2022 Plex/Unraid Server build. QUICK SYNC BEAST!

[@i_am_macgyver84]

I don't think any type of liquid cooling is a good idea for a server build (AIO/Custom loop). I would I assume this will be running 24/7 and you won't be monitoring it just in case there is a liquid failure. Go with a high end air cooler like a noctua

[@JingleStic]

yea get almost all the same benefits by going with the 12700 and use a air cooler

[@ronknight1010]

Agreed. I have a noctua NH-D12L cooler. Fits perfectly in my 4U enclosure and I get excellent temps with very low noise. Temps are easily as good as many 360 AIOs I've used.

[@Richardj410]

I just don't know what the right answer is. I have a computer with water cooling that has been running 12 years without a leak. Maybe that's lucky but my gaming machine has water cooling. I did not buy an AIO unit just parts I put together myself.

[@i_am_macgyver84]

@@Richardj410 to be honest idk what the right answer is either. My current gaming computer has an AIO, and my temperatures are great. I'm also not overclocking. and from the many many LTT video's I've watched makes it seem like the possible risk of a leaking water cooling system isn't worth it for most people.

[@Richardj410]

@@i_am_macgyver84 I agree with you for most people it isn't worth it. Also an air cooler is a lot cheaper.

[@jimholloway1785]

I am glad to see you doing a server build(at least on paper), that is why I watch your channel. I really appreciate your in depth reasoning on making some choices. Please do more of these server and how about a good rack mounted server case for a system that will have up to about 4 drives?

[@tcntad87]

We're here for the racks and servers:)

[@peterg4527]

Give me servers 24/7 please !

[@dagbad6493]

Thanks for this detailed walkthrough about a plex server build. Just recently finished my plex server with these parts you mention with some difference (case, psu, cpu-cooler). It's a beast, and can run everything thrown at it. Anyway I hope you in the future plan to create a video on how to optimize plex to the fullest in unraid... so many settings that probably can be tweaked.

[@Xerazal]

You could have gone with a lower end 12th core that still has the same igpu. Probably would run cooler, use less power, and cost a lot less.

[@cobra64th21]

I think this guy just has a lot of money to burn lol.

[@vi_EviL_iv]

That is exactly what I'm looking at, also with an air cooler.

[@michaelgleason4791]

Thanks for walking through how to build the most expensive plex server. Can you do actual tests with cheaper, way more efficient CPUs?

[@nsboost]

I'm over here with a pc I bought off Facebook with a alderlake cpu, 12gigs of ram, no gpu, and basically bare bones for $150... running my unraid with no cache drive... and have zero issue streaming 4k video. But my business pc has a 13700 processor with 64gb of ddr5.. all kinds of power for writing invoices 😅

[@nagantm441]

4k HDR 10+/Dolby Vision h.265 with lossless 7.1 audio? Are you transcoding or just direct play because a raspberry pi server can direct play stream that.

[@ygiagam]

Editing Jason did a fine job. The dual camera view is awesome. Keep up the good work.

[@justinmarks7321]

I just purchased A I7-13700K with A Z690 Motherboard with 64GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and A PCI-e Gen 4 1TB SSD to Upgrade my old Zeon server for Plex and it Smashes it, I have 6 x 8TB drives in RAID 5 and use the NVMe drive for Plex Meta data and use A 20GB RAM Drive to transcode in to and it runs like A dream, Thank you for All of your Awesome video's

[@jamesstruble1]

Thanks for all of your direction and assistance w Unraid and Plex. I have a NVME drive w Plex cache and unraid appdata folder on it and have been running that way for two years

[@willnabbie]

wow i need this. im running my plex server on a mini PC with a celeron intel J4105 CPU (1.5ghz) and 12 GB of ram and everything is on an external HD connected through USB 3.0. got some buffering sometimes lol

[@yoleto]

Just to clarify your comment about NVMe write endurance, the Rocket 4 Plus has a lower endurance rating compared to the standard Rocket 4 when comparing the same drive size. Rocket 4 Plus 1400TB compared to 3600TB of the Rocket 4.

