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Plex Server Build

Billy86

Right, so I'm completely new to all of this end of things and a little clueless!

A few months back I built a budget gaming/HTPC as a gift for the sister and her boyfriend who had just signed a lease on a house, and the other day they asked about a second one as they'll be living in the home with two friends on the lease to buy thingy for the next while - in case they want to watch different things at the same time, or for different rooms etc.

Plex server sounds about perfect right? They already have a 3TB HDD stuffed with media on their one so it's a solid starting point and means I'd only need a 500GB-1TB HDD that I could put in their computer while using the 3TB one as the first drive in the plex server. It would also make a fairly easy out in terms a two-for-one Christmas present for them, which I'm generally crap at shopping for.

Thing is, I'm completely lost as to what is required for a Plex server in terms of components. First, apparently you need a passmark of roughly 2,000 on the CPU for each concurrent stream but it's also rounded up so I'd probably be needing a base of about a 6,500-7,000+ score. I'd imagine that all four of them using them separately would be rare enough so while 8,000+ would be ideal I don't think it's a huge necessity if it means a significant price bump.

Secondly, apparently 8GB of RAM is needed, which adds to the cost a bit on second hand i5 2XXX Optiplex type machines as I'd need to buy likely 8GB of RAM for it (so that they're not separate brands/speeds/etc). Then of course the appropriate motherboard and a case. Also they are supposed to work a lot better with an SSD, in which case I'm assuming 64-120GB would do best. Also probably a Linux type setup as they are a) free, and b) far less demanding on the CPU which frees up more space for simultaneous streams.

I'm barely even sure where to begin, but the best options seem to be:

1. Second i5 2XXX Optiplex type of computer for €100-125, plus a €45 SSD, plus €45 HDD, plus €30-60 RAM (depending if I need one 4GB stick or two) = €220-275
**i5 2500 passmark = 6,302

2. Ryzen 1200 new build (1200, 320 mobo, Aerocool case w/ PSU, 8GB RAM, GT710 gpu) = €325ish
**1200 Passmark = 6,830
**1300X Passmark = 7,465
A random question I've had on the 1300X for a bit actually, since it is essentially a 'factory overclocked' 1200 yet a 1200 will not OC on a 320 motherboard, will a 320 motherboard limit a 1300X to the same output as a 1200?

3. i3 7300 new build (CPU, H110 mobo, 2x4GB RAM, Aerocool case w/ PSU, 8GB RAM) = €340ish
**i3 7300 passmark = 6,470
**The passmark is a bit lower than the Ryzen builds and it costs a few Euro more despite no need for a separate GPU (I have an i5 6600K so can flash update the bios if needed), but just adding it in case it makes more sense for any reasons that I might be missing. Main two concerns being if Ryzen has an issues with Plex or if the 2400mhz RAM might cause issues on Ryzen due to the lower frequency?

It would be used pretty much exclusively for 1080p media and some light gaming in terms of older emulators. If possible it would also all run through the Kodi GUI I have set up on their computer at present. Just in case any of that impacts anything. The plan ideally is then to link them in with a small Raspberry Pi unit in each room. Again I am looking to have enough for this to stream to three separate outputs simultaneously, or hopefully even four at a push but price is important, would ideally like to keep below €250 if at all possible and no higher than €350 absolute max.

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Cuddlesworth

Plex only uses the CPU if it has to encode the stream into a format the computer can play. If its a normal x86 device, its usally more then capable of decoding the stream itself, so Plex simply serves the files over the network.

The better question is, do you want to start supporting their network, flatmates machines and run what will be effectively a NAS in a remote location?

ED E

Where are you getting those specs? Plex uses very little memory.

My setup is C2750 based (3800 Passmark) and is fine for probably 10x 1080p x264 streams (clients dont need to transcode that) and maybe 1.5x 1080p x265 streams (HEVC). 4K x265 is a no go other than direct play which is hit or miss (GPU supports it but it doesnt work in the web player).

The question I'd ask yourself/them is how much the gaming matters?

If gaming doesnt matter much then:
- Setup Plex server on current HTPC
- Buy 2 or 3 chromecasts for every TV in the house
- Install plex app on all phones

Total cost will be less than 100€ and gives a very good UX.

Billy86

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Plex only uses the CPU if it has to encode the stream into a format the computer can play. If its a normal x86 device, its usally more then capable of decoding the stream itself, so Plex simply serves the files over the network.

The better question is, do you want to start supporting their network, flatmates machines and run what will be effectively a NAS in a remote location?

Cheers for the feedback there; in terms of supporting the network and machines I'm fine with that but mainly because I reckon I would rarely have to; one of the lads moving in with them has build some PCs in the past and the sister's boyfriend is very quick on picking that type of stuff up and they have a few friends that work in IT type areas, so I reckon for the most part they'd be able to look after it themselves.

Billy86

ED E wrote: »

Where are you getting those specs? Plex uses very little memory.

