What benefit from upgrading the media server computer?

General Discussions
1

I have set up a PLEX network in my home, and it is working great. I have a large amount of content, of all types—from family photos to family videos (with low to medium resolution), to movies to opera recordings (in HD video with high quality audio) to music that has been ripped in uncompressed FLAC). I have five TVs, two PCs and two iPads all connected locally.

So far, I am truly amazed at just how great PLEX is. Because I am streaming FLAC to my TVs, I have three of them connected to high quality stereos and the resulting sound is as good as if the stereos were connected directly to CD players. But where I once had to have three CD players connected to the stereos (which required a cumbersome process of inserting CDs one at a time) now the PLEX system has profoundly simplified all that.

Thank you PLEX for this extraordinary technology.

All that is prologue . . . so here is my question: My media server is set up on an older and somewhat limited PC. It has an i5 processor with 4 gb of RAM and only 1 Tb of internal HDD. It also has only USB 2.0 outputs. I have connected an older external HDD, which I suspect might only be compatible with USB speed. Thus far, I have found no “lagging” due to the moderate capabilities of the media server PC. It meets my needs, but what will happen if I start sharing all this with family members? The demands for streaming content could go up considerably. Will we all then experience “lagging” due to streaming overload? Will I see noticeable performance improvements if I were to upgrade my PC to an i7, with 8 to 16 gb RAM, and (perhaps most importantly) USB 3.0 ports and a newer external HDD?

Please advise. Thank you.

2

Your network is only as fast as your slowest link…

What is your internet upload?
That is usually the slowest link.

3

I currently use Comcast which gives me 200 down, but only 10 up, I think. I will likely soon switch to Tooadt.net fiber, which should be 100/100.

JAM

4

USB 2.0 can support up to 480mbps so 48 times your current upload speed.

So again your upload speed will be your bottle neck not your USB 2.0.

If you get 100mbps should help your cause a bit depending on how many simultaneously streams you are talking about and if they can support direct streaming is a big factor.

Regardless of all that id say get everything local and remote to direct streaming and add users slowly and monitor bandwidth usage and CPU as you add users so you don’t impact your experience.

One user can destroy your whole experience with a transcode so baby steps to your goal.

5

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.