32GB is the max.
Finally ordered one , time to order NIC and m.2 
For upgrading the should it be DDR4-2400 only or it will support any DDR4 RAM,
Any desktop DDR4 RAM should work, itāll clock to whatever the DIMM and the CPU can support. For NIC, remember to get a low-profile (half-height) card, ideally with low-profile bracket (although you can also just remove the bracket). For m.2, remember to get NVMe; the slot doesnāt support m.2 SATA.
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Received mine today. Excellent packing, and unexpected keyboard and mouse included. Installed I340T quad port, booted Windoze, updated bios, etc. All good, runs cool and quiet. Other than some fingerprints on the front panel, looked like new. Waiting on Optane 16GB NVME SSD to install OPNsense. Resisting buying another for media server or NASā¦
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uh I hate you. I caved in and bought two, plus 8 gb x 2 and NVME drives. One for the girlfriend (she wanted a simple computer to do non-work related stuff on) and one for me (plex box? donāt know yet).
119 USD each, and something like 120 USD for the shipping. Pretty OK.
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OPNsense installed! Now need to configure everything and put it into service. OPNsense is installed on the 16gb NVME SSD. Is there any reason to leave the 500gb HD installed? Seems like an energy drain if thereās no use for that much capacity.
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Remove the drive! In theory you could use it for a steam cache if you host a lan party, but if you do that you can probably use an external drive instead.
Thatās what Iām thinking. Might remove the WiFi card as well.
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I just purchased two of these, one Iām planning on making a pfsense router, and the other is going to become my quick sync box for plex. Excited to join in the fun!
I bought two 8gb ram sticks for the builds. But now Iām wondering if I can use both 8gb add-on sticks that I purchased in the plex box, and the two stock 4gb sticks that came with the units in the pfsense box?
Need some advice and see if it is possible.
Pci slot used for quad port intel mic to be used for pfsense.
nvme slot for boot drive(proxmax with pfsense and freenas behind jail)
My freenas requirements are very minimal, access photos and videos over wifi and have data redundency.
is there a way to utilize 1x pci slot for hbc? or there is any option to connect more hdd , given the fact pci slot will be occupied by nic nic card.
Hey everyone,
I learned about this from reddit with regards to Plex server use. So i bought one along with the dummy HDMI plugs.I wanted something in smaller case that also uses less power but still handle 5-10 1080p concurrent remote streams.
Currently my Plex Server is running on a dedicated Plex machine with the following specs
- i7 2600K
- 8 GBs Ram
- 256 SSD for OS
- Windows 10 Pro
- My upload bandwidth is 40 Mbps
All my media is housed on a Synology Nas, my movies are full bluray MKV rips with full HD audio.
I was able to swap out the drive in the HP and install my 256 SSD with my OS/Plex Installation already intact and it booted up just fine.
I decided to test how many transcodes I could get within my own local network, all devices are hardwired.
Plex Server set to 1080p 8Mbps
Plex background transcoding set to Ultra Fast
Transcoding throttle buffer set to 900
I played a movie on these devices
- My desktop running chrome - 1080p @ 8 Mbps
- My desktop running the official Plex Media player - 1080p @ 8 Mbps
- PS4 Pro - 1080p @ 8 Mbps
- Xbox One X - 1080p @ 8 Mbps
- Nvidia Shield - Set to directplay a 4K movie
- iPhone X - 4 Mbps transcode
So I played a different movie on each device and confirmed each one was showing HW transcoding in Plex usage dashboard
After starting the 4th movie, I noticed a few of the devices started to buffer constantly and didnāt catch up.
My i7 2006k is on par or a bit better at handling 4-5 concurrent streams.
Any ideas what could be going on as to why I am not getting the good results using quick sync transcoding?
Did you follow the software portion of the guide?
Thanks for getting back to me and for setting up these guides.
If youāre referring to your guide about QuickSync and NVENC, then yes, I read the requirements and for the most part, I have the necessary equipment all in the HP 290 computer.
Where I differed is that I use windows 10 pro, because I already have my 3+ year old data on there, and that Iāve never used Ubuntu and researched that moving my existing Plex database is rather difficult going from windows to Ubuntu.
I read your warning that windows can limit HW transcoding but since all my transcode showed HW next to it, I assume it was using quicksync since it enabled it in Plex settings.
āread your warning that windows can limit HW transcodingā
Youāre surprised that youāre having transcoding issues on Windows?
If I were you, I would put that SSD back in the old box and get that plex server back online for now. Then I would buy a nice m.2 NVME 1TB rocket as suggested in the guide. Take your time and install Ubuntu Desktop step-by-step as laid out in the guide. You will learn a lot about linux (its not as scary as many think) and end up with a nice robust QuickSync machine that will handle ~20 plex encodes/decodes. Use this as a great learning project. At the end of this project, you will be able to decommission your i7 2600k machine (or use for something else) and have gained lots of valuable knowledge in the process. I am in the middle of it myself.
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Has anyone attempted to install a 16G dimm in these systems? If so, what part # did you use?
Is it possible to use the SATA port of DVD drive for SSD Harddrive?
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umm yea, considering it say it CAN limit, not that it absolutely does.
Since I confirmed each one of my streams was showing HW transcoding, i assume all 5 transcoding were using hardware transcoding.
thatās what I might do, although I only need a 256 GB NVMe or SSD since itās just for Plex Server use and nothing else. Might get the 8 GB ram too just to be safe for a bit of future proofing the setup.
Right now I have an extra 128 GB SSD that I will try to learn how to install Ubuntu on and then figure out how to move my Plex database over to it so I donāt lose my history, movie posters, etc.
Yes it is, although you will need to buy a SATA power Y-splitter since the power connector for the DVD drive is a proprietary connector.
I used this one from amazon to power up both my SSD and a 3.5" HDD.
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