Media Server Build

Hello everyone,

First time poster on Tek Syndicate. 

I have some questions that I'm hoping I can get answered here.  I have been looking around all over the place for the answers. 

I am planing on building a new home media server that will suit my needs better than using my current gaming rig, which is handling both gaming and Plex Media Server transcoding right now.

First my needs.

I have about 8TB (and growing fast) of movies on my gaming rig.  The main reason I am building a new rig is to handle my Plex media streaming/transcoding and leave my gaming rig for..you know, gaming.  I have 4 TVs in my house, Master Bedroom, Loft, 2nd Bedroom and Living Room. Also, 3 tablets, 2 Android and 1 iPad Air (Wife loves apple, go figure  :P)

So I would like to be able to stream/transcode my movie collection to 4 TVs/Devices simultaneously with headroom, whether it be 2 TVs and 2 tablets or 4 TVs or 3 TVs and a tablet.  I see the issue here after extensive testing on my current gaming PC is transcoding.  My movies are my main concern, they are made up of multiple file types so transcoding seems to be a must here.  Oh, forgot to mention all of my movies are 720p and above, 90% probably 1080p, some in huge file sizes.  For example: Hobbit - Desolation of Smaug is 80gb high quality Blu ray rip 

I need help choosing a CPU/parts to handle the task of streaming and transcoding 4 simultaneous streams to my devices.

Hardware Ideas.

My current thoughts are to build a high powered NAS, as most NAS solutions from places like Synology have lower powered CPUs and cannot handle what I'm asking it to do.  My parts I was thinking of buying are, a Gryphon z97, 8 or 16GB of ram (Not sure yet), i7 4770k (or i7 4771), NH-D15 cooler in the new fractal node 804, with about 8 - 2TB or 3TB HDDs.  Given the NH-D15 fits in that case, I haven't really checked that thoroughly yet.  My main part concern is the CPU, can the 4770k handle 4 transcodes of high bitrate/res movies?  Would the 4930k be better?  How important is L2/3 cache in transcoding?  I have no real cash limit, although I don't want to spend like $3,000 on a media server.

In testing my current gaming rig, my 3930k is at about 20%-30% CPU usage for one of regular 1080 movie, and at about 70%-80% for the high bitrate of The Hobbit Blu ray rip for instance. 

Any help or ideas/suggestions/comments on what I can use to suit my needs would be greatly appreciated.  Perhaps a Intel Xeon? With a server grade motherboard?  Even software ideas, Windows, Linus etc.

 

If you want this to be easy, get a FreeNAS Mini from iX Systems. If you really want to build one yourself, get an Avaton board, 32GB ECC unbuffered/unregistered RAM, 8 or so 3TB WD Reds, and the odds and ends to put it all together. Install FreeNAS on a USB flash drive as the OS and put the disks in a raidz2 volume. FreeNAS even has a Plex plugin so you can use something you are already familiar with.

Thank you for the reply.

I really want to build one myself.  But, can you recommend one of the iX systems for me that is capable of transcoding 4, high bitrate streams? I will compare headache vs premade cost. The biggest hurdle I see is the CPU, the rest of the system will be easy.

Are you familiar with the way CPUs handle trancoding? What CPU would I need to handle 4 simultaneous transcodes easily?

I will be using Raid 0 (I backup nightly so I don't worry about losing data.)for the main drives and a 120-240GB SSD for operating system and a few programs.  I backup nightly so I don't worry about losing data.

I just took another look, and apparently I forgot that the FreeNAS Mini only has 4 drive bays. Oops. That won't really work for you will it? I guess if you're just striping you can get up to 16TB out of it.

I can't really recommend a system from iX for you other than the Mini because the rest are all rack mount. BUT, if you give them a call, they will be thrilled to come up with something that's perfect for your needs. They love to design around a specific use case like you have.

Transcoding high quality streams is going to benefit from higher CPU clock and multiple cores. Given that Plex is distributed as a binary, I doubt it's taking advantage of any instructions that are specific to a particular processor.

A 120GB+ SSD for the OS is a lot of overkill. It's a NAS, so you pretty much just boot it once and then never touch the OS disk. The whole OS shouldn't really get much larger than 2GB, or you're doing something wrong. Generally you would run it off a thumb drive. Invest that money in a faster CPU!

Hopefully that explanation helps :) I'll put together a build I think would be cool and throw it in this thread at some point.

Most of us dont run around with freenas on our usb keychain though.. I think it would be worth getting the cheapest smallest SSD or HDD as a boot drive.

I am thinking something like this:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3NvAF

The case is made to be quiet and I threw in 2 noctua fans for the front so it will be very silent and keep the drives cool. This motherboard has 10x6gb sata ports for all the drives and can overclock quite well too. This system should be all the power you need and as quiet as possible. I made sure the power supply has 10 sata power connectors as well.

Thank you for the reply Freq Labs.  I have already contacted iX Systems and quoted me a price of 2600 roughly depending on a few options. 

The reason I chose an SSD is for the fast booting time, plus I have a few 60s around and a new 120 that I can use in this build.  I am probably going to run either Linux or Windows server since I get free copies from work.

 

Thank you Feralshad0w,

That is a nice parts list, but I already have a case in mind the node 804 would be my number one choice. I would need a mATX WS grade motherboard for improved reliability also (If those exist). That is why I was thinking of the TUF series from ASUS. The rest of those parts seem like a good choice, I just haven't had the best luck with WD, I think they have lost me as a customer. Love the Noctuas though, Since I went Noctua I haven't looked back.  I would like to try out their new industrial black NF-F12 fans in this build too.

Do you think the i7 4770k can handle 4 simultaneous high quality transcodes? With about 20% headroom.  I mean files are just getting larger and higher quality so I would like a little bit of future-proof headroom in my build.

How about overclocking the 4770k to a fair overclock of 4.3GHz and running it 24/7?  Will an overclocked CPU be stable 24/7? I have no experience with this.  My gaming rig has a huge overclock but only running a few hours a day like that.

Thank you for your help guys,

I think overclocking the 4770k in the low 4ghz range will be just fine. If you are really worried about it, then you can get 1150 xeon which is pretty much the same as the i7 but you cant overclock it and its a bit cheaper. I think it should be fine either way. The key thing with the stability will be cooling and a good power stream.. which the seasonic should give you. Just keep the case dust free. If you really want the node 804 then maybe something like this:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3O0gb

But you will also need this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA32C1FJ8274

This gets you a couple more internal sata ports as well as a couple esata (not that you really need those).

**The 4 noctua fans is for the front of the case to force all the air through the front dust screens for easier maintenance and better cooling.