Plex server hardware reddit You can choose your hardware as you wish, you can reuse your old hard drives, you can mix different drive sizes, you have the same if not better protection than any RAID combination, and you can stay at one server or create a second one, bring it to a different location and sync both through the internet so you have a online backup Hardware transcoding is done by the GPU and is not related to the CPU. Get an i3, if you want to go crazy get 128gb of ram. I’ll go over exactly what this means, what you get, and what you need to buy. The Quicksync hardware requires a specific driver (not part of the graphics driver) such as VA-API in order for software programs to access and use the Quicksync hardware. Honestly, i think it really depends on your use case, future planning for the server (purely plex? or running other things too?) to work out its future performance needs, for me, while the 7400 is perfect 90% of the times, it does struggle with some things, and does make me want to upgrade it, but then i need a new mobo etc too, so thats why im waiting, I'm planning to put an AMD CPU in as For questions and comments about the Plex Media Server. When I use the normal Ubuntu video player H265 4k is no problem (CPU 80-100%). As long as your new hardware can support the same storage devices for your array/parity, you can swap whatever you want (Mobo, CPU, Ram, Drives NOT in your Array/Parity/Cache). For context, my server is running on my desktop with a 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11700 @ 2. The N100 sports 16GB DDR4 RAM and a 500GB NVMe drive, and I'm already looking to make hardware upgrades to enhance my Plex server. I've been testing Jellyfin on a Synology with hardware encoding (Intel Celeron J4125) for the past days, and also moved docker and the jellyfin config/cache files onto an SSD-volume, which I ran sudo docker-compose up -d and the Plex container starts and I can see the server running, but I don't see the "Use hardware acceleration when available" checkbox in the transcoder settings or the "Transcode (hw)" status in the Plex activity monitor. · Part 3: Automating the workload (Jackett, Sonarr and Radarr, and Ombi) This will walk you through the questions you need to ask yourself when determining your hardware, what hardware you should go with depending on your budget, as well as explaining why you may wish to go with each piece of hardware. Its because you gain litterally zero benefit as plex server spending extra. I got some amazing performance out of an i5-8600k and its priced reasonably right now. This card and its driver support AV1 hardware end/dec, and VA-API, as well as libVA. Plex doesn't support AMD Radeon GPUs for hardware transcoding if you have plex pass. 6 days ago · I've been using the NVidia Shield for several years now, but every 2-6 months the database seems to corrupt and I need to reinstall the Plex This category is for discussing your hardware equipment you use for your server, play back devices or other devices you use to consume media. Hardware acceleration means nothing if you are not transcoding video. This page is community-driven and not run by or affiliated with Plex, Inc. 50GHz and 16GB of RAM. it all goes lightning fast with hardware decoding using an intel iGPU. Plex recently updated PMS to let admins control using hardware acceleration encoding when hardware acceleration is on, but you can't turn off HW decoding while keeping HW encoding active. It will work, just not as good as an intel with quicksync. I run Plex on a Dell PowerEdge T430 (from 5/2017) with dual Xeons (E5-2620v4) and PSUs, 96GB DDR4, 10GbE (+6x1GbE of which I am only using one for iDRAC8), 2xSSDs Raid10 for OS, 7x1. Something like a Beelink Mini PC with an Intel N100 (6w tdp) would be ideal. But when it comes to the server Intel quicksync is king. I recently did a full overhaul of my Unraid server. It is one of the selling points of Unraid. The server runs and functions perfectly fine, but I experience a severe bottleneck with my CPU doing all the transcoding work. You may be thinking of transcoding being performed by Intel Quick Sync on the CPU. Hardware wise I would stick to quicksync enabled Intel chips at and enable HW transcoding in plex. Looking to build a plex server for potentially a group of people to stream from. This is really powerful hardware, and since you have a dedicated GPU you'll most likely want to transcode videos for different clients, Plex only allows that if you pay the Plex Pass subscription or buy the lifetime option, which is expensive. I have a GPU and I have Plex Pass with Hardware acceleration enabled, but it seems my video is never transcoded with my GPU, ever. In case someone is interested in running Plex media server on the Raspberry Pi 5, I tried the PassMark software and it got a CPU score of 2206, which is be enough for one 1080p transcode because according to the Plex website, a score of 2000 is required for a 1080p transcode. It's worked pretty well as a Plex server for the last few years. My stance on NAS/Server is my server is both. 5" SAS HDD in Raid6 for /home and 7x2TB 5. 