Most likely, I'd be looking at maximum 5 simultaneous transcodes (family and friends), and averaging around 2 or 3. My original plex server was an RPi3B+, and it could not handle streaming over the internet. Hardware accelerated video transcoding was not possible on the RPi3B+, and based on the limited search I did, even the RPi4 has trouble transcoding H265 encoded files (which most of mine are). When I set up my wife's laptop, I looked into the specific Celeron processor and it also did not support HW transcoding (model number did not have Intel Quick Sync). Plex minimum requirements show to use a 2nd gen Core processor or better:
"The following are required in general for Hardware-Accelerated Streaming, regardless of your operating system:
A recent Intel CPU meeting these requirements:
2nd-generation Intel Core (Sandy Bridge, 2011) or newer (we recommend 5th-gen Broadwell or newer for the best experience; Sandy Bridge, in particular, is known to sometimes have poor visual output on some systems)"
That's why, I figured, if I'm going to shell out for a new system, might as well "future proof" it. I figured Core i5 with the UHD graphics should be enough (10th gen). But if video encoding get's more demanding (more so than the H265), than the new Intel Xe onboard graphics should make it future proof. Thoughts?
The reason I'm leaning towards Windows, is in case we want to turn it into a basic home workstation. I can simply hook up a monitor, install the usual MS Office suite and web browsers, and then anyone can use (including guests who come to visit). Maybe long term, I could think of other uses for this machine, but the immediate need would be for the plex server.