New hardware for Plex server recommendations

[Vbgf]

Hey LTT forum!

I have a Plex server at home which I plan to upgrade soon. Currently i'm rocking a intel atom D2700 - pretty serious stuff, i know.

I want to start transcoding though, for which i will need better hardware. My current thoughts are that I want a low-powered chip (or a low powered IDLE chip) which will run 24/7 like my current one.

I have a fairly limited budget and i'm looking at second hand hardware, mainly the CPU because I have a mobo already. As preference I would like to get a 4th gen Intel chip because I have a lot of other 4th gen machines and I can swap components in an emergency and they are relatively cheap nowadays.

Currently I'm looking at the i7 4790 (non k) because it packs quite the punch and does it in a fairly ok-ish TDP.

The plan is that I want Plex to be able to transcode 1080p with subs to 4-5 different clients at the same time, this ofc being the worst-case scenario.

Any thoughts, recommendations or comments are appreciated!

[WereCatf]

6 minutes ago, Vbgf said:

Any thoughts, recommendations or comments are appreciated!

If you get an Intel CPU with iGPU in it, you can take some of the load off of it by signing up for Plex Pass and enabling hardware-transcoding. That'd use Quick Sync built into the iGPU for decoding and encoding of video and thus it would reduce the load on the CPU quite a lot. The downside is that Plex Pass isn't that cheap.

[Vbgf]

27 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

If you get an Intel CPU with iGPU in it, you can take some of the load off of it by signing up for Plex Pass and enabling hardware-transcoding. That'd use Quick Sync built into the iGPU for decoding and encoding of video and thus it would reduce the load on the CPU quite a lot. The downside is that Plex Pass isn't that cheap.

Right! I forgot about the QuickSynch thingy. I'm using the free version right now but if i'm going to upgrade my hardware I will get the lifetime Plex pass for sure.