8TB 10K 12Gb/s 2. A discrete GPU is not needed for the requirements you listed. Direct Play works better than great with everything up to 4k HDR h. Intel i7-6700 16GB RAM Nvidia GeForce GT 730 AMD Radeon HD… For questions and comments about the Plex Media Server. Theoretically you can buy a 7000 series CPU now and hope Plex will add support for AMD's encoder in the future, especially now that all AMD CPUs going forward will have this encoder. H265 1080p 4520 kbps AC3 -> H264 720p 4000 kbps. Unraid OS is hardware agnostic (except the storage devices). Help for other software or issues, including content acquisition, should be directed to their own respective subreddits. Would the following hardware make a decent enough Plex server? The occasional transcoding. One big difference would be the fact that 10710U has 6 cores and 8559U has 4 cores and I'm not sure how much of a difference will that make for a plex server regarding streaming and transcoding and anything else plex related. 2K 2. N100 is the go-to for smaller builds. It has some benefits for storage but unlike HEVC it doesn't seem to have the support in hardware so the space you gain is somewhat imbalanced by the fact that the server may need to do transcoding in cases where it might not have been necessary with a different codec. If you need both the server brains and a place to stick HDD's, then a NAS is the way to go. Next, I installed Plex Media Server and enabled HDR tone mapping and hardware transcoding. 7349 (public release July 25th). Do you see these yourself? For questions and comments about the Plex Media Server. Still has plenty of memory headroom. It it generally recommended to use hardware accelerated streaming on my server if my hardware can handle it? I read the pros and cons on the Plex website, but am still kind of undecided. Over the past week, I've been trying to find the sweet spot for a home Plex media server setup, that would hardware transcode for multiple remote viewers. PS: avoid enclosures, the only way to preserve your collection from HD failure is a NAS. In which case GPU Acceleration and Intel Quicksync can be EXTREMLY useful to keep system usage at a minimum when transcoding. I am looking for something in the $200-$400 range that isn't too power hungry (excluding storage, which I already have). I recommend you use Jellyfin for the media server as it's a free open source alternative. 5. For context: my Mac mini was attached to three external drives. The Quicksync SIP core is not included as part of that hardware pass through, which is why Plex cannot make use of Quicksync when Plex is run in a VM. 10th gen has support for VP9 encoding For questions and comments about the Plex Media Server. I was originally running plex on windows server 2008 r2, and migrated to an ubuntu VM to make it more portable (containers weren't a thing yet) and its been rock solid, moving to new hardware twice. I'm currently using an Nvidia Shield for my Plex Media Server, which works, but want to move it to the new server in its own container. Generally, you'll want something with Intel Quick Sync for transcodes. What I have pieced together is: Unraid or FreeNas are ideal for parity. Storage is mapped with an SMB share. GPU is an Intel(R) UHD Graphics 750. I have been doing some research on hardware transcoding in this scenario and it seems possible ( HERE and HERE for example), but curious if anyone has feedback on this kind of setup. Thinking 2-3 transcodes at a time max as looking to direct stream as much as possible. " Tone Mapping: Converting HDR (high dynamic range) video to SDR (standard dynamic range) video. Zero. The hardware acceleration setting was present on my normal computer. Among other differences, HDR and SDR video have different references for the colors displayed on screen. I believe this happens because Plex doesn't utilize the GPU. · Part 2: Building a long-lasting media server (Hardware, Settings, Monitoring tools, Backups, and more) and nifty tricks. For questions and comments about the Plex Media Server. Here’s what you need for a Plex server for local content (assuming a “good” playback device) and for some remote streaming (assuming a “good” internet upload rate). In which case Hardware encoding/transcoding can become a very powerful tool, especially if you plan on sharing plex with others, many of whom might need it at lower resolutions etc. One great piece of advice: