Hardware Choices - Intel NUC

[MB Rich 4]

I'm thinking about an upgrade to my setup as my parents will shortly have access to my Emby server.  At the minute it's running on a Broadwell NUC (i5 process - link) which is also the PC that runs Emby Theater for our living room TV setup.  Once everyone has access, the worst case scenario is likely to be:

-One client running Emby Theater on the desktop (direct play)

-One client running Emby on an iPad (not sure if this is transcoding or direct play)

-One client running Emby on an LG TV on the LAN (again, not sure if this will be direct play or transcoding?)

-One client running Emby on an LG / Samsung TV over a WAN connection (transcoding)

 

I don't have any 4k content and only a very small amount of HEVC content.

 

Should I be looking to upgrade my NUC in order to support this, or do you think this will all be manageable without maxing out the CPU?

 

If it needs an upgrade I'm currently looking at the Skull Canyon NUC (4 cores / 8 threads) or the Kaby Lake i7 NUC (2 cores / 4 threads) but I'm really keen to keep fan noise to a minimum.

Edited January 10, 2018 by MB Rich

[PenkethBoy 2063]

Skull Canyon are not quiet underload - you can play with the fans settings but if it has to do a transcode you will hear it in quiet moments - not so much when you are watching an action movie

[MB Rich 4]

Skull Canyon are not quiet underload - you can play with the fans settings but if it has to do a transcode you will hear it in quiet moments - not so much when you are watching an action movie

My current Broadwell is quiet during playback but I guess it's not very heavily loaded.  At 100% load, any NUC is going to be too loud for me so I guess the question is what's the maximum % CPU I'll get to with that workload above, and which NUC will be quietest at that level?

 

Skull Canyon has more cores to spread the load and should be able to work at a lower %CPU, but it's a hotter processor overall...

[mastrmind11 717]

Just get one of these and stick it in your basement.  https://www.amazon.com/Newest-Dell-PowerEdge-Server-E3-1225/dp/B0722J7NNX/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_bs_tr_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=WNWQNP7Q1MD84RRQN3T4

[MB Rich 4]

Just get one of these and stick it in your basement.  https://www.amazon.com/Newest-Dell-PowerEdge-Server-E3-1225/dp/B0722J7NNX/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_bs_tr_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=WNWQNP7Q1MD84RRQN3T4

I've considered it, but the server cabinet is pretty full so I'm trying to avoid having an extra box:

 

[Jdiesel 1114]

I'm thinking your existing NUC may be up to the task. Have your tried are are you using hardware decoding for transcoding? Even without it I still think you are probably ok with what you have as most of the remote clients should be able to direct stream. You will likely be at the upper limit of the NUC's capabilities but why spend more money upgrading if you don't have to.

[MB Rich 4]

I'm thinking your existing NUC may be up to the task. Have your tried are are you using hardware decoding for transcoding? Even without it I still think you are probably ok with what you have as most of the remote clients should be able to direct stream. You will likely be at the upper limit of the NUC's capabilities but why spend more money upgrading if you don't have to.

I'm not using HW encoding at the minute.  I'll try enabling QS and see where it gets me...

[Jdiesel 1114]

I had an Intel i5 3770 with the Intel® HD Graphics 4000 GPU and I'm pretty sure I was able to transcode 4-5 simultaneous 1080p videos using VAAPI. I'm pretty sure I posted my results on the forum at one point but can't seem to find it now.

[mastrmind11 717]

I mean for $400 you can dedicate a very capable box and move it off your NUC which, technically, isn't designed as a server.  However as others have stated, your NUC is likely capable enough for your *current* needs.  But I'm old school and there's this inherent need for dedicated server(s) for s* like this.  And at that cost, I mean.... (xeon's are no joke)

Edited January 10, 2018 by mastrmind11

[PenkethBoy 2063]

My current Broadwell is quiet during playback but I guess it's not very heavily loaded.  At 100% load, any NUC is going to be too loud for me so I guess the question is what's the maximum % CPU I'll get to with that workload above, and which NUC will be quietest at that level?

 

Skull Canyon has more cores to spread the load and should be able to work at a lower %CPU, but it's a hotter processor overall...

Sorry thats not how things work

 

When Emby (ffmpeg) does any transcoding it tends to max out the cpu on any machine to do the work as quick as possible more cores means it generally happens quicker. QS can reduce the load on the cpu and speed up the transcode etc

 

The point i was trying to make (badly) was the cooling on NUC's is generally poor by the nature of their size - the more powerful they are the more active cooling they need and hence more noise

 

If you dont need to transcode then your existing NUC should be fine as just serving up files to clients is something a ARM/Celeron can do to several clients at once as thats more dependant on the disks supplying the media. My NAS with a Celeron N3150 which can supply several streams at once - although it does have 8 disks in raid5 for this purpose.

 

So with no transcoding and an i5 your limitation could be your disk subsystem setup - which your testing should highlight or not depending what you have.