[@nextjin]

I'm not entirely sure why you would go with the parts you did. I would never recommend anyone ever run an AIO in a server nor would I recommend a 12900, 128GB ram, etc. for a Plex server build lmao. The intel 770 igpu starts at the i5's including the T and E low wattage lines. If this is a plex only build with no VMs then.... ???? 128GB of DDR5? Why? How many transcodes are you doing? 20 or so with Quicksync? Are they all 4k? Can it even do that (the answer is no)? 10gig should max out at 1.125GB/s, most 20TB spinners are what 250MB/s reads at mac theoretical? So you'd need to have 4 or 5 of those maxing out to utilize that? Then consider how many transcodes the igpu can do or what types that need to hit that bandwidth max. Power supply yea I would recommend a Titanium only because of warranty and over that amount of time price savings. I would have went with Seasonic to get a 12 yr warranty at 750-850 though. Case yes, the Fractal Meshify 2 and 2 XL are the industry standards imo for large unraid servers. CPU cooling, I would go with a Noctua branded HSF that supports 2 fans by design and just get whatever is cost efficient to you or whatever suites your preference. NVMe's I personally can't find any issues with the recommendations though the sizes were huge but whatever. I can see the use case for having a Plex drive and normal docker apps drive.

[@tropmonky]

Old Jason "Power usage of my servers, Whatever". Jason after playing with Solar and energy storage (batteries) "Energy efficiency matters"! HAHAHA, I love it. Both my Plex server and Blue Iris servers are Laptops = built in UPS and monitor and are geared for power efficiency; They are currently running off a SOLAR+Storage setup. These HP 11th Gen Intel i5-1135G7 HP laptops can be had for really inexpensive prices new ($379 refurb walmart price) and are far more powerful than I need for a Plex server for myself and girlfriend (capable of handling more than 6 transcodes is more than enough for me). A dedicated laptop also handles my Blue Iris with A.I. and 7 cameras (half 4K, others 2K and one 1080P). Storage is handled by a more traditional server situation. Keep at it Jason, I'm happy to see you're looking at efficiency stuff now compared to the older servers which are total room heaters and electric bill destroyers. Also of note, I have a small 6,100BTC GE A/C unit running off the Solar+storage as well, it only pulls around 500watts on max. Good enough to keep things from getting too hot, and these newer A/C units are so quite I'm amazed! Not to mention it's smart WiFi enabled making it easy to check on, turn on off, make settings changes based on Solar+Storage situation.

[@Bytemybits]

Oh how times have changed haha

[@onajaggedsky]

I have 16 HDDs & 3 SSDs in a Fractal Design Define 7 XL. Great tower to build a server in, absolute dream to work in, super quality, can't recommend Fractal enough for tower server builds.

[@ASlaveToReason]

would you say 16HHDs is the max? or can it actually get to 18/20?

[@onajaggedsky]

@@ASlaveToReason 18 I believe without using the separate universal adapters they sell to mount one on the PSU shroud or the rear exhaust area which gets you to 20. Getting really creative / janky I'm sure could get to 22-24. Have to buy all the extra trays separately as well, case only comes with 6 IIRC. I had just enough spare sata and power to get the 18, and I am going to leave it at that amount and start high density replacement going from old 8tb to new 20tb. Beautiful and quiet tower server, can't recommend enough for home / office use when rack space is not feasible.

[@ASlaveToReason]

@@onajaggedsky whats the cable that you have to buy to connect that many to sata / power. Do they get power from the sata cable? Im gonna buy an host bus adapter have any suggestions? And how do you cool yours should i give it its own fan?

