Nas/Plex build

[surferdude]

Im hoping to get some advice and haven't found much online to help answer my specific questions. Right now my nas is a pre-built (synology) and im trying to determine my best (cost v performance) course of action. My main issue is if I use a gpu for transcoding does the cpu matter much? I have a spare core i5 6600k with mobo/ram etc from my last upgrade and could purchase an rtx 3050 for a pretty decent price. My main goal is to play my 4k hdr videos without buffering/crashing issues which i current am having. Obviously getting a new cpu/mobo would be the best performance however i am trying to stay below 1500.00 by reusing these old parts if it will work. I just dont want to order everything and find out it was never going to work. 

 

When ever i try to research this i get pretty generic "you need a good cpu/gpu" or someone that is trying to run just a core i5 6600k. 

 

Any help/recommendations is appreciated. 

 

Other parts im planning:

Fractal design define 7 xl (10+ 3.5" drive capacity)

Seasonic 750w psu

corsair 32 gb ddr4 3600 mhz (already own)

Core i5 6600k (already own)

GA-Z170X-Gaming 5 (rev. 1.0) (already own)

evga rtx 3050

[RONOTHAN##]

I'd probably try and trade your 6600K for an i5 7600 or 7500 instead. The iGPU on 7th gen and up can be used for transcode and will be a hell of a lot cheaper than a 3050 that is very overkill for just transcoding. It's good enough to handle 1-2 4K streams, and the single thread performance should be about the same, still being enough. 

 

Everything you're getting makes sense and should do just fine. Plex isn't as difficult as you probably think it is, and if you still want to have a dedicated card for encoding, something like a Quadro P2000 should offer similar performance for a lot cheaper used. 

 

 

I might also look for used server chassis for the case instead, something like a 24 bay Supermicro case would work great as long as you get a proper HBA. If you an find one for cheap, it would let you have a lot more 3.5" drives for the size. Just make sure to replace the fans with something a little less blowie matron. 

[surferdude]

Awesome, thanks for the advice!! 

[sonnumber5]

For what it's worth, I have tested 3 simultaneous 4K HDR transcodes on a 1050 Ti & AMD RX-421ND NAS CPU with no issues, so adding something like a 1030 or 1050 to a 6600K existing system might be a decent route. If you don't have a ton of simultaneous streams (where the P2000 shines), you can get away with a lot less $ out the door. As RONOTHAN## said, Intel QuickSync transcode is totally usable also if you'd prefer investing in more overall horsepower for your server, and the 7700K or newer would handle 4K transcodes fine.