Does it matter on what PC in the network the EMBY server is?

[flexy123 1]

Common sense says that a "server" is usually the PC that is also directly connected to storage, for the fastest access to media etc.

 

Situation: I have EMBY server on an ancient PC (haven't had time to upgrade this yet), running Win 7, so it runs EMBY and for playing media I use Emby for Kodi on this and other computers on the network. (The ancient PC is connected to my TV).

 

Now I have one unused laptop that has better hardware (i5, 4GB etc.).

 

If I move the EMBY server to the laptop, in how-far does it affect speed/delivery of content?

 

All the content is "directly played" on various clients in the network with UNC network paths set-up.

 

Say, one movie comes from //PC1/Movies/Movie1.mkv

 

If I understand this right, this "direct play" means than ANY client has direct access to the file on the network much as if the client would play the file directly over the network. According to this logic it should not matter even if I move EMBY to a laptop, even if the laptop would only be wirelessly and slower connected to the network - since it wouldn't ultimately affect how media is delivered to whatever client?

 

Am I correct there?

 

The only "downside" here would be when EMBY is cataloging its database it would be a little slower since now EMBY (on the laptop) would have to access some storage media over the network, eg. as opposed to on the old computer where the HDs are directly connected?

 

(For those who think why not use the newer laptop as EMBY server *and* KODI for playing on my TV, the laptop's GPU is worse than the one in the ancient PC.) My idea is to use the ancient PC as KODI playback machine only and (see above) move EMBY to another computer on the network to free up some resources. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

Edited January 6, 2016 by flexy123

[mjktg99 34]

Your biggest need for high end hardware is when you are transcoding. If you are direct playing your media then transcoding won't come into play. If your lan is all gigabit then I think you would be ok having media on device different than the server. That's what a Nas is.