My setup is C2750 based (3800 Passmark) and is fine for probably 10x 1080p x264 streams (clients dont need to transcode that) and maybe 1.5x 1080p x265 streams (HEVC). 4K x265 is a no go other than direct play which is hit or miss (GPU supports it but it doesnt work in the web player).

The question I'd ask yourself/them is how much the gaming matters?

If gaming doesnt matter much then:
- Setup Plex server on current HTPC
- Buy 2 or 3 chromecasts for every TV in the house
- Install plex app on all phones

Total cost will be less than 100€ and gives a very good UX.

Ah well in that case I'd be more or less laughing, also read an SSD can help considerably but I'm assuming now that was for transcoding files. I checked and am pretty much all that 264 codec which apparently means no need for transcoding etc. I'm pretty sure they've got exactly nothing on 4K so that should be fine also.

In terms of gaming, it's not a huge requirement but would be a nice extra... any gaming would be very light and primarily single player so a loss in a small bit of response time isn't an issue, there won't be anyone losing their sh** over losing out by a split second in BF1 or Rocket League type of games by any stretch. The thing there is how exactly would it work? They have a 1050 TI in their computer; if transferring that over to the Plex setup makes that a go-er it would definitely be worth considering (as would the receiving computer needing enough GPU/CPU since at least one of the lads moving in with them has an older one too), but if both the computer with Plex and all the devices streaming off of it need to have their own GPU then I'd give it a miss and just go for audio/video.

Also great to hear re memory, I've only been looking into this for a few days and am kind of just taking what info I get on decent looking youtube videos, online tutorials, etc that I can find.

---

Also a bit of a really dumb question

but does Plex not need it's own standalone computer? Just with you saying to run it off the current HTPC, that would save a whole tonne of hassle and would allow me to put the budget into Chromecasts/Raspberry Pis/whatever instead, but would it at all interfere with the current HTPC if one person was using it directly while another two were trying to use it for streaming onto? I know there are a tonne of variables, but let's say the sister is playing something fairly demanding like GTA (runs 50-60fps on mostly 'very high' settings with this build but they'd have no issues moving back to med/high settings if that avoids any problems) while the two housemates try to stream a standard x264 off of it at the same time. It's a G4560 with a 1050 TI, 8GB RAM and 7200RPM HDD.

Billy86

Also, Steam Links are currently going for €16.50 on their website - would these not make a better option than Chromecast? I know their response times are a lot better for if I do get any gaming capability into this, but are there downsides to go with that?

ED E

Billy86 wrote: »

Also a bit of a really dumb question but does Plex not need it's own standalone computer? Just with you saying to run it off the current HTPC, that would save a whole tonne of hassle and would allow me to put the budget into Chromecasts/Raspberry Pis/whatever instead, but would it at all interfere with the current HTPC if one person was using it directly while another two were trying to use it for streaming onto? I know there are a tonne of variables, but let's say the sister is playing something fairly demanding like GTA (runs 50-60fps on mostly 'very high' settings with this build but they'd have no issues moving back to med/high settings if that avoids any problems) while the two housemates try to stream a standard x264 off of it at the same time. It's a G4560 with a 1050 TI, 8GB RAM and 7200RPM HDD.

Think of plex a bit like Dropbox, a little icon running in the taskbar. It can be headless as its just a server not like say Kodi which is a player not a server. In that sense plex has two parts: The server and players which can be Console Apps, Smart TVs over DLNA, smartphone apps, browser windows.

The choke points in the above would be
A) Network - If you've a 1Gig link from the HTPC to Router then normally at 1080p thats 30Mb per client it wont congest, but a 10/100 might (even a short burst is a problem for games)

CPU - If transcoding is required its CPU heavy. With a low end GPU then it should be 100% loaded and the CPU somewhere lower than that giving some room for transcoding. Games like BF3 etc might load the CPU fully though. If you dont need transcoding then a small bit of CPU time is all you need.

Also make sure the games arent running from the same disks as the media, that'd cause problems.

Billy86

Ah sure that's great to hear, clears up quite a bit. Now one issue is that the games and media are indeed on the one 3TB drive (and the case is too small to fit a second drive in there), so I'm curious how it might cause problems? Thankfully it seems that there's as good as no transcoding that will be needed, so would it be CPU demand issues that could be offset by lowering settings (they're hardly picky for settings and the G4560/1050 TI while low power is also surprisingly powerful) which might be able to be worked around, or more an issue of two devices trying to use the same drive (which would pretty much make it a non-runner)?

Completely unrelated but I also stumbled upon this for anyone looking for a kind of fun Christmas present to do this year: https://learn.adafruit.com/android-smart-home-mirror?view=all#overview
With a £60 8-10" cheapo tablet off Amazon, you could even do about a 3x2ft one for about £150/€170 (UK based but a decent looking site for the mirror part - http://www.cutplasticsheeting.co.uk/mirrored-sheeting/two-way-acrylic-mirror )