Building a Plex/Homelab Server, Help?

Ehx on 05/06/2023 - 17:04
Last edited 05/06/2023 - 20:35

UPDATED PART LIST

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU Intel Core i3-12100 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor $186.00 @ MSY Technology
Motherboard Gigabyte B660 DS3H AX DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard $199.00 @ MSY Technology
Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory $202.00 @ Amazon Australia
Storage Samsung 970 Evo Plus 250 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive $49.00 @ Centre Com
Storage Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive $78.00 @ BPC Technology
Storage Seagate IronWolf Pro 12 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive $368.00 @ MSY Technology
Storage Seagate IronWolf Pro 12 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive $368.00 @ MSY Technology
Case Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case $189.00 @ Scorptec
Power Supply SeaSonic FOCUS Plus 550 Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $165.00 @ MSY Technology
Case Fan be quiet! Pure Wings 2 61.2 CFM 140 mm Fan $22.00 @ PLE Computers
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total $1826.00
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-05 20:37 AEST+1000

Sup gents,

Above is my proposed build for a home server that will probably run a few VMs for testing purposes for work (Linux Sysadmin). Linux + docker will prob be installed. Pihole, home assistant, don't know what else yet but I'll probably think of more projects once I get started.

I want to run this as a media server to and probably just do like max 2-3 streams. Preferrably 4k but if that's too costly then 1080p is fine. My main questions are:

  1. What are the your overall impressions of a build like this and what would you change to either save wasted money or spend more on?

  2. What are the best drives to buy in AUS, whether it's shucking or buying them outright that aren't exorbantly priced?

  3. CPU Choice: Will this CPU be enough to transcode 4k? If not, that's fine. Just curious what my other options are and what I'd be looking at in terms of price.

  4. Any other recommendations or critiques are welcome.

Cheers.

An alternative for the chassis: https://www.mwave.com.au/product/chenbro-rm42300-atx-4u-rack…

Computing Computer Desktop Computer Plex

Comments

  • snickerz on 05/06/2023 - 17:33

    I have a bit of a similar configuration…
    Intel NUC 12th Gen - i5
    32 GB RAM - Crucial 3200 Mhz
    My plex library is on a 4-bay QNAP NAS with 4x 8 TB Ironwolf drives connected over Gigabit ethernet

    Using Linux Ubuntu OS with Plex running on the host machine. I also have a docker environment setup for Pi-Hole, Home Assistant, Jackett, and Transmission.

    Plex is able to use HW transcoding and runs 4k -> 1080p transcodes with HDR Tone mapping without breaking a sweat. I tried running 4-5 simultaneous streams without any issues.

    I am not sure how much of a difference an i3 would make when compared to an i5… considering their GPU is the same.

    • Ehx on 05/06/2023 - 17:51

      Honestly, I was considering just purchasing an Intel NUC. I don't have anything atm, feel like I'm going a bit overboard.

  • Axelstrife on 05/06/2023 - 18:28

    https://www.msy.com.au/product/seagate-12tb-ironwolf-3-5in-s…

    3 of these 12TB's is better value at $29.03/TB vs yours at $31.12/TB

    Or slightly more for the better Iron Wolf Pro 12TB for $30.66/TB
    https://www.msy.com.au/product/seagate-ironwolf-pro-nas-12tb…

    • Ehx on 05/06/2023 - 18:49

      Beauty, thanks for that. I'll keep those in mind. May just pick up two and chuck the rest of the parts in an Fractal Design R5

      • Axelstrife on 05/06/2023 - 19:47

        Define cases are great for Plex servers, I got an R6 myself with Unraid and 118TB total storage.

        • Ehx on 05/06/2023 - 20:37

          I've updated the part list! If you wanna have a look.

          • Axelstrife on 06/06/2023 - 00:28

            @Ehx: Looks good.

            btw that Xeon uses over twice the power of the i3 12100 140w Xeon vs 60w i3-12100 and doesnt have an IGPU which is important expescially if you want to transcode 4k.
            The Xeon passmark score is 14243

            https://support.plex.tv/articles/201774043-what-kind-of-cpu-…

            4K HDR (50Mbps, 10-bit HEVC) file: 17000 PassMark score (being transcoded to 10Mbps 1080p)
            4K SDR (40Mbps, 8-bit HEVC) file: 12000 PassMark score (being transcoded to 10Mbps 1080p)

            To give you an idea how good Intels Quicksync(iGPU) is heres my 12600k with it's iGPU (UHD 770) transcoding a 4k HDR movie 6 times simultaneously down to 1080p SDR, this is done locally so internet speed is irelevant only local network speed. CPU was at 31% usage and Ram was 79% usage out of the 16gb DDR4 i could have done more too.
            https://i.ibb.co/bXxH2TQ/Screenshot-2023-06-06-000403.png

            The i3 12100 uses a very similar IGPU the UHD 730 so it's performance would be no different.

  • NotJustChickenDinner on 05/06/2023 - 20:45

    would you consider this ?

    Lenovo P520 Workstation. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/325668253390
    They are going for $450. the graphics card is worth $170 which you can take out and sell afterwards.
    Comes with 64Gb ECC Ram, Xeon W-2135 6 Core, 12 Threads. Works out to be ~$300 then just add HDD's

    I have mine setup with Proxmox, TrueNas, Plex within TrueNas ( got the HDD from the recent crazy cheap Amazon Deal )
    I also have Blue Iris security cameras on it. Has the apps for PiHole, Home Assistant and heaps more.

    The Case is similar size to a midsized ATX case. Easy to work with too.

    Has 2 x m.2 slots, get a couple of these 512GB m.2 NVME SSD for the boot for $35 each

    • Ehx on 05/06/2023 - 21:12

      I wouldn't be against this, but I'm finding it hard to find some for $450. Also, would these be able to transcode 4k?

      • NotJustChickenDinner on 05/06/2023 - 21:19

        yeh not sure about 4K, the score on cpubenchmark is similar to the i3 you mentioned but more cores/threads. The seller Stingray pc relist these every few days after the last one sells. been doing that for a couple of months, normally only 1 bidder and sells for $450. check out the sold listings

        • Ehx on 05/06/2023 - 21:22

          Looks like a good piece of kit! That CPU doesn't seem to have built in graphics, so would need a graphics card in that case. I have a GTX 970 hanging around doing nothing.

  • ecenshu on 05/06/2023 - 21:37

    I'd consider a newer generation i3 if you want to do hardware transcoding for media.

    • Ehx on 05/06/2023 - 21:38
      +1

      Newest gen is 13, the one I've selected is 12th gen. Would 1 gen be that much of a difference?

  • ecenshu on 06/06/2023 - 00:48

    Actually the spec sheet says the one you chose has quick sync so it has hardware decode.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video

    12th gen is alderlake so almost all codecs apart from AV1

    • Gracey on 06/06/2023 - 08:50

      Yeah the i3-12100 has quicksync. Found a thread on Reddit with users saying it could handle 6 x 4K » 1080p transcodes.

      It will do even more if its not having to reduce the res down to 1080.

      @Ehx Ive been running a Plex server for years on Unraid, check that out too.

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