Is unRaid right for my needs?

[Nicolai]

Hello Everyone.

 

I've been trying to find out which kind of system I should invest in for a NAS server with plex capabilities for a maximum of 2 streams. So far I've mostly managed to find out, that unRaid have the most helpful and informed community, so I've decided to put that to the test.

 

I want to make a NAS device to run plex. It have to be low power and efficient, for that I've found, that Pentium Silver J5005 and Celeron J4015 should be the sufficient for my needs of transcoding on the fly, as both apparently support hardware accelerated transcoding, . The Pentium Silver J5005 run Intel UHD Graphics 605 with a base frequency of 250 MHz and a burst frequency of 800 MHz on 18 execute units, while the Celeron J4105 run Intel UHD Graphics 600 with a base frequency of 250 MHz and a burst frequency of 750 MHz. Would either work for my needs or is the tiny bit more umpf from the Pentium Silver J5005 make a difference?

 

The downside of them is that they only support PCIe 2.0 with a maximum of 6 lanes and they don't offer a lot of SATA ports and no SAS ports at all, this leads me to the second question, that's specific for unRaid. Everyone everywhere I read say not to use Marwell controllers, as they apparently make a mess in VMs. But since I'm not planning on running any virtual machines, only a NAS with Plex server on it, would that still be a controller to avoid? And how about JMicron?

 

As for ease of use, I want to be able to make my NAS available as a Shared Network Folder in my Windows 10, is that possible with unRaid? And I want a "Setup and forget" system, that would unRaid be a good fit for that or should I go with a Synology?

[Frank1940]

Current recommendation is to use LSI based solutions.  See here:

 

    https://forums.unraid.net/topic/69018-sata-controller-replacement-question-and-advice/?tab=comments#comment-630097

 

There are many of these cards available at very reasonable prices.

 

Why are you so enamored with that CPU/MB combination?   You are at the very low end as far as CPU power for modern processors and a MB with the very minimum of flexibility.   

[Nicolai]

I'd prefer using that combination of CPU/MB, because of the low power consumption and low TDP. It'll leave very little need for active cooling and if those 2 processors can cover my need for a plex server and network shared storage, then they will fit my needs perfectly: A dead silent NAS device with a plex media server, with very little energy needs.

 

If there's other CPUs available, that also support hardware accelerated transcoding, with as low a TDP and power consumption, then I'm all ears?

[Frank1940]

You have given not indication of how many drives you intend to use.  You will probably have to provide active cooling for those drives.  You may also consider the addition of a SATA controller card so having some PCI-e slots is a definite plus.  

 

Back in the olden days, it was considered that transcoding required 2000 passmarks per Plex stream.  I have heard that GPU assisted transcoding has dropped that considerably but verify that the GPU on that MB is a supported one and that it will support two streams at once.  (I actually wonder if most modern devices require  off-board transcoding  today.  There is a lot of CPU power in most devices and displays.  I know that my LG-OLED 4K TV does a wonderful job of scaling DVD content to 4K!)

 

I am not saying that your CPU/MB is completely the wrong choice to make but you should also be open to going with a  more main stream approach with some wiggle room for upgrades and expansion.  You don't want to be asking about an upgrade path in three to four years...

 

You will find that many of us have details on our systems in our signatures.  Both of my systems are strictly NAS boxes with a few plugins and Dockers.  They have a lot of extra CPU power. (Enough that they are in the top 4% of Folding at Home members!)  The CPU/MB/RAM/SATA card combination was about $300 apiece.   Both systems idle about 45W (When Folding at Home is paused!) and that includes three fans per case.

[Nicolai]

I intend to run at most 8 drives and because of how good a job tvs does these days, I don't think I'll be needing an upgrade any time soon with that setup. The only reason I can see for an upgrade, is if Intel quick sync gets an upgrade and if that happens then it's not going to matter if I run a full Xeon E or a celeron J4105, it's a new CPU and MB either way. 

 

I'm not sure if it's obvious at this point (lol), but I'm not a person with great knowledge of computers, nor do I use them outside of playing the odd game here and there, working in an excel sheet or word document, doing research online, but I do like the appeal of having my movies available to me just by clicking on the remote. That's pretty much gonna be my entire use for a nas, saving holiday pictures and my movies with the security that unraid provides if a drive should fail. 

[Lindworm]

4 minutes ago, Nicolai said:

I intend to run at most 8 drives and because of how good a job tvs does these days, I don't think I'll be needing an upgrade any time soon with that setup. The only reason I can see for an upgrade, is if Intel quick sync gets an upgrade and if that happens then it's not going to matter if I run a full Xeon E or a celeron J4105, it's a new CPU and MB either way. 

 

I'm not sure if it's obvious at this point (lol), but I'm not a person with great knowledge of computers, nor do I use them outside of playing the odd game here and there, working in an excel sheet or word document, doing research online, but I do like the appeal of having my movies available to me just by clicking on the remote. That's pretty much gonna be my entire use for a nas, saving holiday pictures and my movies with the security that unraid provides if a drive should fail. 

Hi, this will work as a NAS for sure, but I don't see it with plex. First of all, that processor will barely manage to convert one stream if at all (and plex is now testing those capabilitys and stop converting if its not enough). Second, to utilize any gpu encoding on plex you need a plex pass. It works fine with an nvida card, okayisch with an an amd card, but I have not yet seen a working configuration with intel hardware. Sry to bring that to you.

[Hoopster]

12 minutes ago, Lindworm said:

but I have not yet seen a working configuration with intel hardware.

You have not seen what working with Intel hardware?  Plex transcoding?  Perhaps I misunderstood what you meant by this statement.

 

There are many, many users in these forums (myself included) using the iGPU built into many Intel CPUs for Plex transcoding.  There are even several who have it working great for their needs with the J4105 CPU.

 

Personally, I have a Xeon E-2288G with iGPU and I know it can handle over 10 simultaneous Plex transcodes (not that I will ever need it to do that) but I have tested it with that many.

 

From a straight CPU standpoint,  @Nicolai's  proposed CPUs would be inadequate for Plex software transcoding, but the built-in GPU offloads that from the CPU for hardware transcoding.

 

Many of us buy Intel CPUs specifically for the iGPU and Plex/Emby/Jellyfin hardware transcoding so we do not have to have a separate Nvidia GPU to do this.

[Lindworm]

Oh thats new to me thank you for the elaboration. Nice, that opens up new possebilities. Still you need a plex pass akaif, and those cost also need to be considered.

[Hoopster]

11 minutes ago, Lindworm said:

Oh thats new to me thank you for the elaboration. Nice, that opens up new possebilities. Still you need a plex pass akaif, and those cost also need to be considered.

Yes, a Plex Pass is required for any type of hardware transcoding.