I have a Seagate MyHomeCloud NAS (3TB). I have all of my movies stored on this NAS and have Plex installed on it as well. It works wonderfully in my house on my network, but often times I get the “server isn’t powerful enough” warning when I’m trying to play movies remotely.
My question is…what is the minimum specs I should be looking for when searching for a computer to act as my Plex server? There’s tons of $50-200 computers on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, etc. My thought is that I could hook up my NAS to the computer (via USB), and run the Plex server off the computer instead of the NAS. This way I can remotely access my movies better. I’m a noob at this, so I’m wondering what specs I should be looking for and if this will even work? Thanks
Most important piece in a Plex server is the CPU.
The more powerful, the better. Those old computers often have rather old cpu’s.
3 years of cpu development can make a drastic difference, in regard to how many streams your server can transcode.
That is an Ivy Bridge CPU. Which means the Quicksync unit in it only supports H.264/AVC.
If you avoid files with the HEVC/H.265 video codec, you should be good.
The vast majority of my movies are .mp4 (some are .mv4, .avi, and .mkv) - How do I know what is H.264 or H.265?
I’m assuming this i5 would be MUCH better than my Seagate NAS, as far as running Plex?
If I get a computer to run as my Plex server - all I need to do is download the Plex Server to the computer, and then (through USB) hook up my NAS to the computer?
Thanks so much for your help! Again, I’m a noob - this is saving me tons of time trying to find this info on my own!
or you use download mediainfo here
(pay attention during installation, it comes with a ‘piggybacked’ installer which asks to install additional crapware. Make sure to set/clear the right checkboxes!)
Once it is installed, analyse the file, then go to:
File - Export - Text (Advanced mode)
If you want to see a list, install ExportTools. They will give you a CSV or Excel file with all movies per library with all the technical details you need.
if you have plex pass, the a powerful cpu is not necessary , almost any intel core processor(second gen and above) with the igpu will do because you’ll use hardware accelerated transcoding using the intel HD/Iris Graphics in your cpu.
that is unless you need to transcode 4k/h265 then only an 8th gen/above cpu will do(UHD Graphics 630).
my server’s cpu is intel core i3 8100 and I was able to transcode almost anything(even 10bit 4k h265) without any problem.
Is it okay to have the Plex server on the computer, and all the movies on the NAS? Having the NAS hooked up to the computer? And I can have the computer directly connected to the router (for faster internet speeds). I have 100Mb/s download, and 12Mb/s Upload
