Hardware choose

[furnibird 6]

Hi all, still very new to media server and emby. Have been a single kodi user since xmbc. My family is growing and multiple users are required. I had been testing on my pc which is way over spec of emby. Now I have started setting up a dedicated pc. The CPU is intel 6600k which I have read should be fine for transcoding however,  I do have a nvidia gtx970 I can add. Is it worth adding the gpu and use more power or not? I did notice a few stuttering while testing however,  the 4k video playing outside my network and 1080p hev on network I believe played direct. Thanks. 

[embylad892746 32]

Stuttering could be client problem and nothing to do with server, so don’t assume it’s the server. But without knowing more hard to say.

I’m pretty sure the iGPU in the 6600k would destroy the gtx970 in transcoding and sip power while doing it. So i would say it’s 100% not worth it.

6600k is abit weak for 4k content though and so is the 970. If you ever need 4k transcoding ( which Imo you should never transcode 4k it’s a totally waste of quality and power), then you should look to upgrade cpu to 8th or newer.

 

 

[furnibird 6]

Thanks for the reply. From what I have read the 6600k was OK however,  I don't think I will be transcoding much. The pc has 16gig of ram and running at the moment of a usb drive. Will be getting a few new 8 gig harddrives soon. Main tv is 4k and running emby client on nvidia shield. We have android and iPhone etc. I think the only tv that is 1080p and emby client is on a chrome cast which is 1080p. Might upgrade that to the new 4k version soon. I will leave the gpu out and continue testing. No issues in the last few hours with one stream with a few 1080p tv shows. The test I did on my main pc was amazing though, had 4 internal stream and 3 outside streams going with no issue. 

[embylad892746 32]

Brilliant glad to hear it’s working well!  yea overall despite being quite old, that 6600k is still a really solid cpu and I suspect that for 95% of cases, it will serve you will. Enjoy!

[furnibird 6]

Thanks, just recycling my old pc for a purpose. 

[Happy2Play 9780]

Looks like you will get better results from the 6600K/Skylake as it has better HEVC decoding capabilities.

Intel Quick Sync Video - Wikipedia

Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix | NVIDIA Developer