(Part 3) Best products from r/PleX

I'm a bit late to the thread, but this is the machine I use to run Plex and it's been great.

I bought a stick of crucial 8GB ram and ran it alongside the 4gb that it comes with for 12 gb total. For plex alone this is probably overboard, but I wanted to run a VM to torrent from as well. Incidentally, the VM runs brilliantly w/ VPN + Torrent, even while transcoding.

I commonly have 2-3 users simultaneously (720p and 1080p content) and it doesn't hiccup.

I run 3x Seagate 4TB NAS drives in Raid 5, plus 1 samsung Evo 250GB SSD for Windows 7.

You can barely hear the thing in a perfectly quite room. Additionally, watching the power draw through kill-a-watt shows this box draws about 20 watts idle and 30 while the disks are spun up.

Definitely recommend.

Couple of protips if you buy it that I worried about and couldnt find answers to before I tried it:

1. You can run a raid array and still have an SSD to boot the OS from that is not a member of the array.
   
   
2. You don't need to buy Lenovo rebranded ram. Crucial makes an 8 gig stick for 80 bucks that works fine. Link.
   
   
3. If you run a VM, you might want an additional network interface. Almost no reasonably priced PCI-X network cards work in that box. But thats fine because there is a PCI port. An Inter PRO/1000MT PCI gigabit card is 17 bucks and works out of the box. Link. If you want more, the PRO/1000MT Dual Port adapter is 50 bucks. Link. I've used both of these and they work fine.
   
   
4. You can mount a 3.5" HDD in the drive bay under the DVD drive without purchasing an adapter.
   
   
5. It will be easier to set everything up if you use straight sata cables (not the 90 degree bend cables).
   
   

In terms of consumer NASes, the only two choices IMO are QNAP and Synology. Others will get the job done, but they just don't have the features and polish nor can you expect support because they're made by companies who make other things as well. QNAP and Synology primary products are NASes.

The difference between the two. QNAP has slightly more powerful hardware and even higher end hardware if you want to pay a premium. Synology's strength is their software which is very very polished and easy to use. QNAP however is constantly updating their software and it's constantly getting better to. I have an old QNAP TS-439p running off an og Intel Atom from 2009 and it's still getting all the latest updates and features and is a different machine then when I got it, for the better though. It's not my primary NAS anymore but it's still kicking.

Unfortunately, in terms of hardware you'd be comfortable running Plex on, consumer NASes are kind of in no mans land at the moment. And even if you only direct stream, Plex can still hit lowend hardware hard, especially if the NAS is doing other things.

The QNAP TS-451 @ $530 has a quadcore Celeron, but it's passmark is about 1100, when 2000 is recommended for a single 1080p transcode. This is the NAS for you IMO if price is your main concern. You might run into a problem occasionally but it'll get the job done.

The QNAP TVS-471 @ $990-1090 for the Pentium and Core i3 respectively, will give you peace of mind but is very expensive as you can see. The Pentium has a passmark score of 3330 enough for 1-2 simultaneous transcodes, and the Core i3 has a passmark of about 4900, enough overhead for 2-3 simultaneous transcodes.

That's what I mean by no mans land, there's not an inbetween option at the moment, or sweetspot IMO for consumer made NAS's and Plex yet.

In terms of hard drives. Stick with WD Reds and HGST Deskstar NAS drives. Avoid Seagates, especially their 3TB models.

Ok, so in another thread I started earlier today, /u/JDM_WAAAT may have convinced me to build my own server based loosely on his anniversary build. Couple of changes I just want to run by the fine people of this subreddit to make sure I'm not doing something stupid/incompatible. The items on top are straight from the guide, the items on the bottom of the list are the ones I have questions about.

-Single E5-2630 CPU

-GA-7PESH2 Mobo

-16gb DDR3 1600mhz Ram (incl with mobo)

-4TB Hard Drive (incl with mobo)

--------

-** This case, the Corsair Carbide 330r. The mobo should fit in there, I think, since it supports e-atx. If that case works, can I just use the fan that comes with it or will I need to add more cooling beyond the included fan and the CPU cooler?

-** Is this the correct breakout cable? The one linked on the guide is no longer in stock.

-**EVGA 450W 80+ Bronze PSU. The one in the build guide has gone way up in price, so does this one work?

-**Arctic Freezer 12 CPU Cooler. The one in the guide is no longer sold on Amazon, will this one be ok?

-**Operating System - I'd like to use Windows since I'm the most comfortable with it, would there be any issue with running Win10 on a flash drive with this build?

-ANYTHING else that I am missing that would be required for the build?

