PLEX on an old laptop

[wunagy]

Hi all! I have an old gaming laptop that I want to repurpose as a media server. The specs are:

i7-8750h

gtx 1060 6gb

16gb ddr4

500 nvme ssd for the OS

 

I've cleaned it, replaced all thermal pads/paste and installed a fresh copy of win 11 pro. Undervolted the cpu a lil bit, removed some plastic parts and put in on a raised cooling fan. It drastically improved idle/under load temps. Anyways, I'd get 4 to 8 tb 7200 rpm hdd and fill it up with movies/TV shows. Would that laptop be powerful enough to serve no more than 2 devices simultaneously? I've never used plex and have only surface knowledge about it from watching some youtube videos. My main goal is to create a netflix style library for home use.

[vanpuffelen]

Yes, it would work just fine. Plex doesn't require a very decent CPU, and it also has a very decent dGPU, so you can use said GPU's encoder.

Also, Coffee Lake and GTX 1000-series aren't that old.

...Right?

[Needfuldoer]

1 hour ago, vanpuffelen said:

Yes, it would work just fine. Plex doesn't require a very decent CPU, and it also has a very decent dGPU, so you can use said GPU's encoder.

Even if it didn't have the dedicated GPU, it still has Quick Sync Video on the integrated graphics.

 

You need a Plex Pass subscription to enable hardware encoding, of course.

 

 

Storing the Plex database (episode descriptions, thumbnails, posters, etc) on any kind of SSD makes a huge difference to how responsive the client interface feels. I remember experimenting with it on an old PC with a mechanical hard drive back in the day, and you could watch them load in as you scrolled.

 

 

1 hour ago, vanpuffelen said:

Also, Coffee Lake and GTX 1000-series aren't that old.

...Right?

 Back then GPUs cost a quarter, and quarters had little pictures of bumblebees on 'em! "Gimme five bees for a quarter", you'd say...

[vanpuffelen]

54 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

 Back then GPUs cost a quarter, and quarters had little pictures of bumblebees on 'em! "Gimme five bees for a quarter", you'd say...

sobs in everything is expensive now

[vanpuffelen]

1 hour ago, Needfuldoer said:

You need a Plex Pass subscription to enable hardware encoding, of course.

 

Literally had to look up more information on Plex Pass and shit. (I don't manage our own Plex server; my dad does.)

[johnt]

36 minutes ago, vanpuffelen said:

Literally had to look up more information on Plex Pass and shit. (I don't manage our own Plex server; my dad does.)

Or you can purchase a lifetime pass for $100 or so with their coupon codes. Just sign up and they will email you. Tis the season for more codes so it might be an even better discount than what I got.