Which CPU to switch to or full upgrade?

[AlexHackney]

So I've had an unraid build for going on 4 years now. During that time it's went through different iterations of cpu/mb starting with an atom system and currently its on a i3 8100 / C246M-WU4-CF with 16GB of DDR4 Corsair Ram.

I'm starting to use it more and more and here recently I installed an intel 2port NIC and started running my pfsense on it. Works great.
 

We also use plex for our house, some family properties and my daughters apartment a few thousand miles from here.

I'm noticing that the cpu usage on this chip is hitting 100% during peak usage and I know that's transcoding and just overall usage.

I'm trying to debate upgrading the mb and cpu to a newer version but I don't want to over do it. I use the fileserver for my business and I can write an upgrade off but I'm wondering if I should just try to get a few more years out of this mobo and just upgrade the chip.

If so, what chip should I go with? 

Of note, I am selling off an i9-10850k Z590 build with 64gb of ram, so I *could* use that but it really feels like overkill.

[MrSliff]

Hey,

 

had to do a similar consideration in the beginning of the year. Replace just my i3-8100 for a better one or switch the platform completely.

 

For my budget there were 2 options:

- Buy a i9-9900k and replace it with the i3-8100

- Switch to AMD and buy a CPU based on AM3 socket to have a future proof system in terms of cpu-upgradability.

 

In the end i chose the 9900k, because with plex i.e. you can use quicksync for transcoding the video streams, so it uses HW-Accelerated transcoding. In another point i did not need to buy an extra Graphics card for plex transcoding. Since i have a uATX build, there is restricted space for more Hardware. I only have a x16 and a x4 slot on my board. The x4 is already occupied by a i350 Quad Gigabit Network card.

 

Just to mention: The i3-8100 socket also takes the 9000 series CPUs, there just may be a BIOS update of the mainboard necessary. Downside is, this would be the only CPU upgrade you could do on your mainboard before switching to a newer architecture.

Edited August 26, 2021 by MrSliff

[Lolight]

On 8/25/2021 at 11:14 PM, AlexHackney said:

I'm noticing that the cpu usage on this chip is hitting 100% during peak usage and I know that's transcoding and just overall usage.

You haven't said much about the overall usage.

If your NAS is just a file server, there shouldn't be much of a CPU usage beside when transcoding.

Did you enable the Plex's hardware acceleration option?

If not then that would explain your high CPU load.

With the option enabled the i3-8100's built-in iGPU should be able to handle at least a few of hardware accelerated streams instead of taxing the main cores.

You cold you also try to direct play on the clients within your home network.

The direct play option doesn't need transcoding on your server.

Edited August 28, 2021 by Lolight