Thanks!!

If cost is no concern, at around 160 USD more, then the Qnap is the better option, it has a Quad Core CPU. So for transcoding the Qnap will be more responsive on start and skipping, but it won't change what it is capable of transcoding.

But as entry-level home NASes goes, if you are looking for something with a bit more performance than usual, currently I would say you get more Plex Server value out of the AS5304T, it has a quad core Skylake (Intels most efficient micro architecture) CPU boost to around 2.5GHz and 4GB of LPDDR4.

You also have 2x 2.5Gbps LAN which is a very nice thing to have now that it is becoming more common everywhere. Gigabit have been the standard in homes for far too long by now :)

https://www.amazon.com/Asustor-AS5304T-Inspired-Attached-Quad-Core/dp/B07PYJ2KNC/

Hello to all! I need a little help with Live TV....

I've been running Plex for about 4 years now but only as a bit of a lightweight. Nothing fancy at first just some basic media serving. I run an @home server only, no remote access. Plex is v 1.15.3.876-ad6e39743 and running on a Synology 918+ with three 8TB drives running a redundant BTFS configuration with about 14TB of usable space. My Radarr and Sonarr integrations are great and don't cause any problem. I own three TCL branded Roku TV sets. I don't typically have any issues watching any movies or TV shows. Little to no CPU and fairly small bandwidth (10-20Mbps). Almost nothing needed to transcode until I got to the TV stream from an HDHomerun. I started with a two tuner connect. It was having lots of problems including a wonky power connection. I replaced it initially with a quatro but I had the same performance issues. I read a few more posts and swapped it out yesterday for an Extend. I thought things would be great but when I installed the extend, the synology CPU goes to about 50% with hardware encoding enabled. On the dashboard screen it says it's transcoding from 1080i to 1080p for the video and the audio is direct stream. The stream buffers a lot and in the course of about an hour will be 15 minutes behind because of the buffer time.

I want to cut my cable so this is a pivotal component of that transition. Any help that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

​

Antenna is in the attic with a pre-amp on the mast and a power component inside.

​

Amp is - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DQN3R9O/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Antenna is - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MYMVPVX/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

​

Thanks!

I just arrived on this sub, idk if that configuration can handle so many streams simultaneously but this is expensive and impressive \^\^'Just wondering why do you try to fit everything in a tower case? Did you already check 2-4U server cases? just like this one: https://www.amazon.com/PLINKUSA-RACKBUY-Micro-ATX-Rackmount-Backplane/dp/B01BI96SZM I found it with a quick research, I'm sure you can find something that suits you :) but you will need a server rack for that type of case :/

EDIT:

On the Plex FAQ I found this:

Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark score requirements are a good guideline for the following average source file:

​

• 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)
  
• 1080p (10Mbps, H.264) file: 2000 PassMark score
  
• 720p (4Mbps, H.264) file: 1500 PassMark score
  
  The Ryzen 9 has a passmark score of 31865 : https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Ryzen+9+3900X&id=3493
  
  Based on the number, your server won't handle all the streams simultaneously BUT you still have your quadro and I'm not an expert enough to know how it will affect the cpu load.

Prebuilt NAS from the likes of Synology is a huge waste of money. The ones that can transcode 1080p media properly cost upwards of $600, and that's without the storage.

For well under $600 (again excluding storage) you can build a kick-ass dual socket Xeon based server that will transcode one 4k stream without breaking a sweat, 2 would be a stretch, but maybe.

• Gigabyte GA-7PESH2 mobo - $175
  
• 2x Xeon E5-2650 V2 - $110
  
• Couple of half-decent coolers - $45
  
• 4U server chassis - $145 often on sale for $100
  
• 16GB 1066 or 1333 ECC REG memory - around $50 on eBay
  
• Decent PSU with dial EPS connectors - $60 on Evga B-stock site
  
• 2x SAS break-out cables if you want to run the SATA HDDs at their full potential speeds - $30
  
• As much SATA storage as you can afford. I usually buy the 8TB WD MyBook external drives when they go on sale, for around $130 each, and shuck them.
  
  You won't even need a GPU. Just make sure your monitor has VGA input for setting up the server, and after the initial setup it can run headless. The passmark score on the 2 CPUs is over 20k which is plenty.
  
  For more information check out https://serverbuilds.net site and Discord channel. Based on their guides I built a very capable server for under $400, and it does extremely well transcoding multiple 1080p streams simultaneously. Besides Plex Media Server it also runs all my automation like NZBget, Sonarr, Radarr, Bazarr, Tautulli, MCEBuddy (for converting 4k to 1080p,) Commskip (for removing commercials from recorded OTA programs,) and is my backup target for 4 Duplicati sources. The CPU load never goes above 50%, so I may throw all my home automation on there as well.

