Alienware Area 51M as a server?

[Deuteronomy93]

Hi all

 

Not a humblebrag, I had issues with this laptop and stopped using it a while ago. I'm in the process of getting our new house set up with HASS, Plex, Unifi etc and wondered how best I could fit this in.

 

I will be using a NUC running the HASS OS, running Plex on my main PC currently but will migrate this away when I can afford to set up a new dedicated server for it etc, or use the laptop.

 

I was wondering whether this could be a good server to run Plex. It has a 9700k and 2080, I've been reading up on Plex and it seems that a dedicated GPU will help with transcoding multiple streams. It also has a battery so sure, effectively has a UPS.

 

The components are pretty power hungry and I'm not sure if this would be overkill/making it more power efficient for use as a server. There seem to be conflicting articles about which GPUs would be best for Plex, realistically I'd probably be using between 4 and 6 streams concurrently at maximum, most likely 3 daily.

 

I've overclocked, over and undervolted PCs before but never really gone for efficiency. Is it as simple as changing some BIOS settings, undervolting/clocking and setting power management to favour maximum battery life etc without sleep enabled?

 

I also have a Caldigit TS3 which can be used with it to expand the IO quite decently, if Plex isn't a good use for it, what would you suggest I use it for?

 

As a side note, if going with the laptop I'd obviously need to go ahead with another system acting as a file server, I'd need this even if I didn't go with it.

What would you recommend (hardware wise) for a good starting, rack mountable storage server that I can gradually add more and more drives to?

I'm currently saturating 4TB of storage but will start to rapidly expand this amount soon as after moving in I will finally have time to relax more!

 

Being in China, I need to download media to not get censored versions..

 

Many thanks in advance for any feedback!

[Dedayog]

Plex runs on a potato, you're more than fine.  Personally I'd build much more power friendly machine for a Plex server/NAS.    You want storage over high performance, so look at a nice cheap multi core CPU, no real need for a stout GPU as the CPU can do it all anyway.   Besides, Plex will reduce your video quality depending on connection to the source, so if you're remote it can default to a lesser resolution due to bandwidth constraints as well.

 

Or you can buy a rack mounted server out of the box if that suits you better.

 

Not sure why you'd want to use a laptop you have problems with as a PLEX/Server, since they sort of need to be reliable.  Though you haven't told us why you're not using it so it may not pertain.

 

No worries on the humble brag, you haven't scratched the surface of what some here use for multiple PC's or audio. All good.

[Deuteronomy93]

8 hours ago, Dedayog said:

Plex runs on a potato, you're more than fine.  Personally I'd build much more power friendly machine for a Plex server/NAS.    You want storage over high performance, so look at a nice cheap multi core CPU, no real need for a stout GPU as the CPU can do it all anyway.   Besides, Plex will reduce your video quality depending on connection to the source, so if you're remote it can default to a lesser resolution due to bandwidth constraints as well.

 

Or you can buy a rack mounted server out of the box if that suits you better.

 

Not sure why you'd want to use a laptop you have problems with as a PLEX/Server, since they sort of need to be reliable.  Though you haven't told us why you're not using it so it may not pertain.

 

No worries on the humble brag, you haven't scratched the surface of what some here use for multiple PC's or audio. All good.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Though Plex will run on anything, even PIs, would 4 concurrent 4k, high bitrate streams be possible without a GPU? I was originally planning on going with a more power efficient server for mass storage but had this laptop so wondered.

 

Honestly speaking in terms of what sparked my curiosity, I watched a Dave2d video that was released earlier yesterday and the newer model had issues with Overwatch, which was the only game I actually played when I got the PC (aside from Hearthstone, I'd given up most other games) and both he and I would get massive FPS drops and stuttering in game. It was the GPU but I thought it would be on all games, not just OW, so built another PC.. it's likely that this laptop may actually be ok for transcoding, possibly other things such as gaming.

 

In terms of rack mountable servers, I will be buying a rack and have considered out if the box solutions but not sure how these compare (regarding price) to a custom build which I'm more than comfortable doing.

 

When looking for new servers here from brands like Supermicro and Synology that have the amount of storage bays I'm looking for, they do seem quite expensive. I understand they have Xeons inside but it looks like generally there isn't too much available that's suitable for Plex, lower compute but with mass storage.

I suppose this is maybe related to the above question, if not using a GPU for Plex, do you know which CPUs would have the compute for those streams?

 

Is there anything you might recommend or even a good chassis that is (typically) widely available with a good amount of bays, and not too arduous a system to install them? I'm fine with putting the work in, just I plan to keep it for quite a while and my experience with certain systems is that if it doesn't work well the first time, it won't last.. As a note on this, I've been looking for systems or chassis that are 4U or so as I will have space for it in the rack and want it to still be relatively quiet compared to 2U etc.

 

I suppose I'll have to do some testing with the laptop and see what I can achieve with it then! Maybe set up VR with it at a later point

 

Thanks again for the feedback!

[Needfuldoer]

On 7/19/2022 at 10:11 PM, Deuteronomy93 said:

would 4 concurrent 4k, high bitrate streams be possible without a GPU?

Yes, assuming you're not asking the server to transcode anything. When the clients can play the video directly, it's just a file transfer.