server Build Planning for Server

[Furball159.]

All Prices are in AUD (Australian Dollar):

PCPartPicker Part List: https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/nsL4rM

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 4.4 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($679.00 @ Centre Com) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler  ($199.00 @ Centre Com) 
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING B850-PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($379.00 @ Centre Com) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory  ($499.00 @ Computer Alliance) 
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($185.00 @ BPC Technology) 
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($287.00 @ BPC Technology) 
Storage: Seagate IronWolf NAS 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($158.00 @ MSY Technology) 
Storage: Seagate IronWolf NAS 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($158.00 @ MSY Technology) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  ($409.00 @ Centre Com) 
Case: Thermaltake Suppressor F31 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($138.50 @ Amazon Australia) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM850e (2025) 850 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($168.00 @ JW Computers) 
Optical Drive: LG BH16NS55.AUAR10B Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($129.00) 
Custom: PiKVM V4 Plus ($579.95) (Core Electronics Australia)
Custom: BluRay Drive Source Website (Big W)
Total: $3968.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-08 20:10 AEDT+1100

 

Workload: Plex Media Server or Jellyfin (probably plex), Application Management Panel by CubeCoders for Game Servers.

4TBx2 HDD in Raid-1 for Reduncacy using mdadm to avoid the prefrence for ECC Ram in ZFS (movie storage, game server backups, other misc long term storage)
2TBx1 SSD for Game Instances running directories
1TBx1 SSD for OS, Plex Media Server Host, AMP Game Host
OS of Choice: Debian with GUI Disabled by default (so if i need a GUI i can just run startx to bring up the pre-installed debian GUI)

PiKVM for remote power/system management.
External Windows 10 LTSC Mini PC (already owned) as a remote access portal for general administration via GUI when being on the local machine isn't strictly nessersary.

Bluray drive is for backing up in MakeMVK GUI when I buy a new DVD/Blu-ray.

3060 for plex transcodes (trying to leave the CPU for game server and non-gpu tasks)
Case without the noise suppression panels installed for good airflow, good internal/external Drive Bays and flexiblity also price.
PSU i have heard is good, didn't want to over buy it but didn't want to risk it either.
RAM i heard is a good pair and amount for the CPU of choice.
CPU was selected as apparently its really strong in single/multi threaded tasks which the server will need for Plex/Modded and Vanilla Minecraft/Steam Game Servers (CS2, Assetto Corsa, American and Euro Truck Simulator, Beam MP, Terreria, Satisfactory, etc.)

I was wondering if people could rate the build and tell me what I should change, and if the ram clearence and case clearence is good, since im getting mixed messages from my research, prefreably trying to also drop the price a bit (AUD$3500 or less would be good but I really like the part selection I have and get thats less than likely), but I don't want to skimp on preformance or be scammed on the second hand market.

Thanks for your time. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

28 minutes ago, Furball159. said:

4TBx2 HDD in Raid-1 for Reduncacy using mdadm to avoid the prefrence for ECC Ram in ZFS (movie storage, game server backups, other misc long term storage)

I'd still go ZFS. The extra features can be nice, and both want ECC the same amount, and have the same risks not using ECC. ZFS isn't special with its memory needs.

 

29 minutes ago, Furball159. said:

3060 for plex transcodes (trying to leave the CPU for game server and non-gpu tasks)

Are you buying all those parts? Id go with a intel CPU. Better at transcoding with the iGPU than a 3060, lower power and cheaper. 