Okay. Thank you for the response and thoughtful feedback.

I was worried about the processor being powerful enough. But I don't really see my transcode needs expanding farther than the three plus one direct stream for quite some time. So as long as it can handle them now it should cover me for awhile in the future.

This is nice case and coincidentally the same one another poster suggested.

I thought the ram was a bit excessive but the person that suggested seem to insist on it. And this is my first build so it's still a bit new to me.

I don't need a cooler other then the one provided?

Would I need to get plex pass in order to get the hw transcoding? Or will this be capable of transcoding with out that?

Again thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

Edot: I might like the look of this case better. Is it a good choice?

Other case

I´ve a Acer Revo One with a i3 and i can handle 1080p. It´s also available with two hardrive slots and a i5 so you can stack it up to 4TB in that. But its 2,5 inch harddrive so i added a simple My Cloud 4TB NAS. Turned off all the BS from WD, so its i can Write with about 70Mbit/s.
So, my Setup

Revo One i3 368$

2TB WD Red 89$

With this Setup for 457$ you have 3TB plus you have a Windows PC.
So, for me that was not enough so i bought a
My Cloud 4TB NAS for 168$, so i´ve a bit more Space, and that is more than enough for me.


The Windows was for the most important thing, because i can easily run everything on that i need like JDownloader etc..
Plus, that PC is connected directly to my Router, nothing else. So i can connect via Remote Desktop from MacBook or any other Windows PC and just administrate everything there. That for me was a big plus.

If i3 is not enough for you, there is a i5 as well, and you can insert there 2 harddrives instead of just one. But it cost 545$.

Also, instead of and old PC, that little things just consumes 16W in idle. I have a meter on it to check.

The Winegard Pre-Amp is what made the biggest difference for me.
https://www.amazon.com/Winegard-LNA-200-Preamplifier-Antenna-Amplifier/dp/B00DQN3R9O/
I use the RCA Yagi for my antenna, and it has been solid.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0024R4B5C
This site can help you aim and know what you should get pretty easily as well.
https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

Good Luck!

Wow, SanDisk ultra 1tb drives are down to $125?? Thats a great deal. I didn't realize 1 TB SSDs had dropped so much in the last few months. Got to love Amazon price tracking on camelcamelcamel

https://camelcamelcamel.com/SanDisk-SSD-PLUS-Internal-SDSSDA-1T00-G26/product/B07D998212?context=search

https://camelcamelcamel.com/Samsung-Inch-Internal-MZ-76E1T0B-AM/product/B078DPCY3T?context=search

​

Realistically you can probably cut the file size of the blu-ray rips by 25% with h264 encoding and never notice the difference. You could also rip out non-english audio tracks and save a bit of space as well, but not as much.

Do you have a custom pc, or something made by dell/hp/etc? If it's a custom pc, it very likely has room for at least 2-3 more drives.

Drive space is pretty cheap, this HGST 6 TB Drive is around $250: https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Deskstar-3-5-Inch-Internal-0S03664/dp/B00O0M5QK8/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1482800212&sr=1-1

Marketing says it's a NAS drive, but it works perfectly fine in a desktop pc.

I used a 4 tb WD external drive on an old Dell laptop forever, until I recently upgraded to a TS 440. I bought a 4tb WD red drive (and drive caddies) and de-shelled the external to install internally. So I have the 4tb red and a 4tb green. Not raided or anything. It's working pretty well!

I'm partial to going with the out-of-a-box NAS's myself. Ease of setup, along with all the other stuff they can do besides Plex, makes it a no brainer for what I want. I'm currently using Plex on an old 2014 model NAS from Synology that I finally put Plex on a few months ago. The big hurdle was doing everything I can to avoid triggering transcoding, because this NAS certainly is not capable of handling anything well above SD.

I have been looking around a bit for something to maybe replace it and would again go with a NAS, but a 4 bay model with some more horsepower.

I like this [QNAP] (https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TVS-471-i3-4G-US-4-Bay-3-5GHz-10G-ready/dp/B00S0XSIK8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1510950253&sr=1-1&keywords=TVS-471) and the [Synology 918+] (https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DS918-Station-Diskless-4-bay/dp/B075N1Z9LT/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1511545687&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=synoloy+918%2B) right now. If I was to pull the trigger, it would probably be one of those two.

