Hello all,

 

I recently built myself a cheap PC to use as a Plex server for Movies and Photos. I really like its ease of use and accessability.  It consists of i5-8400 and 8GB 2400mhz RAM and a 120GB SSD(for OS) and 2TB HDD(Storage). This setup works great in my home to stream 4k & 1080p rips to Nvidia Shield. 

 

Now I want to build a larger, more powerful server to allow multiple streams and data access at once. I'd like to be able to give access to my family so they can stream movies and also be able to back-up their photos and videos.

 

Please let me know if I can use any of these parts in this build.

Gigabyte H310N LGA 1151

Intel i5-8400

2x8GB 2666mhz RAM

2x4GB 2400mhz RAM

120GB SSD

250GB SSD

2TB HDD

8TB HDD

Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB

 

TL;DR

 

A Plex server for 4 possible streams at once that may need transcoding and enough storage for MANY 4k and 1080 rips. What am I looking at?

 

Thanks!!!!

 

P.S. I currently have a 500MB down and 60MB up internet. I will probably upgrade to the Gigabit plan.

Edited February 18, 20197 yr by Drivinfast247
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If you want to have plex make media available to external uses outside your home you need to follow this guide.

 

The CPU you are proposing has a passmark score off 11620, the recommendations from Plex are:

 

4K HDR (50Mbps, 10-bit HEVC) file: 17000 PassMark score (being transcoded to 10Mbps 1080p)

4K SDR (40Mbps, 8-bit HEVC) file: 12000 PassMark score (being transcoded to 10Mbps 1080p)

1080p (10Mbps, H.264) file: 2000 PassMark score

720p (4Mbps, H.264) file: 1500 PassMark score

 

So according to this guide, this CPU would not be able to even handle a single 4K stream, but it could certainly handle multiple 1080p and 720p streams.

You must be direct playing your 4K streams inside your house with the same or similar setup, streaming to outside users is a different matter altogether. I do it but my Plex server has dual 8 core Xeon cpu's and I have had 5 concurrent users on my Plex server and it was not even pushing 50% utilization on the CPU.

44 minutes ago, ashman70 said:

The CPU you are proposing has a passmark score off 11620, the recommendations from Plex are:

 

4K HDR (50Mbps, 10-bit HEVC) file: 17000 PassMark score (being transcoded to 10Mbps 1080p)

4K SDR (40Mbps, 8-bit HEVC) file: 12000 PassMark score (being transcoded to 10Mbps 1080p)

1080p (10Mbps, H.264) file: 2000 PassMark score

720p (4Mbps, H.264) file: 1500 PassMark score 

 

Aren't these software (CPU) transcoding recommendations? 

 

The i5 8400 has Quick Sync Video support and an iGPU so he can use hardware (GPU) transcoding with Plex, Emby or Jellyfin.  The Coffee Lake CPUs can do 4K/HEVC 10-bit hardware transcoding.  I don't know what the impact is on the CPU/GPU as I only have a Skylake CPU which cannot do 10-bit HEVC in hardware and software 10-bit HEVC transcodes brings it to its knees. 

 

For 1080p transcodes, with my 4c/8t Xeon, I have had as many as 6 going simultaneous without issue.  I support 4 additional households from my Plex server and have it configured to stream in 4mbps 720p quality remotely.  Everyone seems satisfied with this.

 

Also, with the recently released unRAID Nvidia plugin from Linuxservio.io, discrete Nvidia GPUs can be used for hardware transcoding as well.  I have not seen any benchmarks/specs on hardware transcoding with a P2000 Quadro for example, but that GPU does support unrestricted transcodes and, is capable of HEVC 10-bit HDR. 

Awesome information so far! Thank you! 

 

I should've been a bit more clear. The streams outside my home would be limited to 1080p 20mbps at the most.

 

I currently have no issues playing a 4k stream and 2 1080p streams at the same time

 

 

Edited February 16, 20197 yr by Drivinfast247