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Budget Server Help


joelk2

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joelk2

Hello,

hopefully some of you knowledgeable folk can help. 
 

im currently running a server with

ryzen 3600

nvidia 3060ti 

8gb ram

I’m looking to set up a small mini pc style headless server instead of my main pc being on 24/7 in the hope I can use less power etc. 

I stream to

2 x Roku TV’s

1 x Apple TV

3 x Firesticks

all using the Emby apps 

but the absolute max I’m streaming to at one point is 3 devices.

The files are normally x264 with some x265

x265 stuff is seems to transcode and x264 seems to direct play so I guess I’d be looking for something that can transcode a couple of streams at once  

im looking for something around the £100 mark so 2nd hand would be the logical choice.

files are all located on an external usb drive  

Any help appreciated. 

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bakes82

The synology nas are nice but not for 100$.  Doubt you can get anything for that much especially to "save" electricity.

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joelk2

Well I ended up getting a Lenovo m910q 

i5-6500t

 16gb ram

128gb nvme 

for £117 delivered. 
just hoping it’s got enough horsepower for my usage case. 
looking at the passmark score of the 6500t is should be ok and has quick sync for transcoding duties. 

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joelk2
3 minutes ago, emdubya77 said:

Where did you buy it from, if I may ask?

Bought from eBay. The seller (unitpart) had a few (listed for £130) But you can use the code TENOFF3 to reduce the price to £117

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joelk2
11 minutes ago, emdubya77 said:

Thanks, I'll take a look.

We're planning to replace our server PC soon so I'm starting to shop around. Basically looking for something cheap that will transcode HD Freeview recordings with subtitles.

Ahh nice, I’m hoping this is going to work for me to be honest. But for the price I guess I could sell on with no loss if not. 
 

I’ve not got any experience with this server stuff so just trial and error. 
my current setup works well but it’s way overkill for my needs and I’m sure it’s alot more power hungry than one of these mini pcs. 

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Q-Droid
4 hours ago, joelk2 said:

Well I ended up getting a Lenovo m910q 

i5-6500t

 16gb ram

128gb nvme 

for £117 delivered. 
just hoping it’s got enough horsepower for my usage case. 
looking at the passmark score of the 6500t is should be ok and has quick sync for transcoding duties. 

As a general guide when shopping for Intel systems to use for Emby you should start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video

Your new purchase is one generation older than what I would consider the minimum for a new(ish) media server. Intel 7th gen and newer is the way to go where all common video encoding formats up to HEVC 10-bit can be done in hardware. 

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joelk2
22 minutes ago, Q-Droid said:

As a general guide when shopping for Intel systems to use for Emby you should start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video

Your new purchase is one generation older than what I would consider the minimum for a new(ish) media server. Intel 7th gen and newer is the way to go where all common video encoding formats up to HEVC 10-bit can be done in hardware. 

Thanks. I will give it a go and see how I get on anyways. 

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  • 1 year later...
242Movies

Any update on the performance?

 

I'm looking to do something similar with an HP Mini PC with i5-6500T 2.5Ghz 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD

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RanmaCanada
15 hours ago, 242Movies said:

Any update on the performance?

 

I'm looking to do something similar with an HP Mini PC with i5-6500T 2.5Ghz 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD

The i5-6500T will be fine for any h.264 quicksync transcodes but can not do 4k.  If you want to do 4k transcodes you would be better off getting a 7th gen or higher.  If you're in the states, I would recommend you look at used laptops on eBay, specifically ones with broken screens as you can get an 8th gen laptop for about $100.  Heck you can get an 11th Gen i3 for just under $200.  I use an i3-1115G4 as my server with everything stored on a NAS, and have no issues at all, even with 4k transcodes.  Idles at 3-5 watts and most I've ever seen it use was 25 when it was doing intro scanning and creation.  If you still want a "traditional" pc, here's an 8th gen mini for cheap.

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242Movies
1 hour ago, RanmaCanada said:

The i5-6500T will be fine for any h.264 quicksync transcodes but can not do 4k.  If you want to do 4k transcodes you would be better off getting a 7th gen or higher.  If you're in the states, I would recommend you look at used laptops on eBay, specifically ones with broken screens as you can get an 8th gen laptop for about $100.  Heck you can get an 11th Gen i3 for just under $200.  I use an i3-1115G4 as my server with everything stored on a NAS, and have no issues at all, even with 4k transcodes.  Idles at 3-5 watts and most I've ever seen it use was 25 when it was doing intro scanning and creation.  If you still want a "traditional" pc, here's an 8th gen mini for cheap.

Thank you for the detailed response.

 

This is something I'm going to send to someone in another country and want a small, light, item that can be put in a purse.

The broken laptop is a great idea but may be too bulky for something I'm asking another person to carry for me.

I can get a 6th gen I5 Mini PC with 256gb SSD for $75

 

It will will be 1080 max on the videos and most of the TV shows will be 720p.

Many of them will be h.265 encodes because the smaller sizes make it easier to fit more shows on a portable disk.

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242Movies
1 hour ago, RanmaCanada said:

If they are going to be hevc/h.265 you want at least an 8th gen as that is when hardware decoding of 10bit hevc was implemented.  Or see if you can find a used Nvidia Shield?

I have a regular HP PC that I use for myself with i5-7500 CPU and it streams h.265 content without problems.

Maybe I'll get the 7th gen for a few extra dollars instead of the cheaper 6th gen. It's only about $110 after sales tax.

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242Movies
On 15/05/2023 at 17:10, RanmaCanada said:

If they are going to be hevc/h.265 you want at least an 8th gen as that is when hardware decoding of 10bit hevc was implemented.  Or see if you can find a used Nvidia Shield?

I bought a  Dell OptiPlex 3050 Micro  i3-7100T with 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD for $82.00 after shipping and tax.

The link you posted says 10bit decoding is available on the 7th gen CPU "with 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 chroma subsampling".

I don't know what the other chroma subsamplings do or how often they're used.

I'll update the forum on the performance when I get it.

 

Thanks again for the help.

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  • 2 weeks later...
242Movies
On 15/05/2023 at 17:10, RanmaCanada said:

If they are going to be hevc/h.265 you want at least an 8th gen as that is when hardware decoding of 10bit hevc was implemented.  Or see if you can find a used Nvidia Shield?

The Mini PC with i3-7100T has arrived and it plays HEVC fine but CPU usage is high when using only software decoding.

It drops down a lot when hardware acceleration using Intel Quick Sync is enabled (emby premium is required)

 

Optiplex 3050 Mini with i3-7100T
1080p x264 20% CPU Usage
720p x264 15% CPU Usage

HEVC no acceleration
1080p HEVC 85%-95% CPU Usage
720p HEVC 80%-95% CPU Usage

HEVC with Hardware Acceleration Intel Quick Sync
1080p HEVC 30%-50% CPU Usage
720p HEVC 30%-50% CPU Usage

 

This is the PC I bought:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266245821408

 

I was going back and forth between this and the HP Mini PCs.

The HP Mini has built-in WiFi but most of them have only Displayport video ports and no HDMI

The Dell had no WiFi but it had HDMI and it takes regular SATA SSDs so I was able to reuse a larger SSD drive I had to upgrade the 128 GB drive that shipped with it.

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