 

 

[Blue4130]

29 minutes ago, Furball159. said:

All Prices are in AUD (Australian Dollar):

PCPartPicker Part List: https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/nsL4rM

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 4.4 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($679.00 @ Centre Com) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler  ($199.00 @ Centre Com) 
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING B850-PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($379.00 @ Centre Com) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory  ($499.00 @ Computer Alliance) 
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($185.00 @ BPC Technology) 
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($287.00 @ BPC Technology) 
Storage: Seagate IronWolf NAS 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($158.00 @ MSY Technology) 
Storage: Seagate IronWolf NAS 4 TB 3.5" 5400 RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($158.00 @ MSY Technology) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  ($409.00 @ Centre Com) 
Case: Thermaltake Suppressor F31 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($138.50 @ Amazon Australia) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM850e (2025) 850 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($168.00 @ JW Computers) 
Optical Drive: LG BH16NS55.AUAR10B Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($129.00) 
Custom: PiKVM V4 Plus ($579.95) (Core Electronics Australia)
Custom: BluRay Drive Source Website (Big W)
Total: $3968.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-11-08 20:10 AEDT+1100

 

Workload: Plex Media Server or Jellyfin (probably plex), Application Management Panel by CubeCoders for Game Servers.

4TBx2 HDD in Raid-1 for Reduncacy using mdadm to avoid the prefrence for ECC Ram in ZFS (movie storage, game server backups, other misc long term storage)
2TBx1 SSD for Game Instances running directories
1TBx1 SSD for OS, Plex Media Server Host, AMP Game Host
OS of Choice: Debian with GUI Disabled by default (so if i need a GUI i can just run startx to bring up the pre-installed debian GUI)

PiKVM for remote power/system management.
External Windows 10 LTSC Mini PC (already owned) as a remote access portal for general administration via GUI when being on the local machine isn't strictly nessersary.

Bluray drive is for backing up in MakeMVK GUI when I buy a new DVD/Blu-ray.

3060 for plex transcodes (trying to leave the CPU for game server and non-gpu tasks)
Case without the noise suppression panels installed for good airflow, good internal/external Drive Bays and flexiblity also price.
PSU i have heard is good, didn't want to over buy it but didn't want to risk it either.
RAM i heard is a good pair and amount for the CPU of choice.
CPU was selected as apparently its really strong in single/multi threaded tasks which the server will need for Plex/Modded and Vanilla Minecraft/Steam Game Servers (CS2, Assetto Corsa, American and Euro Truck Simulator, Beam MP, Terreria, Satisfactory, etc.)

I was wondering if people could rate the build and tell me what I should change, and if the ram clearence and case clearence is good, since im getting mixed messages from my research, prefreably trying to also drop the price a bit (AUD$3500 or less would be good but I really like the part selection I have and get thats less than likely), but I don't want to skimp on preformance or be scammed on the second hand market.

Thanks for your time. 

$4000 and only 4tb of useable media storage? 

 

I'd change CPU to something less balls out. 

I'd switch to a used quadro for transcoding.

I'd look at MUCH bigger harddrives.

I'd change to a thermalright cooler for less than half the cost of the noctua.

I'd probably ditch the piKVM (because in my case, I have local access to the machine and don't need remote access)

[Furball159.]

4 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

$4000 and only 4tb of useable media storage? 

 

I'd change CPU to something less balls out. 

I'd switch to a used quadro for transcoding.

I'd look at MUCH bigger harddrives.

I'd change to a thermalright cooler for less than half the cost of the noctua.

I'd probably ditch the piKVM (because in my case, I have local access to the machine and don't need remote access)

I only use 512GB at the moment for my media storage, but I will look at more storage
I looked at a quadro but they seem like they lack in Vram and avalability where I am.
I really would switch coolers but I just wanted something I knew was reliable despite the stupid expense behind it.
as much as I would love to save the 600 odd bucks my server is in a location that I am not often at and when I am I really don't want to be working on the computer unless its strictly nessersary lol.


However with the CPU im open to suggestions I was just told it would do it all and more, and since GregTech New horizons is one of the MC Modpacks I run and It has expenationally been increasing RAM load & CPU load on my current 4th Gen i5 minipc I kind of went over kill.

In all seriousness though if you have any suggestions on what parts to swap in like specific models PLEASE I NEED HELP Lol and I'm all for the extra storage lol.

