Jump to content

Will the dell power edge t340 work well with emby?


treason

Recommended Posts

treason

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

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

mastrmind11

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

$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

treason

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

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

mastrmind11
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

treason

@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

SHSPVR

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 by SHSPVR
Link to comment
Share on other sites

treason

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

treason

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

SHSPVR
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 by SHSPVR
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

treason

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

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

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 account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...