use software and hardware for which there is an already large Plex user base, because not only does that mean someone has already solved any problem you encounter, but that the Plex developers spend more time on getting things to work well for the popular devices and servers than for the less popular ones. I built my server with a Celeron processor. I’ll also go over what is unnecessary spend, and why some people spend. The best Plex server would have powerful hardware accelerated transcoding, high efficiency and plentiful cheap storage. But I just upgraded my 2017 Shield TV to a 2019 Pro. I have seen a wealth of information on this subreddit on how to build a powerful server on a budget. Welcome to /r/PlexServers, a subreddit dedicated to Plex server builds. Runs great, it's capable of QSV (hardware transcode) up to and including HEVC. i saw 15ish h265 transcodes no problem, and 20+ h264 transcodes. Plex will actually report that it is using HW transcoding but the CPU use will be near 100% meaning it is actually SW transcoding. It runs Radarr, Sonarr, Sabnzbd, Plex and a sizeable zfs array with 4 disks. AMD's h264 encoder isn't great though, quality wise. . I'm eyeing the Arc 380a, since I have a spare AMD 3900x CPU sitting The Plex Media Server is smart software that makes playing Movies, TV Shows and other media on your computer simple. This server has an i3-12100, 32 GB RAM (Non-ECC), 3 x 4TB WD Red Plus drives in raid 5 for TrueNAS, plus 500GB SSD for VMs running on proxmox. If you have other uses outside plex then sure. As a bonus, if able, get Plex Pass for hardware transcoding and Linux as an OS (you will get the most out this machine). From there I might look into hosting things like game servers (+ Foundry Tabletop), so a scalable solution would be awesome (or at least something I can learn to build off of). for example the i3 10100 and the i7 10700 have both the intel uhd 630 as a integraded gpu so they will perform around As a lot of my media is encoded in x265, and I have no hardware transcoding on my Synology, the server struggles a lot playing back (transcoding) in HEVC. Most of the data can be "re-acquired" but it will be difficult gathering the 1 TB of HiDef music video collection and 1 TB of HiDef DTS and Dolby demo videos. An i9 is just pointless waste. But it might be a while before AV1 is relevant. Your use doesn't sound like it will really need the extra performance you get out of a 10th gen+. 5" SATA HDD in Raid6 for backup. 12TB WD reds are a great hard drive. Handling 8 streams before lagging, with a slowdown of scrubbing at 6 streams. Later, for additional storage you can get a small NAS. Hardware Upgrade Suggestions: I'm open to suggestions for hardware upgrades that can help boost the performance of my Plex server. It's surprising to move to AV1 for personal use. I even tried wiping the whole thing and starting fresh with an Ubuntu/Docker setup, which _did_ see some (hw) transcoding action, but it was sluggish in other areas, and I went running back M1 Macbook Air base model running the latest M1 Plex Server, transcoding the movie Avatar. On my server I will have to restart the system to get HW transcoding back if I use windows Remote Desktop during a session. Plex refers to using the GPU as "Hardware Accelerated Streaming" or "Hardware Accelerated Transcoding. The main focus of your post should be directly related to Plex which includes Plex Media Server, Plex clients, Plex features, and/or Plex Inc. My Plex server right now has 24 mirrors with sitcoms back to the 70’s. An i3 is already "on the safe side". Hey all, after waiting for what has seemed like ages for Plex to enable hardware (NVIDIA based) transcoding for HDR to SDR tone mapping on Windows Plex Server, I noticed that they finally updated their support article stating that this should now work on the 64-bit version of the Windows server. Incidentally, I used to have a 2012 i7 mini as a Plex server (16 gb RAM, two internal SSDs, amazing machine). Currently I have a small server that I built a few months ago where I'm running proxmox with TrueNAS Core, Plex, modded minecraft server, and a kemp load balancer acting as a reverse proxy. 