Thanks in advanced.

[mariushm]

Have you considered going for proper server hardware? 

 

Your CPU+MOBO+Cooler costs you 1257 AUD or around 815$ and you get a performance of around 55,500 points (according to cpu benchmark website) 

 

For $815 you could get this :  AMD EPYC 7K62+Supermicro H11SSL-i 48cores 96threads 2.6 GHz motherboard+ CPU | eBay

 

You get 48 cores, 96 threads, a bit less per core performance but around 60k points in total if multithreaded, but you get a motherboard which supports cheaper registered DDR4 and also has remote management built in, and loads of sata ports and loads of pci-e slots.

 

And for 940$ you can get it with Epyc 7B12 (64 core, 128 thread), around 66k points : https://www.ebay.com/itm/175119566393

 

Add a cooler for around 100$ - example : https://www.ebay.com/itm/175033228997 or https://www.ebay.com/itm/175798274635 - 

and for memory, 16 GB DDR4 Registered ECC is around 50-60$ so 4 sticks should cost you around 200$ (100$ less than your 32 GB DDR5 kit) : https://www.ebay.com/itm/224440216112

 

If you don't mind making a custom case (because the board uses a riser board for the pci-e slots, supplied), you can get board + cpu + cooler for around 720$ : Supermicro H11SSW NT+AMD EPYC 7K62+1u P14 sp3 cooler 2.6GHz 48 Corescombination | eBay

 

This also gets you more ram slots and also gets you 2 x 10gbps RJ45, but there's a tiny catch ... only 2 sata3 ports and 2 M.2 - there's SlimSAS connectors with 12 pci-e lanes, you can buy separately SlimSAS to SATA to make 16 sata 3 cables, or up to 4 nvme connections.  example : slimsas to 4xsata https://www.ebay.com/itm/296918609028  or slimsas to 4 nvme 

 

ps. ... if you factor in that you won't need to spend 300-400 us dollars on a kvm thing, you could go up to something evennewer, more power efficient. 

 

I'll edit the post and add some suggestions, maybe.

[Furball159.]

15 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Have you considered going for proper server hardware? 

 

Your CPU+MOBO+Cooler costs you 1257 AUD or around 815$ and you get a performance of around 55,500 points (according to cpu benchmark website) 

 

For $815 you could get this :  AMD EPYC 7K62+Supermicro H11SSL-i 48cores 96threads 2.6 GHz motherboard+ CPU | eBay

 

You get 48 cores, 96 threads, a bit less per core performance but around 60k points in total if multithreaded, but you get a motherboard which supports cheaper registered DDR4 and also has remote management built in, and loads of sata ports and loads of pci-e slots.

 

And for 940$ you can get it with Epyc 7B12 (64 core, 128 thread), around 66k points : https://www.ebay.com/itm/175119566393

 

Add a cooler for around 100$ - example : https://www.ebay.com/itm/175033228997 or https://www.ebay.com/itm/175798274635 - 

and for memory, 16 GB DDR4 Registered ECC is around 50-60$ so 4 sticks should cost you around 200$ (100$ less than your 32 GB DDR5 kit) : https://www.ebay.com/itm/224440216112

 

If you don't mind making a custom case (because the board uses a riser board for the pci-e slots, supplied), you can get board + cpu + cooler for around 720$ : Supermicro H11SSW NT+AMD EPYC 7K62+1u P14 sp3 cooler 2.6GHz 48 Corescombination | eBay

 

This also gets you more ram slots and also gets you 2 x 10gbps RJ45, but there's a tiny catch ... only 2 sata3 ports and 2 M.2 - there's SlimSAS connectors with 12 pci-e lanes, you can buy separately SlimSAS to SATA to make 16 sata 3 cables, or up to 4 nvme connections.  example : slimsas to 4xsata https://www.ebay.com/itm/296918609028  or slimsas to 4 nvme 

 

ps. ... if you factor in that you won't need to spend 300-400 us dollars on a kvm thing, you could go up to something newer, more power efficient. 