Just an FYI if you start looking at the Synology marketing stuff, the transcoding they advertise if almost always referencing the units ability to transcode through their built in DS Video server/app package that takes advantage of the hardware encoder. Plex, from what I understand, is not currently able to utilize that hardware so Plex may not perform up to what they advertise. But, the CPU should be just fine for transcoding 1080p.

Ditch that ISP provided gear, if at all possible. I know additional costs aren't always in the budget, but if you have the ability to, you should consider getting a router that you control.

Once upon a time I invested $49 into a little Edgerouter-X and it was just an incredibly powerful little device for the money. Blows away any of the usual consumer grade (Linksys, Netgear, etc.) stuff that most of us have been accustomed to. It essentially has Enterprise grade features at a consumer price point. It also has a built in switch chip, so you can plug multiple machines into it, perhaps even power a wireless access point using the eth4 for its (24V Passive) PoE out abilities. Physical placement of your WiFi device(s) matters a LOT. Lots of homes have them tucked away in a little corner, which isn't great unless you want 50% of your signal to be broadcast towards your neighbors. YMMV.

Be advised this is a router only, so you'd also need to consider what you'll do for WiFi, but it's simple enough to convert whatever you are using presently to behave as merely an access point to provide WiFi (unless it's a combo router/switch/wireless access point, all-in-one unit from Comcast). In that case, /r/Ubiquiti also makes fantastic wireless APs, for example: https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Unifi-Ap-AC-Lite-UAPACLITEUS/dp/B015PR20GY/

That would be better for sure, add one of these and you'll be good to go. Or save some money and get the lite version.

And then to really get a nice SOHO network going add an Edgerouter to replace that C7

If you want something easy and capable, look for deals on the Lenovo TS140. Depending on your intended usage, you can get something very usable for $250.

For example, on this link the i3-4130 has a ~4700 Passmark that is capable of about 2 simultaneous 1080p transcoding streams. It has 4GB ECC memory so that's about the least amount of memory I would want for a server.

The Xeon E3-1246v3 CPU has about 10k Passmark. That's a badass home server! With 8 or 16GB ECC configurations for about $500-550, it's a steal. That would afford you an entire suite of server apps running without any performance issues all while transcoding up to 4 to 5 1080p streams.

EDIT: Note that you will need to buy storage and an OS (if you want Windows). I personally use Ubuntu.

• 6TB HGST NAS $270
  
• 6TB WD NAS $267

Replace the heatsink with a quieter one with a dedicated fan so it's not reliant on case airflow. This Noctua supports square and narrow ILM so it should fit that board. You can also replace the case fans with quieter ones.

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-Cooler-LGA2011-Platforms-NH-U12DXi4/dp/B00DWFQ42I


EDIT: looks like you have redundant power supplies too. Are those fans making all the noise? You need to see which fans are running at full speed and go from there.


Also, this is an issue to look into: https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-a00008294es_es

My HDHR Prime works near perfectly with a good attic mounted antenna.(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0024R4B5C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) My Plex DVR is pretty good but I'd say still a work in progress. Many people do not realize that the right antenna mounted high is EVERYTHING.

I've always loved the WD Greens.

Cheap over in the US!

Naked drive: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Green-Desktop-WD40EZRX/dp/B00EHBEUZO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418753182&sr=8-2&keywords=wd+green

Same drive (I think) in an enclosure for cheaper (rip it out and plug it in): http://www.amazon.com/Book-USB-Hard-Drive-Backup/dp/B00E3RH61W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418753221&sr=8-1&keywords=wd+book

I run my plex server on a dedicated laptop without any major issues. As already mentioned by others, occasionally updates are installed that reboot the machine and my external drives do not re-mount. This is pretty rare and not a big deal for me to go remount the drives. Make sure to store it in a well ventilated area, as laptops tend to get hot.

As far as external storage goes, I would recommend investing in a DAS, I use this one. This gives you external storage, but also allows you to buy a bare hard drive like WD Red's.

if you have a pc you could sell and use some profit for something more up your alley then i'd say go for it. a plex server can be run on as little as a raspberry pi, albeit very slowly.

​

intel NUC mini PCs may do you well, coupled with a shield tv. something like this

https://www.amazon.ca/Intel-Mini-NUC7i5BNK-Core-Version/dp/B01N4EP1N0/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1540069470&sr=8-6&keywords=intel+nuc&dpID=41HRAeMuj-L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

​

Given the ASRock board with this soc is $85, I sure hope it's less than $150.

Of course, this is roughly a quarter of the size and doesn't require an ATX power supply, so there's certainly some added value there.

