Recommended Processor Power for Transcoding

[TolkienBard 54]

Recently, I've been running into a problem using Direct Play. It's been causing my clients to crash. It's frustrating, but quirks happen and I have confidence we'll eventually get that sorted. In the meantime though, I'd like to be able to continue accessing my media. This means accessing via the web client. Unfortunately, that means every stream is transcoded, even though the HTPC is obviously more than capable of playing mkvs. Now, I'm hard-wired in house via gigabit connections. That should ensure that there is no data throttling. However it seems that getting 1080p playback is still taxing my server's ability to keep up. So, I was wondering if anyone could give me a ballpark idea as to what sort of processing power I am going to need to muster in order to get smooth 1080 playback.

 

Here's my current rig:

 

CPU: 2x Intel Xeon L5520 @ 2.27 GHz

RAM: 24 GB

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro

 

I am running an array that is using FlexRAID if that would have any impact.

 

I had imagined that the server was already beefy enough to handle 1080 transcoding duties, but it seems it might not be. That means upgrading. However, if I am going to be upgrading, I'll need a target performance mark.

[jluce50 118]

Recently, I've been running into a problem using Direct Play. It's been causing my clients to crash. It's frustrating, but quirks happen and I have confidence we'll eventually get that sorted. In the meantime though, I'd like to be able to continue accessing my media. This means accessing via the web client. Unfortunately, that means every stream is transcoded, even though the HTPC is obviously more than capable of playing mkvs. Now, I'm hard-wired in house via gigabit connections. That should ensure that there is no data throttling. However it seems that getting 1080p playback is still taxing my server's ability to keep up. So, I was wondering if anyone could give me a ballpark idea as to what sort of processing power I am going to need to muster in order to get smooth 1080 playback.

 

Here's my current rig:

 

CPU: 2x Intel Xeon L5520 @ 2.27 GHz

RAM: 24 GB

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro

 

I am running an array that is using FlexRAID if that would have any impact.

 

I had imagined that the server was already beefy enough to handle 1080 transcoding duties, but it seems it might not be. That means upgrading. However, if I am going to be upgrading, I'll need a target performance mark.

 

This setup should be more than capable of transcoding a single 1080p stream without any issues. I don't know the numbers for MB3, but Plex recommends a PlexMark score of 2000 per 1080p stream. Your processor has a score of 4356, so I'm not sure what the problem is. That said, if you still want to upgrade, I'd go with something like the i7-4790k. It has a passmark of 11,315.

Edited October 6, 2014 by jluce50

[TolkienBard 54]

This setup should be more than capable of transcoding a single 1080p stream without any issues. I don't know the numbers for MB3, but Plex recommends a PlexMark score of 2000 per 1080p stream. Your processor has a score of 4356, so I'm not sure what the problem is. That said, if you still want to upgrade, I'd go with something like the i7-4790k. It has a passmark of 11,315.

 

I had assumed that running the dual processors that I should have been over the minimum threshold. I'll have to continue to tinker, observe, and measure until I find the proper settings it seems. I considered going the i7 route, but the deal I got on this board and processors was too hard to pass up. I'd rather not go dropping another $1,000 replacing the server just yet if I can help it.