 

For example 

I always wanted to go real server hardware but im spending a fair bit more for a lot more preformance, but I don't have that kind of money, especially when my friends don't want to pay me any money for hosting and configuring the game servers all I wanted was 5 bucks le month and they could use all the services and at first we were good but they slowly stopped paying and I hadn't go the balls to ask whats up because I would rather them use it then the hardware I had laying around doing nothing. (Asides the plex server thats mine I just want to run it all on one computer instead of the 3 mini's i run at the moment)

I am open to go Epyc if its not as expensive as threadripper or even xeon from intel (personally an intel user but wanted to go amd since apparently its better for this stuff)

I also Love the piKVM a lot and I don't know if the inbuilt tools are as robust as it, if you could help me out it would be much appriciated since I really do want to do something for once other than theroise and chicken out. but being my first custom build I don't want to stuff it up lol.

As for the case, I don't know what case would work for me if its a server case I doubt it will have the room for my bluray drive... I also have no way to make a custom case.

[mariushm]

1 minute ago, Furball159. said:

I always wanted to go real server hardware but im spending a fair bit more for a lot more preformance, but I don't have that kind of money, especially when my friends don't want to pay me any money for hosting and configuring the game servers all I wanted was 5 bucks le month and they could use all the services and at first we were good but they slowly stopped paying and I hadn't go the balls to ask whats up because I would rather them use it then the hardware I had laying around doing nothing.

I am open to go Epyc if its not as expensive as threadripper or even xeon from intel (personally an intel user but wanted to go amd since apparently its better for this stuff)

I also Love the piKVM a lot and I don't know if the inbuilt tools are as robust as it, if you could help me out it would be much appriciated since I really do want to do something for once other than theroise and chicken out. but being my first custom build I don't want to stuff it up lol.

As for the case, I don't know what case would work for me if its a server case I doubt it will have the room for my bluray drive...

For the first link I gave you, it's a standard ATX motherboard (or maybe extended atx), it will fit in a standard computer case and you can power it with a regular computer power supply. The coolers screw directly to the cpu socket, and may be a bit more noisy than noctua coolers but will do the job.

 

You could do your own research, the motherboard model is listed, Supermicro H11SSL-i, you can go to Supermicro website and download the manual and familiarize yourself : https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/H11SSL-i

 

You can see how IPMI works in this video : 

 

 

 

The second link , obviously it would not fit in a standard case, because it's a proprietary supermicro format,  but you could literally make a case out of a wood boards, or something like that, you just have to figure out some mechanism to keep the video card in place on the riser board, IF you need to use the video card 

[Needfuldoer]

That processor is massively overkill for what you want to do with it. You could probably build an entire server (minus storage) just for the cost of that one component alone.

 

Don't buy a 3060, get either a modern Intel processor with an iGPU (saves a precious PCIe slot) or an Arc Alchemist card instead. Quick Sync Video does a better job than NVENC, and prices shouldn't be too bonkers because they're not as good as Nvidia cards for gaming and AI.

 

PiKVM isn't worth that price. For that kind of money you can buy a server motherboard with real IPMI.

 

Are you absolutely sure you really want to host all these game servers? How long would it take to pay for itself compared to renting hosted game servers? That i5 machine by itself is plenty capable as a media server for your own use.

[Furball159.]

57 minutes ago, mariushm said:

IF you need to use the video card 

I was hoping to offload the majority of the load from plex to the GPU to free the CPU up for the heavier single threaded minecraft tasks, but I guess with an EPYC processor it might not need a GPU just because of its sheer amount of cores.

