treason 11 Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 My home server just died. I had 6 Hard disks, and so I need a replacement. I want to transcode about 3 streams at a time. Also, I use my home server as a web server (nodejs, python etc), so I’d like to be able to install anything, not just things sanctioned by some proprietary NAS OS. I’m considering this dell power edge T340 because it takes 8 hard drives but I’m not sure about emby performance. From the little I understand, a good video card somehow helps in transcoding. Are there any specs in my link that you would tweak to get better emby performance? I’ll be running Ubuntu, if that makes any difference. I’m also open to NAS, if it meets the above requirements and doesn’t run a restricted OS. thanks for the help! @Gilgamesh_48 @cayars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 For Emby & Transcoding you would want Intel QuickSync and the more recent the chipset the better and more functions you will have especially if you want to encode h.265 in HW. I'd give a thumbs down to that box based on what I just said and your needs of at least 3 transcode streams. Spending that $, it's worth something a newer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mastrmind11 717 Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 I run a poweredge t20 as my server, which has a xeon 1225v3 and it has no problem transcoding 3 streams, without using acceleration. Cost me about $400 including an additional 8GB ECC RAM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 $400 is a lot different than $1600 which was the cost of the XEON he linked to. IMHO you can do a lot better for that $ and gain HW encoding of h.265 which is a very useful thing to have on a media server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treason 11 Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 Hey guys, thanks for responding. If I get the base model of the poweredge, and upgrade to Xeon with 8 drive bays it's $800. I don't want to throw away money. @cayars do you have a recommendation on a pre-built server with 8 drive bays that I can purchase elsewhere? My last server ran for almost 10 years 24/7, and I'd like another server that's going to last that long too. I'm not really into building my own PC because I've tried in the past and had all kinds of compatibility and heating issues, so I typically stick with a brand name build so I know all components will play well together. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 I'd make sure what you want to use has the HW transcoding features you will want. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Graphics_Technology#Capabilities_(GPU_video_acceleration) There is a good chart on that page showing features for different Intel CPUs. My Emby server is a first gen i7 without quicksync with an old GTX750ti in it for HW transcoding of h.264. This functions for me as I use that machine only to serve up content and nothing else. I convert all my media to either mp4/h.264 or mkv/h.265 before adding to my library and all my clients can playback h.265 thus I need very little transcoding. So it really depends on your needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mastrmind11 717 Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 4 hours ago, cayars said: $400 is a lot different than $1600 which was the cost of the XEON he linked to. IMHO you can do a lot better for that $ and gain HW encoding of h.265 which is a very useful thing to have on a media server. agreed, which is why I tried to show the contrast between his and mine. but if he's not interested in building his own box I'll remove myself from the conversation. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Don't do that. All tips are good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treason 11 Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 @mastrmind11 @cayars If I were to build my own emby server, is there a thread with hardware recommendations? My last build was 10 years ago, so maybe the troubles I had before are irrelevant today. Like I said, I dont want to throw money away but do I want something thats going to live long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHSPVR 119 Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 (edited) I build my own like this everything in my box Windows 10 Pro Harddrive Pooling Software = Drive Bender Antec Performance Series P101 Silent Black/0.8 mm SPCC ATX Mid Tower Case with 8 x 3.5" HDD / 2 x 2.5" SSD Removable Trays (I chose this case because it has 8 3.5 bay) Corsair CX Series CX750 (New) CP-9020123-NA 750W ATX12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Non-Modular Active PFC Power Supply Intel Core i3-9100 Coffee Lake 4-Core 3.6 GHz(4.2 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 65W BX80684I39100 Desktop Processor MSI B360 GAMING PLUS LGA 1151 (300 Series) Intel B360 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300) Desktop Memory Model F4-2666C15D-16GVR Corsair Hydro Series, H60 2018 (CW-9060036-WW), 120mm Radiator, Single 120mm PWM Fan, Liquid CPU Cooler LG Black Blu-ray Burner SATA WH16NS40 Seagate BarraCuda 2.5" 250GB SATA III 3D TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ZA250CM1A002 (Bootdrive) Used LSI SAS 9211-8i 8-port 6Gb/s Internal IT-MODE and Cables (NOTE: Buy the right cable you need forward cable) 2x Supermicro CBL-0097L-03 51/51cm SFF-8087 To 4x Sata Forward Breakout + Sideband 4x Seagate IronWolf ST8000VN004 8TB 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA (With plans to add 4 more over course of this year) USB 2.0 4 Ports PCI Slot Bracket Molex to SATA Power Y Splitter Adaptor Cable Lead 2 Way Re-used Hauppauge WinTV quad-HD Re-used other Hauppauge device Re-used Hauppauge USB HD-PVR 2 and PCIe Colossus 2 Re-used 128GB SSD for Caching Transcoding temporary path Stay away from SMR drive there problem drive Edited July 18, 2020 by SHSPVR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treason 11 Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 Thanks @SHSPVR That build comes out to ~700 on newegg (removing stuff I dont need like the hauppauge card). So I'd save about $100. Is your build that much better than the poweredge? How many streams do you think I can play with your build? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 That's kind of a low end processor looking at it's passmark score which is a good metric useful to CPU transcoding. It's roughly as fast as a 10 year old i7 coming in around 6700 passmark. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3-9100+%40+3.60GHz&id=3479 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treason 11 Posted July 18, 2020 Author Share Posted July 18, 2020 This stuff is so confusing and so much to pick from, with little guarantee's over what is going to work well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHSPVR 119 Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, cayars said: That's kind of a low end processor looking at it's passmark score which is a good metric useful to CPU transcoding. It's roughly as fast as a 10 year old i7 coming in around 6700 passmark. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3-9100+%40+3.60GHz&id=3479 The GPU Hardware Encoding make things much nicer beside I can do 4+ transcode steam and doesn't take in count for all direct play. You could always up to i5 9400 Edited July 18, 2020 by SHSPVR 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 I totally agree. I actually hate "trying" to answer questions like this because we're in the dark about your needs. If your media is in a format that will direct play to every device then just about any CPU will work. If you just need transcoding for mobiles or situations when you want to stream to cell networks or to yourself at work during lunch breaks then again your covered. If you have AVI files, 4K files and other files that will need transcoding often then it's another story. Quicksync is awesome and really does make using a "light weight" CPU a lot easier since the grunt work is offloaded to the GPU assuming you have Emby Premiere. The i3 CPU just mentioned is 4 core which should be fine if this machine runs Windows and Emby Server. If you are going to be running VMs or other "download" programs along with Emby or will be doing a lot of conversions on this machine OR will be using the machine for other things besides the OS and Emby then you may want more cores. This kind of question is like someone walking up to you and asking what car they should purchase without telling you anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treason 11 Posted July 18, 2020 Author Share Posted July 18, 2020 Sorry, I thought I was clear on my needs. I have 6 HDD's with a ton of content. I had raspberry-pi's across my home network using direct play. More and more of my clients are now using appletv, roku's, iphones etc. I do not convert to everything to H265, I leave it in its native format, mostly mkv but it varies. Since I'm transitioning away from directplay via kodi, I need to be better able to transcode. So, my needs are a server that can handle 6 or more HDD's and stream to atleast 3 clients at once. If you can't recommend a server for my needs, it's fine. No stress... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo 4330 Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 That's not to difficult processing wise. Any currently being manufactured Intel CPU that is i3 or better with QuickSync will have you covered. If you are just running Windows & Emby 4 cores will have you covered. The more higher the generation of the CPU the more likely it is to have more refined GPU functionality for QuickSync to use but these are easy to look in in the Intel QuickSync charts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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