Plex server for 12 users low electricity consumption

[Emirbz]

Budget (including currency): $500 USD

Country: 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: PLEX

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

Hello, new member here.

I'm looking for some advice on building a PLEX SERVER for me and my family. At the moment i'm running PLEX Server on an old Toshiba Laptop Core i5 2450M running 24/7, but sometimes is struggling to run more than 3 users at the same time, specially remote streaming and transcoding.

My main idea is to get plex pass for hardware transcoding and an intel NUC core i5 8260U with an ssd for the OS and PLEX, and a 4TB HDD for the media running 24/7. most of my media is H.264, 1080p and some 720p (not looking for 4k nor HDR) and i was thinking on a NUC because i don't wanna have a big electric bill if i build a 500 USD gaming PC running 24/7 just for PLEX (i don't want my parents to kick my butt because of that).

 

 

If someone could give some advice i would be very grateful , thanks in advance.