I will research some of the stuff you just sent now thanks. (Wallet told me no thank you in my research)

Edited November 8, 2025 by Furball159.
Provided the results from my research

[Blue4130]

42 minutes ago, Furball159. said:

I only use 512GB at the moment for my media storage, but I will look at more storage
I looked at a quadro but they seem like they lack in Vram and avalability where I am.
I really would switch coolers but I just wanted something I knew was reliable despite the stupid expense behind it.
as much as I would love to save the 600 odd bucks my server is in a location that I am not often at and when I am I really don't want to be working on the computer unless its strictly nessersary lol.


However with the CPU im open to suggestions I was just told it would do it all and more, and since GregTech New horizons is one of the MC Modpacks I run and It has expenationally been increasing RAM load & CPU load on my current 4th Gen i5 minipc I kind of went over kill.

In all seriousness though if you have any suggestions on what parts to swap in like specific models PLEASE I NEED HELP Lol and I'm all for the extra storage lol.

Thanks in advanced.

For the GPU, you don't need vram if you are only using it for encoding. As @Electronics Wizardy pointed out, intels quicksync is also a great option that also helps keep power consumption down. But if you can't order from ebay, I get that. Australia IS pretty far away from the normal sources of them. The intel Arc a310 would cut the cost down for the GPU by more than half and get you AV1 encoding if you care about that.

 

As for cooler reliability, Thermalright is just as reliable as noctua, just not brown. I've been running mine for 7 years at this poing and the fans are still going strong. I know quite a few people on the forum are happy long term users as well. 

[Furball159.]

1 minute ago, Needfuldoer said:

That processor is massively overkill for what you want to do with it. You could probably build an entire server (minus storage) just for the cost of that one component alone.

 

Don't buy a 3060, get either a modern Intel processor with an iGPU (saves a precious PCIe slot) or an Arc Alchemist card instead. Quick Sync Video does a better job than NVENC, and prices shouldn't be too bonkers because they're not as good as Nvidia cards for gaming and AI.

 

PiKVM isn't worth that price. For that kind of money you can buy a server motherboard with real IPMI.

 

Are you absolutely sure you really want to host all these game servers? How long would it take to pay for itself compared to renting hosted game servers? That i5 machine by itself is plenty capable as a media server for your own use.

So are you suggesting going to the Xeon Processor?

 

I would love to rent game servers but often times their panels are terrible, and stupid expensive for the specs we want, I also love self hosting and want a excuse to build a pc, plus good ping and reasonable priced servers for Australia are seemingly hard to come by.

 

19 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

As for cooler reliability, Thermalright is just as reliable as noctua, just not brown. I've been running mine for 7 years at this poing and the fans are still going strong. I know quite a few people on the forum are happy long term users as well. 

Ha half my cost of the cooler was getting the chromax.black editon so good to know I will change that out.

So if VRAM isn't imporatint for the transcoding an Intel Arc Card is the way to go? is these good with linux???

[Needfuldoer]

11 minutes ago, Furball159. said:

So are you suggesting going to the Xeon Processor?

Cascade Lake era processors are still pretty capable, especially for the price, but you have to pick and choose because they can get expensive fast. (The higher-end W-2xxx series for LGA2066 especially.) But on the positive side of that, you'd be able to use registered ECC memory from decommissioned servers. and (depending on processor choice) 100-series Optane.

 

First gen Epyc isn't much faster than your 4th gen processor, thread-for-thread at comparable clock speeds. (They dogfight with Broadwell and Skylake era Intel.) The biggest advantages they have are their memory lanes, plentiful PCIe slots, and high core counts. 

 

Don't buy a new Xeon though, then you're just paying the enterprise tax for no reason.

[Furball159.]

3 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Cascade Lake era processors are still pretty capable, especially for the price, but you have to pick and choose because they can get expensive fast. (The higher-end W-2xxx series for LGA2066 especially.) But on the positive side of that, you'd be able to use registered ECC memory from decommissioned servers. and (depending on processor choice) 100-series Optane.

 

First gen Epyc isn't much faster than your 4th gen processor, thread-for-thread at comparable clock speeds. (They dogfight with Broadwell and Skylake era Intel.) The biggest advantages they have are their memory lanes, plentiful PCIe slots, and high core counts. 

