Plex server pc

[K.B]

So I'm looking to set up a media center cloud for me and a friend. And I want to get a dedicated server for it so I can just fire bit up and forget about it and maybe maintain it once a year or so. 

 

So I found This  win7, i5, dell optiplex 790 for the equivalent of 160usd. It should run everything well but is it overkill or am I missing something here?

 

How have other people solved their media cloud centers hardware wise?

[kerradeph]

The easiest for running long term would be some version of Linux or FreeBSD rather than windows 10. Other than that, take into account storage and the CPU use. Transcoding media can put a fair bit of load on the server.

[Drak3]

5 minutes ago, kerradeph said:

The easiest for running long term would be some version of Linux or FreeBSD rather than windows 10. Other than that, take into account storage and the CPU use. Transcoding media can put a fair bit of load on the server.

One can run a Plex server on a desktop Intel Atom board with ease, and stream to two or three machines at 1080p without putting a great deal of strain on the system, if Linux is used.

[K.B]

Oh, I forgot to mention that I have a 1T drive lying about so upgrading the mere 250G is a piece of cake if I need to.

 

@kerradeph this is win7 not 10 and I know a Linux solution is "cleaner" I've just used windows all my life and if I get it I might aswell use it unless it uses up way to much resources. Plex website recommend 2000+ Passmark score cpu and 2g ram this dell is almost 6000 and 4g ram

[kerradeph]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

One can run a Plex server on a desktop Intel Atom board with ease, and stream to two or three machines at 1080p without putting a great deal of strain on the system, if Linux is used.

Direct stream is fine, but if you transcode more than one stream on one of those Atom boards you might see some issues. I mean even that one stream if it's a large file it might be enough to overload the server. One of my friends runs an atom and has these issues.

[kerradeph]

3 minutes ago, K.B said:

@kerradeph this is win7 not 10 and I know a Linux solution is "cleaner" I've just used windows all my life and if I get it I might aswell use it unless it uses up way to much resources. Plex website recommend 2000+ Passmark score cpu and 2g ram this dell is almost 6000 and 4g ram

If you use something like FreeNAS it has a web interface and it sounds like it's pretty simple to set up a plex server on it. And it's designed for being run for months or years without restarts. A Windows desktop OS and even their server OSs need to be restarted fairly frequently.

[K.B]

3 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

Obviously the old i5 and ridiculously small HDD make it cheap, but throw a bigger one in and it should do just fine. Not overkill, especially if you're transcoding.

I have a 1T lying around so that's fixed.

 

And I'm looking at if this can handle worst case scenario: 2ppl streaming and transcoding 1080p simultaneously.

[K.B]

1 minute ago, kerradeph said:

If you use something like FreeNAS it has a web interface and it sounds like it's pretty simple to set up a plex server on it. And it's designed for being run for months or years without restarts. A Windows desktop OS and even their server OSs need to be restarted fairly frequently.

Good point. Although couldn't you just disable auto update and let it run until I feel the need to update and/or remove dust.

[kerradeph]

Just now, K.B said:

Good point. Although couldn't you just disable auto update and let it run until I feel the need to update and/or remove dust.

It's not the updates, it's just that Windows OSs don't do all that well as running for a long time without a restart. I think the best I've seen on a server was around 4-5 months. Meanwhile there's Linux servers with thousands of days of uptime with no issues. 

 

If you are sure you don't want to deal with *nix then it's not a major issue, but it might not hurt to schedule a monthly restart for easy recovery of resources. 

[K.B]

2 minutes ago, kerradeph said:

It's not the updates, it's just that Windows OSs don't do all that well as running for a long time without a restart. I think the best I've seen on a server was around 4-5 months. Meanwhile there's Linux servers with thousands of days of uptime with no issues. 

 

If you are sure you don't want to deal with *nix then it's not a major issue, but it might not hurt to schedule a monthly restart for easy recovery of resources. 

Yeah, I think I'll do that and fix a proper Linux solution after some time when I've done my Linux homework :). 

[Denned]

Plex requires a Passmark score of 2000 for 1080p content, and 1500 for 720p content:

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201774043-What-kind-of-CPU-do-I-need-for-my-Server-computer-

 

Find you CPU here: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/

And that should give you a rough estimate on how many streams of 1080p/720p (that requires transcoding) you can run at one time.

[K.B]

On 2016-12-26 at 5:08 AM, wrathoftheturkey said:

You should be fine

Is there any recommended hdd that I should be using or will just a cheap standard drive from a well established brand do just fine for this use case? The one I have at home got used elsewhere apparently.

[kerradeph]

WD reds have fared well for me. HGST ultrastars are a common recommendation that I see. I've been hearing better things about Seagate, but I'm still wary of them after the mess a couple years back.