Hi

 

I an Unraid-newbee, running unRAID Server Basic version 5.0-rc10 on a newly build machine with f.e ASUS P8H77-I motherboard, Intel Core i3-3240 processor, 8GB RAM and two Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM in a RAID1.

 

One of my main goals is to be able to look at movies on our iphones, iPads and TV through AppleTV and I installed Plex Media Server to get the job done. I must say I'm fairly new to building PC's but I manage to get the system up and running with bootable usb-stick.

 

Now, when I'm trying to watch a 720p movie and choosing subtitles (transcoding, yes I know) the movie just gets the hiccup. I installed Istat on unRaid and iPad to watch CPU and even if it's doing som major peaks during this it never hits 100% and it only peaks, never stays for example on 100%

 

Have I done something wrong?

Isn't Intel i3 (3,5 GHz Dual Core) fixing transcoding 720p?

Should I get a fast cache-disc to use outside array to speed up Plex?

 

If someone would give me som assistance here I would be very pleased.

Thanks in advance

When I ran Plex on my older i3 unRAID box, it handed multiple 1080p transcodes no problem.  Without knowing anything more about your setup other than what you provided, I would say a cache drive would definitely help, since right now the transcoding is taking place on your protected array, and thus is requiring parity writes.  I believe a cache drive will require you to upgrade to a paid version of unRAID (which, I would think you'll be doing in the very near future anyway).

 

Hope this helps.

 

When I ran Plex on my older i3 unRAID box, it handed multiple 1080p transcodes no problem.  Without knowing anything more about your setup other than what you provided, I would say a cache drive would definitely help, since right now the transcoding is taking place on your protected array, and thus is requiring parity writes.  I believe a cache drive will require you to upgrade to a paid version of unRAID (which, I would think you'll be doing in the very near future anyway).

 

Hope this helps.

Thanks, but aren't transcoding mostly a CPU-issue... how much cpu does it really take to keep up the protected array?

with 3.5 GHz, 8GB RAM, 7200 rpm hdd's and cat5e ethernet one should think that It would be enough for transcoding?

 

When running plex from my Macbookpro with 2.66 GHz i7 I can nearly have unlimited of applications open and still stream 1080p transcoded to appleTV, how come?

 

Perhaps I'm missing something here... Its my first DIY NAS but it does not sound ok in my ears...

 

And also... since I'm not running with user shares or something like that I'm only interesting to use a "cache disc" for Plex to (hopefully) shorten transcoding time