Questions about changing setup

[RDR03]

Hey everyone,

I've been using the same setup for a while now, and i've been pretty happy with it since i haven't had any big issues with the overall configuration of it since i deployed it about 5 years ago.

I've changed services that i've been using throughout the time since i've been learning more how to use them and love to tinker with new stuff.

 

 

My current setup:

 

- Asustor AS6604T with 4x 4tb drives in raid5 configuration:
I use this nas for most of my services today.
I'm running plex together with overseerr, radarr, sonarr and nextcloud.
Me and my family love the way it works as it's very simple to use for them, not a lot of maintenance is needed from me too.

 

- Dedicated home assistant pc:
I use a separate pc for my home assistant instance. An older Aopen DE3250 with 4gb of ram and an intel celeron cpu. A usb zigbee dongle is connected so i can use it with all of my needed devices.
I haven't had any issues with the long time of this being on and devices/config that has changed throughout the years. Cpu usage idles at about 10%, ram usage is about 2gb.

Now, i'm looking to do a little upgrade to my system since i've been having issues with plex being slower on the loading and transcoding of movies and such. When more then 2 people try to watch anything the content buffers a lot.
I'd love to add some extra's to my lab too. Some of my family members and friends asked if i could setup some game servers for them (probably 1 normal and 1 modded minecraft server that will be on at the same time). I've heard AMP could be a nice and simple choice.

 

So i was thinking of maybe building a rackmounted pc with some drivebays to upgrade to. I'm pretty okay with configuring anything on the software side for the services, i've been using docker for the main part and i'm comfortable with that. I'm just not really sure as what to get on the hardware side, i can't get my head around in what to get specifically. If i maybe could get any help as what to look for, that would really help me. I'm mostly looking for hardware that can run 24/7 at an acceptable power consumption rate. So not looking for any type of servers that require a lot of power.

 

I don't really know what budget to spend on this, but if it can last me another 5 to 10 years that would be nice.

 

I think i might want my home assistant instance on the pc that i already have. But i'm open for any suggestions that you may have. I've seen some posts here and there, if there is a post that could specifically help, then that could be great too ofcourse.
If any other information is needed, i'm happy to add it.

 

Thanks for helping!

[rm -rf --nopreserveroot]

Are you using a GPU for transcoding?

[LIGISTX]

On 8/26/2025 at 2:57 PM, RDR03 said:

Hey everyone,

I've been using the same setup for a while now, and i've been pretty happy with it since i haven't had any big issues with the overall configuration of it since i deployed it about 5 years ago.

I've changed services that i've been using throughout the time since i've been learning more how to use them and love to tinker with new stuff.

 

 

My current setup:

 

- Asustor AS6604T with 4x 4tb drives in raid5 configuration:
I use this nas for most of my services today.
I'm running plex together with overseerr, radarr, sonarr and nextcloud.
Me and my family love the way it works as it's very simple to use for them, not a lot of maintenance is needed from me too.

 

- Dedicated home assistant pc:
I use a separate pc for my home assistant instance. An older Aopen DE3250 with 4gb of ram and an intel celeron cpu. A usb zigbee dongle is connected so i can use it with all of my needed devices.
I haven't had any issues with the long time of this being on and devices/config that has changed throughout the years. Cpu usage idles at about 10%, ram usage is about 2gb.

Now, i'm looking to do a little upgrade to my system since i've been having issues with plex being slower on the loading and transcoding of movies and such. When more then 2 people try to watch anything the content buffers a lot.
I'd love to add some extra's to my lab too. Some of my family members and friends asked if i could setup some game servers for them (probably 1 normal and 1 modded minecraft server that will be on at the same time). I've heard AMP could be a nice and simple choice.

 

So i was thinking of maybe building a rackmounted pc with some drivebays to upgrade to. I'm pretty okay with configuring anything on the software side for the services, i've been using docker for the main part and i'm comfortable with that. I'm just not really sure as what to get on the hardware side, i can't get my head around in what to get specifically. If i maybe could get any help as what to look for, that would really help me. I'm mostly looking for hardware that can run 24/7 at an acceptable power consumption rate. So not looking for any type of servers that require a lot of power.

