Which of these desktops for Plex server?

[kingmustard]

At the moment, I use my main gaming PC as my Plex Media Server.

 

I've decided to get a seperate PC that's on 24/7 for this purpose.

 

I transcode up to 2x 1080p x264 streams at any one time (to Chromecasts, mainly), so I believe I only need a 4,000 PassMark CPU or so but if I would need 8,000 if were to start serving single 4K streams.

 

These are what I've found:

 

 

Now, I haven't actually confirmed that they can store 3x 3.5" HDDs (1x boot, 2x storage) but hopefully, they will.

 

It looks like I'll have to spend £195 or more to start streaming 4K video in the future but if I'm content with 1080p, I can go as low as £130.

 

Which system would you suggest?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Id go with the top one, fast cpu, and no need for a fast gpu here.

 

For storage, you can always go with extenal drives, or connect it to anouther nas.

[Denned]

Top one seems the like the obvious choice. You're probably going to spend money on disks nomatter which system you chose. And apart from that, only the CPU will matter. RAM might be worth getting some more of at some point. But you should be able to get some used DDR3 and still be well within the prices of any of the other systems.

[JoostinOnline]

Do you want to stream to devices like Chromecast and a Fire TV? If so, you need four cores for transcoding. I started out with an i3-2100 and it struggled with 1080p, but I upgraded to an i5-2400 and it never struggles. It never gets near 100% on any of the cores. Plex barely uses any RAM, so 4GB is plenty. If you want 4k, then you'll absolutely have to get an i7. 

[Sauron]

The cpu really doesn't matter much unless you're doing transcoding, it's all about that network bandwidth. The clients are the ones doing the decoding work as far as I know, and I'm sure that is the case with my dlna server (I don't use plex but it shouldn't be too different in the streaming component). The only benefit you might get from a high end cpu is faster indexing but you'd still be limited by your storage speed.

 

The 7010 is definitely a good deal in general, but it's unnecessary for this purpose and I would put more emphasys on the system's storage capabilities; for example, if you're interested in running a zfs pool for better drive management you'll want more than 2gb of ram and, with the current prices on memory, buying an 8gb stick might set you back another 40£. Personally I'd go for the EliteDesk 800 G1 (second one from the bottom) as it come with enough ram and a 1tb hard disk - all while being cheaper than the 7010.