
1- Will the GT 1030 be able to hardware transcode a single 4k high detail movie without using the CPU? 2 - Is LACP a good idea to team the two GB network cards together without any issues?
There is no Plex-native support for HW transcoding on external video cards yet.
The only support which currently exists is found on those processors with Quick Sync Video (QSV).
I have an i7-7700 (KabyLake) and am fully capable of transcoding 2160p HEVC HDR -> 1080p H264 SDR for everything in the house (all 6 devices) simultaneously. I should also mention; the source input data is full rips (50+ Mbps)…
Your only ‘hang up’ will be subtitle processing. This must done by the CPU in Plex. Hardware can assist with decode and encode of video but final subtitle burning (IF actually burning in the subtitles) will be done by the CPU. This is hard on any CPU and where a pair of Xeons will save you.
As an alternative, some Xeon processors do have QSV support. I would think, although no experience to back this up, a beefy Xeon (12 core?) with QSV should plow through just about any task given.
I have a dual xeon hexacore processor with 64gig of memory running centos linux running great supporting multiple users just fine, so I would think you would be good except you may want to increase memory due to windows being a bit of a memory hog. Doing network card teaming/Shotgun works great providing your gear supports some routers won’t work properly. Transcoding wise the xeon processors usually have enough power for most transcoding, it you have alot of users actively transcoding the more cores the better I have round since each core can support a minimum of 1-2 transcodes without huge slow down.
