Want a Plex server. Looking at Synology but what about cheap enterprise systems all over ebay?

[TexasBulldog74]

I do like the idea of the simplicity of Synology from what I see on youtube videos i checked but what about one of those dell optiplex stations people mod for gaming or other mass produced enterprise stations?  I guess physical hard drive space could be an issue but i think some can hold 2 3.5" drives.

 

What generation of CPU would I be adequate?  I don't have any spare PC parts on hand so i don't have anything just laying around to throw together.

[manikyath]

most HP SFF designs can hold 3 3.5" HDD's with some creativity. as for which generation to aim for.. i'd say haswell at least. they should be cheap enough.

[Timotheus2]

Depending on your electricity costs an older enterprise system might be more expensive in the long run. Do you really need the power of a socketed CPU or would a efficient Atom or ARM board be enough? Do you need to transcode?

[TexasBulldog74]

14 hours ago, Timotheus2 said:

Depending on your electricity costs an older enterprise system might be more expensive in the long run. Do you really need the power of a socketed CPU or would a efficient Atom or ARM board be enough? Do you need to transcode?

No transcoding would be required i think.  I convert everything to h.265 and the would be a max of 2 people streaming at the same time.

 

 

[Donut417]

16 hours ago, TexasBulldog74 said:

What generation of CPU would I be adequate?

My Plex server runs on an i5 3570K and 16 Gigs of ram. It does 2 transcodes with a total of 3 streams. Mostly transcode 480p to 1080p content. So Id say anything modern should be fine. 

[TexasBulldog74]

4 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

My Plex server runs on an i5 3570K and 16 Gigs of ram. It does 2 transcodes with a total of 3 streams. Mostly transcode 480p to 1080p content. So Id say anything modern should be fine. 

oh wow.  I was worried I needed a lot more than that.

 

Thanks