elsmandino 4 Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 Hi there,Here are the current specs of my server and desktop PCs:Server* NSK2480 Case* 2 x 4GB RAM (4GB being used as RAMDisk)* 60GB Sandisk Ultra SSD* MSI H61MA-E35 Mobo* i3-2105* 2 x 2TB Samsung Spinpoint F4* Antec 400w High Current Gamer PSU* 2 x TV Tuners - HVR-2200 and NOVA-HD-S2Destkop* Xigmatek Midgard Tower* 2 x 4GB RAM and 2 x 2GB RAM* 60GB Crucial M4 SSD* Asus M4A785TD-M EVO* AMD Athlon IIx2 240e* 2 x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3* Antec 380w Earthwatts PSU (taken from the NSK2480 above)Over the weekend my desktop PC died - the motherboard seems to have had it and I am going to chuck it and the CPU away.My dilemma is whether to buy a new motherboard and CPU for the desktop or whether to put the Server motherboard/CPU/RAM in the desktop tower and buy a replacement motherboard/CPU for the Server.What would you guys do?My instinct is to build a new server as:1. 12GB of RAM would be better utilised in my server2. Perhaps there are more efficient CPUs that are better suited to a serverAny tips would be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pir8radio 1292 Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 Well since no one has answered you yet.... I'm a fan of as beefy of a server as you can afford... I would use the SSD you have for all of the emby cache folders, and transcoding. It really speeds up the loading of emby... If you want an example of how a decent server responds, you can log into my server, info is in this post: http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/19457-help-me-test-my-emby-server/?p=188745 That said, maybe your existing server is good enough... Why waste the money, probably cheaper to get a decent desktop... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremyFr79 228 Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 Well since no one has answered you yet.... I'm a fan of as beefy of a server as you can afford... I would use the SSD you have for all of the emby cache folders, and transcoding. It really speeds up the loading of emby... If you want an example of how a decent server responds, you can log into my server, info is in this post: http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/19457-help-me-test-my-emby-server/?p=188745 That said, maybe your existing server is good enough... Why waste the money, probably cheaper to get a decent desktop... ^This the more horsepower the better, memory isn't as important for Emby (since its currently a 32 bit app hoping they change that in the future) as processor power and disk speed for the items mentioned above. But is also comes down to how you're going to use it, what clients you'll be feeding, how many at once, how big your library is and will get etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legallink 187 Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 I think the quantifier here, and perhaps the reason people haven't responded is that you have left important details out. How many users do you have? How many concurrent users do you have? What's your budget for the new system? How much media do you have? Do you want to have? How many locations - (remote vs. local)? Does most of your media need to be transcoded or not? It's very easy to say.....buy a new system. But without the pertinent information, we can't give you an intelligent answer. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koleckai Silvestri 1150 Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 ^This the more horsepower the better, memory isn't as important for Emby (since its currently a 32 bit app hoping they change that in the future) as processor power and disk speed for the items mentioned above. But is also comes down to how you're going to use it, what clients you'll be feeding, how many at once, how big your library is and will get etc. Memory can still provide a benefit when running a 32 bit app on a 64 bit OS. Yes, having 16 GB or 32 GB won't directly help Emby but it allows you to run more of your helper applications without interfering with the 4 GB Sandbox that Emby is in directly. So FFMPEG has its own sandbox, Sonarr, etc... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elsmandino 4 Posted October 27, 2015 Author Share Posted October 27, 2015 Thanks everyone for your input - I completely agree that I have failed to really details my set up. At the moment, I have the central server, running headless, with Argus TV and Emby on it - I use Argus for watching Live TV and recordings recently made and Emby for watching back ripped DVDs. I also transfer whole series (made by Argus) to Emby for watchback later. I connect to both Argus and Emby with Kodi, which runs from a number of sources - 1 installation on my Desktop (which is now out of action), 1 installation on a laptop, 3 raspberry pis, 2 installations on android phones and 1 installation on an android tablet. Even though there are loads of Kodi installations, only 3 are every used at any one time. Storage-wise, I have about 3 TB of stored media, though I am hoping to buy another 6TB hard drive so I can start recording everything in HD. Budget-wise - I do not have one as such, as long as it the cost is proportional to getting everything running perfectly. I guess the one major issue involves transcoding - how do I know which of my client's is requiring the server to transcode? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elsmandino 4 Posted November 2, 2015 Author Share Posted November 2, 2015 I have decided to go down the route of a new CPU and motherboard for my Server. I take it that Haswell is the best platform for me at the moment - would a G1820 do or is it worth spending any more for something slightly more powerful? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swynol 375 Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 i would be looking at an i3 at the very minimum. i had an i3 in my server for a while. it ran the server and emby theatre but also transcoded to 1 - 2 devices. any more than 2 devices and it struggled. i now have an i5 in it and it runs alot smoother and transcodes much quicker. at some point in the future i will be looking at upgrading to a xeon ( i have the chip already just need a motherboard). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elsmandino 4 Posted November 3, 2015 Author Share Posted November 3, 2015 As far as I am aware, as I use Kodi for viewing all my media, my server never seems to need to transcoding. Is there any way to test this? What is your set up that means you have to transcode streams? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deihmos 147 Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 (edited) I am in favor of low energy. Transcoding is completely overrated especially if you have enough bandwidth because pretty much every device can play h264. I have an i3 system which is very still very powerful and also use low energy with just 7-8 watts when idle. @@elsmandino Kodi does not need transcoding especially when you are using local play. Edited November 3, 2015 by Deihmos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pclausen 41 Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 (edited) I currently have a Xeon E5-1620 v3 and it struggles with just 2 clients transcoding. I have 3 Roku 3 clients and one of them is connected directly to a TV that will only accept 2.0 PCM audio via HDMI (as is the case with most TVs). As a result, the server has to transcode everything being sent to that client even though it is set to stream up to 30 Mbps. Also, if the audio source is FLAC, any of my Roku clients have to transcode. Most of my media content is original quality BDR rips (each mkv is between 20 and 40 GB with bitrates sometimes in the 40 Mbps range. So even if just the audio needs to be re-encoded, that CPU cycles consumed by ffmpeg are just as great as if one of those titles was being transcoded to 2 mbps or something for a handheld device. I also have a pair of HTPC clients that never transcode, but all my other clients transcode at least some of the time. I have a Xeon E5-2683 v3 on order that should remedy the situation once and for all for me. Not suggesting you go to that extreme but don't underestimate the power needed to transcode. As a rule of thumb, they say you need about 2000 CPU Pass Mark score to transcode 1080p @ 10 Mbps. Edited November 3, 2015 by pclausen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elsmandino 4 Posted November 3, 2015 Author Share Posted November 3, 2015 @@elsmandino Kodi does not need transcoding especially when you are using local play. Great - that means I can go down the low powered route too. Out of interest, what i3 do you have? I am thinking of getting one of the regular Haswell Celeron CPUs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deihmos 147 Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 (edited) @@elsmandino I have the i3 4130 that I got back in 2013. Prior to that I had the q6600 and the i3 is more powerful than it. I would get a pentium over celeron because there isn't much of a price difference and they perform better. Edited November 3, 2015 by Deihmos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speechles 1921 Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 (edited) Also, if the audio source is FLAC, any of my Roku clients have to transcode. The blue neon night theme has this already. The official client needs to add "flac" to mkvAudio directplay support to gain this. https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Roku/pull/115 There is the pull request to add this to the official client. This should ease some of the transcoding duties. Edited November 3, 2015 by speechles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now