Plex server upgrade

[da_guy2]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Plex, backup, and fileserver

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
<$200 prefered, $250 Max. Taxes and shipping included.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Ottawa, Canada

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
CPU, MB, and Ram

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
HP branded mATX Case, ~10 Year old 450w power supply, ~8 year old 120GB SATA HDD (for OS only), USB3.0/eSATA Raid array with 2x2TB HDD in raid 0.

6) Will you be overclocking?
No

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Will be running headless most of the time

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Next 2 months probably.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard?
Gigabit ethernet, and USB 3.0 or eSATA

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I have a copy of Vista 64bit i could use, but I will likely use Linux.



So MB and ram should be fairly easy but I'm wondering what you guys suggest for CPU? How cheap a CPU can I use for Plex?

Thanks!

 

[Dangman]

You're looking at a new PSU as well since that 10 year old 450W PSU is not going to be good enough to power a modern system due to its age and quality. Go for the Corsair CX430 430W as a cheap PSU replacement.

As for the CPU, go for the AMD A8-6600K

 

[ND40oz]

How many streams will you need to simultaneously transcode and what resolutions?

 

[da_guy2]

You're looking at a new PSU as well since that 10 year old 450W PSU is not going to be good enough to power a modern system due to its age and quality. Go for the Corsair CX430 430W as a cheap PSU replacement.

As for the CPU, go for the AMD A8-6600K

This PSU was a really good one back then. I've used it to power other recent systems so I'm not too worried. As long as what I'm running is relatively low powered I'm not too worried about using it. I may upgrade it, but only if it's actually causing problems.

As for the A8-6600K I think I'll take a pass on that one. It has a 100W TDP and seeing as this server will be running 24/7 I'd like something with a little less power draw.

 

[da_guy2]

How many streams will you need to simultaneously transcode and what resolutions?

2 1080p's would be ideal but more likely 1 1080p and 1 SD or 720p.

 

[ND40oz]

2 1080p's would be ideal but more likely 1 1080p and 1 SD or 720p.

An i3 Ivy Bridge or Haswell will work perfectly for that, just go with what your budget allows. I'm using a i5-3570k and it doesn't break a sweat doing multiple 1080p transcodes.

 

[Dangman]

This PSU was a really good one back then. I've used it to power other recent systems so I'm not too worried. As long as what I'm running is relatively low powered I'm not too worried about using it. I may upgrade it, but only if it's actually causing problems..

The problem is that a lot of PSUs that were considered "good" 10 years ago were actually pretty shitty as not many websites did proper PSU reviews back then. I.e the Enermax Liberty PSUs were widely considered good PSUs until they were actually properly tested several years later and were found to be crap. So unless that 450W PSU was like a $200 Seasonic or something, I highly doubt it was ever a good PSU.

In addition, one of the potential problems a bad and/or very old PSU can have is that it can damage or outright kill PC hardware. That's why I don't ever recommend taking a risk with a questionable PSU: The risk of a dead PC is just too high.