NAS build, which cpu? - 4k transcoding

[jcoenen]

case: Silverstone SST-CS380 V2

harddrives: Seagate IronWolf, 4TB

PSU: Seasonic Focus GX-750 (replacing my PSU in my desktop for higher wattage)

 

I'm not sure which cpu + motherboard I should use. I'm going to run unraid on it to have a nice management board and I can run all my applications in a docker container.

Currently I'm using Plex on my desktop to stream all my content to my tv but since Plex only allows hardware gpu transcoding with paid license (only intel/nvidia) I'll probably move to JellyFin.

I was thinking of using an amd cpu with vega graphics but I have no clue if they are powerfull enough to transcode (hopefully multiple) 4k content. I would prefer a processor with a low tdp to be able to run it really silent since it is in my bedroom and to keep the power bill reasonable. That's also the reason I prefer not to go with a seperate gpu.

[GhostRoadieBL]

All depends on how many streams and if you are hosting native 4k or not. 

Currently I have a r5-2600 running 5 streams, one local at 4k and 4 remote at 1080p without any issues at all. Big change I found was running an nvme or sata ssd for the os/docker and separating tv show and movies to their own drives was a huge benefit keeping the drives from seeking as often when more streams are hitting the server

[jcoenen]

3 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

All depends on how many streams and if you are hosting native 4k or not.

Some content is native 4k and some isn't.

3 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

Currently I have a r5-2600 running 5 streams, one local at 4k and 4 remote at 1080p without any issues at all.

But the 2600 doesn't have an internal gpu (which means I need to add one to be able to boot up the system). Is it transcoding by using raw cpu power or not transcoding at all?

3 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

Big change I found was running an nvme or sata ssd for the os/docker

As far as I know, unraid is on a usb + ram so I don't have to worry about that. I might add a small 100gb sata ssd for the docker applications, great tip

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, jcoenen said:

arddrives: Seagate IronWolf, 4TB

HOw many drives do you plan ot use? Id get fewer bigger drives like 14 or 12tb drives

 

2 hours ago, jcoenen said:

I'm not sure which cpu + motherboard I should use. I'm going to run unraid on it to have a nice management board and I can run all my applications in a docker container.

id go 15 10400, pretty cheap igpu for video out , and quicksync for transcoding if needed, and plenty of cpu for some dockers.

[Sarra]

4 hours ago, jcoenen said:

Is it transcoding by using raw cpu power or not transcoding at all?

What are you using to transcode? Some transcode software just uses CPU, others will use CPU as primary, but also utilize GPU lightly as well.

 

I'd also suggest looking at maybe WD Red Plus or WD Red Pro drives, but the IronWolf drives are CMR, so that won't nuke the drive performance in RAID, which is good.

[Jarsky]

i5 10400 or i5 10500 depending on budget. Plenty of cores and using Plex Pass / Emby Premiere you it supports the latest hardware acceleration through the Intel UHD graphics. We have a dozen threads discussing why hardware acceleration is the way to do it if you can afford the pass. Plex and Emby both have regular specials on lifetime passes as well. 

 

Even an i3 10100 will happily transcode a couple of 4K streams or a handful of 1080p. 

[Biomecanoid]

10 hours ago, jcoenen said:

case: Silverstone SST-CS380 V2

harddrives: Seagate IronWolf, 4TB

PSU: Seasonic Focus GX-750 (replacing my PSU in my desktop for higher wattage)

 

I'm not sure which cpu + motherboard I should use. I'm going to run unraid on it to have a nice management board and I can run all my applications in a docker container.

Currently I'm using Plex on my desktop to stream all my content to my tv but since Plex only allows hardware gpu transcoding with paid license (only intel/nvidia) I'll probably move to JellyFin.

I was thinking of using an amd cpu with vega graphics but I have no clue if they are powerfull enough to transcode (hopefully multiple) 4k content. I would prefer a processor with a low tdp to be able to run it really silent since it is in my bedroom and to keep the power bill reasonable. That's also the reason I prefer not to go with a seperate gpu.

Why transcode and just not download your content in a supported format by all you devices ? without the need to transcode you can go down to an silent super low TDP atom CPU

[jcoenen]

5 hours ago, Jarsky said:

i5 10400 or i5 10500 depending on budget. Plenty of cores and using Plex Pass / Emby Premiere you it supports the latest hardware acceleration through the Intel UHD graphics. We have a dozen threads discussing why hardware acceleration is the way to do it if you can afford the pass. Plex and Emby both have regular specials on lifetime passes as well. 

 

Even an i3 10100 will happily transcode a couple of 4K streams or a handful of 1080p. 

I don't mind going intel or amd. I would just like to utlize the internal GPU with hardware acceleration. Currently I'm using Plex without Plex pass but I'm going to switch to JellyFin which supports both intel and amd. I was thinking of going with AMD since the vega graphics seem to be better than the intel HD ones but I don't know if it is necessary and can even be utilized. AMD also supports ECC memory and intel doesn't (not looking into xeon) but I don't know if I need ECC. If it can transcode two 4k streams simultaneously I would be happy already. Just trying to figure out which one does the job without overspending.

2 hours ago, Biomecanoid said:

Why transcode and just not download your content in a supported format by all you devices ? without the need to transcode you can go down to an silent super low TDP atom CPU

Because my tv supports 4k HDR Dolby atmos which I would like to utilize while my phone doesn't support it.

7 hours ago, Sarra said:

What are you using to transcode? Some transcode software just uses CPU, others will use CPU as primary, but also utilize GPU lightly as well.

 

I'd also suggest looking at maybe WD Red Plus or WD Red Pro drives, but the IronWolf drives are CMR, so that won't nuke the drive performance in RAID, which is good.

Currently I'm using Plex without the Plex pass license. My desktop is just transcoding it with raw cpu power. That's why I'm going to switch to JellyFin. It has support for hardware acceleration for all gpu's and is completely free (and open source). Plex only supports hardware acceleration on Intel/Nvidia and you need to have the Plex pass which is quiet expensive.

I didn't know the IronWolf was a CMR drive, I definitely look into the WD Red Plus/WD Red Pro. Since I will use unraid I won't be as big of a deal but I just don't trust the CMR drives that much.

[GhostRoadieBL]

13 hours ago, jcoenen said:

 

But the 2600 doesn't have an internal gpu (which means I need to add one to be able to boot up the system). Is it transcoding by using raw cpu power or not transcoding at all?

It's using raw cpu power, gpu is an older gtx 950 low profile card which is only there to provide a monitor feed and draws negligible watts when everything is running. 

If there were better high core count cpus with igpus I would absolutely use that instead but I'm not sure if a $500 intel would be practical when I can do the same with a 120$ ryzen and 40$ gpu (at the time) 

[Sarra]

5 hours ago, jcoenen said:

I didn't know the IronWolf was a CMR drive, I definitely look into the WD Red Plus/WD Red Pro. Since I will use unraid I won't be as big of a deal but I just don't trust the CMR drives that much.

SMR is the fail of fails that Seagate and WD put into drives that made RAID into a blubbering mess of slow painful anger.

 

For single drives SMR is fine. For RAID anything, CMR is what you should aim for... Though Seagate calls the IronWolf drives Parallel Magnetic Recording, but... I think that's the same thing as CMR.