 

I don't really know what budget to spend on this, but if it can last me another 5 to 10 years that would be nice.

 

I think i might want my home assistant instance on the pc that i already have. But i'm open for any suggestions that you may have. I've seen some posts here and there, if there is a post that could specifically help, then that could be great too ofcourse.
If any other information is needed, i'm happy to add it.

 

Thanks for helping!

I’d consider Proxmox. I run Proxmox with virtualized TrueNAS, lots of Ubuntu server VM’s for all sorts of services such as plex, home assistant VM, etc etc. 

 

Works great. 

[Dedayog]

1 hour ago, LIGISTX said:

I’d consider Proxmox. I run Proxmox with virtualized TrueNAS, lots of Ubuntu server VM’s for all sorts of services such as plex, home assistant VM, etc etc. 

 

Works great. 

As an aside... what Home Assistant are you using?  And in what capacity?

 

 

[LIGISTX]

6 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

As an aside... what Home Assistant are you using?  And in what capacity?

 

 

I run home assistant OS as a VM under Proxmox. 
 

What do you mean “capacity” exactly? As in what all do I have it doing? If so, all the standard home assistant stuff - automated smart lights, TV/receiver/plex controls and automations, I pass non HomeKit certified devices through to HomeKit for easy control on my phone and HomePods via Siri, and I use scrypted running in a separate VM to pass IP Cameras through to HomeKit as well. You can run Scrypted in HA, but I run it on a NUC that also runs frigate… easier to just put all the security camera stuff on its own subnet imo. 

[Dedayog]

51 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

I run home assistant OS as a VM under Proxmox. 
 

What do you mean “capacity” exactly? As in what all do I have it doing? If so, all the standard home assistant stuff - automated smart lights, TV/receiver/plex controls and automations, I pass non HomeKit certified devices through to HomeKit for easy control on my phone and HomePods via Siri, and I use scrypted running in a separate VM to pass IP Cameras through to HomeKit as well. You can run Scrypted in HA, but I run it on a NUC that also runs frigate… easier to just put all the security camera stuff on its own subnet imo. 

Awesome, that is exactly what I was asking.

 

I may look into doing that on my side as well.  We run a lot of Alexa for lights, but not much more.

[LIGISTX]

6 hours ago, Dedayog said:

Awesome, that is exactly what I was asking.

 

I may look into doing that on my side as well.  We run a lot of Alexa for lights, but not much more.

I highly, highly recommend HA. It is a fantastic piece of software. 

[Jarsky]

Plex is going to be your biggest hitter here for compute; but a couple of Minecraft servers are going to be hitting your memory depending on addon's and number of players; but ideally 4GB+ per server. If you run it all on one machine; id recommend hw encoding (GPU). Ideally you want a modern Intel + UHD 750 graphics or a Nvidia RTX 3000 series card (or Quadro Turing card) or newer to carry you forward with the H265 support at least. 

Nvidia Decoding Matrix

Intel Decoding Matrix

 

The newer encoders don't just support more codecs; but also do offer better transcoding quality as well. GPU is far more efficient also; so will give you a lower power draw than Software (CPU) encoding which for the slightly lower quality I think is worth it.  

 

You don't need a *lot* of CPU power; you can get by with a modern i5 or Ryzen 5 system; you might want to move up to an i7 or Ryzen 7 for some longevity. 

Consider that if you're doing thumbnail gen, chapter gen, etc..for Plex this will hit your CPU; also regular library scans for updating content. 

I run a *tonne* of services on my old Ryzen 9 3950x and honestly it idles at about 15% usage most of the time (Plex is using a dedicated GPU)

Don't need a rackmount though; just an ATX machine with enough space for your hard drives will do. 

 

Consider NVMe's for things like Plex database/temp files and running your apps off; so you might want something with a few slots. 

Also consider enough Ram that you can put Plex's transcoding cache on the Ram as well (in the Linux world you can just mount it to /dev/shm)

 

For sure stick with the containers for easier app management and backing up the system.