Plex Server/NAS Hardware Advice

[mak123abc]

Hey Guys,

I've recently decided to build a dedicated Plex Server and NAS instead of piggy backing off my gaming rig so I wanted some advice. The last time I built a computer was about 5 years ago so all my knowledge about what is best to buy is very out of date.

My budget is absolute max around $2000 AUD but if it is better to go for a cheaper option I'd be happy to consider it. I would like to be able to transcode 1080p minimum but ideally 4k with about 5-15 concurrent users, meanwhile also running my NAS regularly and maybe (ideally) some VMs for some experimentation.

I will be running it on FreeNAS or Unraid (not yet decided)

 

I've settled on a nice case, Rosewill RSV-L4412, and I'm probably going to pick up 4x 2tb wd Blue Hard drives to start with. 

Ive looked at a couple of xeon cpus that have cought my eye i would love for some feedback as to whether these cpus are a good idea:

Xeon E3-1245 v3
Xeon E3-1246 v3
Xeon E3-1275 V3

 

I have absolutely no idea what motherboard or ram to get so any advice there would be much apprecieated.

I have never looked into enterprise boards so i dont know if there are better deals to grab with them compared to consumer grade

im not sure if I should use hardware or software raid but if i choose hardware raid then i will need 3x pcie slots for the cards + 1 slot for a graphics card potentially in the future for VMs

 

Any and all feedback on my choises would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

[Electronics Wizardy]

If your gonna get a rack case, Id go all out and get a used server, like a dell r720 or r730. There faster than those cpus you listed, and cheaper too.

 

Why the e3 v3? there older chips and not great values. Id get a older e5 chip, or a ryzen chip.

For that heavy transcoding worload id consider adding a gpu, and not getting as highend of a cpu.

 

you can get a single hba(you don't want a raid card with those oses) and get a sas expander.

 

 

[mak123abc]

10 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

If your gonna get a rack case, Id go all out and get a used server, like a dell r720 or r730. There faster than those cpus you listed, and cheaper too.

im pretty much set on my chassis tho because it is the quietest 4U 12bay hotswap case that i could find that had ok reviews, if there is a better option id be open to feedback

 

10 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Why the e3 v3? there older chips and not great values. Id get a older e5 chip, or a ryzen chip.

I was advised on the Serve The Home Forums that a xeon E - 2xxx would be a good idea to look into, ive come here to grab a second opinion.

 

10 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

you don't want a raid card

the one i have been looking at is the LSI 9260 4i

why is a raid card a bad idea? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, mak123abc said:

im pretty much set on my chassis tho because it is the quietest 12bay hotswap case that i could find, if there is a better option id be open to feedback

those dell boxes are pretty quiet aswell, and 2u so they use less rack space. Do you have a rack to put this in? How quiet do you need it?

 

 

Just now, mak123abc said:

I was advised on server the home forums that a xeon E - 2xxx would be a good idea to look into, ive come here to grab a second opinion.

Do you want to go new or used? THose e3 v3 parts will be used and are basically a 4770

 

Id get a e5 v2 or a ryzen part. THe xeon e parts don't seem to make sense here.

 

1 minute ago, mak123abc said:

he one i have been looking at is the LSI 9260 4i

why is a raid card a bad idea? 

Both unraid and freenas are built around their software raid solutions, so a hardware raid card is a waste here, let them do software raid, and it will be better than the hardware raid. Whats your drive config.

 

 

[mak123abc]

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

those dell boxes are pretty quiet aswell, and 2u so they use less rack space. Do you have a rack to put this in? How quiet do you need it?

I live in an apartment so this will be in the living room, so it needs to be as silent as possible. Ideally a 4u rack would allow for 120mm fans for less noise and more freedom to build in. Rack space is not a concern I have a 12u with plenty of space.

 

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Do you want to go new or used? THose e3 v3 parts will be used and are basically a 4770

 

Id get a e5 v2 or a ryzen part. THe xeon e parts don't seem to make sense here.

New or used i dont mind as long as it gets the job done.

Ill look into those e5 v2 parts thanks

 

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Both unraid and freenas are built around their software raid solutions, so a hardware raid card is a waste here, let them do software raid, and it will be better than the hardware raid. Whats your drive config.

Thanks for the advice ill just get an hba then

 

 

Any advice on Motherboard/ram?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, mak123abc said:

New or used i dont mind as long as it gets the job done.

Ill look into those e5 v2 parts thanks

 

How much do you care about power usage? The e5 parts are a bit power hungry, my dual e5 2680 v2 system uses over 300w at load, while a ryzen system could sit at around 100w. But the xeons are normally cheaper and can hold much more ram, but ryzen has never features.

 

2 minutes ago, mak123abc said:

ve in an apartment so this will be in the living room, so it needs to be as silent as possible. Ideally a 4u rack would allow for 120mm fans for less noise and more freedom to build in. Rack space is not a concern I have a 12u with plenty of space.

 

I have some 2u servers in my dorm now, and it blends in the background, and you can swap fans to be quieter if you want.

[Donut417]

25 minutes ago, mak123abc said:

I would like to be able to transcode 1080p minimum but ideally 4k

The key here is how many transcode. If you talking only 1 or 2 at 1080, then thats no issue. 4K on the other hand is another beast, it requires a bit more power. But your really need to figure out how many transcodes. Because i doubt for the price if your going to find/build  a machine that can do 15 4K transcodes at one time. 

