Going to be upgrading my plex setup. Want to build a pc running some flavor of Linux (I’m a noob haven’t researched what’s popular for that yet), and I’ll have a NAS doing storage duties.
I know intel quick sync seems to be great for transcoding so I’m not going to add a GPU(at least for now).
I would like it to be a smaller build, so maybe matx? I’ve only ever done ATX builds so no experience with good cases and coolers for smaller builds.
Any ideas/suggestions would be amazing!
If you connect to a NAS for storage I think some mini PC is your best bet. They are often based on laptop hardware and are very efficient.
If you are looking to build for the hobby aspect of it, I would even look at ITX; especially if you don’t need to connect (many) hard drives. You don’t really need more than a single boot drive, 8GB of RAM and a somewhat modern i3 or i5 CPU. ITX will usually get you 2 NVMe slots, 1 PCIe slot for an eventual GPU (though you probably won’t need one if you use quick sync), 4 SATA ports. So still plenty of room for upgrades over the years.
For cases I don’t have recommendations. I built a home server a while ago for among others jellyfin with a fractal node 304 (since I have storage on that system too), and this asrock board:
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H670M-ITXax
The i3-12100 is running everything fine, it could service 2 4k transcodes even with quicksync (and probably about 10 1080p transcodes). You’d probably be limited by internet connection before the CPU/iGPU IMO.
Mini PCs are a great choice, but consider a passively cooled fanless unit. Laptop style fan bearings don’t last very long running 24/7 and it might be difficult to source a replacement when it starts whining or seizes.
What do you have now so we know what an upgrade would be?
A super old dell r710 running xeon x5670
Id personally go with these:
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813162043
https://www.newegg.com/intel-core-i5-12600k-core-i5-12th-gen/p/N82E16819118347
https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820232194?Item=9SIA4YU3W46218
You need decent memory to make best use of the QS video and 3600 or higher will be good there. An i5 isnt needed if you are doing all your plex streams as direct stream (no codec and file format changes between server and player) or hardware transcoding a supported video format, but if you do a file that is not a hardware supported format the extra threads will ensure you can do it without problem. The mATX board will also let you expand more if needed and gives you more case options.
But since you already have experience with your plex server, if you know for a fact that you always have been using direct streaming then you could downgrade to an i3-12100 to save some money and power if you know you wont need the extra threads.
What I would choose if you just need a simple server setup with minimal storage:
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i3-14100 | $139.99 |
| CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-L9i-17xx | $44.95 |
| Motherboard | ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 | $189.99 |
| Memory | TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 2x16 GB DDR5-6000 CL30 | $102.99 |
| Storage | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 | $38.38 |
| Case | In Win Chopin MAX w/200W PSU | $127.65 |
| Total | $643.95 |
Should keep all your bases covered, a MinisPC or NUC could possibly be cheaper with $100-$200 but a lot less flexible.
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!!! Plenty of options
Are you going to share Plex outside the home? Are you going to host 4K movies? I am a huge fan of using as little power as possible for things, and I was running my Plex server on a NUC7 with a Celeron CPU and it was powerful enough but used so little wattage. It never went over 5 watts (0.1-ish amp) power usage even when transcoding. But, it struggled with transcoding two 4K movies. I also didn’t like it only had a 1gb NIC to pull movies from my NAS.
So I upgraded to a NUC11 with a 2.5gbe NIC and enough RAM to use a RAM Drive for transcoding. I didn’t want transcoding to reduce my SSD lifespan unnecessarily. There are sometimes 3-4 people streaming outside the home so my system is transcoding a lot. Plus I host a lot of 4K movies. It still hovers around 5-7 watts idle and hits maybe 12-16 watts at certain times but the power is negligible. And arguably it’s still overpowered for what Plex needs but the power usage is low, which is what matters.
Any custom PC you build for Plex is going to use 80w+… if not more with today’s high TDP processors. To me that’s so unnecessary and a waste of power and CO2 in the air for something that will never use that power. Especially if you’re just direct streaming and not transcoding a lot.
There are Intel “T” Processors that are low TDP/power, which you could use for a custom build to ideally get by with <50w usage. And yes modern Intel QSV is plenty for numerous 4K movies. But you have to buy them off eBay. I recently picked up an i7-13700T to build a low power Proxmox server but it’s not built yet. Assuming all goes as planned I’ll be posting details on this forum soon. But I’d argue even the 12th/13th gen “T” i3 is major overkill for a plex server.
But all that being said, if you aren’t hosting many 4K movies and you aren’t streaming outside the home a lot and transcoding, just pickup an old used NUC. Save the money, save the power bill… and yes use Linux. It’s easy.
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