Maverickfftytwo

That was it! Thank you very much!
 
I didn't even notice there was a headset or headphone option!

Hey, it just works 🤣

Hey, it just works 🤣

That was it! Thank you very much!
 
I didn't even notice there was a headset or headphone option!

So, most bluetooth headphones have two modes: a low-latency mode for phone calls/chat, and a standard mode. Smartphones are pretty good about switching between these seamlessly as needed. Windows seems to have trouble with it more. You might just need to disable the hands free version in your sound controls.

I know you have the Ryzen CPU already, but personally I would skip the GPU for transcoding and just use a Intel chip with integrated graphics. Also, if you don't already know you will need a Plex pass to utilize hardware transcoding with the GPU or CPU.
 
I'm running my Plex server from an Intel NUC with a Celeron J4005 and I can transcode about four 1080p streams simultaneously. Unless you're trying to be the neighborhood Netflix I imagine you wouldn't need that many simultaneous transcode streams very often. Remember, it's best to use direct play with your media anyways and on your local network you will have plenty of bandwidth. If you are trying to be the neighborhood Netflix, you might be limited by your upload speeds before any hardware limitations. Check into it.
 
The X factor for me is the Minecraft server. I have no idea if that would demand other requirements as I've never messed with it.

As I mention in the OP I will only consider adding the GPU if I find the CPU struggling to keep up. I don't really expect that. I'm glad we're on the same page about the ideal setup omitting the GPU.
 
The 9100 is the CPU I originally considered. Although it is 2x the cost of the Pentium, but as they're both fairly cheap that isn't a huge difference in the budget. I'll probably buy the 9100 if I feel like spending the extra cash when it comes time to buy, but for now I wanted to plan around the Pentium.
 
That's the plan if I run Windows. I'm currently running Windows on the NUC and it seems fine, but Linux (unraid probably) does seem like the better route. So far my only experience with Linux is a Retropi, and IMO that barely counts.
 
Backblaze has worked well when I've tested it, thanks for the advice though! It is important to verify.

Thanks for the reply!
 
It's really easy to overkill simple things like this so I appreciate you recognizing that I'm not asking this thing to handle the kind of work load I need my 3700x work PC for, lol. Still, you're probably right that I'm going a little too conservative with the Pentium, even if it were just from a price to performance aspect and not outright performance. The Celeron J4005 handling things as well as it did gave me quite a bit of confidence in not needing to go big with the CPU.

Lots of info to convey here, but I’ll start with your ideas are sound and valid. Good thought process and good plan forward. I would also go with an i3 since the cost is not much more, and it may be handy if you evolve your “homelab” over time.
 
To put Plex into perspective tho..... the homelab in my sig is an older i3, and with that I am running ESXi as my hypervisor, Freenas, 3 Ubuntu VM’s, and a windows 10 LTSC VM all under it.... and my i3 is plenty fast for all of that. Plex lives on one of the Ubuntu VM’s, and I only give that VM 2 threads and 3 Gb of ram and I can transcode 3-4 1080p streams down to 720p at once. So, ya, don’t really need much power and you have understood that and specked a solid build based on that.
 
Intel vs AMD tho, that is harder. I think your opinion on intel for the use of their hardware encoder is a good choice. You really don’t need more cores or more power then a modern i3; seeing as I can direct play as many streams as I want and transcode 3 at once literally on half of an old i3 without even using hardware transcode as I don’t have Plex pass.  

Since you have quicksync, no need to have the nvidia gpu, Id take it out to save power.
 
Id probably try to go i3 9100, not much more, and a good amount faster if you need to use cpu power(will come in handy)
 
Look at storage spaces for storages, let you make one big pool, and easy to manage and upgrade. Id personally run linux, but storage spaces is what I run on windows systems.
 
Have you tested restores on backblaze? Make sure it has a reasonble restore plan. Make sure to test youre backups.
 
 

Sounds like it'll work fine (16gb in dual, 8gb in single) but incase the hardware changes things it's a i5-3570k with a ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP. The RAM in it already is Crucial Ballistix Tactical DDR3 1600.
 
I recently built a new computer so this is just getting a couple cheap upgrades and will be for my kids to use/game on. 24GB is probably excessive, but I didn't want to mix and match 8GB sticks...
 
Thanks everybody for your help!