99% of people. My Plex server is an i3-7100 with Intel HD 630 GPU. I have a Synology 1819+ as a generic file server for the family with remote access, but it is not that great for Plex. Plex's hardware support for Quick Sync makes it a transcoding beast. I've been using a QNAP TS-453Be (celeron J3455 1500 MHz (4 cores/4 threads) with hardware acceleration via Plex Pass. I've tried enabling the hardware acceleration, but it wasn't in the settings for my server (yes I have plex pass). I have a ryzen7 1700 as a main pc and you have reason: in the last years amd has the best quality/price ratio, but the problem is that for a plex media server is hightly raccomanded an intel cpu because they have the quicksync (hardware transcoding) otherwise old Intel cpu / every AMD cpu use software transcoding that it use much more resources with less performance For questions and comments about the Plex Media Server. For DIY builds, an 12th gen or newer i3 is sufficient, though most people are avoiding 13th and 14th gen Intel CPUs due to recent well-documented issues. News about new enterprise or commodity hardware and software that can help you in your plex server journey. On Windows plex has supported AMD for a much longer time already. The Plex Media Server is smart software that makes playing Movies, TV Shows and other media on your computer simple. Just Plex doesn't support AMD's encoder whatsoever. And then a shit ton of hard drives. tbh man for normal use the i7 is better then a i5 etc but you can use hardware acceleration for video transcodes in plex and most of the times the cpus have the same integraded gpu wich does the transcodes so you will not see a hugh diffrence from cpus in the same generation. It’s a common pattern these days in this subreddit, people with Intel Nuc (or any other small PC) in combination with NAS (usually Synology or QNAP). Spare desktop hardware or used server hardware off ebay are good starts. Either an appropriate Intel CPU, or the new Intel Arc GPUs, which also support AV1. And with hardware transcoding, your actual CPU remains almost entirely free to do everything else. Just for testing purposes, it would be neat if disabling hardware acceleration for the decode would be independent of the encode activation. Hello, I run Plex Media Server on my Linux Debian 10 based distro, specifically Deepin 20. For the plex server I don't think I'm trying to do anything crazy, I have several dozen gigs of movies and tv shows I want to host and give access to some friends/family. I have an Antec P101S SILENT case picked out as it has lots of storage slots and looks like good cooling/quiet option. Plenty of modern NAS devices have hardware acceleration built into the CPU's and work great for any 1080p transcoding you might need up to a few at once. When I started with Plex my oldest was 17 (she hated the idea), youngest was 7, fast forward 10 years, my youngest is the admin of the server!!! I don’t delete nothing, I add or upgrade hdd’s. If you buy anything more than an i5-13500 for Plex you are absolutely wasting money, and even that i5 is massive overkill for 99. But looking at how Plex still hasn't added support for AMD's dGPU encoder for years, I wouldn't count on it. Oct 7, 2024 · And pick up the Plex Pass to unlock hardware transcoding. 11th gen adds support for hardware AV1 decoding (no encoding), which Plex might be able to take advantage of, but I doubt your media is going to be AV1 any time soon so I wouldn't invest too heavily into it. My server has a Ryzen 5 3600 cpu and it transcoded fine until I got plex pass and started using my Nvidia GPU. Contrary to what others say, Plex does support hardware transcoding on AMD hardware in Linux, since Plex Media Server 1. · Part 1: Getting Plex up and running and basic hardware layouts. With multiple hardware video encoders and decoders to choose from, why do I see a near identical cpu hit with hardware like this? I checked in my PleX server settings, and I can enable the hardware transcoding option, and even select my GPU. 16GB ram. A mac mini would not be a good choice as it doesn't have hardware accelerated transcoding and storage options are extremely expensive. 265 content. I can not however find a list of the best hardware for a MEGA server with over 10 hard drives that is still quiet. I'm currently using a desktop as my plex server and don't want to leave it running 24/7 since it uses so much power. So i am thinking of getting the some hardware dedicated for my plex and other server needs, i am thinking of getting a GMKtec mini pc, i am between the G3 (N100), the G5 (N97) and the M3 (i5 12450H) and for storage i am thinking of getting the qnap TR-004 and using it as a DAS with RAID 5 (when i get enough disks). It's time for me to upgrade the hardware on the HTPC and home network after a hard drive failure on the HTPC and loosing 5 TB of data. You could put a cheap GPU into the server and get a few streams out of it just fine. There is a lot of transcoding going on in a Plex server in the background-thumbnails, intro detection, credit detection, tv tuner content, etc. Agree UnRAID is the most powerful and flexible of all by far. 32. 4. When I order up a transcode, the media server dashboard indicates that it's using hardware transcoding. Spend the extra money on the speakers and tv. tsc btqht rnoqrd ryzwvp xtemn hfexg vtojpdz rwale bva jiwh