Opinions on modest upgrade for remote Emby streaming

[ken-ji]

Hi, am currently thinking of upgrading my server to do better streaming via Emby

Its currently as follows:

Case: Cooler Master Elite 110

MINIX H61M-USB3

Intel Pentium G645 2.9Ghz

Kingston HyperX 16GB

WD40EZRX (Cache)

LSI 9206-16e(HBA)

 

Drive Case: Areca 4036

ST8000AS0002(Parity)

2x ST8000AS0002(Data)

4x WD40EFRX(Data)

 

What I have in mind is:

Asrock Z270M-ITX/AC

Intel Pentium G4560

Ballistix Sport LT 8GB 2x (2400MHz)

 

I just need some speed, and HW accelerated transcoding.

My files are mainly 720p and 1080p - with the occasional 4K files (Which my current NUC HTPC is having issues with)

I do have 50Mbps Symetrical fiber Internet and am thinking of using it for Emby remote access.

 

I might add an SSD later for Emby, but I'm happy right now (I think)

 

Any suggestions or comments regarding this upgrade?

[lionelhutz]

You may not want to use the 1st core for an Emby docker since that could tie up the server OS. I'd tend to think a 4-core would be better so you have multiple cores to encode a 4k file.

[tdallen]

Sounds like a good plan.  You get a little more performance as you go to the G4620 and then the Core i3-7100 and 7300 - if you can get one of those for a few $ more it might be worth it.  The best discussion I've seen on HW transcoding recently was the one below, but you dropped in on it so you probably saw the rest of it.

 

 

[ken-ji]

Right, so I went and grabbed my parts:

Asrock Z270M-ITX/AC

Intel Pentium G4620

Kingston KVR24N17D8-16

 and plopped them in.

 

Burned out my PSU after a few days - not sure why... but hey, I'm only supporting 1 WD 40EZRX, and a bunch of fans to keep the LSI cool.

So far so good. and Emby is fairly responsive, except when it scans my Incoming directory after tossing in a bunch of stuff.

 

Nice and modest upgrade. but a bit pricey (the RAM shouldn't cost that much...)

[lionelhutz]

Did you get hardware decoding working with Emby? If so, how? 

 

I tried the steps in that linked thread and couldn't get it to work. Even tried variations on the Docker container setup like mapping /dev/dri as a path instead of that device string.

[ken-ji]

I only saw your response now... but yeah I got it working... (It was working before I upgraded... and still is)

Though people seem to be encountering difficulties...