 

Don't buy a new Xeon though, then you're just paying the enterprise tax for no reason.

I have been scammed on the second hand market (not for pc parts tho), so I'm not very comfortable with trying it again lmao.
Is a 14th gen Intel i5 any good (i mean i know its better than what i got LOL, but will it do the tasks im looking at with some more headroom for future?)

[Furball159.]

FYI to you guys I have an updated intel alternitive parts list, tho I may put the pikvm back since if i use a consumer CPU i can't find an IPMI mobo.

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/3Prpfd

Does this board support BIOS Flash without a CPU though cause knowing my luck I will get one with an early BIOS that doesn't support the CPU

[Needfuldoer]

3 minutes ago, Furball159. said:

I have been scammed on the second hand market (not for pc parts tho), so I'm not very comfortable with trying it again lmao.

I buy plenty of secondhand computer junk on eBay (though in the US), and it's usually fine. For example my home server is a PowerEdge R540 with a dozen 12 TB drives, a Xeon 6209u (20 cores 40 threads), 384 GB of RAM, 12 TB of flash storage, and an Arc a310. Aside from the a310 and hard drives, everything was bought used on eBay. I'd always trust used enterprise parts over low-end new consumer parts. I only received one dud DIMM out of a lot, and the seller replaced it. 

 

Always buy on platforms with buyer protection policies, not "trust me, bro" sellers like Marketplace.

 

Just now, Furball159. said:

Is a 14th gen Intel i5 any good (i mean i know its better than what i got LOL, but will it do the tasks im looking at with some more headroom for future?)

That should be plenty, and the iGPU should have the same Quick Sync capabilities as Arc Alchemist so you won't need to buy a graphics card.

[Furball159.]

1 minute ago, Needfuldoer said:

I buy plenty of secondhand computer junk on eBay (though in the US), and it's usually fine. For example my home server is a PowerEdge R540 with a dozen 12 TB drives, a Xeon 6209u (20 cores 40 threads), 384 GB of RAM, 12 TB of flash storage, and an Arc a310. Aside from the a310 and hard drives, everything was bought used on eBay. I'd always trust used enterprise parts over low-end new consumer parts. I only received one dud DIMM out of a lot, and the seller replaced it. 

 

Always buy on platforms with buyer protection policies, not "trust me, bro" sellers like Marketplace.

 

That should be plenty, and the iGPU should have the same Quick Sync capabilities as Arc Alchemist so you won't need to buy a graphics card.

Yeah but doesn't the iGPU put strain on the CPU or does it act more like an APU where the iGPU is actually sperated from the CPU in the load bearing and core count?

I just have a bit of PTSD watching my 4th Gen i5 hit 98% usage on med transcoding speeds lol, I don't want that to happen when the guys are playing on the server. it would cause me to get spammed on discord during that one high quality scene in jungle curise lol

[Somerandomtechyboi]

2 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

I'd always trust used enterprise parts over low-end new consumer parts

^^^

better than consumer garbage thats gonna have a higher failiure rate than actual enterprise hardware 

 

its the same principal as buying a used flagship over a new low end phone or buying a used higher end psu over a lowend garbage new psu

 

if you need the pikvm then go ahead and buy a real server board instead for the same or less money with real ipmi, a shit ton of i/o + cpu cores, and top that off with boatloads of cheap ecc ddr4 + reliability

 

also ebay has buyer protection so thatll cover you

[Needfuldoer]

3 minutes ago, Furball159. said:

Yeah but doesn't the iGPU put strain on the CPU or does it act more like an APU where the iGPU is actually sperated from the CPU in the load bearing and core count?

The graphics processing has its own chunk of silicon real estate; the CPU cores don't do anymore work than if you had a dedicated graphics card. The biggest difference is that the iGPU shares system memory, but for media transcoding that's a non-issue.

