Help New Plex Build Cheaper/ Better

[rhansen5_99]

Hey Guys trying to optimize a plex server on windows 8 build. Need to stream to at least 4 devices. Mixed 480p/720p/1080p

I have a microcenter around and here is what I was thinking:

AMD 8230e and ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3
Combo $104 AR
I have 16gb of DDR3 ECC (hopefully this works but should)
I have 2 3tb Drives and a 1tb WD Blue for boot.

I was thinking to cheap out on the case with a CoolerMaster N200 and dinky
LEPA G Series N350-SB 350W
was also thinking a cheap 120gb ssd maybe $55
total for the build $262 -35MIR= about $230 with ssd / 180 without


I currently have a shuttle sn78sh7 with an AMD X4 955 (125w) and 2gb DDR2 which is getting maxed out on ram, but I am not really wanting to upgrade to 4gb max as I feel that is a waste, considering I have to run the fans on high/loud to get this thing stable.


What do you guys think... ? I suppose alternates would be the A10 7700k, the G3228, or maybe i3 4360...

 

[Dangman]

Ditch the power supply. The 600W version of that PSU was just reviewed by HardOCP and it failed spectacularly:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/02/03/lepa_mx_f1_600w_power_supply_review#.VNLiOmjF_t9

Considering that the N350-SB is only $37 on Newegg, not worth getting a piece of crap since $3 more gets you the more reputable Corsair CX430:
$40 - Corsair 430CX V2 430W PSU

Subscribe to the Tigerdirect newsletter: I've managed to grab a few Samsung 840 Evo 120GB and Crucial MX100 128GB SSDs for around $55 to $60 that way. Those will be the best SSDs you can get for that price range.

As for the case, the main issue I could see is that you would be maxed out on HDD expansion with the N200 since it only has room for three hard drives. For $57 shipped, you could get the NZXT Source 210 Elite which supports up to 8 hard drives:
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case

As for the CPU and motherboard, they should do the job ok. Though if you care about power usage, then I would go Intel.

 

[rhansen5_99]

Dangman good points, I would prefer that the ps last a bit out there. I wish there were a good transcoding benchmark for plex to show how many streams you could do with a particular processor as I would prefer to go with the i3, but I think I would be maxing out the chip on occasion.

 

[LightningCrash]

Have you looked at Tretflix? You could run ESXi plus a Tretflix VM, and have a more general purpose computer.

 

[rhansen5_99]

Hey thanks for the suggestion Tretflix looks pretty sweet.