[@onajaggedsky]

@@ASlaveToReason I am running windows, using an LSI 9211-8i P20 IT mode that's also compatible with zfs / freenas l unRAID. The LSI controller has (2) SAS ports, with SAS - (4) SATA cables to run (8) HDDs. My x370 mobo has (10) SATA onboard which got me to (18). HDDs require separate SATA data + SATA power cable on each. Needed to buy additional power cables for my Corsair PSU to get all the SATA power hooked up. Make sure your PSU has enough ports and you have enough power cable leads for all the HDDs you plan on running. I have like (5-6) 140mm fans + NH-D15 in the Define 7xl that handles all cooling no problem. I did have to use SATA power extension leads to reach all the HDDs going up the trays.

[@MikeHarris1984]

My Plex server is running on an HP DL380 G9... I've always run on rack mount hardware and I just moved it to a VM running ESXi on the chassis.... I have a rack of 7 servers running lots of tasks around my house and VM's galore... But running a GTX 1060 pass thru to the Plex VM for transcoding and it works perfect.

[@GitPush1]

Enjoyed the video. Considering doing something like this really soon so this was great. One thing I noticed, when I click on the CPU link in the description it takes me to the 12900KF without QuickSync

[@jsclayton]

Sliger makes some nice looking rack mount drives that support 360mm radiators. Combine that with a dish shelf and external SAS expander and you’re golden!

[@Bytemybits]

Thanks for the tip!

[@Mr402TA]

Wow, this video is quite the change-up from the old "pull your old computer out of the closet and make a home server" type of video. This (on paper) is gonna be a beefy machine.

[@muchcasey2993]

One thing I would note is server power supply’s can be very loud under load and almost every used data center chassis doesn’t leave much room for a cooler so a quite cooling system is going to be very hard unless you have a low power draw cpu so if noise is a concern I’d probably stick with a standard atx case or a rosewill

[@emilianoruiz7681]

a 12900k just for a plex server? How many streams you plan to do? 10+?

[@vi_EviL_iv]

I went with I9 14900 14th gen Intel, 2 sticks of 96gb of DDR5 Vengeance 5600mhz RAM, z790 Aorus Master X, Noctua D12S air cooler, 2TB nvme for Plex cache, Meshy 2 XL case. Noctua Industrial Fans (x5 fans), UNRAID OS Lifetime. Thanks for the video. Helped a lot. The CPU max temp is 65watts. Now if you can make a video on how to set up plex on NVME as I can not find much info on this setup. Still need to tweek but from how it runs as default, is way better than the 4100PR NAS I had and died thanks to a firmware update (thanks WD! Smh).

[@joefitzy]

Soooo overkill for a Plex server. The only way to justify those components/costs would be if you were charging a fee to access your Plex - like your own Netflix. Still fun to watch this vid of dream components.

[@carlnakamura4861]

Great build with a lot of similarities with my current build but also differences. My build is in the Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL which took forever to get the additional HDD mountain brackets. The case holds 20 HDD but onlu comes with brackets for 4+2 multi-brackets. I have a Broadcom LSI 9400-16i SATA/SAS HBA Controller RAID 12 Gbps PCIe x8 it Fashion JBOD for 12x12TB shucked WDs + 4x20TB Toshiba Enterprise HDD. MB is an old B450 with an AMD 5800X and 2x2TB Nvme SSDs for mirrored cache and system (including Plex docker container and data) 2x2TB sata SSDs for 2nd striped cache pool for data ingestion when copying data over or do editing. There's a P2000 for transcoding (perhaps not needed) and a 10Gbps fiber NIC in the PCI slots. Works really well but oh course there's always something to modify as new gen tech comes along😊

[@jj-icejoe6642]

How much ?

[@carlnakamura4861]

@@jj-icejoe6642 "a lot". HDDs added over time though...

[@najZSwe]

So you’re able to hook up that many drives to an 9400i8? Does it run gen3 or 4? I am worried because my current motherboard has only one pcie x4 gen4 - and to get a sas card that’s gen4 x4 is expensive atm - and I have 11 empty hdd trays in my case; 4 in use atm. So I am 9 sata connectors low on my build - should I look at just getting a mb with at least a second x8 gen4 16 lane? What do you think? By the way the reason my first x16 slot is busy is the gpu for my win 11 gaming VM.

