I’m sorry if this isnt the right sub for this
I’m considering building a small rig whose primary function would be as a NAS with the capabilities for plex transcoding. On top of that i’d like to add more services like home assistant and some others.
For now the build would be:
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor | €120.00 |
| CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-L9i-17xx 33.84 CFM CPU Cooler | €49.90 @ Amazon Italia |
| Motherboard | Asus PRIME H610I-PLUS D4-CSM Mini ITX LGA1700 Motherboard | €132.78 @ Amazon Italia |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory | €80.25 @ Amazon Italia |
| Storage | Samsung 870 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive | €79.98 @ Amazon Italia |
| Case | Jonsbo N2 Mini ITX Desktop Case | €150.00 |
| Power Supply | SeaSonic FOCUS SGX 450 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply | €106.80 @ Amazon Italia |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | €719.71 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-11-28 23:43 CET+0100 |
Now im asking my self if it is the case to go for a bigger case so if i happen to find a good priced gpu in the future, this would double as a part time gaming rig. Would that be non-sense?Also what OS should i use in that case? Dual boot sounds like a bad idea but idk
Sorry if my english isnt perfect
Any suggestion on the rig per se are also welcome
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You don’t need another GPU, you already have one, and a very good one as decoder and encoder. The iGPU on the Intel CPU.
Anyway, if you don’t plan to have VMs, the i5 is overkill, if you need a new system, the i3 still overkill but better, a G7400 would be another alternative. A dual core is fine, with 16GB of ram, 32 are overkill. Both the i3 and the G7400 would be fine, and would give you space for HW transcoding with the iGPU. For reference, an i3 13th gen is capable of 5/6 4k stream at the same time. External GPU like Nvidia desktop are limited to 1 transcode at the same time, you need an expensive Quadro to match the iGPU capability, no worth the money, and you would just add more power consumption for nothing.
Nice PSU, finally someone that understand that you don’t need 800W to run a NAS that idle a 10W.
As OS, i suggest to look into unRAID, is a Hypervisor that run on RAM, very light, easy to setup and maintain. It’s a pay software, but you can try it free for 30 days.
The amount of transcodes your video card can do is dependent on the video card but I would suggest Nvidia. I have a 1660 super in my unraid machine and it uses a hacked driver so it can do more than it’s usual number of trans codes which is limited by Nvidia to make you buy quadros. Usually I think it can do three or four I don’t remember but now I really don’t know how many can do I have had 8 simultaneous streams all going outside the house to different devices and the system didn’t break a sweat.
All consumer Nvidia cards are limited by software to 1. Even a 4090. You need to hack the firmware and modify it to get more than 1 at the same time. Then with a Quadro card you are limited by the power. But it’s not worth getting a 200€ GPU for 5 transcodes when you can have an 80€ CPU that does the same with the integrated iGPU. Not only, why do I need an external GPU that idles at 20/30W more when my Intel CPU can idle at 1/2W.
External transcodes are limited to 720p, so it’s obvious your GPU is doing it fine. A G5400 can do around 21x1080p transcode at the same time, so 720p is probably double, for comparison.
You don’t have to hack the firmware you just have to use a hacked driver. And what do you mean external transcodes are limited to 720p? I can watch 4K at work streaming from home on Plex. I also use my 1660 super for reencoding using tadarr and literally just tonight I was working on switching from Blue Iris to frigate and using my video card for AI. Also I do believe three is the limit of transcodes you can do on a consumer card not one.
I don’t use Plex, but for what i know:
" Limitations
When relaying a connection through us, there are limitations for the streaming qualities you can use:
- Free users are limited to 1 Mbps maximum for streams
- Plex Pass subscribers are limited to 2 Mbps maximum for streams
If the content you’re trying to stream has a higher bitrate, then your Plex Media Server will need to transcode the content down to fit the limitation. "
https://support.plex.tv/articles/216766168-accessing-a-server-through-relay/
Anyway, those are all stuff an integrated iGPU can do, for a much lower power consumption. The point is, it’s preferable avoiding spending more money in electricity bill and on HW to buy an external GPU.
I don’t relay anything through plex servers, I can easily access my media from anywhere without their help. You don’t seem to know what you are talking about.
I’d just use Proxmox for your setup. Install it and try it.
If you’re planning to run plex and can easily fit one in the case, I would. It doesn’t have to be super new or anything either.
I’ve gotten by without a GPU but I have 32 cores allocated to plex and it will still struggle sometimes with a high bitrate 4k video transcode. If I could find something decent that would fit into an R630, I would.
Are you living in the 90’? Hardware transcoding is a thing of the present.
I’d love to, which is why I was saying I would if I could get a GPU to fit in my 1u server chassis.
You can switch to a generic desktop PC with a desktop Intel CPU. Or change your server for a generic chassis and popolate with a desktop motherboard and CPU from Intel.