Help me for my All In All Server

Ok so I currently have the Dell T3500 in use.
It runs
Server 2012 R2 Essentials
File Shares
Movie Streaming
Homeseer home automation


now I started in the Plex world. Loving it... So much that I also just ordered (in the mail) a HDHomerun Prime to do live tv to smart tv and anything that runs Plex.

Now Plex they say runs and requires processing for the streaming/transcoding.

I was trying to wait till Server 2016 Essentials is released but they say not till late 3rd quarter 2016 and my current setup is in need of being redone

so...

will my current setup be fine with Plex or I do have another dual Xeon machine laying around I could use...

tell me which you would use for your all in one use... other will become a VMware virtual lab...


Supermicro X7DVL-E
CPU - 2x Quad Core Xeon L5420 @ 2.5ghz
RAM - 24gb - 6x4gb FBDIMM - PC2-5300


Dell T3500
CPU - 1x Quad Core Xeon W3530 @ 2.8ghz
RAM - 24gb - 6 x 4gb PC3-12800


Either machine will have 6x 2tb WD Black drives
running StableBit Drive Pool

I think your T3500 should be fine, thats a single cpu board but its decent- wife uses that board for a gaming machine.

I run a Dell T7400 w/ 32 gigs of ram and Ive had no issues.

How many devices are you trying to transcode to? It's not a linear comparison to a pass mark score but in general 1100 or so to each 1080p stream. It looks like your cpu is around 5800 marks.

If you want to juice it a bit having the plex caching directories on a ssd help a bunch. Also of note are the cheapie socket 1366 Xeons 6 core chips if you start taxing you cpu.

haven't touched plex yet but if the device does the transcoding you don't need a beefy server IIRC

SomeGuy133 said:

haven't touched plex yet but if the device does the transcoding you don't need a beefy server IIRC

Click to expand...

Yeah, you don't need anything that powerful for a single stream. I had a low end AMD AM1 dual core chip that managed a ~3Mbit 720p stream/transcode without issues.

well now with 2 roku streaming sticks, xbox one, xbox 360 and smart tvs in addition to ipads, windows laptops... I have been keeping 3 solid 1080i streams running solid through plex with the t3500...

I'm curious how you're going to do "Live TV to Smart TV" with the HDHomerun? Are you talking about through Plex? If so, How exactly?

SomeGuy133 said:

haven't touched plex yet but if the device does the transcoding you don't need a beefy server IIRC

Click to expand...

plex does transcoding on the server

use the T3500, the i7 based xeon should be just as good as the 2x core2 based xeons

Any of you guys tried gaming with the t3500? I was looking into one as a HTPC/Plex Server/ Living Room gaming

Of course with a better video card, I was thinking like a 960 or 780. I've heard that the PSU is good but limited in power connectors, do you guys typically replace the PSU?

Well the W3530 is basically an i7 920, so gaming should be great and really not a bottleneck on the cpu at all. In comparison a shiny new i7 6700k is maybe a 50% improvement (stock to stock), but that w3530 probably still smashes any AMD cpu out there. Not to bad considering we are about 5 generations past that cpu.

Not to sure on that power supply if it is proprietary or a standard atx one but fot a 780 gtx you will defiantly need one, the 960 may not depending on your config

Grimham said:

I'm curious how you're going to do "Live TV to Smart TV" with the HDHomerun? Are you talking about through Plex? If so, How exactly?

Click to expand...

Im curious as well