[@peterg4527]

I am glad to see a server build video as these are my main draw to your great channel! I want to suggest that you look at Ice Giant Pro Siphon Elite for your CPU cooler as I always try to keep the points of failure to a minimum in systems that are always running. Best of luck on your build and I can't wait until you build it out!

[@Pabula]

CPU: i would have gone with Intel Core i5-12600, already comes with igpu 770 and you dont have to deal with P/E cores with unraid. CPU cooler: would have gone with IceGiant ProSiphon Elite, you simply cant beat the reliability of air cooling vs AIO, and its likely to be super close to the 360 AIO. NVME: i would have gone with Seagate 4TB FireCuda 530, the controller is much better than the Sabrent. And the 2tb, the SK hynix P41 2tb, its probably the fastest drive atm. CASE: I like the Meshify XL o 7 XL, really good case, but lets face you own a rack.... a Norco 24 or something similar, makes more sense.

[@preferencezilla]

The 12600 is not fully compatible with unRAID linuxserver docker container. I think only up to 11th gen works properly

[@preferencezilla]

I take back what I said, I guess 12th gen is working better now

[@Pabula]

@@preferencezilla I agree with you into 11th gen being the most compatible, but probably some updates have been introduced on 10.3 that make 12th gen somewhat compatible, but not sure if its compatible with the P/E core management, even windows11 is not fully 100% fine with it, thus i would probably opt for the highest none E, which is the 12600.

[@dragonsystems5973]

Nothing drives me nuts more than all these videos that are more about how to cheap out than do this is as well as it can be done... I dont have a budget for the most part, this computer is technically used more than my gaming machine, so I dont mind dumping some money on it, so this video was useful

[@jonathan.sullivan]

You already have the storage on your other UnRaid server. I suggest building a stand alone Plex server first and test it out on bare metal. Ubuntu/Windows or whatever you want to try. You can always put UnRaid on it after the fact. Yes you've done it with the angry inch and you've done it with the Simply NUC but you never utilized a network share from an existing server.

[@tropmonky]

Yeah, that's what I've done. I got an inexpensive HP 11th Gen Intel i5-1135G7 HP laptop ($379 refurb @Walmart) to run my Plex server. I got another one to run my Blue Iris server with the storage on a more traditional server setup (Tiered RAID setup). Both of which make use of the CPU hardware encoding/decoding. Being laptops they basically have built in UPS, monitor, keyboard, trackpad. They are plenty fast enough for my needs, and I run them off a Solar+storage setup, so I needed max efficiency. I'm loving my setup!

[@ichigoofy]

@@tropmonky for video transcoding on a laptop, is there a difference between a desktop and laptop built in cpu/gpu? Most laptops have usb-c I wonder if you could do a 10gb network interface or maybe do a usb-c to usb-c transfer cable to mount remote drives?

[@earthhalienn1799]

Looking through old plex build vids ...and noticed the hotlink provided here for the CPU. It directs you the "KF" version of the processor which DOES NOT have the onboard graphics processor! You need the "K" version for a plex server unless you plan on getting a graphics card ...even then the difference in price does not justify it. Unless you plan on overclocking I would avoid the "KF" versions ...also you need the "K" version for quicksync.

[@gregc6107]

I've been using the build you created from the p2000, I do have a separate cache for my plex meta data, and one for downloads (i actually download so fast that a slow harddrive will slow down my downloads), then when complete i move the files to long term storage. I get about 115MB downloads but I actually only have 1GB ethernet, i think that could do for an upgrade but I don't have the users to justify upgrading. It'll prob be a couple years before i need to upgrade and it will be mostly for a tower that can hold 14 or 15 hard drives everything else feels lightning fast

[@marcel40625]

Plex running on my Cache (2x 1TB SATA Crucial MX500) , no problems at all, up to 3 parallel users

[@charelsfastbender]

When he is referencing the Plex metadata that you want to keep separate, would that be everything encompassed in the appdata folder for Plex? or is there more out there I'm missing?

