UNRAID-PLEX-NAS Build

[Brandon_Jolley]

Hello

I am looking at starting to build a server for a few things, mainly my PLEX server, 1-2 VM’s and Data storage. The main focus will be on the PLEX server though. Right now I am running my PLEX server off of my Nvidia Shield pro. I am wanting something that can do a few 1080P Streams and maybe 1-2 4K streams. Something that will be able to handle the transcoding will be nice.

My biggest struggle is picking out a good MB, CPU, and GPU if needed. I have been going over the forums and have learned a lot and some guidance would be great. Is there a benefit to going with Xeon CPU vs a i5 or i7 CPU?

Thank you

[captg]

I am not as familiar with transcoding but as far as the Xeon is considered, the main reason many go that route is the ability to use ECC memory in their builds. It will lessen the chances of errors getting written to the drives. How much storage are you thinking you will need for your build?

[Brandon_Jolley]

I have 5-14 TB HDD for my storage. I was going to use UNRAID and have one of those as a parity drive also.

[gerbpoppa]

JDM wrote a pretty good article on Plex transcoding and comparing intel’s quick sync vs NVENC with an Nvidia gpu:

[Guide] Hardware Transcoding: The JDM way! QuickSync and NVENC

Introduction The purpose of this guide is to give an overview of hardware transcoding with Plex. The guide will also provide recommendations for adding hardware transcoding to your existing setup. Ultimately, the recommendation will be to add a dedicated transcoding box that uses Intel QuickSync. The hardware portion of this guide assumes: You have an existing NAS with all of your media on it (this guide will use Unraid as an example) You run Plex Media Server You’re looking for more transcod…

I currently use a quadro P2000 myself on a Nas Killer 2.0 build and have no issues when I have to transcode a stream or two. Another thing to look into is if your clients can utilize direct play to keep transcoding at a bare minimum.