Server build for Emby - opinions?

[Mediahost 2]

Hey, I'm relatively new to Emby and I'm currently trying to set up a Windows server mainly  dedicated to streaming and transcoding media files. Best scenario would be to have the server running 24/7 but I have no idea if the energy consumption of my build would be too high for that (we pay a lot for electricity in Germany). :'D

CPU: Intel Core i5-11400 (Intel UHD 730)
Mainboard: MSI B560M-A Pro
RAM: Crucial Ballistix weiß DIMM Kit 16GB, DDR4-3200, CL16-18-18-36
Power supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 500W ATX 2.4
SSD: Western Digital WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 500GB

Media is currently stored on a 14 TB HDD, so I'd use a Midi Tower with some space for 3.5" HDDs. Do you think that this system might be efficient for my use case? 4K transcoding with tone mapping could be a thing but I wouldn't base my decision on that since most of my devices can direct play 4K. Parallel streams would be not more than 2. I really can't tell if this system is overkill or not enough for what I have in mind. Maybe you can give me some advice.

[Q-Droid 989]

Intel CPUs do a good job of throttling down and have been getting more efficient. My guess is that your server itself would idle in the 50-70w range, possibly lower. It will definitely go up when busy but for short bursts.

Edit to add: Regarding the video workload you have nothing to worry about. This CPU can handle pretty much anything you throw at it and will easily do multiple transcodes of 4k without breaking much of a sweat.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Q-Droid

[KMBanana 116]

Why do you want it to run Windows?  It has a lot of overhead, poor software based RAID (or equivalent), and frequent reboots for updates.  

I'm running my server off unraid and have been quite happy with the ease of use and upgrading it over time.  I started just doing CPU based encodes, but recently added a 3060 as HDR and 4k media is becoming a lot more common.  I still try to get people to watch 1080p versions if the 4k file would result in a transcode.  

A popular option is to run a low power NAS that functions really just as a NAS, and then use a cheap $100-200 intel quicksync device with ubuntu to run Emby, taking advantage of the quicksync for HW based encodes.  

[Mediahost 2]

@Q-Droidsounds good, the energy consumption could be lower but maybe not for a Desktop CPU with some transcoding power.

@KMBanana I mainly want to use Windows to be able to use Remote Desktop features since the server will be in another part of the house. And to mount encrypted containers using Veracrypt. I only know how to do all this in Windows. Constant rebooting can be prohibited by turning off auto updates I think, so the updating process can be done in a more controlled environment. I'm also thinking that I might use the server at some point as a second workstation, not really sure about that now. RAID functions are not necessary since I do manual (local) backups and the data doesn't need to be available 100% of the time in case of a damaged partition/HDD.

And do you mean running a NAS and an Emby server as two separate devices? Or just that the purpose of the server is mainly being a NAS? The reason why I'm going for my own build instead of buying a Synology is mainly to have more transcoding power in the CPU (for a budget that doesn't kill me) and because the RAID features are not so important in my case.

[KMBanana 116]

Yes, the separate NAS and Emby server means having two separate devices, relying on the efficiency offered by Intel's quicksync on an extremely cheap device rather than needing a better CPU.  That's just an option to consider though.  

Using it as a 2nd workstation is a decent enough reason to use Windows, just be careful you're building this machine with this in mind and not just using this an excuse to justify building a server more powerful/expensive than you need.  

If your building a purpose built system for a media server I'd strongly suggest setting some kind of parity protection.  This doesn't function as or replace the need for a backup, but it's an extreme convenience when one of your hard drives inevitably fails.  

RDP I don't think is a reason to on its own use windows.  Any alternative would have some way to manage it remotely.  Most NAS options would be a simple web interface.  

[michaeltruncale 6]

@KMBanana I built an Emby server like 10 years ago, on windows 7 Pro. We just sold our house and are living tiny for a few years in a 5th wheel and I need to shrink my 10 year old tower build into something functional but small. Is there a guide on setting up what you were referring to about the Intel QuickSync and  NAS? 

[KMBanana 116]

1 hour ago, michaeltruncale said:

@KMBanana I built an Emby server like 10 years ago, on windows 7 Pro. We just sold our house and are living tiny for a few years in a 5th wheel and I need to shrink my 10 year old tower build into something functional but small. Is there a guide on setting up what you were referring to about the Intel QuickSync and  NAS? 