[@emsbas1]

Yes!!!!!!!!!

[@HardcoreNacho]

Personally I use A Ramdisk freeware program to chew out about 10Gb or so of my ram to use as a transcoding drive to extend the life of my ssd.

[@bondjw07]

Look at this guy finally utilizing 2 cameras. Feel like a news anchor yet?

[@Bytemybits]

lol

[@halfbakedbread1293]

The 12th gen isn't supported still. You can pass the igpu, but if you have tone mapping on, your whole server will hang, and you'll need to reboot. Speaking from experience. Haven't been able to use igpu transcoding yet :/

[@overratedprogrammer]

How about now?

[@halfbakedbread1293]

@overratedprogrammer it's workin now afaik. Got mine working but will have to check when I get home from work. Unraid added support for the 12th gen

[@TechD87]

Hey Jason, so I've been using a dedicated drive for Plex for roughly the past 2-4 yrs after watching you when Zeus was your primary... I'm also running Unraid using that Rosewell 4U 15bay that you mentioned as well... however, I decided to put all of my Unraid Appdata on that dedicated M.2 980 and use the other M.2 980 for my cache drive. ASUS X570 Ryzen 5900 32GB P2000 97TB Array

[@shaneh782]

Is quicksync the new hotness over a p2000 or better? I read of some limitations on stream counts with quicksync but I'm not sure if that's still an issue with the newest CPUs. My server runs 16x10tb drives with a few ssd arrays with one dedicated to Plex metadata and thumbnails. I noticed a significant performance increase when i switched to using a dedicated Plex ssd. Is there a reason you would go with unraid over something like truenas since you're planning on using identical drives?

[@robl7532]

Well newer Intel QS can do H265 where a P2000 cannot.

[@willcurry6964]

I have 14 tb of files stored on my multiple m.2 nvme....So I am not sure what you mean when you say do I use a separate Plex SSD? I only have m.2 drives in my system. I have 4 external Seagate 4 TB (530) drives in raid 0 in an OWC express 4m2 enclosure. My NUC 11 is my server currently. Running out of space also. Have not used spinning drives since 2017.

[@84Actionjack]

Recently finished an UNRAID server in that very case to use as a remote backup. Started in Phanteks P600s to use the dual motherboard capability for a combo pfsense server with an UNRAID server but quickly ran out of hard drive space. Using a Threadripper 1900x and starting with 8 drive data array and two parity drives.

[@4thechivostreamsarchive586]

Important question, your link says it's the "KF" version which doesn't have Integrated Graphics... The "K" version has integrated graphics. DOES THAT MATTER FOR QUICK SYNC??

[@manofwar556]

yes, the f is without intergrated graphics,

[@korringadinga8407]

Happy to find a current-ish update on the ultimate Plex build. I am heading down the same rabbit hole and ended up lost. As for SSD, I have a dedicated 2TB Samsung 990EvoPlus which is waaaay overkill for my Qnap TVS-473e, but I knew I was going to upgrade sooner than later. Now my 4 16TB Irnwolf Pros can store all their goodness on their own. @Mr Bits, how about a ultimate MIRCO Plex server build, that is what I am after. 6 bay Micro ATX, i9, DDR5, 2.5/ 5GB & 2 M.2 slots. What do you suggest? As for issues, the only issues I have is the lame i3 processor and lack of HW transcoding. But for metadata, posters and scrolling through 1300 movies, 600 audiobooks and ton of music, no issue what so ever. zero lag

[@praetorxyn]

I'm just wondering what such a monster would idle at, honestly.

[@Keelhaulers]

Hey Jason - you mention the Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL Black ATX can hold 18 HDDs - is that stock out of the box or do you need to buy addition mounting hardware? If so, does Fractal sell them or just need to find universal ones? Thanks - keep up the great work.

