Thoughts on a plex server for 4k streaming + NAS

[b24567]

Budget (including currency): 500-700$ CAD

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: NAS, Plex server

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): 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/fMVzZJ

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI B550 GAMING GEN3 ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Video Card: Asus TUF GAMING OC P GeForce GTX 1650 G6 4 GB Video Card
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox 520 Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair CX550M 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply
Total: $727.74

 

I want this to be a system I can use to host a plex server and maybe a private personal cloud. I want it to be able to transcode and be able to serve at least 2 4K streams on plex. Any and all suggestions are welcome, I'm not sure if this is the most efficient way to do this. Ideally, the form factor should be small so that I can fit it anywhere. I plan on getting the parts slowly when I can and I'm not in a rush. I also have no idea on what kind of drives to get for the NAS setup, is that something I should get separately?

 

Thank you for your help!

 

[filpo]

8 minutes ago, b24567 said:

I also have no idea on what kind of drives to get for the NAS setup, is that something I should get separately?

It depends what capacity drives

Here's a good one 

Seagate Barracuda Compute 8 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive (ST8000DM004) - PCPartPicker

8 minutes ago, b24567 said:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/fMVzZJ

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI B550 GAMING GEN3 ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Video Card: Asus TUF GAMING OC P GeForce GTX 1650 G6 4 GB Video Card
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox 520 Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair CX550M 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply
Total: $727.74

There's no storage here

get a cpu with an igpu or at least a used 1070 or 2060

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13400 2.5 GHz 10-Core Processor  ($304.00 @ Newegg Canada) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($51.90 @ Amazon Canada) 
Motherboard: ASRock B760M Pro RS/D4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($106.14 @ Vuugo) 
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($69.97 @ Newegg Canada) 
Storage: Sabrent Rocket Q 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($42.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Case: Thermaltake Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($56.10 @ Vuugo) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($84.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Total: $716.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-11-16 10:53 EST-0500

[Dedayog]

4 minutes ago, filpo said:

It depends what capacity drives

Here's a good one 

Seagate Barracuda Compute 8 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive (ST8000DM004) - PCPartPicker

There's no storage here

get a cpu with an igpu or at least a used 1070 or 2060

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13400 2.5 GHz 10-Core Processor  ($304.00 @ Newegg Canada) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($51.90 @ Amazon Canada) 
Motherboard: ASRock B760M Pro RS/D4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($106.14 @ Vuugo) 
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($69.97 @ Newegg Canada) 
Storage: Sabrent Rocket Q 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($42.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Case: Thermaltake Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($56.10 @ Vuugo) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($84.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Total: $716.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-11-16 10:53 EST-0500

You can go cheaper.  My setup uses a 5600 + 1050Ti and handles things very well.  You don't need a cpu cooler like that for a server though, the stock one with AMD is more than enough.  RAM is overkill too, as I rarely use 8GB if ever.

 

Plex just doesn't require much at all, or even utilize it.  4K streams in the same network don't need to be transcoded either, just read off the drive.

 

I'd really cut back and use the money for drives, they're the heart of it all.

[tkitch]

The 5600 is a much better CPU than the 5500, and I'd highly recommend the upgrade if it's a reasonable pricetag.

 

If you want reasonably sized, you'd want to get a smaller than ATX Board.  

[SupaKomputa]

For NAS, prioritize on power consumption, as your server will be idle most of the time.
Get an Intel cpu for lower idle power consumption plus it has quicksync, it's prefered by plex.

I recommend getting a 9400T (special T edition lower power consumption) if you can get one (on ebay).

You can use it without gpu (add later if you think it's not enough).

Get a motherboard as barebone as it can (skip anything fancy like 4 dimm slots, pcie slots and especially fancy audio), additional features cost power consumption.

8 gb ram is enough for most NAS system (i recommend unraid for newbies).

[Dedayog]

19 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

For NAS, prioritize on power consumption, as your server will be idle most of the time.
Get an Intel cpu for lower idle power consumption plus it has quicksync, it's prefered by plex.

I recommend getting a 9400T (special T edition lower power consumption) if you can get one (on ebay).

You can use it without gpu (add later if you think it's not enough).

Get a motherboard as barebone as it can (skip anything fancy like 4 dimm slots, pcie slots and especially fancy audio), additional features cost power consumption.

8 gb ram is enough for most NAS system (i recommend unraid for newbies).

Good point about power consumption.

[SupaKomputa]

6 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

Good point about power consumption.

9400t idles at 1.5w. Amazing.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LHvT2fRp7I6Hf18LcSzsNnjp10VI-odvwZpQZKv_NCI/edit#gid=0
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/threads/die-sparsamsten-systeme-30w-idle.1007101/

[b24567]

Guys this is amazing advice thank you so much! Hopefully there are some good deals on black friday this year and I'll keep y'all updated