[mak123abc]

1 minute ago, Donut417 said:

The key here is how many transcode. If you talking only 1 or 2 at 1080, then thats no issue. 4K on the other hand is another beast, it requires a bit more power. But your really need to figure out how many transcodes. Because i doubt for the price if your going to find/build  a machine that can do 15 4K transcodes at one time. 

hahahah no i dont plan on doing 15 4k transcodes
1080p 5-10 transcodes is realistic but in exceptional circumstances i might get 15 1080p trancodes

[mak123abc]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How much do you care about power usage?

none at all, its included in the rent so i dont really care

 

any advice on motherboard/ram? ecc? which brands?

[Donut417]

2 minutes ago, mak123abc said:

hahahah no i dont plan on doing 15 4k transcodes
1080p 5-10 transcodes is realistic but in exceptional circumstances i might get 15 1080p trancodes

Oh then you shouldnt have much of an issue. 

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, mak123abc said:

none at all, its included in the rent so i dont really care

 

any advice on motherboard/ram? ecc? which brands?

I have a s2600cp and like it, reasonble impi, 16 dimms.

 

Might as well ecc with old boards, its cheaper than the non ecc ram, and comes in bigger sizes.

 

SOmething like this is what id get https://www.ebay.com/itm/SUPERMICRO-X9DRI-F-Dual-Socket-XEON-LGA2011-Extended-ATX-Server-Motherboard/303029793059?epid=127391257&hash=item468dfbb123:g:KUwAAOSw3JdcS55k

 

Lots of dimm slots, lots of pcie for cards

[mak123abc]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I have a s2600cp and like it, reasonble impi, 16 dimms.

 

Might as well ecc with old boards, its cheaper than the non ecc ram, and comes in bigger sizes.

 

SOmething like this is what id get https://www.ebay.com/itm/SUPERMICRO-X9DRI-F-Dual-Socket-XEON-LGA2011-Extended-ATX-Server-Motherboard/303029793059?epid=127391257&hash=item468dfbb123:g:KUwAAOSw3JdcS55k

 

Lots of dimm slots, lots of pcie for cards

thanks man that was really helpful, ill try and see if i can find one in australia

[Jarsky]

With up to 15 concurrent Plex users thats a fair amount of disk activity. I'd honestly suggest either a Hardware RAID or ZFS/MDADM.

 

I'd also suggest doing GPU transcoding. You can either dedicate ~US$400 to a Quadro P2000 second hand, or you could get a  GTX10/RTX20 series and use the NVDEC driver patch to workaround the artificial stream limitations. 

 

Maybe also consider shucking some Western Digital Easystores, you'll get far more storage with the 8-10TB drives which I assume you'll need if you think you'll have up to 15 concurrent users. Also remember you'll probably want some parity (rather than backing up media) so you'll need at *least* 1 drive dedicated to that, preferably 2. 

[mak123abc]

55 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I have a s2600cp and like it, reasonble impi, 16 dimms.

 

Might as well ecc with old boards, its cheaper than the non ecc ram, and comes in bigger sizes.

 

SOmething like this is what id get https://www.ebay.com/itm/SUPERMICRO-X9DRI-F-Dual-Socket-XEON-LGA2011-Extended-ATX-Server-Motherboard/303029793059?epid=127391257&hash=item468dfbb123:g:KUwAAOSw3JdcS55k

 

Lots of dimm slots, lots of pcie for cards

Ive been having trouble finding a dual lga2011 mobo in australia. Any common ones out there, I dont want to have to pay 150 AUD for shipping

[Electronics Wizardy]

15 minutes ago, mak123abc said:

Ive been having trouble finding a dual lga2011 mobo in australia. Any common ones out there, I dont want to have to pay 150 AUD for shipping

Just search on ebay.

 

Otherwise Id get a ryzen system. Get a 8 core, and it should be good, you can add a gpu later if you need more transcoding power.

 

[mak123abc]

16 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Just search on ebay.

 

Otherwise Id get a ryzen system. Get a 8 core, and it should be good, you can add a gpu later if you need more transcoding power.

 

Yea ive been searching for a while and unless i want to pay 150 bucks in shipping then there is nothing

 

If i were to go a Ryzen 7 2700X and MSI B450 TOMAHAWK how does that sound... Overkill? Underkill?

[2FA]

Why transcode instead of direct play? It's a lot less overhead if you're just direct playing.

[mak123abc]

2 minutes ago, 2FA said:

Why transcode instead of direct play? It's a lot less overhead if you're just direct playing.

Because there are often circumstances where I need transcoding. From running my plex server on my PC it happens often

[2FA]

1 minute ago, mak123abc said:

Because there are often circumstances where I need transcoding. From running my plex server on my PC it happens often

Then put the media in common codecs and use decent clients (aka not web player).

[mak123abc]

1 minute ago, 2FA said:

Then put the media in common codecs and use decent clients (aka not web player).

Im not the only one who uses this server, i share it with a tonne of mates so this is mainly to maitain a smoothe experience for them as much as it is for me

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, 2FA said:

Then put the media in common codecs and use decent clients (aka not web player).

Thats not always an opiton. For example when we watch Live OTA TV via Roku sticks they have to transcode. Its not like you can call up the broadcasters and thell them to switch from MPEG2. Not all devices support a common format. 

[mak123abc]

Just for posterity I thought I'd post the part list that I ended up going with, thanks again for everyones advice :)

 

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/X3cLwh

 

This build will leave room for me to buy a graphics card and/or other expansion cards in the future.

[Jarsky]

That's a nice build

 

FYI heres why I recommend a GPU for decoding. This is a GTX1070 using the NVDEC patch, transcoding 10 x 1080p streams simultaneously. 

The 8 cores assigned to my Plex are at about 30% while the GPU does the heavy lifting.

 

(In UnRAID I also have a hidden public share on the cache drive (mines just called \\tower\plexmediaserver\) which I use for transcoding sessions which you'll probably want to do)