Plex, Download & FileServer - 24/7

[Morthoseth]

Afternoon, I've been using my main PC for this task (not 24/7) and turning it off and on has been getting annoying, hot and expensive over the last few months! I am looking at investing in a Plex / File server.

I priced up the stuff below, but I really don't know a great deal about this stuff - as far as keeping things low power. I've actually been considering a raspberry pi as I don't really need to transcode to more than one device at any one time.

However, as its close to my TV it would be cool to be able to play games (nothing intensive, I'm talking rougelikes, retro stuff) but not essential at all, most of my gaming is done on my main PC.

Hadn't decided on a case, or indeed any of the compontnets - I chose the motherboard because it is capable of outputting 4k@60hz (future proofing)

I haven't built a PC in about 6-7 years, so completely out of touch with current hardware!

Thank you

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Asus Prime B250M-C Intel B250 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £86.99
• 1 x Intel Core i3-7300 4.00GHz (Kaby Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £128.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD48G3000= £74.99
• 1 x be quiet! SFX Power 2 300W '80 Plus Bronze' SFX Power Supply= £56.99

Total: £358.46 (includes shipping: £10.50)​

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[Scythe]

That M/B will only output 4K on DisplayPort, is that ok for you?

Personally I'd go for the latest generation, you'll get more bang for buck. The M/B I've selected will output 4k@60hz over DP, and 4K@30hz over HDMI. You have the choice of the i3-8100 (marginally better than the 7300), or the i3-8300. To be honest either will be plenty for your usage, possibly either a pentium CPU at £60ish, however the only reason I haven't recommended it is because of Plex's advice on CPU selection for transcoding.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Asrock H310M-ITX/ac Intel H310 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Mini-ITX Motherboard= £64.99
• 1 x Intel Core i3-8100 3.6GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £94.99
• 1 x Intel Core i3-8300 3.7GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £125.99

Total: £296.47 (includes shipping: £10.50)
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[DarkMatter]

Just as an alternative. I have just side stepped to using a Netgear nighthawk X10 (£250) with one of the 5 bay terramaster raid boxes.

I have used many setups but found this for fills my needs perfectly. As time has gone on I do less and less transcoding as all the material I have I encoded myself so format wise its pretty generic (MP4 with H264+AC3). I also use the create optimised version option in plex to just let the server make all the alternative versions (mobile etc) if I need a smaller file size.

Works out as a very power efficient/neat 24/7 solution at fairly low cost. Alternatively one of the more powerful Synology boxes would work well.

I currently use a Wii U for all my retro gaming, if you look it up it is capable of pretty much anything!

 

[Morthoseth]

I actually won an auction for a Dell OptiPlex 3050 Micro for £155 - 7th gen i3, 8gb ram, wireless, bluetooth etc etc - think that was quite the bargain, so it should be perfect

 

[Avalon]

To be honest either will be plenty for your usage, possibly either a pentium CPU at £60ish, however the only reason I haven't recommended it is because of Plex's advice on CPU selection for transcoding.

Those CPU recommendations are comparatively ancient and refer to previous generations, use 2K of CPUmark per 1080p AV transcode, in practice less works, but it’s best to air on the side of caution as subs, audio transcodes and you not knowing what else people run in the background, a lot of the time, neither do they.