Hi currently I’m running Plex on my core i7 laptop. Its fast enough to stream to all my devices in 1080p. But I just need to setup dedicated server for Plex. Do you guys have any idea about hardware configuration to make a powerful plex server which can even handle 4K?
cheers
‘Best’ is wallet-relative.
How many HEVC 4K streams? How many other streams? Audio considerations? Local or remote streaming? Bandwidth limited uploads?
You need to nail down some specifics else you’ll get replies which are all over the map.
@ChuckPA said:
‘Best’ is wallet-relative.How many HEVC 4K streams? How many other streams? Audio considerations? Local or remote streaming? Bandwidth limited uploads?
You need to nail down some specifics else you’ll get replies which are all over the map.
Hi thank you very much for the reply. I will list my requirements:
thank you.
I’m sure others will jump in now
It’s clear you will need a CPU with 8th generation graphics (KabyLake) if you wish to use the upcoming Hardware Transcoding capability if you have anything HEVC and 10 bit (HDR) color. Certain codecs also need that much horsepower.
Otherwise , No less than a i7-6700 class machine. If I name Intel microarchitectures. KabyLake, GeminiLake come to mind. You might need that much.
I’ll let others assist from this point forward
@ChuckPA said:
I’m sure others will jump in nowIt’s clear you will need a CPU with 8th generation graphics (KabyLake) if you wish to use the upcoming Hardware Transcoding capability if you have anything HEVC and 10 bit (HDR) color. Certain codecs also need that much horsepower.
Otherwise , No less than a i7-6700 class machine. If I name Intel microarchitectures. KabyLake, GeminiLake come to mind. You might need that much.
I’ll let others assist from this point forward
Thank you very much for the reply. My laptop has the Intel core i7 7500u 2.7GHz KabyLake processor. But I need to configure a machine with high performance desktop processor.
Is plex server fully support for AMD processors? I mean to do on the fly trans-coding stuff etc.
thank you.
PMS of course uses the CPU but no AMD GPUs at this time. This is because PMS is using the Intel QuickSync hardware acceleration features of a processor.
If you have bank of AMDs in a multi-cpu SMP configuration operating under a single kernel instance, it will use all of it (think back to the old Opteron days)
@ChuckPA said:
PMS of course uses the CPU but no AMD GPUs at this time. This is because PMS is using the Intel QuickSync hardware acceleration features of a processor.If you have bank of AMDs in a multi-cpu SMP configuration operating under a single kernel instance, it will use all of it (think back to the old Opteron days)
Thank you very much for the reply.
Oh is it. then i have to go for Intel processor .
Can we run PMS on any server which has Intel xeon processors?
Do you have any recommended branded server like dell or Hp, lenovo etc?
thank you.
PMS will run on any X86_64 processor with greater than about 2000 Passmarks. What you can do with that 2000 Passmarks is another question entirely 
At this point, I really do need to let others share their experiences with the different configurations.
I personally have some 4K, H.264, 8-bit discs I’ve ripped. I can play (transcode 4K → 2K) up to 5 on my i7-6700 QNAP. (TVS-1282) before it becomes an issue.
I do take the time to prepare my media. By preparing it (preprocessing ) before putting it in the Library, it’s better matched to the different devices I have. I can stream 2K content until i run out of network bandwidth (~450 MB/sec) and the CPU is quite happy with that.
Don’t get confused with AMD CPU’s and AMD GPU’s (oh and AMD APU’s 
)
At the moment, you -cannot- use AMD GPU’s for accelerated hardware transcoding (yet), but you can perfectly use any AMD CPU for your classic way of transcode.
AMD Ryzen CPU’s offer a lot of passmark for it’s price (native 8 core).
@ChuckPA said:
PMS will run on any X86_64 processor with greater than about 2000 Passmarks. What you can do with that 2000 Passmarks is another question entirelyAt this point, I really do need to let others share their experiences with the different configurations.
I personally have some 4K, H.264, 8-bit discs I’ve ripped. I can play (transcode 4K → 2K) up to 5 on my i7-6700 QNAP. (TVS-1282) before it becomes an issue.
I do take the time to prepare my media. By preparing it (preprocessing ) before putting it in the Library, it’s better matched to the different devices I have. I can stream 2K content until i run out of network bandwidth (~450 MB/sec) and the CPU is quite happy with that.
wow that’s pretty interesting. You have a such a powerful machine.
So you have 4k and 2K versions for the same movie in your library. is it?
thank you.
@Madshark said:
Don’t get confused with AMD CPU’s and AMD GPU’s (oh and AMD APU’s)
At the moment, you -cannot- use AMD GPU’s for accelerated hardware transcoding (yet), but you can perfectly use any AMD CPU for your classic way of transcode.
AMD Ryzen CPU’s offer a lot of passmark for it’s price (native 8 core).
hi thank you for the reply.
That’s a good point. is there any big difference in between old fashion trans-coding and accelerated hardware transcoding?
thank you.