The serverbuilds.net forums and discord has a lot of good info on quicksync options and configuration.  They have a few different NAS guides as well, but with quicksync doing the heavy lifting just about anything will work.

[RanmaCanada 494]

On 05/10/2022 at 00:38, michaeltruncale said:

@KMBanana I built an Emby server like 10 years ago, on windows 7 Pro. We just sold our house and are living tiny for a few years in a 5th wheel and I need to shrink my 10 year old tower build into something functional but small. Is there a guide on setting up what you were referring to about the Intel QuickSync and  NAS? 

How many drives do you have?  Total space you are looking to migrate.  How much power can your 5th wheel provide you?  And lastly, what is your budget.  If you can answer these questions, I may be able to give you some great low power options.

[michaeltruncale 6]

1 hour ago, RanmaCanada said:

How many drives do you have?  Total space you are looking to migrate.  How much power can your 5th wheel provide you?  And lastly, what is your budget.  If you can answer these questions, I may be able to give you some great low power options.

I have one 60gb SSD for the Windows OS, two 3.5” 4TB internal and two external 4TB as backups of the internal drives. 5th wheel is plugged into 50Amp so I can hook up to a regular 110v plug. The motherboard I have is a micro-ATX, (9.6”x9.6”), it actually is pretty low power but the system is decently powered for what it was, ten years ago . The tower it’s all sitting in is like a regular large sized tower. As far as budget goes, ideally <$600, but depending on what I need to do/get I could go over if need be.

edit…

Silverstone SST-GD05B Case

Seasonic 400w Fanless Platinum

Intel DH67BL MB

Intel i3-2120T 2.6 Ghz

16GB DDR3 1333 RAM

60gb Sandisk SSD OS

4TB WD Green HD recordings x2

LG BH10LS30 10x Blu-ray r/w

Usb tuner (4 tuners total)

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Edited October 8, 2022 by michaeltruncale
Added details

[RanmaCanada 494]

Oh well that is great.  Means we only need to upgrade your board, cpu and ram.  I would get a Pentium Gold 7400 then it's just a matter of finding a motherboard you like (with ddr4 support for costs) and then some ram.  The Pentium Gold 7400 will run circles around your current setup, uses 46 watts of power, and has the latest quicksync so any transcoding will also be done at extremely low power.  Total cost of this "build" is under $300.  You could splurge and buy yourself some new hard drives, or a Platinum or Titanium power supply.

[michaeltruncale 6]

@RanmaCanadaokay so I never did upgrade anything and we just tossed the PC in the “basement” of the RV. Worked out fine for the time… however last Friday we had a power outrage / surge, blew the PSU (which was a Seasonic Titanium btw), I swapped out the PSU and the thing isn’t booting, the drives spin, and the cat 5 light comes on, the MB even has 2 short beeps upon turning on the power. No video displayed and from what I can tell it’s not booting because it never joins the network. So now I actually need to upgrade . Is that Pentium  Gold 7400 still one you’d recommend or is there something else these days? Ironically I just replaced my Mac too and added Emby on the Mac mini M4, but it has issues with our Sony 65” 4k tv running Android OS… and I kind of like having Emby on it’s own server anyway.

[RanmaCanada 494]

@michaeltruncaleI am wondering if an N100/N150 micro system with a USB mult-enclosure, or even a laptop with one, or worse, something like a synology. Do you still use the TV Tuners? If you do, none of these will do, and you will be forced into a desktop.

[michaeltruncale 6]

@RanmaCanadaWe actually do not use the TV Tuners anymore. What's the speed comparison on N100/N150 versus what I had, and versus the M4? i.e., any idea on being able to fun multiple streams of 4K and 1080p?

[Neminem 1516]

I would go for the N100 or N150 its the same GPU "Intel UHD Graphics 24 EUs (Alder Lake)" 

Intel Processor N100 vs Intel Processor N150 - Benchmark, comparison and differences

And that alone will out shine a Mac M4 since Emby atm does not support there GPU as fare as know, 

but I might stand corrected.

I still believe that Intel's iGPU is king of transcoding and will dance circles around the M4.

