upgrade for hw transcode

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So a lot of my plex library is now 4k and the transcode is really killing my server. Its a xeon 1240v3 with 32gb ram. This platform does not support igpu hw decode/encode thus I now think its time to upgrade. I'm thinking of a Intel i7-8700K cpu with 32GB ram. Im a bit stuck on what motherboard I should get since I understand it so the chipset also has to support igpu. I was thinking of a c246 chipset board and I would like to have IPMI if possible. The IMPI board I can find really lacks on PCI slots and thats not soo good. I know Asus (no IPMI) has 2 C246 boards and it has many slots. Is there any other boards I should consider? I would also want to be able to run the fan plugin too.

[Tybio]

Be careful with C246 boards, the processors themselves only support 16 lanes of PCI-E, so anything above that is via the chipset and often means you have to make a choice (Like one of the M.2 slots and a x4 PCI-E slot sharing lanes, so only one works at a time).

 

Check out the thread on the E-2186G, especially the last few pages..lot of conversation on this topic in there.  The E-2186/76G are basically i7-8700s that support ECC and have lower TDP.  In benchmarks there is little to no value in the highest end as the processors thermal throttle holds them back anyway.

[Tybio]

Also, be wary of 4k transcoding, even if hardware is supported the tone mapping of HDR/DV content is questionable at best.  

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Great info, thanks. I don’t need ECC, but I guess the E-2100 series support non ECC memory too? If so then a C246 would not be a compromise I guess. HW Transcode does have issues now with HDR, but I think the issues will be fixed by Plex later since the encoder and decoder supports HDR.

Is there a better MD for this task, and are there other chipsets that support igpu hw?

 

 

[Tybio]

I really hope they will get fixed, I've also had issues transcoding for a Firestick (it wouldn't hardware transcode it for some reason) but for all other clients it seems bullet proof ATM...if you are ok with washed out colors!  

 

The only benefits (as I see it) to a E series over an i7 are the (slightly) lower TDP, and the slightly newer cut of the iGPU (Which can be a down side at the moment as Linux needs an update to 4.20 to get them fully functional).  From the platform perspective, IPMI will work with both on the c246 so not really a differentiator IMHO.

 

I'm using the SM board and it is very nice, The developer of the IPMI plugin helped with support for it already so I'm using that to control the fans (Check that thread in the plugin support forum for details).

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I really would like to get the SM board since it has IPMI, asus has it's own that I guess is not IPMI compatible. The SM board does have a challange for me, it only has 2 full length card slots and I want to fit in 2 LSI SATA cards and a GTX 1030, it seems not possible unless I place one of the cards in a 4x slot. Then I would also have no room for anything else Question is if I go with the 8700K chip, is there a better board that has IPMI and also the correct chipset for iGPU support? 

[Tybio]

I don't believe so, but I didn't look into the i7 chipsets.

 

One thing, again, to be careful of.  Just because there are "slots" doesn't mean you can use them.  The CPU only has 16 lanes, so if you tried to use 8x off of the chipset your ability to use them will be completely constrained.  For example, even in the Asus there is only the following configurations avaliable:

 

Lets take a look at the following diagram.  What this shows is that on the Asus board, you have a single 16x OR dual 8x from the CPU.  All other PCI-E is routed via the chipset and has trade offs.  Firstly, there are NO slots that will function at 8x from the chipset....even if they are physically 8x slots on the MB.  Secondly, you have decisions to make...You get 1 4x and 2 1x slots all the time, but to use the other 4x slot will disable 4 SATA ports.  If you use an SATA M.2 you lose another one.

 

So there does not seem to be a way to get 3 functional PCI-E 8x slots in a C246 board, the limitation is the processor which only has 16 lanes (this is the same as the i7-8700).  To get more PCI-E lanes you would have to go with a Xeon or TR and then you can do anything you want, but you lose the iGPU.

 

Using a workstation processor has limitations, PCI-E lanes is the main way they limit the growth of these systems.  If I were building today, I would likely go with a cheap Ryzen 2600 and a Quatro for transcoding...then I can do whatever I want on the MB/CPU front in the future and know I'm good for transcoding....I'd at least separate the upgrade cycle a bit that way!

 

I hope this is slightly helpful :).

 

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Thanks, really good points there