I don’t keep multiple versions of files. When I rip them, it is a pure rip (remux). I only drop those streams I don’t want (typically languages and subtitles). I am, what most call, a bit hoarder. I want all the bits which were written to the disc. The more movies and television use CGI, the more important it becomes to preserve those nice crisp lines / edges. (watching 8 Mbps video on your phone looks ok but blow it up to a 55" TV and it looks like crap haha)
Nothing is better than old-style “Software” transcoding. The algorithms and code is refined. It can make multiple passes (stages) if it needs to… Remember, It is named “Quick” Sync. There is a reason for that. I’m sure, as GPUs get better, the distinction will be harder to justify but it will always be there. The question is: What does the loss of quality mean to you?
I agree the Ryzen is a NICE CPU (not an APU… yuck). It’s about time AMD got back in the CPU game.
Well, i don’t know every in&outs of the accelerated HW transcoding yet. I tested it once on a desktop PC.
Based on my experience, its very memory hungry, it lowers your video quality greatly and its as stable as nitroglycerine in a blender.
But it’s still under heavy development.
@ChuckPA said:
I don’t keep multiple versions of files. When I rip them, it is a pure rip (remux). I only drop those streams I don’t want (typically languages and subtitles). I am, what most call, a bit hoarder. I want all the bits which were written to the disc. The more movies and television use CGI, the more important it becomes to preserve those nice crisp lines / edges. (watching 8 Mbps video on your phone looks ok but blow it up to a 55" TV and it looks like crap haha)Nothing is better than old-style “Software” transcoding. The algorithms and code is refined. It can make multiple passes (stages) if it needs to… Remember, It is named “Quick” Sync. There is a reason for that. I’m sure, as GPUs get better, the distinction will be harder to justify but it will always be there. The question is: What does the loss of quality mean to you?
thank you for long explanation. Yes i got your point. I like to watch movies and tv series in high bit rate otherwise in big screen it looks like fuzzy and pixels. Images not sharp in 1080p too. In mobiles I think less bit rate isn’t that problem because most mobiles has a small ips panels.
Any branded server recommendations?
@Madshark said:
Well, i don’t know every in&outs of the accelerated HW transcoding yet. I tested it once on a desktop PC.
Based on my experience, its very memory hungry, it lowers your video quality greatly and its as stable as nitroglycerine in a blender.
But it’s still under heavy development.
Thank you for the explanation. I think its time to forget about hardware acceleration until plex release a stable update 
Any ideas about branded server recommendations? Dell, HP etc or custom home made
@Anuruddha said:
@Madshark said:
Well, i don’t know every in&outs of the accelerated HW transcoding yet. I tested it once on a desktop PC.
Based on my experience, its very memory hungry, it lowers your video quality greatly and its as stable as nitroglycerine in a blender.
But it’s still under heavy development.Thank you for the explanation. I think its time to forget about hardware acceleration until plex release a stable update
Any ideas about branded server recommendations? Dell, HP etc or custom home made
Well…That really depends on what are you looking for.
If you need a rock solid stable unit, that comes with offline KVM control (so you have total control of server without physical presence), you don’t mind the potential loud noise and money isnt any issue, go for a branded server
Branded servers can cost a multiple of what you can build by your own, and tends to be quite inflexible when it comes to customize future hardware changes. Plus, in general, they can only ordered with more expensive XEON or EPYC cpu’s.
So, when going to host your Plex server just at home, i would rather build or customize own server, perfectly fitted on your needs, and put those extra money into storage.
That brings me on, what about your storage ? As storage is at least as important as your CPU
@Madshark said:
Well, i don’t know every in&outs of the accelerated HW transcoding yet. I tested it once on a desktop PC.
Based on my experience, its very memory hungry, it lowers your video quality greatly and its as stable as nitroglycerine in a blender.
But it’s still under heavy development.
You’ll be quite surprised… All will be clear in a few days. (the most I can say at this time)
lol i hope so!
@Madshark said:
@Anuruddha said:
@Madshark said:
Well, i don’t know every in&outs of the accelerated HW transcoding yet. I tested it once on a desktop PC.
Based on my experience, its very memory hungry, it lowers your video quality greatly and its as stable as nitroglycerine in a blender.
But it’s still under heavy development.Thank you for the explanation. I think its time to forget about hardware acceleration until plex release a stable update
Any ideas about branded server recommendations? Dell, HP etc or custom home madeWell…That really depends on what are you looking for.
If you need a rock solid stable unit, that comes with offline KVM control (so you have total control of server without physical presence), you don’t mind the potential loud noise and money isnt any issue, go for a branded serverBranded servers can cost a multiple of what you can build by your own, and tends to be quite inflexible when it comes to customize future hardware changes. Plus, in general, they can only ordered with more expensive XEON or EPYC cpu’s.
So, when going to host your Plex server just at home, i would rather build or customize own server, perfectly fitted on your needs, and put those extra money into storage.
That brings me on, what about your storage ? As storage is at least as important as your CPU
I got it. I think its better to build a custom server and add more storage.
Do you have any commandeered high performance CPU?
RAM?
Motherboard?
HDD?
Case?
power supply?
thank you.
