Plex Server + Windows 10 VM (not for Gaming) - Suggestions?


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Hey guys,

 

I'm completely at a loss when it comes to this build in regards to motherboard/CPU, I haven't built a PC in about 15 years, but am looking to upgrade my NAS/PLEX setup to better handle the server/transcoding.

 

I think I've finally figured out a case, just need a little guidance on Motherboard/CPU and I should be good... the rest of it I'm fairly familiar with.

 

Requirements: Run PLEX server able to handle 2-3 transcodes/streams at a time (1080P) and 1 Windows 10 VM for random day to day stuff (no heavy gaming, and won't be used as a daily driver)

 

I'd just like to make sure I don't buy anything that's overkill for what I need, since I don't need to spend the money. I can probably get a hold of an old gaming video card from my buddy if it's required for the windows 10 VM.

 

I was looking at the ASUS Z170-A motherboard with an Intel Core i7 6700K 4.00 GHz, but for some reason I think that might be overkill (although it could be future-proof for a bit longer).

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

 

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I would suggest looking at a Server motherboard, ECC memory, and a Xeon for a highly available and reliable server

 

THIS MOTHERBOARD looks good to me. Up to 64G of ECC memory, 8 SATA ports onboard, dual LAN, DDR4, IPMI. Pretty good price.

 

I think you'd easily meet your current needs and be well positioned for the future. I have the prior generation motherboard with 16G ECC and it runs plex very well.

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Are you looking for a small, compact system with 8 or fewer drives (mini-ITX MB with limited expandability) or a larger tower or rack mount system with greater flexibility and expandability based on a full-size ATX motherboard?

 

I have a small system in the excellent Lian-Li PC-Q25 case that can handle up to 8 drives and an 8-SATA port mini-ITX MB with a 10K+ passmark Xeon and ECC RAM.  This system is very capable of what you stated you wanted to do (2-3 1080 Plex streams and a Win 10 VM).  See my sig for system details.  If you don't want to go with server-grade components you could choose a non-server MB, an i7 instead of a Xeon and non-ECC RAM to save some money and still accomplish what you need.

 

If you want more expandability than a mini-ITX MB offers (only one PCIe slot) you can go with a micoATX or full size ATX board in a larger case.

 

If you are looking for something that is not "overkill" look at the passmark scores for various CPUs.  Each transcoded 1080p Plex stream needs ~2000 passmarks.  It is recommended that you have an overhead of about 1500-2000 passmarks for unRAID NAS functions.  Your VM, depending on how heavily and for what it is used, will need additional CPU horsepower.  If you are going to have up to 3 simultaneous transcoded Plex streams plus have an active VM at the same time, you do need a 10K+ passmark CPU.

 

The worst thing you can do is under-provision your unRAID server for the required tasks when for a few dollars more (typically a more powerful CPU) you can give yourself some breathing room.  You don't want to buy hardware only to find out you are limited by its capabilities and then look at spending even more to get it up to speed.

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Awesome, thanks for the info Hoopster, much appreciated.

 

I was thinking about a larger tower, I don't need something super small, and don't need a rack, I just want to make sure I have some room for expansion should I need it, I'd like to be able to hit at least 8-10 drives if necessary. Most of my video files are 720P with only a handful being 1080P, all of which I re-encoded and aren't raw dumps (needed to do that in order to save space on the current NAS setup), and then it's just a shit ton of videos I've taken with my drone and other cameras, but those just need a place to be backed up and won't be streamed most of the time. 

 

The Windows 10 VM won't be used all the time, honestly it'll probably be pretty rarely, I just wanted to make sure I had something that could handle it when I want to fire it up. Honestly, the most use it will probably get is when I want to play an Xbox One game for a few minutes at my desk, and in that case the Xbox One handles all the processing power, and the Windows 10 is just remotely streaming it over the network, so it should be alright.

 

 

 

 

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The VM, when active will take at least one CPU core/thread.  If you have an i7/Xeon multithreaded processor you will have four physical cores with four additional threaded cores for a total of eight "cores."  You should assign at least one core/thread comination to the VM (only used when the VM is active of course).  Streaming will take one core or thread per stream and unRAID will need one core/thread combo for its NAS functions. 

 

Passmark score wise, you could get away with a ~6000 - 7000 CPU (many Intel i5 fall in this range) if you are not going to be transcoding three 1080p stream simultaneously plus a VM.  The problem is that most i5 CPUs are not mutithreaded so you are limited to four cores, whereas going to i7 or Xeon gives you eight in the 115x socket and 12 or more in the 2011 socket.

 

There are also many AMD options you could look at that would lilkely be less expensive.  I am not up to speed on the latest from AMD.

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