Looking for feedback on creating a server and client in one box. I picked up a 24 (twenty-four) slot box the other day to use as the case; rackmount of course. I am looking for the unit to PERFORM and LAST! I expect up to three simultaneous 4k streams AND at least one transcode. Putting it all in one unit just seems the simpler (and the least power hungry) way to go. While cost is an issue, it also is not… if that makes any sense whatsoever. Ergo, I welcome all-comers. I am looking for feedback on the following:
-Has anyone else successfully done this and if so how
-If not practical, why?
-OS - considering FreeNAS
-Motherboard (single or dual CPU) seriously considering some of the boards from SuperMicro
-Video cards (I imagine this would be OS dependant)
-Thoughts on backing up 90+ TB (will be mirrored setup)
Thanks in advance to all who offer up their thoughts!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Regards,
Jeff
i’ve never done it at that scale, but my previous PMS system (built in 2007 with minor ad-hoc updates up until 2 or 3 years ago when it got retired) was exactly that…it ran PMS & PHT.
SuperMicro dual-slot with 2 Xeons (even if the transcoder isn’t threaded to use 2, you can use process affinity to isolate PMS/transcoder t have a full CPU to itself and run the rest of the OS/client/etc on the other)
SSD drive for OS/boot + PMS cache/temp directory
nVidia GPU (I had a GTX 570)…not much help at all for PMS directly, and not really even any help for Handbrake/MakeMKV…but it DOES help on the client end, and if you do anything else on the machine (like any video encoding using Adobe tools) the GPU may become a HUGE factor (GPU accelerated encodes in Adobe Media Encoder on that box were awesome. And fun fact: Media Encoder now supports broadcast audio leveling, so if you have a ton of stuff from discrepant origins, you can level the audio at encode time instead of relying on your TV/receiver to do it)
Long story short, get a super micro board & some good (but not great…the cost ain’t worth it) Xeons, enough SSD to boot & cache off of (and scratch disk if you do graphics/video editing), and a “was high end 18 months ago” nVidia GPU and you can’t go wrong…and will also likely be able to boot any OS you want off of that (nVidia has pretty solid linux drivers)
When this box is fitted out with drives, you won’t be able to enjoy your media much, due to the noise it makes. Also, if you watch movies with a decent surround sound system, the vibrations from your subwoofer will severely affect the performance of your hard disks.
Plex is a client/server system.
I strongly recommend to use it that way.
Put the server somewhere else, where it is out of ear-shot and easier to keep cool.
Then connect your Plex client by ethernet.
If you use a Odroid C2 for instance, you get a Plex client that is relatively cheap and still handles all the major video and audio codecs - up to 4K HEVC and TrueHD. All that without fan noise.
Looking for feedback on creating a server and client in one box. I picked up a 24 (twenty-four) slot box the other day to use as the case; rackmount of course. I am looking for the unit to PERFORM and LAST! I expect up to three simultaneous 4k streams AND at least one transcode. Putting it all in one unit just seems the simpler (and the least power hungry) way to go. While cost is an issue, it also is not… if that makes any sense whatsoever. Ergo, I welcome all-comers. I am looking for feedback on the following:
-Has anyone else successfully done this and if so how
-If not practical, why?
-OS - considering FreeNAS
-Motherboard (single or dual CPU) seriously considering some of the boards from SuperMicro
-Video cards (I imagine this would be OS dependant)
-Thoughts on backing up 90+ TB (will be mirrored setup)
Thanks in advance to all who offer up their thoughts!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Regards,
Jeff
Very good point. When I did this, it involved a 75’ HDMI run…but yes, if it’s in the same room, vibration & fan noise will make it awful hard to properly enjoy.
I have all in current box and it works really fine (See signature for details).
I have not any problem of vibrations or noises. My subwoofer is in a corner of the room, and the computer is 1 meter close to it.
unless you plan to transcode everything you dont need that much power. you can build a simple server with dual or more LAN ports and a nice RAID card. the processing power should be multi-core that sits above 3.0 GHz. If you are going to share with others and/or remote play a lot then i would deferentially do a more high performance cpu and the best isp package with good up speeds and a good amount of memory 16 GB or up.
Thanks to everyone for their responses so far! (barney007… I think I’ll just lie back, smoke a cigarette and take a nap!
I am beginning to think this project may become an amalgam of a number of the suggestions brought up here. Keep em’ coming! And thanks again!
confused about having 3 streams and 1 transcode and being server/client and how you are going to connect each one.
how many TV/devices are you planning to have connected at once and only via HDMI ?
Are you running HDMI cable all over?
More information more option
basically if you want beast experience go build your self a proper Core network and Server foot print in 1 location of your house then span it out via your network.
there is a hdmi controller unit that may do what you want with a bit of config, but costly 5k to 20k
Option 1
Ok virtualization and HDMI pass through.
VM for server and storage.
VM for media player run cable from GFX to TV
Need dedicated GFX per VM per TV for good performance
Option 2
server/storage connected to switch/router
run Network cables to each room/tv
good Wifi network for your tabs/phones
good all round player dedicated to each tv (physical small unit)
If connected to your network and your internet upload is good, you can use your portable devices external
but if you are running HDMI through your house run network cables as well
Not Practical
it can work but if in the same room noise, bright lights, accidental damage.
Server rack with 24 disk power saving ? what PSU are in there ?
additional hardware required to run to 3 TV’s at once via HDMI
not flexible almost a closed system
rack server in Lounge (your not married ? no kids and sticky fingers drinks ?)
Hi all,
So far looks like a dual CPU Supermicro, upgrade to 10Gbit to network, a little fiber, 3 GFX cards, some endpoint devices (? ODroid/R-Pi ?), some CE labs switches, maybe another piece of Crestron here and there, and possibly a three phase drop from the power company to run it all!
The headend is far removed from the displays so equipment noise is not an issue, and unfortunately, a bigger upstream for those times when off-site so everyone can watch what they want (Sling box too). I have pulled a little cable in my time so this is doable, just trying to get community feedback on my efforts. Like I mentioned, I would like this rig to last for a while, hence the ‘over-build’ now. Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts!
Regards and Happy Ho Ho!
Nice to have and for sure a nice hobby.
But how many media player devices have 10GbE network ports? Last time I checked there were only a few which had 1GbE. The majority still is on 100MBps.
I say for a normal family home, 1GbE is more than enough, even with 4K video.