All that said do a search on the forum about each GPU and make your own decision.

I might have overlooked something.

 

[RanmaCanada 494]

6 hours ago, michaeltruncale said:

@RanmaCanadaWe actually do not use the TV Tuners anymore. What's the speed comparison on N100/N150 versus what I had, and versus the M4? i.e., any idea on being able to fun multiple streams of 4K and 1080p?

The M4 is far faster, but the issue as brought forth is that Emby doesn't currently support it for hardware transcoding, so you would be forced to do software and it will use a lot of power and cause a lot of heat. The N100/N150 has quicksync capabilities and the only issue I can see is with PGS subs, as they are single threaded, and NOTHING supports them except for a PC, so they are burned in on everything else. Though the team does have some great coders so they might be able to make PGS subs work with quicksync in the future

There is also the laptop route if you want. I personally use an i5-1235u laptop as my server and have no issues with any transcoding. Chuwi does have a desktop with an i3-1215u available also. It is currently out of stock, but does pop in an out regularly. There is also a used one available for a bit cheaper. The 1215u is more powerful than my old 8 core xeon and uses far less power haha, and stomps the N100/N150.

If you look around the plex/jellyfin/emby communities, you will see lots of people who are using the N100/N150 systems, and they generally have no issues at all other than the PGS subtitles.

Never use ChatGPT when looking for answers for these types of issues as it can not be trusted.

I hope this gives you some answers, though it might produce more questions.

[michaeltruncale 6]

@RanmaCanadaso the Chuwi i3-1215u looks appealing, but it only has 8BG of ram, is that sufficient or will that system struggle any? And it's out of stock... what about it's bigger brother the i5-1235u? 

[RanmaCanada 494]

@michaeltruncaleThe ram should not be an issue if all you're doing is using it for Emby. As for the big brother i5-1235u, that is what I use currently, with a laptop that has a smashed screen. Picked it up for a song, upgraded the ram, and installed a 1tb nvme. Heck you could get by with an 8th gen laptop if you really want to save $$ (they are available for well under $100 on ebay) before upgrading my system to a i5-1235u, I was using an i3-8130u as my server and never ran into any issues with transcoding. It could do 3 4k trancsodes with tonemapping before it barfed. I upgraded just for some more headroom.

https://emby.media/support/articles/System-Requirements.html

 

[michaeltruncale 6]

@RanmaCanada found this one that I'm considering: https://a.co/d/dD99Ahm

While I love saving money, I also want something that is just going to work. I am having issues with Emby Server hosted on the Mac mini M4 even with just one stream of 1080p to an iPhone, which I never had those issues on the PC Emby Server. So maybe this one is a bit overkill for my needs, but gives me more head room too I think. Thoughts?

Edited August 8, 2025 by michaeltruncale

[RanmaCanada 494]

37 minutes ago, michaeltruncale said:

@RanmaCanada found this one that I'm considering: https://a.co/d/dD99Ahm

While I love saving money, I also want something that is just going to work. I am having issues with Emby Server hosted on the Mac mini M4 even with just one stream of 1080p to an iPhone, which I never had those issues on the PC Emby Server. So maybe this one is a bit overkill for my needs, but gives me more head room too I think. Thoughts?

That is really nice. That would be able to handle pretty much everything. It's a bit more powerful than my 1235u laptop, and it has better cooling haha. I might need to "upgrade".

 

 

[Q-Droid 989]

If you ask me I would stick with known brands even if you get an off lease or refurb from ebay. What's a Chuwi and what kind of support or firmware updates would you be able to get for this? What happens when something gets weird and you Google for help/advice to get thousands of results for HP, Dell, Acer, Asus, etc. but none for Chuwi?

 

 

 

[RanmaCanada 494]

4 hours ago, Q-Droid said:

If you ask me I would stick with known brands even if you get an off lease or refurb from ebay. What's a Chuwi and what kind of support or firmware updates would you be able to get for this? What happens when something gets weird and you Google for help/advice to get thousands of results for HP, Dell, Acer, Asus, etc. but none for Chuwi?

 

 

 

Chuwi is a well known Chinese brand, like Beelink, Orico, etc. They have been around forever. As for firmware/bios updates, you rarely need them.