Long time lurker - picked up one of these and just getting it set up now. Put in 16GB RAM and a 500GB nvme.
Quick question - do you guys keep a windows 10 install on a separate partition when installing Ubuntu, or do you just go full Ubuntu? How do you accomplish bios updates if you don’t keep a W10 partition?
Full Ubuntu. Personally, I never even updated the BIOS when I got mine. The latest release doesn’t fix any major issues. And BIOS updates are so rare that I wouldn’t worry about keeping a dedicated partition for them. Just throw a fresh Win10 install and the HP tool on a small SSD if you ever do need to update again. Shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes
Good call, thanks
Initially installed 19.04 per the recommendation in this thread from quite awhile ago. Had all sorts of issues due to EOL repos when trying to apt install packages. Did some reading and realized I should probably be on 19.10 - reinstalling now. Is 19 still the recommended build for QS compatibility?
edit: only Linux experience is with Raspbian so a bit of a learning curve with Ubuntu
The guide now recommends 20.04, I’d use that. It’s the latest LTS.
Hmm…buy this or keep my E2176g 1u build for Plex? 
Wow great guide, bit the bullet and bought one for a dedicated plex box. Just a few questions.
For those who bought from VIPOutlet on Ebay, does he package it well. The reason I ask is I just saw via my ring door bell the FedEx guy toss the box onto my front porch.
Second, does a 256gb NVMe drive sound large enough for plex?
Thanks in advance.
Yeah, they are packaged very well. Both of mine came in some heavy duty bubble wrap wrapped double thick around the computer, with additional bubble wrap to fill in the gaps. And 256GB should be plenty for Plex, as long as you aren’t doing video preview thumbnails for an extremely large library.
Is it normal for my HP290 to max out CPU at 100% for 3 transcoding streams?
I noticed a lot of lag when it was transcoding 3 streams simultaneously. It was impossible to watch any of the 3 streams.
My transcoding settings look like this: https://i.imgur.com/FREnjZE.png
Edit: Added noatime to my /etc/fstab from the software guide. Will report back if it fixed anything.
What are the files that you are transcoding? What does the Plex dashboard say when transcoding is taking place?
It was a 4k file to 1080p.
I don’t think it was a HP290 problem and more of a problem with the app I was using (Synclounge).
I am having no problems with transcoding now.
Thanks, glad to hear its package well. Yeah wont be doing any video thumbnails. Thanks again!
You can solve this problem by not transcoding 4K.
What a treasure trove of a thread!! I’ve been looking for a NAS/Plex server for two weeks before the interwebs landed me here. Had a question about the specs of this HP, do we know if it supports 32GB RAM (2x16)? Was hoping to beef it up a bit and pair with a 256GB NMVe SSD 2280 for boot drive
It does, but it’s pretty unlikely that you would need 32GB of RAM.
I got myself a 290 and set it up with unraid, a 9207-8e hba card and 16gb of ram, left the rest stock. Whenever I try to stream plex the box powers off if I’m transcoding. I’m running plex, Sonarr and Radarr dockers. Should I look into getting a new power supply? I did get it used off eBay so not sure if that could be the issue. I don’t know why it would be powering off other than that. Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
In case anyone has questions about the reliability of these:
This would actually be longer, but it’s hosted at my parents on the other side of the state and they had a new breaker panel put in. Not a single hiccup. 
so total newbe question but could someone kindly explain this?
Add 2x 10GbE ports - Intel X520 T2 (this serves no purpose on pfSense or Plex unless your external connection is >1Gb)
I just ordered my HP 290s today and I wanted to add these to my Ubuity Unifi network… my switch has 2 SFP+ ports and would it not be beneficial if my pfSense box had an SFP+ card?
Thanks in advance, I love this whole community and have learned lots over the last few months from the forums and discord
I use the 10G to connect to my nas where my plex shares live.
@KC8FLB
nice… looks like I need a few sfp+ cards lol
are there any compatibility issues that you may foresee?