[@Darkk6969]

I am in the process of building a new ProxMox server to host several containers and VMs. Also, I am retiring my dedicated TrueNAS server to put everything in one box. I have Plex running as a container with SMB shares to TrueNAS. I am going to let ProxMox manage the ZFS drives and SMB shares for the containers and VMs. What I am struggling with is Plex transcoding. I bought the Ryzen 9 5950X with 128 gig ECC unbuffered RAM for ASRock X570 TAICHI board. I don't have plans for 4K content due to limited resources. 1080P is perfectly fine. So I may have to look into getting Nvidia Quadro M4000 8GB (renewed) card just for Plex. I need a GPU anyway since Ryzen 9 5950X lacks iGPU. I really wish Plex would work with Radeon video cards as I have a couple of older ones that aren't being used but under Linux it's not supported.

[@MrRAH]

I’ve been using a separate Plex cache drive. I am currently using a spare 1TB 2.5 SSD. Light years faster than the HDD alternative.

[@93Magicmike]

This video came at a perfect time for me as I am looking to refresh my Server, #UkPricesThough big sad, thanks for the awesome video BmB!

[@lqid10t]

My Plex server is running a mirrored 1TB Samsung 970 EVO NVMe for the metadata and I've never been happier. This is also in a dual Xeon E5-2670 with 512GB of RAM, where 500 of that is used as my transcoding directory. I also run a Quadro P2000 to do my transcoding. At some point in the near future, I do want to migrate to an Intel QuickSync setup like the one you mentioned just to save on power usage, as the dual 2670s and Quadro P2000 are pretty rough on power draw.

[@dan_lev]

You pulled off that Voodoo line way too smoothly.

[@Bytemybits]

..is..this..good..? lolol

[@manslayerdbzgt]

Just wanted to give you a heads up too Love your videos but the 26 terabyte drives just came out too

[@Bytemybits]

DAMNIT lol but they are probably not $399 :)

[@JohnasLindell]

With the electricity prices in Europe I dont even want to think about the monthly cost running this would be. Do a video on a energy efficient build.

[@tcallumg]

i'm running a 12700 and having massive issues with iowait on unraid when using a sata ssd as a cache drive and no one on the unraid forums has really been helping

[@Bytemybits]

If iowait is an issue for you, specifically on Linux (unraid), your solutions is to get rid of your SATA SSD in favor of an nvme drive. You can absolutely use the SATA drive for something else in Unraid, but not for anything crusial to system performance. It sucks, I know, but Linux and iowait is a thing and that is the fix. Read this; ( haydenjames.io/what-is-iowait-and-linux-performance/ ) Cut out the problem and go with M.2/NVMe. You are probably not getting much help because this is usually the solution and if you cant/wont pay to fix it, there's not much else someone can do, AFAIK.

[@tcallumg]

@@Bytemybits I suggested getting a nvme SSD but nobody said it would solve my problem. But now I Will. I hope you remember but we actually met at ltx 2019 and you filmed me meeting Linus. Used your videos to build my plex server from the start!

[@RastaJew]

Did I miss the part where you said your Plex server was intended for use by dozens of concurrent users? Because this build is insanely overpowered otherwise.

[@LordShad0w.162]

Plex can no longer transcode to RAM, only cache. Sadly this option went away about the time this video came out.

[@troybraghini2248]

I would love to see an updated video as to why you prefer not to use GPU transcoding and performance differences between it and RAM transcoding.

[@ZachariahWiedeman]

I think you need to be running Windows in order to use GPU transcoding; that's already an issue if you're committed to running an Unraid server.

[@troybraghini2248]

@@ZachariahWiedeman In the past it was but I have it running in my unraid docker perfectly fine.

