Server Hardware Setup Recommendations

[Kimballslice1890 6]

Currently running my Emby Server on server with 2 Xeon e5 2660, 128GB ram, no gpu (currently). I have the Emby server running on a dedicated VM with 16 cores, 32GB RAM and a dedicated 500GB SSD. So far it works great but I am looking to maybe go something more power efficient or potentially better utilization of hardware? (server runs on Windows Server 2008 R2)

 

I have a HDHomerun tuner along with my media storage and average about 2-5 HD streams.

 

I did see some stuff about GPU rendering which will offload to the CPU when it needs to. Was wondering if anyone has experience or can help me out.

 

I have 2 spare optiplexs with 250W psus one with an i5 3470, the other with a Xeon ivy bridge i5 equivalent. I have a couple Nvidia Quadro 600s laying around. A radeon RX 560 thats not being utilized too much that I can spare and a Radeon HD 7670.

 

I know these are relatively weak cards, but anyone with decent knowledge on the topic could chime in? Will I notice an improvement in performance/efficiency by going with a GPU-CPU combo. Any recommendations for GPUs =>$100 used.

@@arrbee99

[Jdiesel 1214]

Nvidia GTX 1050

 

or get a 8th Gen or better Intel CPU with an iGPU

Edited April 29, 2020 by Jdiesel

[frankmb 27]

I use a Nvidia GTX 1050 2GB myself that I bought used on eBay. There is a limit of 2 hardware transcodes at a time on Nvidia non-Quadro cards. (there exists a hacky way around this driver restriction on Linux)

 

Intel integrated graphics doesn't have this limit I believe.

 

Lots of info here: https://forums.serverbuilds.net/t/guide-hardware-transcoding-the-jdm-way-quicksync-and-nvenc/1408/4

Edited April 29, 2020 by frankmb

[Kimballslice1890 6]

Found some good deals on Quadro K420 and K620s. Found a K1200 for a reasonable price too. Are these irrelevant / wont be able to handle more than 2 streams anyway versus going with the GTX 1050?

[SLMK 14]

I use a Nvidia GTX 1050 2GB myself that I bought used on eBay. There is a limit of 2 hardware transcodes at a time on Nvidia non-Quadro cards. (there exists a hacky way around this driver restriction on Linux)

 

Intel integrated graphics doesn't have this limit I believe.

 

Lots of info here: https://forums.serverbuilds.net/t/guide-hardware-transcoding-the-jdm-way-quicksync-and-nvenc/1408/4

FYI the driver hack is available on windows as well.

[mholin 17]

any GPU is recomended, I guess. Emby uses GPU for hardware decoding h264 and h265. And uses hardware h264 encoding today.

This can be done with the Quadro 600 I assume. 

 

I use my server for transcoding larger h264 files to h265 with handbrake. For this task I put in a GTX 1050, which does all the above, but h265 encoding as well.

1080p movies can be converted to h265 at about 100 frames per second.

The GTX 1050 is cheap and takes only few power from the PSU.

The GTX 1060 is a little more powerful and does more on 10bit videos, but gave no speed improvement on my system.

 

But this is not used by emby in the transcoding process, as emby only transcodes to h264 today.

 

can somebody give a hit to me how to find the above mentioned driver hack for windows to remove the 2 task limitation on GTX transcoding?

 

bye Michael

[pwhodges 1717]

Windows:

https://github.com/keylase/nvidia-patch/tree/master/win

 

Linux:

https://github.com/keylase/nvidia-patch

 

Paul

[Kimballslice1890 6]

Looking to achieve lower peak power consumption. My current server Idles at ~220w and under load can hit ~480w.

 

My Optiplex 3010 with an i5 3470 idles ~30w, under an artificial load peaked at ~100w.

 

From what I found online I think my Quadro 600s are useless as they are Fermi based.

 

Found a solid deal on K620 for ~$40 (keeping an eye on a gtx 1050, trying to grab under $60 and use the drivers posted above)

 

 

For my use case will I benefit off popping in a low power Quadro or will my i5 3470 with quicksync be good enough?

 

**I do also have a pfSense optiplex running a core i5 4590, as well as a lenovo usff with an i3 4130t I was staging for a pfSense build. I can swap these machines around for best experience as they all perform about the same on pfSense.

Edited May 14, 2020 by mtait4893