Old system retrofit vs new components

[csimpson]

So for the last 45 days, I started from moving from my 12 year old Intel® Core™ i5 CPU 650 @ 3.20GHz with 6GB of memory windows 10 machine over to Unraid. It was running Plex and I just started to poke at DizqueTV. That's where I thought, "Hey, let's move away from Windows to something new."

I feel like a kid in a candyshop with all the things available. VMs and Dockers and Plugins. Montoring and tweaking...

Since then, I've got Unraid set up with two 8TB drives and an 8TB parity drive.  I've got a 14TB external drive to be stored offsite. I'm using the User Scripts plugin to run R-SYNC to sync to the backup drive (and I have a 4TB external drive that spins up every morning at 3am to sync home videos/pics, financial docs and other non-replaceable files.)

But Plex/DisqueTV has been a nag to me.  For the longest time, everything just ran using Direct Play to my various Apple TV devices in the house. My system's draw on the UPS was 54Watts when running and 45 Watts when Idle.

I started down the road to transcoding because DisqueTV/Plex was having an issue with all the different formats. I tried Tdarr but it would cripple my poor old CPU. So I went out and bought an Nvidia 1650.  It works great! NVENC is working great with Tdarr and DisqueTV is humming alongg (albeit with quirks).

However, I'm at the point where I'm looking for efficiency and safety.  The PSU, Mobo and CPU is 10+ years old but the performance hasn't been limiting really. 

However, the PSU is a Bronze+. At some point, it'll fail. Just not sure when.  The mother boards memory limit is 8GB and I suspect that as I grow with Unraid, I may be looking at running VM's (Or maybe not, I'm not totally sure what I would do with them).

So The challenges currently facing me.

1. Do I return the 1650 and purchase a new Mobo with an Intel 12400 (or comparable) and use Intel QuickSync instead in NVENC?
2. Currently, when running my system and transcoding for DisqueTV the power draw is around 75watts. I'm curious if a new CPU, Mobo, PSU, would cut my power usage down by half, or if 75 watts is perfectly respectable?
3. If I keep my setup as it is, I need to figure out a new case and the 1650 requires a 6-pin Molex power connector. Unfortunately, with this connected, by case won't close.

My case is an older NMEDIA 2000B HTPC case.  6 Drive Bays and looks like on the outside, but dated.  Everything runs pretty cool...  But, I'm not sure if I'd see much of a performance/efficiency increase going from the NVidia card with a 10+ year old CPU/Mobo/Memory, etc to a new Mobo, Intel 12400+ and no Video card.

 

Edited June 4 by csimpson

[ConnerVT]

Trust me. You will see a difference.

 

I ran a 1st Gen i3 for many years longer than I should have. When I finally updated to a 1st Gen Ryzen 1500X, the difference was mind blowing.  Fast forward a few years and the performance of current processors is significant ..

[csimpson]

1 hour ago, ConnerVT said:

Trust me. You will see a difference.

 

I ran a 1st Gen i3 for many years longer than I should have. When I finally updated to a 1st Gen Ryzen 1500X, the difference was mind blowing.  Fast forward a few years and the performance of current processors is significant ..

Lol, I just read your story in your signature at:

 

I can completely relate!

Where would the extra performance be seen? Clicking around in Unraid is super quick. Plex is snappy. Other than that, where would the performance be?

 

[ConnerVT]

Away from home today, typing on an iPad, so this will be short.

 

It is alway s hard to give hardware recommendations as it isn’t only WHAT you will do but HOW MUCH of it you will be doing.  The 2c/4t Clarkdale was released in 2010, and will do any one thing okay. It is more when you ask it to do multiple things at one time.  Even with a GPU installed, it will use cpu for transcoding audio (video too if you have subtitles).   Running a parity check,  moving files to/from the array at the same time?  Decide you want to run a docker or two?  You will be cpu limited very quickly. 
 

Much of Unraid runs from memory so 1333 DDR is well less than half th speed of current memory. Since the cpuwill be laboring every time you ask the server to do something, it will be running around its max power (~75W TDP). Modern CPUs max lower, even less as they won’t even be breaking a sweat.

 

Your use case doesn’t seem to need a top end system. You likely can find a used system, a few years old, which will fit your needs and will include the memory, case, power supply.  

[csimpson]

On 6/5/2024 at 4:45 AM, ConnerVT said:

Away from home today, typing on an iPad, so this will be short.

 

It is alway s hard to give hardware recommendations as it isn’t only WHAT you will do but HOW MUCH of it you will be doing.  The 2c/4t Clarkdale was released in 2010, and will do any one thing okay. It is more when you ask it to do multiple things at one time.  Even with a GPU installed, it will use cpu for transcoding audio (video too if you have subtitles).   Running a parity check,  moving files to/from the array at the same time?  Decide you want to run a docker or two?  You will be cpu limited very quickly. 
 

Much of Unraid runs from memory so 1333 DDR is well less than half th speed of current memory. Since the cpuwill be laboring every time you ask the server to do something, it will be running around its max power (~75W TDP). Modern CPUs max lower, even less as they won’t even be breaking a sweat.

 

Your use case doesn’t seem to need a top end system. You likely can find a used system, a few years old, which will fit your needs and will include the memory, case, power supply.  

Just ordered an i5 12400 (with Intel GPU for quicksync) , new Gigabyte Mobo (with two M.2 drive slots), 32GB of memory.  Will use my existing case for the time being and be on the hunt for a new PSU.

 

[ADDED:]  Alternatively, I'm not sure if I should got for the i3 12100 instead for a lower idle current draw? This system won't be used for gaming or anything.

Edited June 6 by csimpson

[ConnerVT]

I would stick with the i5 and its 6 cores.  Cores are King for servers in the productivity space.  Helps when multiple tasks happen at the same time, if you decide to start experimenting with Docker/VM, and you likely won't see any difference in idle power.  Even at "idle" a server is usually doing something.  And what ends up being most important is total power over time - More cores loafing along usually end up consuming less energy than less cores working harder.

[csimpson]

1 hour ago, ConnerVT said:

I would stick with the i5 and its 6 cores.  Cores are King for servers in the productivity space.  Helps when multiple tasks happen at the same time, if you decide to start experimenting with Docker/VM, and you likely won't see any difference in idle power.  Even at "idle" a server is usually doing something.  And what ends up being most important is total power over time - More cores loafing along usually end up consuming less energy than less cores working harder.

Hmmm,  I'm just not sure what else I would be doing? I have a Macbook Pro that I do all my day to day work on. Gaming is handled by the PS5 and Switch in the media room on the 120 inch 4K screen.

 

The Unraid/fileserver is for storing data and serving up Plex/DisqueTV to the household. tDarr for some transcoding but so far, that's about it.  That said, I'm tinkering and TRYING to find stuff to do with it.  No home camera surveillance. 

But my last server is 10+ years old and much of the reason of upgrading is the fear of older hardware failing. 

 

I'm thinking about this FAR too much, lol.