[@marcell8309]

finally someone making a video about plex 12th gen ok so i built mine in november 12900k / asus prime z690a / fury beast ddr5 4800 2 2x16 / noctua nh d15 / fractal design 7xl / 2 lsi 9210 8i based on the sas2008 controller ( 60 dollars each give it or take ) the 12900k can take up to 5 hdr/dv remuxes transcode at the same time the noctua is all u need for cooling really be aware not using i raid but windows 11 pro and on windows surprisingly HW transcode fails on certain x264 files especially the one encoded with CABAC reference of 4 frames the 12 gen fails to output an encore and it reverts to software encoding a fix has not been released yet it never fails decoding and encoding any hevc files hence why im expanding my current server based on x265 as it never fails plex is installed on a wd black sn850 and the whole metadata transcoding takes place in there and it’s super fast the system has a gpu too but plex has been told to utilises only the uhd 770 so i can game on the gpu and everything works in harmony the 12900 is extremely good in taking this kind of configuration and i would not look anywhere else for a plex rig

[@Bytemybits]

5 seems very low. Just using my experience from the 10th gen to compare..

[@marcell8309]

@@Bytemybits well the score for the cpu is 40000 considering 17000 x single stream plus hw it actually matches the specs don’t know about the 10th as never had one but on hw you wont get more than those stream correction each streams uses about 15 cpu utilisation 6 should actually do it

[@rasmusvestergaard4155]

Did you delete a unraid how to install video? I'm looking for a unraid how to install in docker video but i cant find it, i vaguely remember it being yours but its gone now or am i going nuts lol?

[@mobi8138]

Kinda late in the game here but you linked the kf processor.. The kf doesn't support onboard video.

[@erikh109]

I know this is an old video but .. a year later now I’m wondering if you would have used the Z690 Aorus Xtreme in this build? It’s only a slight “upgrade” to the Master. Additionally I can’t figure out if it hurts me somehow with regard to the different PCIE/m.2 setup it has.

[@manofwar556]

Just upgraded mine from i7 3700. ASRock Z690 PRO RS ATX LGA1700 i7-12700K 64GB (2x32GB) 3200MHz DDR4 Noctua NH-D15 2x Samsung M.2 drives for OS and Plex DB/temp files Fractal Design Define 7 And a few Seagate drives

[@proxivirus]

Hey I’m rocking an i7-3700 as well! 😮

[@olamideDIY]

1:11 Was there a dog rolling around on the floor? or was the dog getting bodyslammed by a smaller cat or something?

[@Bytemybits]

possibly both. The cat likes to randomly jump on the dog when she is just chillin rofl

[@MarvelJAM]

Thumbs up on SSD dedicated to Plex

[@manslayerdbzgt]

You should have got the NVMe drives from Samsung that are meant for data center use I'm not talking about the 980 pros I'm talking about their data center and NVMe SSD is that have power loss protection and all the good stuff

[@Bytemybits]

Good call! I only chose the ones I did because I have had hands on experience with them and they are everything they promise they are. I always want to give recommendations on stuff I have personally messed with. But yes, def other, maybe better options available :)

[@sovo94]

Running a 12900k 24/7 for plex and unraid doesn’t sound fun for the power bill

[@Mikey-Himself]

Great video. I went down this rabbit hole as well. I have a home theater and recently discovered plex, and have been loving it. I wanted to have my raw rips available for my theater for faster load times on my Sony 5000Es 4K projector, and also be able to access my files while traveling. I can't believe I am this late to the plex party. I ultimately pulled the trigger on a 13600k. I wish they had the 65W version available at the time of this post. I was leaning for the 12700 2.1ghz 65W version as opposed to the K/KF versions for power usage. However I got a better price on the 13600k on black Friday. The 13600k outperformed the 12900K in a lot of the testing that I saw on LTT and other benchmarks. I got the ASrock Z690 Extreme, balance of cost, and it has 8 6Gbps Sata ports. To overview; my first dedicated plex server(i have been using my Ryzen 5500U laptop) that I ordered over Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I got a SilverStone Technology RM41-H08 4U server chassis(will be in the theater AV rack), 13600K, 64GB 4x16gb 3200, 512tb M.2, 2 16TB Exos(to get started) and a 650W PSU. I did wait on the CPU cooler because I really want to get the measurements in this unique chassis case before I buy that. I am limited with my supplied fiber modem in my area at 2.5g, so 10G wasn't really a factor in my case. Bottom line, I was out the door this weekend under $800 for the PC parts(minus the Exos drives that I already owned), and $350 for the chassis. If you read this, let me know what you think. I am looking forward to getting all my parts in to do this build, but I haven't decided on OS, as I really only know windows. That is my next rabbit hole.

