Powerfull CPU for transcoding and gaming

General Discussions
1

Hi,

I’ve recently started putting down many hours on my Plex server after getting the new Apple TV, at the moment i got 500 movies and 4000 episodes all in blue-ray.

I use the server multiple times a day. I also have 3 other people using the server (remote access) but they dont use it everyday.
Normaly its only 1 person at a time using PMS (Because we live in different time zones, I live in Norway and another user lives in Florida) and when we are two people using the Plex server, more often then not one of us are using Direct play and do not need to transcode the video.

  • Every person using this server is mainly using it on Apple Tv (Except me, I use it on a browser, apple tv and iPhone)
  • I am in a process of converting all files to .mp4 (via the awesome software from @cayars )

Ive used hours reading the post Cayars - Setup walk through and some tips and tricks
Thats how I learned about FileBot and Plexpy, the automatic converter and more.
After reading for some hours I could not find anything about a person wanting to Transcode a video file and play a game at the same time, which is my challenge…

I started out with a Mac Mini 2014, but that was too weak for multiple transcodings, and it didnt have an SSD - so it was sluggish and tiresome making changes to PMS. I sold the Mac Mini and invested some money in my Desktop PC (which is intended to be my gaming PC)

Specification of my PMS and gaming PC:
Intel Core i5-4690K (Watercooled)
ASUS Z97-P, Socket-1150
HyperX Savage DDR3 2400MHz 16GB
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 4GB Turbo (This is intended for games and of course not PMS)
Crucial® BX100 250GB 2.5" SSD (PMS installed here)
One HDD 3 TB WD red (PMS database)

I play only one game, which is Counter-Strike Global Offensive and I play this game with everything on LOW, resolution is 1440 x 840… something.
So, its not the most graphic instensive game to put it that way, but I **must **have a stable 300 (299) FPS while playing.

With the processor mentioned above I cant play CS:GO and transcode a movie at the same time, I only get around 170 FPS. The CPU is working at 100%. (and since users cant always use direct play, I need to have a more powerfull CPU)
_(CS:GO alone uses around 60-80 % of the CPU while playing) _

I need this desktop PC (Which is online 24/7) to have enough power to run CS:GO (300 FPS) and transcode two 1080p movies at the same time. (even though this scenario rarely occurs)

Plex says that 1 transcoding of a 1080p video needs a CPU passmark of 2000.
My current CPU has a passmark of **7705 ** (Intel Core i5-4690K)
I do not know what is the recommended passmark for running CS:GO, everything on low but with a stable 300 FPS is, but I thought that if I get a processor like this one: Intel Core i7-5930K with a passmark score of 13620 I should be able to transcode at least two 1080p movies AND play CS:GO at the same time.

Can anyone confirm that this will work? (Or if u have another opinion)
I want to make sure that this is doable before I spend a lot of money on a new CPU

Thanks a lot for any comments:)

2

May I ask why you would ever need 300FPS in a game? Monitors cap out at 144… I have literally never heard of needing anything beyond that.

If you really need that though, it sounds like it’s time to build a NAS. Mine only cost like $400, minus the hard drives.

Edit: FWIW, processors don’t get much more powerful than the 4690K. I mean, a modern i7 will be marginally better, but I doubt it would do what you are looking for. Intel is not concentrating on cpu power these days.

3

Is it maxing out all cores? Or is everything only using one core?

According to https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html your i5 has better single core performance than that i7-5930k.

Also, a 5930K cannot work with your current motherboard. You would need to buy a new one.

4

Thats a debate I would rather not get into to be honest, but I do understand your point of view.

I have a hard time understanding how a NAS would work (even when I read that most PMS users use a NAS) - Because when my Mac Mini from 2014, that cost me around 900 dollars (in Norway) Couldn’t transcode two 1080p videoes at the same time. Is a 400 dollar NAS so much better than the Mac Mini?

5

@Jalbre said:
Is it maxing out all cores? Or is everything only using one core?

According to PassMark CPU Benchmarks - Single Thread Performance your i5 has better single core performance than that i7-5930k.

Also, a 5930K cannot work with your current motherboard. You would need to buy a new one.

That I actually dont know, Ive only stalked “task manager” which shows a stable 100% in all red.
So that is something I need to take a look at

I actually had that question in the back of my mind, would a 5930K work with my motherboard - so thanks for answering that!
is there a site where you can check compatibility? (For future referance)

6

I’m not looking to debate, I just want to understand your point of view. If there’s something I don’t know, I’d love to learn it.

Anyway, I built my own NAS. It’s just a PC with hard drives in it. I use unRaid for the OS, but anything could work. That way, all transcoding and downloading is done outside of my gaming computer. I don’t need to time my restarts and gaming based on how many people are streaming from me.

