Upgrades for Plex


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Currently running an i7-2600 with 32GB RAM that almost never sees more than 8GB in use, along with a ton of dockers, including Plex.  When the system was built, the i7-2600 was only a few years old.  So its been that long since I've upgraded anything.  But everything is running well.

 

But....

 

I am giving many of my family members access to Plex because of all the stay at home stuff.  Everything I do is through a VPN.  I'm usually around 90-120Mbps down and 10-20 up, but right now I'm seeing 20-30 down and 8-10 up, probably because 99999 people are on the internet in my neighborhood.

 

I have also started to see a lot of 2160p content, and I don't think my i7 can handle transcoding that (I think I tried once), so I have been limiting everything to 1080.

 

I think it might be time to look at upgrading, and future-proofing, my unraid server.

 

I recall numerous AMD vs Intel discussions in the past, specifically mentioning one particular benchmark number as the gospel to follow with regard to CPU selection, but I can't remember now.   And now there is hardware acceleration, or something, using a video card?  Not very smart or up to speed on that.

 

Anyway, my goals, in no particular order, would be: low heat, low power consumption, new-ish hardware able to handle the next 5+ years without me upgrading again, able to handle 1080p+ streams for two local plus four or five remote users, possibly simultaneously.  I usually buy hardware used, and a generation or two behind what is current, but I don't have to do that in this case.  I want to be able to use my existing PCIe controller and gig-e card, so this would be a CPU/MB/RAM upgrade only, and whatever I buy would have to have slots for my LSI etc.

 

Comments welcome.

 

Thanks.

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3 hours ago, tucansam said:

I recall numerous AMD vs Intel discussions in the past, specifically mentioning one particular benchmark number as the gospel to follow with regard to CPU selection, but I can't remember now.   And now there is hardware acceleration, or something, using a video card?  Not very smart or up to speed on that.

The CPU passmark score is what determines how many simultaneous Plex software transcodes a CPU can handle.  The recommendation is 2000 passmarks per 1080p stream with 2000 left over for unRAID OS overhead.  The CPU in my main server has a passmark score of ~17000.  For a 4K software transcode you need ~17000 passmarks per stream (Plex recommendation). 

 

Passmark score is not so important if you are doing hardware based transcoding. This alleviates most of the load from the CPU. For that, you need either an Intel CPU with an integrated GPU or an AMD or Intel CPU with the UnRAID Nvidia plugin and unRAID build with a PCIe Nvidia GPU.  P2000 is popular as well as several GTX models.  If you go this route make sure your GPU is one that is supported for hardware transcoding.

 

Check out passmark scores for potential CPUs (software transcoding supported by free Plex) or look at hardware transcoding options (requires a Plex Pass) with either and Intel iGPU or Nvidia video card.

 

Alternatively, Plex in a Windows VM supports many AMD GPUs as well (not supported on Linux).

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Thank you for your reply, that is quite useful information indeed.

 

Given that the i7-2600 is on the list for hardware-based encoding ala the integrated GPU, is this a situation where I would need a MB that passed hardware on, like in a virtual machine?  Or will the Plex docker automatically use the GPU if available?

 

Same question for a discreet video card.... If I can simply add a modern GPU to my unraid server, then theoretically I don't have to upgrade at all, I can just let Plex use whatever GPU I add, correct?  Are there additional configurations that need to be done in that case?

 

Thanks again.

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1 hour ago, tucansam said:

 

Do any of the Plex dockers for unraid support passing the GPU hardware on to Plex?

If you are using an Intel iGPU, utilizing that in any Plex docker container is quite simple.  This is what I am doing with the Xeon E-2288G (Coffee Lake CPU).  See this thread for more details.

 

The chart below shows the various Intel CPU generations with Quick Sync Video support and their capabilities.  The i7-2600 being a Sandy Bridge processor is very limited in its capabilities.

 

image.thumb.png.1955dabc125cddc4fada4ae145c9f814.png

 

The Plex Hardware Acceleration Guidelines state that early generation iGPUs with QSV (such as Sandy Bridge) will produce lower-quality output than later generation processors.

 

For discrete Nvidia GPUs, you MUST use the unRAID Nvidia plugin and associated unRAID build with Nvidia drivers included.  Instructions are provided in the plugin thread for enabling supported cards in Plex and other containers supporting hardware acceleration.

 

See the first warning regarding hacks in the second post in the above linked plugin forum.

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Exactly what I was looking for, and understood on the final point.  Thank you. 

 

Additional reading shows that the nvidia GPU remains active and drawing considerable power after transcodes are done, and that there is a new driver coming, with no ETA.  Perhaps I will hold off for a few weeks.

 

 

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