Tax time upgrades

[Tmoney0985]

Ok, tax season is coming up... I am debating what upgrades I want to do to my PLEX server for the best performance. I was going to sway to a AMD Ryzen 5 1600x (Benchmark 13314), but the CPU, MB and RAM would have to be upgraded for around $420. OR, I can upgrade my cpu in my current rig that has an LGA 1155 socket. According to my web search the best CPU for my socket is E3-1290 (Benchmark 9744) around $300. Each has good and bad. With the new MB I also upgrade to DDR4 RAM... WHAT SHOULD I DO??? I was thinking of leaning toward Hardware Transcoding, but more research says it is not a huge addition at the cost of quality.

[Jurrunio]

1600X is not worth buying unless the 1600 cost more.

 

Ryzen is better for the money. The $120 you save now might turn into $300, or even more when you upgrade in the future.

[Tmoney0985]

Okay, I was leaning that way. 

 

Another question:

I see where Intel has to have

• 2nd-generation Intel Core (Sandy Bridge, 2011) or newer
• Supports Intel Quick Sync Video (Not sure? Look up your processor)

Does the AMD need any special specs to work with GPU transcoding? Is it better to just stick with CPU transcoding?

[Damascus]

2 minutes ago, Tmoney0985 said:

Okay, I was leaning that way. 

 

Another question:

I see where Intel has to have

• 2nd-generation Intel Core (Sandy Bridge, 2011) or newer
• Supports Intel Quick Sync Video (Not sure? Look up your processor)

Does the AMD need any special specs to work with GPU transcoding? Is it better to just stick with CPU transcoding?

Any cpu can use a gpu for encoding.  

6 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

1600X is not worth buying unless the 1600 cost more.

 

Ryzen is better for the money. The $120 you save now might turn into $300, or even more when you upgrade in the future.

 

[Tmoney0985]

2 minutes ago, Damascus said:

Any cpu can use a gpu for encoding. 

How come Intel says you have to meet the requirements?

[Jurrunio]

8 minutes ago, Tmoney0985 said:

Okay, I was leaning that way. 

 

Another question:

I see where Intel has to have

• 2nd-generation Intel Core (Sandy Bridge, 2011) or newer
• Supports Intel Quick Sync Video (Not sure? Look up your processor)

Does the AMD need any special specs to work with GPU transcoding? Is it better to just stick with CPU transcoding?

QSV is just using the integrated graphics of Intel CPUs to do the transcoding, which is useless to X79 platform since those CPUs dont have integrated graphics anyway.

 

Both sides can use the GPU to do the work.

[Damascus]

Just now, Tmoney0985 said:

How come Intel says you have to meet the requirements?

My dude you gave no context other than the requirements.  Probably Intel's requirements for using quicksynk, a feature reliant on the integrated graphics.

[Damascus]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

QSV is just using the integrated graphics of Intel CPUs to do the transcoding, which is useless to X79 platform since those CPUs dont have integrated graphics anyway

1290 is an 1155 gpu Though, I believe it has an igpu

[Tmoney0985]

Ah......... Okay, thanks for the info. Any other recommendations for a PLEX setup?

[Jurrunio]

3 minutes ago, Damascus said:

1290 is an 1155 gpu Though, I believe it has an igpu

It's a Xeon so it doesnt have one (despite being 1155). Socket 775 platform do have graphics on the chipset, but that's another story.

[Jurrunio]

2 minutes ago, Tmoney0985 said:

Ah......... Okay, thanks for the info. Any other recommendations for a PLEX setup?

16GB of RAM at least, servers eat a lot of them.

[Damascus]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

It's a Xeon so it doesnt have one (despite being 1155). Socket 775 platform do have graphics on the chipset, but that's another story.

I know at least a few workstation  xeon have igpus, guess they are a tad rare.

[Damascus]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

16GB of RAM at least, servers eat a lot of them.

Maybe it would make more sense to get 32gb of RAM for the server by staying 1155

[Tmoney0985]

I only have 8 GB in my current setup and haven't had any issues, but I was thinking of upping it to possibly run the transcode in a RAM disk??? Again dont know exactly the best setup, learning as I go.

[Tmoney0985]

I also have a Xeon dual CPU server MB in my DVR/Encode/RIP PC, but only running one CPU. The cost of Server CPU is almost 2x if you consider the cost and specs.

[Jurrunio]

1 minute ago, Tmoney0985 said:

I only have 8 GB in my current setup and haven't had any issues, but I was thinking of upping it to possibly run the transcode in a RAM disk??? Again dont know exactly the best setup, learning as I go.

DDR3 is at least affordable. Get 16GB first and see if it's enough. If not then you can add more. Btw going 32GB means 4 8GB sticks, so if you use 4 4GB sticks you will need to replace them all together.

[Jurrunio]

Just now, Tmoney0985 said:

I also have a Xeon dual CPU server MB in my DVR/Encode/RIP PC, but only running one CPU. The cost of Server CPU is almost 2x if you consider the cost and specs.

I thought buying decommissioned company hardware is cheap?

[Tmoney0985]

Okay, looking up my exact CPU is DIRT cheap, but I had an issue when trying to connect two CPU b4. BIOS saw them, but windows would not let me use the 2nd one, maybe I need server edition? The AMD is prob still the way to go though I would think? Transcodes like games prefer stronger single core over multi core/CPU.