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Time for a bit of an upgrade


LiquidFX

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LiquidFX

So, I have been running my current system for some time now and decided to upgrade, well the performance has told me it's time to upgrade. A few things will just transfer over, but the heart will be a full transplant. The unit is used for picture storage and media server so no need for a massive gaming rig. This is the link to the incoming parts for the new build CLICK HERE

Current Build:

HTPC Information
CPU
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core

GPU
MSI GTX 1660 Ventus XS 6G OC

Motherboard
ASUS Q87M-E/CSM DDR3 1600 LGA 1150

Memory
24GB G.Skill Ares Series 24 DDR3-2400

Storage
2xSamsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" SSD
1x6TB HGST HD
1x6TB WD HD
1X18TH SG HD

Power Supply
Corsair 600W ATX12V

Operating System
Microsoft Windows 10

Case
nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum / Steel HTPC 2000B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

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rbjtech

If the system is an emby server and you have the 1660 for transcoding, then I think you'll be surprised at what the Intel iGPU in the 12700K can do (Quick Sync Video) - it will certainly be able to transcode more 4k streams than the 1660 as that is memory limited (6Gb) and also do it at a fraction of the power usage.

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Happy2Play
1 hour ago, LiquidFX said:

Yes, the current setup couldn't handle 4k trans at all.

What issues did you have as the "MSI GTX 1660 Ventus XS 6G OC" should not have had issues.  Sure from a CPU standpoint there would be issues.

Edited by Happy2Play
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LiquidFX
On 4/19/2022 at 6:35 PM, Happy2Play said:

What issues did you have as the "MSI GTX 1660 Ventus XS 6G OC" should not have had issues.  Sure from a CPU standpoint there would be issues.

Yeah, I didn't make sense on that last post, the CPU of the current build couldn't handle 4k, that's why I added the GPU. I don't use it for gaming, only a few emulators from time to time.

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  • 1 month later...
Jonathan1683

I am on the same boat with the same CPU only difference is i have a gtx 1070 I have been considering upgrading because emby seems a little sluggish at times, but I don't know why really. Just moving through the interface lags sometimes and the most I ever have is around 4 users at a time, so I feel like it might be an upgrade for nothing. Do you know how quicksync works vs cuda? My electric bill is crazy high and wouldn't mind the savings in that dept, but not sure a CPU can handle everything and that's why I added the GPU. Also why do you have so much RAM is that really necessary? What do you guys think of Xeon CPUs ? I am not really sure which direction to take the server (gaming rig vs server) don't mean to highjack, but I figured you would be interested too. :)

Edited by Jonathan1683
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Spaceboy

running the OS on an nvme drive will likely give you your biggest bang for buck in terms of lag in the interface from my experience

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Q-Droid
5 hours ago, Jonathan1683 said:

I am on the same boat with the same CPU only difference is i have a gtx 1070 I have been considering upgrading because emby seems a little sluggish at times, but I don't know why really. Just moving through the interface lags sometimes and the most I ever have is around 4 users at a time, so I feel like it might be an upgrade for nothing. Do you know how quicksync works vs cuda? My electric bill is crazy high and wouldn't mind the savings in that dept, but not sure a CPU can handle everything and that's why I added the GPU. Also why do you have so much RAM is that really necessary? What do you guys think of Xeon CPUs ? I am not really sure which direction to take the server (gaming rig vs server) don't mean to highjack, but I figured you would be interested too. :)

Which "same CPU"? If the cost of electricity is part of the equation and you want a dedicated 24/7 media server then ditch the GPU and get a recent generation (8+) Intel CPU. It's the simplest, best supported and cheapest approach in the long term. Don't bother with Xeon if your goal is to lower electric bills unless you have other heavy workloads that benefit from server grade hardware.

If you plan to use the same machine as a workstation then that changes things and you have to account for that.

It really doesn't take much to build a very capable box. As stated by others - fast SSD storage for the software, database, metadata, cache and transcoding. Big HDD storage for the media. A recent Intel i3 or higher can do multiple 4k transcodes and a lot of (F)HD.

 

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Jonathan1683

 I have a i5-4690  and a 850 evo SSD 8GB ram I dont use the server for anything besides emby. I guess i don't need the sever CPU if a regular one can handle the workload, I just know the pc was struggling with the cpu encoding and I didnt want to freeze up the performance of the OS due to all the encoding, so i put my 1070 in the box which seemed to help a lot.

 

 

Edit: I just figured out one of my hard drives is failing and it's my metadeta folder ugh :( I cant even copy the folder to back it up. This is probably my issue.

Edited by Jonathan1683
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rbjtech
4 hours ago, Jonathan1683 said:

 I have a i5-4690  and a 850 evo SSD 8GB ram I dont use the server for anything besides emby. I guess i don't need the sever CPU if a regular one can handle the workload, I just know the pc was struggling with the cpu encoding and I didnt want to freeze up the performance of the OS due to all the encoding, so i put my 1070 in the box which seemed to help a lot.

..and that was exactly the right thing to do.  To be honest, with the hardware you have - there should be plenty of horsepower to run emby and transcode without issues.  The performance issue is likely that failing HDD - but even if it wasn't - always put the emby folder and it's metadata cache/db on an SSD.   A PCIe riser card with an NVME drive (as I assume that 4th Gen motherboard is not going have any NVME slots..) and emby should be ultra fast again imo.

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Jonathan1683

Yeah you are right I'm honestly surprised I didn't have it on the SSD to begin with big mistake. 

Edited by Jonathan1683
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Q-Droid

That simple move of the latency sensitive data to SSD can make a big difference in UI and overall response time. The age of your current system limits what you can add to it and if not CPU bound upgrading the chip won't gain you much unless you find one for $20, then why not?

 

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