Plex server upgrade advice

[plotikai]

Right now I have a hack job media server setup that i put together and upgraded slowly over the past 10 years.

 

All my media is stored on a Synology ds416play

while my plex server is running on a 2010 MacBook Pro with a broken screen

 

I want a cleaner solution but I don't know the best/cost effective way to handle it... Worst case scenario, my setup would need to serve 4 local streams, all transcoding from h.264 and h.265 to anywhere from a phone to a 4k tv and anything thing in between. I have everything setup perfectly now with sonarr/radarr, auto download and library updates, so im hesitate to change anything. But some times it hangs during heavy loads which im pretty sure is my MBP struggling.

 

- Should I get a more powerful synology that can support the heavier load, or should I get a solution like storinator? 

- What are some cheap solutions that could handle what im doing?

- Should I just get something like a mac mini to replace my aging MBP and use it as a dual purpose htpc/plex server?

 

Thanks

[Electronics Wizardy]

Did you try doing the plex server on the synology? How does that work?

 

Cheap solution is probably a used server.

 

Do you need a mac, a non mac would be much faster for the price and should do all that you like here.

[plotikai]

7 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Did you try doing the plex server on the synology? How does that work?

 

Cheap solution is probably a used server.

 

Do you need a mac, a non mac would be much faster for the price and should do all that you like here.

I have tried plex on the synology, it has no problem with direct play, but struggles with transcoding from 1080.

 

If I go with a used server, does running plex on a VM make sense? or should I not even bother with VMs?

 

The only reason I like the idea of a Mac because my current solution is on a Mac and I wouldn't have to spend any extra time changing settings between operating systems. being able to time machine my old mac to a new one and not do any work at all is attractive

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, plotikai said:

If I go with a used server, does running plex on a VM make sense? or should I not even bother with VMs?

If your only running plex, probably not, vms have overhead and complexity, but if you want to do more than plex, id use vms

 

2 minutes ago, plotikai said:

The only reason I like the idea of a Mac because my current solution is on a Mac and I wouldn't have to spend any extra time changing settings between operating systems. being able to time machine my old mac to a new one and not do any work at all is attractive

Is the mac only playing media? I don't think moving settings will be that hard

[plotikai]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Is the mac only playing media? I don't think moving settings will be that hard

It would be, thats a good point... I was thinking of using it as an htpc as well but I could easily get a chromecast. To find a used server, what should I be looking for? can i get away with a beefy cpu and skimp on the gpu?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, plotikai said:

It would be, thats a good point... I was thinking of using it as an htpc as well but I could easily get a chromecast. To find a used server, what should I be looking for? can i get away with a beefy cpu and skimp on the gpu?

Either build a new rig with a ryzen or simmilar for lower power, or do with something like a dell r720 if you want a used server and don't mind the rack form factor.

 

Plex can do gpu transcoding with plex pass, but you really don't need it here with only 4 streams