Is the i5 8400 overkill for my Media Server needs?


essasetic

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I am planning to build my own media server with unRAID as the primary OS. I have ordered an i5 8400 and I have only just thought of the question "is it overkill for my needs?" 

 

My library consists of mostly 1080p HVEC Movies (with some 4K HVEC & 1080p H.264 & 480p movies sprinkled in). And mostly 1080p HVEC TV Shows (with some 4K HVEC and 480p HVEC sprinkled in there). 

 

It's mostly just going to be my family using my server (haven't organized any connections with my friends yet). It's maybe a bit late now (and I can simply use the excuse that it leaves headroom for other stuff). But I want to know so I can make the best CPU and overall build options next time.

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Are you going to be just streaming the media internally inside your house, or do you have plans to run something like Plex? If its just for internal use, it will be fine, however if you plan on running Plex check out the requirements below. You need to keep some CPU for unRAID as well.

The passmark score for your CPU is 11650
Here are the requirements for a single stream for Plex

 

Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark score requirements are a good guideline for the following average source file:

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

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8 minutes ago, ashman70 said:

Are you going to be just streaming the media internally inside your house, or do you have plans to run something like Plex? If its just for internal use, it will be fine, however if you plan on running Plex check out the requirements below. You need to keep some CPU for unRAID as well.

The passmark score for your CPU is 11650
Here are the requirements for a single stream for Plex

 

Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark score requirements are a good guideline for the following average source file:

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

I plan to use Jellyfin for my media server software of choice. It will be internally mostly (depends if I decide to go out or I decide to give access to someone else outside the house). The CPU is just barely below the 4K SDR requirement (I might get away with it without Hardware Acceleration for one stream). But looks like I'll mostly have to use Hardware Acceleration. 

 

Thanks!

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33 minutes ago, essasetic said:

 But looks like I'll mostly have to use Hardware Acceleration.

The i5 8400 has an iGPU that supports QuickSync Video.  Both Plex and Emby (and I assume Jellyfin since it is a fork of Emby) support iGPU for hardware acceleration.  If Jellyfin supports a QSV-enabled iGPU then the CPU does not have to be terribly powerful unless you will also be running a lot of dockers, VMs, etc.  I know many Plex/Emby users are getting good hardware transcoding for 2-4 streams with Pentium/i3 processors.  This is mostly for remote/mobile clients.  Your media, if encoded properly, should direct stream locally without transcoding with a decent client.

Edited by Hoopster
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27 minutes ago, ashman70 said:

I know hardware acceleration in Plex requires a supported video card, how does it work with Jellyfin? Is it purely CPU based?

Jellyfin supports Quick Sync since it is based off Emby 3.5.2

 

3 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

The i5 8400 has an iGPU that supports QuickSync Video.  Both Plex and Emby (and I assume Jellyfin since it is a fork of Emby) support iGPU for hardware acceleration.  If Jellyfin suport QSV-enabled iGPU then the CPU does not have to be terribly powerful unless you will also be running a lot of dockers, VMs, etc.  I know many Plex/Emby users are getting good hardware transcoding for 2-4 streams with Pentium/i3 processors.  This is mostly for remote/mobile clients.  Your media, if encoded properly, should direct stream locally without transcoding with a decent client.

I see. I might get off lucky with direct playing through my 4K Samsung TV via DLNA and it'll leave a lot of headroom for what you've just mentioned. 

 

Thanks!

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