Plex Server Build Advice

[shadow013]

I am adding some 12tb drives to my set up and want to move away from using my gaming PC and have a dedicated build. I already have an 8tb drive that is almost entirely filled up.

Here are some applications I will be using: Plex, Sonnar, Radarr, SabNZBD, Tautulli, qbittrorent

 

I'm stuck between building my own machine or going with a server setup instead. I'm currently in school for IT so I will likely dive into other programs and playing around in the future, so a server could be nice for future use.

Could really use some guidance and advice on which direction to go overall. And if I build my own, what would be a good recommended processor for using plex?

[Lurick]

How many streams/transcodes do you expect at any given time?

[shadow013]

2 minutes ago, Lurick said:

How many streams/transcodes do you expect at any given time?

Likely a max of 5 streams at any given time, like 2 maybe 3 being transcode. 1080p content only of course, no 4K transcode

[Lurick]

4 minutes ago, shadow013 said:

Likely a max of 5 streams at any given time, like 2 maybe 3 being transcode. 1080p content only of course, no 4K transcode

If you want small and compact, a Intel Skull Canyon NUC is a great way to get started. You can toss in some RAM and a M.2 drive and throw ESXi on top and spin up a couple VMs if you want to go that route or just run Linux right on top if you don't want to do the VM route. I'm running Plex in a VM on my NUC and it easily handles several transcodes at any given time. This is great if you have a NAS or something where you store files and want to keep them separate.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/boards-kits/nuc/kits/nuc6i7kyk.html

 

If you don't mind going a bit bigger then there are plenty of ITX boards and whatnot out there to get you started as well if you want to keep storage in the same system.

[Salacious B Crum]

Get a cheap pre-built and run unRAID it will serve you well my NAS is just that an I7 6700 and I get upwards of 8 streams with no problem and run all the dockers you have mentioned and when you start playing around you can setup VM's in unRAID

[Donut417]

On 12/28/2019 at 8:45 AM, Lurick said:

Intel Skull Canyon NUC i

Decided to check it out. Would be a perfect size for me when I upgrade. But why are they so expensive? Like $600 and you still have to supply RAM and Storage............ 

[Lurick]

5 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Decided to check it out. Would be a perfect size for me when I upgrade. But why are they so expensive? Like $600 and you still have to supply RAM and Storage............ 

Yah, I happened to have storage sitting around that I already purchased but still it's a bit rough. Although I did find out recently that they do support 32GB DIMMs so I've ordered those to double my RAM since the other VMs I run don't hit CPU that much aside Plex but they gobble up memory

[Jarsky]

Using a PC rather than appliance gives you a lot of flexibility over what you can use. 

 

UnRAID for example has all those apps you want as Plugins already available on it. 

Personally I use Proxmox to virtualise my server which has a lot of other tasks. I then use ZFS for the storage, and I have an Ubuntu VM that uses Docker/Portainer to run as my 'media box' with qBitTorrent, Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Jackett, Tautulli, SabNZBD, Ombi, Organizr, etc....

 

If you want something compact then maybe check out the InWin MS04. ITX case with FlexPSU & 4 Hotswap bays. 

[Salacious B Crum]

8 hours ago, Jarsky said:

Using a PC rather than appliance gives you a lot of flexibility over what you can use. 

 

UnRAID for example has all those apps you want as Plugins already available on it. 

 with qBitTorrent, Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Jackett, Tautulli, SabNZBD, Ombi, Organizr, etc....

This is my setup unRAID with the above as docker containers, runs like a charm and still plenty in the tank cpu wise running around 40% and its running my home assistant installation as well