 

3 minutes ago, Furball159. said:

I just have a bit of PTSD watching my 4th Gen i5 hit 98% usage on med transcoding speeds lol, I don't want that to happen when the guys are playing on the server.

That depends on what the target codec, bitrate, and resolution was. If it was trying to transcode to a format your iGPU doesn't support in hardware, it will fall back to doing it in software on the CPU cores. If that was the problem, then throwing even a "low end" modern card like an a310 at that PC would solve that problem (assuming you have a Plex Pass subscription to enable hardware acceleration).

[Furball159.]

2 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

also ebay has buyer protection so thatll cover you

I would love to trust ebay that much lol
 

3 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

its the same principal as buying a used flagship over a new low end phone or buying a used higher end psu over a lowend garbage new psu

Totally get it, but the piKVM is just more of a QOL then anything else, faliure rate on rasp pi's are pretty low too

 

3 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

if you need the pikvm then go ahead and buy a real server board instead for the same or less money with real ipmi, a shit ton of i/o + cpu cores, and top that off with boatloads of cheap ecc ddr4 + reliability

Cheap and ecc where I live doesn't exist lol but I get the point lol

[Furball159.]

4 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

The graphics processing has its own chunk of silicon real estate; the CPU cores don't do anymore work than if you had a dedicated graphics card. The biggest difference is that the iGPU shares system memory, but for media transcoding that's a non-issue.

okay well that pulls it down from like 3.3k to 2.8k without piKVM so thats neat.

Now i have to find a comprimise whether i go piKVM, a more expensive KVM that is enterpise or risk the second hand market only relying on buyer protection which from the horror stories i have heard (dankpods and alike) isn't great. I just like the kernal level access i can get, and more robust control of pikvm over software implmenations like xrdp which I have found to be really laggy in comparison to normal rdp and considering the fact its kind of off site its not great to not have ATX Pwr control

[Furball159.]

12 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

assuming you have a Plex Pass subscription to enable hardware acceleration

Well.... No wonder! I don't have plex pass yet... I was planning to buy that as part of this upgrade.

Speaking of what formats are supported by that iGPU

Im assuming H264 is (only one i actually know outside of DCP specific ones). I use an iOS 12 and later a Fetch Mini and Telstra TV box, along with chrome and plex desktop on Windows 11/Linux for my clients so im assuming they would use genralised formats that the iGPU could support, but what about audio transcodes? does the iGPU or CPU do that. although now that I think about it audio transcoding is probably negliglbe on preformance.

[Needfuldoer]

11 minutes ago, Furball159. said:

Speaking of what formats are supported by that iGPU

Wikipedia's table breaks it down pretty well:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video#Hardware_decoding_and_encoding:~:text=Fixed-function Quick Sync Video format support

 

Basically, only MPEG-2 and H.264 below 10 bit per pixel are fully supported on Haswell's version of Quick Sync Video.

 

Audio transcoding takes almost no processing power compared to video. Don't worry about it.

[Furball159.]

Just now, Needfuldoer said:

MPEG-2

isn't mpeg-4 common now days? how can i check the codecs on my files in plex that i have at the moment?

[Needfuldoer]

1 minute ago, Furball159. said:

isn't mpeg-4 common now days? how can i check the codecs on my files in plex that i have at the moment?

MPEG-2 is very old and inefficient, but still in use for services like terrestrial over-the-air TV in North America. Pretty much every file you have should be MPEG-4, H.264, or HEVC.

 

MediaInfo can tell you more than you'll ever want to know about any media file you throw at it. VLC will also tell you what codecs it's decoding while a file is playing.

 

https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo

 

[Furball159.]

1 minute ago, Needfuldoer said:

Pretty much every file you have should be MPEG-4, H.264, or HEVC.

Sorry if this is dumb, but if the iGPU only supports MPEG-2 doesn't that mean the CPU software encoding will have to do all the heavy lifting then?