My NAS started out as just a Haswell i3, which worked great, but since demand has gone up, I upgraded to a Skylake i5 and sold my old build to a friend. Either one would be considerably stronger than a Mac Mini

I highly recommend looking at unRaid. With dockers and everything, it’s a very clean setup for all the file server and downloading stuff.

Imgur

7

@Jalbre said:

Edit: FWIW, processors don’t get much more powerful than the 4690K. I mean, a modern i7 will be marginally better, but I doubt it would do what you are looking for. Intel is not concentrating on cpu power these days.

Thats the answer I was looking for, and I was afraid that someone would say that. The i7 I mentioned in this post cost 780 dollars in Norway - If I would buy something with that pricetag I would want it to exceed my scenario with two transcodings and a game. - Which in this case it probably wont.
Buildning a NAS was my first thought and I scrached that later on, but now that I think back - I planned on building a system that would be overkill and thus cost a lot more than 780 dollars…
I need to take another look at buildning my own NAS, this time I have a lot more information.

I have never used unRaid but everyone mentions it, and says how great the software is - but I know nothing about it. It is my understanding that unRaid is a complete OS (for scenarios like PMS, not for gaming etc of course) - meaning I do NOT need to buy Windows 10 (?)
UnRaid can be downloaded from their site (as for example an .iso file) and made into a bootable USB drive, then install unraid as I would with an empty SSD/HDD needing an operating system (?)

8

@Flornes

You can also experiment with cpu priorities. I do that myself to suit my own needs (also related to gaming) and it works wonders on Plex.

To change the priorities you can in the windows task manager right click on the process and pick a priority. This will cause windows to “prefer” one process more (or less) over other processes.

For example, in your case, you can put the counter strike process into a higher priority and windows would give cpu time to it before everything else. Maybe this can give you the fps you need.

Or you can do what I do and put the plex transcoder process to a lower priority, hence making way for all other games. Note that this only affects Plex when you are gaming. Otherwise it uses the cpu at full speed as usual. Thats a win-win and it works for me.

The drawback here is obvious. Since windows will prefer counter strike, perhaps your server will no longer be able to keep up transcoding in real time when you are gaming. Obviously that depends on your cpu and you have to experiment with that yourself.

Anyway, if you try this, remember that Windows will always reset the cpu priority every time the process is closed. But there are many small free programs that can assign a priority permanently to a given process.

Hope this can be helpful.

9

@d2freak said:
@Flornes

You can also experiment with cpu priorities. I do that myself to suit my own needs (also related to gaming) and it works wonders on Plex.

To change the priorities you can in the windows task manager right click on the process and pick a priority. This will cause windows to “prefer” one process more (or less) over other processes.

For example, in your case, you can put the counter strike process into a higher priority and windows would give cpu time to it before everything else. Maybe this can give you the fps you need.

Or you can do what I do and put the plex transcoder process to a lower priority, hence making way for all other games. Note that this only affects Plex when you are gaming. Otherwise it uses the cpu at full speed as usual. Thats a win-win and it works for me.

The drawback here is obvious. Since windows will prefer counter strike, perhaps your server will no longer be able to keep up transcoding in real time when you are gaming. Obviously that depends on your cpu and you have to experiment with that yourself.

Anyway, if you try this, remember that Windows will always reset the cpu priority every time the process is closed. But there are many small free programs that can assign a priority permanently to a given process.

Hope this can be helpful.

I did not know that I could do this in task manager,
I will give that a try!

Thanks:)

10

Storage space is a lot cheaper than CPU power. Use the media optimizer feature or other 3rd party scripts such as this https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/931888/#Comment_931888 and create different versions for different clients and usage scenarios. Two might be enough, one high bitrate for a Home Theater setup whereas the client can handle anything (OpenPHT, PMP) and one low bitrate for remote, mobile, clients. Avoiding transcoding should always be the aim, imho. It’s a great feature for the few instances where a client needs a subtitle burned in or such but it isn’t viable as a “fix-it-all” (in more advanced setups, where CPU limitations most certain will come into play).

11

I am actually in a process of converting all files as we speak, Ive converted around 200gb at the moment. (Removing subs and converting to .mp4 via the software from cayars) But that takes time… around 15 hours - and Im converting them on my SSD so I have to move a small portion of the files to the SSD, then back to my HDD each time the converting is completed. 100 Gb takes me 4-8 hours.

I havent started with making a low bitrate and a high bitrate for every file yet - first ill convert, so in a week or two when thats all done Ill have to look at the option of having multiple files.
As you say, it is a lot cheaper with storage vs CPU