Amazon is always a good bet. The Connect is cheaper but Extend transcodes for you.

https://smile.amazon.com/SiliconDust-HDHomeRun-EXTEND-FREE-Broadcast-2-Tuner/dp/B01IRJQB1C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1472829145&sr=8-3&keywords=hdhomerun

https://smile.amazon.com/SiliconDust-HDHR4-2US-HDHomeRun-CONNECT-2-Tuner/dp/B00GY0UB54/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472829145&sr=8-1&keywords=hdhomerun

This is only $86, https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-J4105-ITX-2-5GHz-Mini-ITX-Motherboard/dp/B079GHRQD9/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540251613&sr=8-1&keywords=J4105-ITX

​

so hopefully it is like a solid $99. With it having dual Nic, I'd see myself using it more for a firewall for my use case.

I'll recommend exactly what I got: ThinkServer TS140 with a Xeon E3. Now, that may seem a bit overkill, but for us it's been absolutely perfect doing:

• HTPC (via VLC for one-off videos, Plex for Home Theater, Netflix Windows 8.1 app, YouTube in Chrome, etc.)
  
  
• Plex Server (library is currently distributed amongst 3x 1 TB externals, and one of these, looking to get a few more of them to replace the older drives)
  
  
• Seedbox using Deluge
  
  
• Lite gaming rig using an old Radeon 6670 I had laying around collecting dust. Not going to run Crysis or anything, but it's enough to get 80 FPS in iRacing on maximum settings, Portal 2, etc.
  
  
• Transcoding (when needed) for all of our devices (three smartphones, two other desktops, five laptops, a chromebook, two tablets...).
  
  But the most important feature: It's dead silent. I mean really, with absolutely nothing else on in the room, I have to get within three feet to barely hear the CPU's fan even when it's ramped up to 100% on all four cores at 3.6 GHz, transcoding new Blu-ray remuxes to generate media index files, thrashing a few dozen torrents, and Steam hammering the bandwidth downloading games to the SSD.
  
  It's a terrific little beast. The HDD it comes with isn't too great (500 GB, 5400 RPM), so I threw an EVO 850 Pro in for Windows 8.1 Pro, Steam, and Plex's metadata, while all torrents go through a 500 GB WD Black laptop drive I had sitting around. The 4 GB of RAM it came with has been plenty so far, but I'm looking to upgrade as there have been a couple of moments when it ran dangerously low due to one roommate or another leaving Chrome open overnight with a few dozen tabs open.

One of these is the kind of thing I was thinking of - Intel NUC Mini PC kit NUC7i5BNK
The only catch is you need to add on a M.2 drive and RAM which pushes the price up.
The thing I like the most about the NUC's is that they are small and quiet and don't use much power. The TDP on that i5 cpu is 15w with a passmark of 5698
Then just add on one of these little drives for storage.

For live content you're better off with Kodi/SPMC with a homerun device. There are others like Tablo, but they're buggy & have subscriptions. Or... I use a cheap HDHomeRun CONNECT wth TVHeadEnd on Linux. Plex has a channel to watch Live TV both from TVHeadEnd or HDHR Viewer & the recordings are seen just fine in Plex too, even tho they have to be transcoded to view on a lot of devices. You can even get fancy & use comskip to remove the commercials for ya. :-)

I'm running the Connect (2 tuner) model and it works fine.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GY0UB54/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Does anyone know if the HDHomeRun Connect will still allow DVR on Plex?

https://www.amazon.com/SiliconDust-HDHomeRun-CONNECT-broadcast-2-Tuner/dp/B00GY0UB54

The price of the HDHR4 had gone up about $25 from $89 to $114 since the Plex announcement.

Plus they look out of stock on Amazon right now.


Last I looked, Micro Center had them for $79.


http://camelcamelcamel.com/SiliconDust-HDHR4-2US-HDHomeRun-CONNECT-2-Tuner/product/B00GY0UB54?context=browse

So you'll take one of these for your Prime HD?

I don't know if it's the cheapest, but the HDHomeRun Connect does two tuners with an HD antenna for $99. There are ones with more than two tuners but you'll pay more.

Don't listen to these fools. Buy a usb 3.0 card they cost about $20 get drivepool and then buy western digital my book 4tb usb3.0. They have the same speed as internals, they're cheaper and they don't take up chasis room. Also, whenever you need more space just plug in a new one and add it to the pool. Boom. done.

Also, no proprietary recoveries like you do with most nas boxes.

Edit: link
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00E3RH61W?cache=b6ec3bec497a21117d715dafbe944414&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1408461817&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1