Plex server Harddrives

[bobbybdennis]

Hey everyone,

    I have a plex server and recently been legally putting 4k/UHD movies onto it, each movie is about 10-12gb depending on which one. The issue i'm having is I'd like to add 24-30 TB to my server, do i NEED to use SATA harddrives? or could i get away with just using the ones you plug in through USB ? 

 

Thanks for any information on this.

[tikker]

9 minutes ago, bobbybdennis said:

4k/UHD movies onto it, each movie is about 10-12gb

Dang that compression. That's the size I associate with decent 1080p rips.

 

9 minutes ago, bobbybdennis said:

The issue i'm having is I'd like to add 24-30 TB to my server, do i NEED to use SATA harddrives? or could i get away with just using the ones you plug in through USB ? 

Plex doesn't really care where it is. You just add a location to your library. I'd find internal drives tidier though.

[bobbybdennis]

6 minutes ago, tikker said:

Dang that compression. That's the size I associate with decent 1080p rips.

 

Plex doesn't really care where it is. You just add a location to your library. I'd find internal drives tidier though.

They'll all be hidden in the house probably under floor boards or something. but as long as it doesn't matter i just want mass storage

[tikker]

4 minutes ago, bobbybdennis said:

They'll all be hidden in the house probably under floor boards or something. but as long as it doesn't matter i just want mass storage

Then why not build a proper NAS system instead? Much better idea than putting portable drives under floorboards.

[bobbybdennis]

14 minutes ago, tikker said:

Then why not build a proper NAS system instead? Much better idea than putting portable drives under floorboards.

Don't you need a graphics card to encode to stream over a connection? I thought i read that somewehre, the point isn't "how will it look"  since it is my house and no one will ever physically see this.. it was , could i get away with just buying a bunch of USB external harddrives. I do appreciate your info on pointing me in the right directoin though. 

[tikker]

1 minute ago, bobbybdennis said:

Don't you need a graphics card to encode to stream over a connection? I thought i read that somewehre, the point isn't "how will it look"  since it is my house and no one will ever physically see this.. it was , could i get away with just buying a bunch of USB external harddrives. I do appreciate your info on pointing me in the right directoin though. 

Without a GPU you'll simply be limited to software encoding. Additionally with Plex, if the device you stream to within the house understands the container and audio/video formats then it can Direct Play and the system will barely break a sweat. Even my 4690k is just at 3% or so when Direct Playing. If you need (a lot of) transcoding, then you may consider hardware transcoding, but you'll also need Plex Pass for that. What is your current server?

[Donut417]

23 minutes ago, bobbybdennis said:

Don't you need a graphics card to encode to stream over a connection? I

Nope. You can use raw CPU horse power. Thats how my server operates. I have all my Plex storage on a NAS and I have an old gaming machine that does all the transcoding and such. The reason I dont just use the NAS to do it all is because the hardware in the NAS isnt up to the task. Plex however doesnt care where the items are stored. 

[bobbybdennis]

14 minutes ago, tikker said:

Without a GPU you'll simply be limited to software encoding. Additionally with Plex, if the device you stream to within the house understands the container and audio/video formats then it can Direct Play and the system will barely break a sweat. Even my 4690k is just at 3% or so when Direct Playing. If you need (a lot of) transcoding, then you may consider hardware transcoding, but you'll also need Plex Pass for that. What is your current server?

cpu - ryzen 3800x
gpu - w7000 

ram - 64gb

harddrives -  2x intel 660p m.2 1TB

mobo- b450 gaming plus

basically just use it to throw up dayz,ark , v-rising. anything really. it's just a spare gaming pc i built and it's worked perfect . now i want to just load it up with movies. The end goal is i have a LG C2 gv coming on friday and i want have the plex server app on there so i can play UHD/4k movies to it, with no issues.

 

 

[bobbybdennis]

12 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Nope. You can use raw CPU horse power. Thats how my server operates. I have all my Plex storage on a NAS and I have an old gaming machine that does all the transcoding and such. The reason I dont just use the NAS to do it all is because the hardware in the NAS isnt up to the task. Plex however doesnt care where the items are stored. 

Ok, awesome that's exactly the answer I was looking for, probably going to pick up a couple of those WD 12TB harddrives since i have a hookup for those and i have a bunch of external ones from back in the day.

[Donut417]

Just now, bobbybdennis said:

can play UHD/4k movies to it, with no issues.

 

Just make sure the movies are in a format that the player supports. If thats the case then the server will direct stream and it shouldn't take too much power to do anything. 

 

[bobbybdennis]

1 minute ago, Donut417 said:

Just make sure the movies are in a format that the player supports. If thats the case then the server will direct stream and it shouldn't take too much power to do anything. 

 

do you know the preferred /best quality format? 

[tikker]

9 minutes ago, bobbybdennis said:

cpu - ryzen 3800x
gpu - w7000 

ram - 64gb

harddrives -  2x intel 660p m.2 1TB

mobo- b450 gaming plus

basically just use it to throw up dayz,ark , v-rising. anything really. it's just a spare gaming pc i built and it's worked perfect . now i want to just load it up with movies. The end goal is i have a LG C2 gv coming on friday and i want have the plex server app on there so i can play UHD/4k movies to it, with no issues.

 

 

That's fine, my old gaming PC is doing NAS/Plex duties as well. If your case has room to spare and you have the connections on the PSU I'd still say just get more internal drives, that mobo seems to have 6 SATA headers, so that could offer a lot of storage, but yeah externals should work as well if you have the USB ports for it.

2 minutes ago, bobbybdennis said:

do you know the preferred /best quality format? 

Depends on the device you'll be streaming to. Something like H264 encoded video in an mp4 container and AAC/E-AC3 audio should be pretty universal I think.

[Donut417]

Just now, bobbybdennis said:

do you know the preferred /best quality format? 

Its all about what the player supports. You need to look at that before anything else. Im not an expert with formats. All of the content on my Plex server is 1080p or below, most of it being below. So it looks like crap regardless. 

[bobbybdennis]

14 minutes ago, tikker said:

That's fine, my old gaming PC is doing NAS/Plex duties as well. If your case has room to spare and you have the connections on the PSU I'd still say just get more internal drives, that mobo seems to have 6 SATA headers, so that could offer a lot of storage, but yeah externals should work as well if you have the USB ports for it.

Depends on the device you'll be streaming to. Something like H264 encoded video in an mp4 container and AAC/E-AC3 audio should be pretty universal I think.

I didnt mean to come off dick-ish , but yes i will probably get some 12TB drives i have a friend who's doing a project and removing them they were used for surveillance and the price will be really low lol, just crazy how much 1 4k movie is for space now, 

[bobbybdennis]

25 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Its all about what the player supports. You need to look at that before anything else. Im not an expert with formats. All of the content on my Plex server is 1080p or below, most of it being below. So it looks like crap regardless. 

I did do guardians of the galaxy 4k/uhd  and it was 11gb,  and all my buddies were able to stream it to their devices. so i was very happy with the results.