For that price, there are cheaper/just as good options.
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Agreed with @Geran_Brown, it’s expensive. It also has the same Gemini Lake QSV issues that other similar boards have.
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I finally starting looking at building a Plex media server a few days ago, I have zero server experience. But this seems like it would be a fun hobby, I love home theater and computers.
I have what I think would be a good relatively cheap build from scratch. But I want to make sure I’m not misunderstanding or missing anything. Would love any input on components I’ve picked if there are better options out there. I cant find many case options, are their any other suggestions?
This is an awesome post and I learned a lot. I’m still very new and was wondering if this could be a solution for me. Currently I do not have my NAS built yet, but I will do so in the future (right now I just have my media attached via USB to an old laptop on the network), but for the time being I’m wondering if this would be able to solve my Plex home issue by hardware transcoding.
If I build a qsv intel transcoder, and put Plex on it, and re-direct my media from my laptop + external HDD, would this be a solution and would it still be able to transcode effectively? I’m wondering what could go wrong or what variables I’m missing or should I just wait until I build my separate NAS? I was considering this or completely forgoing transcoding and throwing in the towel and maybe getting a nvidia shield pro in the mean time to by pass transcoding, but it would be unfortunate. What are your thoughts/is my line of thinking correct?
Do a 1U build please? Curse you, PCPartPicker for not having any rackmount chassis options!
PCPP is pretty garbage for the stuff we do here. You can combine information from this thread with [Guide] Spice up your rack with these stylish & sexy chassis for your pfSense build! this guide to help you find a cool chassis.
Generally, I wouldn’t recommend 1U builds however as they aren’t quiet, nor do they offer much expansion. Personally, I’d rather get one of the Mini-ITX systems listed above.
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Hey I am in Canada and currently grabbing all the parts for the “Really tiny mini-ITX” machine. I grabbed the G4900T with the H310T and the Morex 557, and am just waiting for those to arrive before I grab the cpu cooler etc. I have one question about finding the correct PSU for this mobo? I can’t seem to find anything on Amazon.ca that would suffice for this motherboard. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Also would 2x4GB sodimms be beneficial at all? Or should I just grab a 1x8GB? Basically does dual channel have any added benefit in this situation?
Thanks for these build guides! I am sure excited to put this all together and downgrade my current NAS. Currently rocking an E5-2670 v1 and a 1650S looking at putting a E5-2650L, however I am open to suggestions. Thanks again!
Dual channel memory does not matter for this use-case. I would recommend a single 8GB stick so that you can easily upgrade to 16GB or 24GB later!
This laptop charger kit should work.
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in your “I Wanna Go Fast” sample build, is the i7-9700k still a good option? Microcenter currently has it for $200. There’s also a $20 off Mobo discount. As a matter of fact, they also have a combo deal for cpu, Mobo and wd black 1the nvme for $485.
Yes, it’s a good deal at $200, especially if you can combo with a motherboard that’s <$150.
I’d avoid the SSD, though.
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Sweet thank you! what are the odds of this running Plex and Jellyfin side by side? With a G4900T. Thanks again.
That won’t be a problem.
Thoughts on the recently announced Hackboard 2 as a QSV server? With the HP290s in short supply, maybe an option? https://www.crowdsupply.com/hackboard/hb2
That might work, but the board has an Atom-based CPU. Last I tried transcoding on a N4000 (pretty similar model), quicksync performed nowhere near as well as on a full fat Celeron 4900.
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The HP 290 come back extremely regularly. I’d just wait.
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Awesome, thanks JDM! Just wanted to ask a couple more questions. How / What is the best way to test the transcoding on the G4900T? And should I expect more than 10 transcodes? Also what would the CPU usage look like under such a load? Thanks JDM and sorry for all the questions…
The best way to test is to fire up some transcodes on your server.
Make sure you have hw transcoding enabled in settings
The G4900T should do more then 10 1080p transdodes, you can see more details in the hp290 owners thread
If its working, you should see a bunch of transcode (hw) on the cards.
So about 4 years ago I scored some deals and set myself up on an X8DTL-3F and 2 X5690’s and 64G ECC. Given the ongoing power costs, I’m wondering if it might be worth it to drop that platform and move to the “Basic Unraid NAS” build. I currently have 25 containers running on Unraid with the biggest draw being Plex. Honestly, I never see the overall CPU load top 25% and my max Plex stream history was 10 concurrent transcodes.
Would this move make sense? I have a couple extra boxes that I’m thinking about utilizing for docker if the load is too much. Is there any resale market for the existing mobo/cpu/ram to help recover cost?
Thanks!
I think you should add a QSV transcoder box to your setup and keep your X8DTL in place. Evaluate the impact removing Plex from your current setup has. Then, if you see a drastic lowering of CPU usage, I’d downgrade to something low power like L5630.
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