Plex server on a Dell Inspiron 3050?

54and56

Hi all,

I'm currently running Plex server on an NVIDA Shield connected via Ethernet to a 4GB NAS and I have a total of 5 fairly infrequent users, rarely if ever more than 2 running concurrently over Virgin 200mb fibre broadband.

I love the NVIDIA Shield but it keeps dropping the NAS as mounted storage so I'm constantly re-setting it which is a pain. Tried everything and just can't figure it out.

I have a 4 year old Dell Insipron 3050 mini desktop PC running Win 10 which doesn't get used any more and I'm wondering if you kind people can give me a steer as to whether it's got the guts and would be an appropriate machine to use as a 100% dedicated Plex server instead of the NVIDA Shield?

It's specs are:-

- Intel Celeron J1800 CPU @2.41Ghz which I think is dual core.
- 2GB RAM
- 64 Bit Win 10 Home Edition
- 30GB SSD (10GB free, the Windows folder is 16GB!!)

Good enough to be a Plex server given my modest requirement?

Three more questions if you don't mind:-

1. What would be the best remote control tool for logging into this machine if I need to re-start Plex or do any other sort of diagnostic / maintenance on it remotely?

2. What's the best way to free up space on the SSD? I recall reading a long time ago that Win 10 keeps a copy of the install files which can easily be deleted to free up space but maybe I'm dreaming about that.

3. Assuming this is a good enough machine to be a Plex server would I be best off doing a reset back to bare bones and then just installing Plex server or is that necessary? There's basically nothing loaded on the machine at present other than Chrome.

Cheers.

smuggler.ie

I am not expert on Plex nor on either of devices and open for criticism, but according this article, Shield CPU beats your "PC", Shield has more RAM, etc, etc.


You not specify if users are remote or local(LAN), but it sounds like issue is not Shield, rather NAS or LAN, unless Shield as hardware is at fault.


1. on LAN you can RDP, from remote - TeamViewer or similar would do.

2. 30GB could be enough just for Win10, joke to call it "desktop". It must be "dumb terminal" was the purpose of that device.

The high horse brigade

The Shield is a very efficient Plex server, it can handle 3-4 transcodes as it has hardware transcoding support on the GPU. That pc is pants. It would be best try to sort out your NAS mount issues on the Shield

jester77

Have you tried changing protocols to see if it helps? Maybe try smb instead of nfs or vice versa

54and56

jester77 wrote: »

Have you tried changing protocols to see if it helps? Maybe try smb instead of nfs or vice versa

Do you mean on the NAS or on the Plex Server app?

jester77

54&56 wrote: »

Do you mean on the NAS or on the Plex Server app?

It would be on both, you would share your media folders on your NAS with a certain protocol (SMB, NFS, AFP, CIFs, etc), would depend on what the client can support. I presume the shield would support SMB and NFS. Would be worth testing to see if it makes a difference.

somebody_else

I had raspberry pi (2) running Plex client from Synology NAS for a while and it worked fine.
Replaced with FireTV stick as I got it very cheap.

I'm sure it was direct download image to put on SD card but now can't find it.
but found this:
https://www.howtogeek.com/400958/how-to-turn-a-raspbery-pi-into-a-plex-server/

Tom

The high horse brigade

We're going backwards. A raspberry pi is a huge downgrade for a Plex server, even weaker than the crap pc already discussed whereas the Shield is a very efficient Plex server that can handle several transcodes

jester77

The high horse brigade wrote: »

We're going backwards. A raspberry pi is a huge downgrade for a Plex server, even weaker than the crap pc already discussed whereas the Shield is a very efficient Plex server that can handle several transcodes

The new Pi4 could make a decent server, it now supports gigabit ethernet and supports H.265 (4kp60 decode) and H264 (1080p60 decode, 1080p30 encode). I wouldn't use it for sharing, but for something in your own home it would do an OK job, especially considering the price, if you have a a good client.

54and56

jester77 wrote: »

It would be on both, you would share your media folders on your NAS with a certain protocol (SMB, NFS, AFP, CIFs, etc), would depend on what the client can support. I presume the shield would support SMB and NFS. Would be worth testing to see if it makes a difference.

Hi Jester,

Thanks for the suggestion.

As far as I can tell my NAS uses the CIFS protocol to share media.

Following the advice from The High Horse Brigade I spent a bit more time trying to get the NVIDA Shield to work and made two changes which appear to be working well.

First I mounted the NAS as a logged in user rather than a guest and that seems to be keeping it connected much better. I did this a few days ago and it hasn't dropped the connection yet.

I also turned off "Twonky Server" on the NAS. Not quite sure why I did that other than I wasn't using it and I thought it might be creating some sort of conflict with the NVIDIA Shield connection.

As it happens I have 2 X NVIDIA Shields in the house one which is connected to the NAS and Router via Ethernet and one which is in another room only served by WiFi, both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.

For redundancy I also mounted the NAS as a logged in user on the 2nd NVIDIA Shield and set it up as a "Backup" Plex server and it too seems to be holding the connection well.

The other issues I needed to tweak were allowing unsecure connections within the Plex Media Server app on each NVIDA Shield and turning off the auto sleep option.

I've now gone from having one unreliable Plex server to having (fingers crossed) two reliable servers.

I'm heading off on holiday next week so being able to access and stream some content in the evenings would be a good option to have.

Thanks for the help guys.