[@iamamish]

What are you doing for storage? I definitely recommend some type of NAS storage for your media. You could either go with something prebuilt and then mount the NAS drives on your Plex server (this is what I do), or you can make them both part of the same physical build (this is what I *will* be doing). If you don' have experience with Unix, I definitely recommend starting with a prebuilt NAS, as there is a substantial learning curve. Some of the complexity is hidden in the UIs of things like Unraid or True NAS but not all of it.

[@boosclues6653]

Please help! I currently a plex server running on a mini pc connected to two NAS devices. I watched this video and your other and I'm wondering what benefits if any I will get by using UnRaid? Also if I use Unraid can I still connect to those NAS shares? I bought the hardware yesterday 12900 intel. Just need to know if I'm building a dedicated server or Unraid. Thanks in advance

[@manslayerdbzgt]

Aces has the one that has two 10 gig RJ45 for it and some with one 10 gig RJ45 port they're just more expensive and they higher high end

[@Bytemybits]

1 is good for me. :) but having a second RJ45 port for backup incase of a NIC failure is never a bad idea

[@johnmoricone294]

How did I miss this post/video? Okay so I now need (no longer want) to start building my 2 unRaid servers. I may have mentioned before, one will strictly be for Plex and my 2nd will be to replace my bulky desktop Synology data server (this 2nd build will also host my personal cloud for cell phone backups). The data server will be the OG 12-bay hotswap Rosewell case. My Synology also has 12 bays and am only using 6-4TB drives. I will eventually carry these over after the build is up and running w/out issues. The Plex server I would like it to be 24-bay hotswap chassis. This is by far the best video I have seen on building a Plex server and I want to run down the rabbit hole. Can you help me further and what do you think of the new i9-13900 / i9-13900E / i9-13900TE / i9-13900T? I'm thinking of the i9-13900 for the Plex server and the i9-13900T for the data server, your thoughts or would a Xeon be the better option for one of the build or both?

[@MrOakgoat]

I found out that NZBGET does not unpack well on Unraid. Had to switch to SABNZB and have no problems. It SABNZB downloads 10MB faster than my NZBGET was with same settings. Unfortunately it is downloading faster than it is unpacking still.

[@bigbigspoon]

Great video. Now I want to build another upgraded server. Also, Doo Doot....Do Doot. #Windows

[@Bytemybits]

How's the PTSD

[@keithmiller9665]

Hi asking a question from ignorance and appreciate your Plex guidance. I encode a lot of TV programs and films. My quality choice would always be h.264 using ffmpeg’s libx264, but it is slow. I encode a lower quality version just once and save it. I am increasingly switching to NVIDIA’s NVENC hardware encoder, which is very fast but results in larger file sizes than libx264. Since one can achieve NVENC hardware encoding on something as cheap as a new NVIDIA T400 GPU, why buy an expensive 12th gen CPU? Is it purely a number of stream issues, which I would understand for on the fly encodes like you seem to do, or is it because Plex doesn’t support NVENC? I would never use Plex for my use case and so curious.

[@sykesybwoy]

My understanding is the cpu has an integrated graphics card that can encode just as efficiently as your dedicated T400 via QuickSync, so no need for additional hardware on the build.

[@AhmedAloub]

Why you did not consider ECC RAM in this build

[@manofwar556]

DDR5 is all ECC.

[@AhmedAloub]

@@manofwar556 thank you. I didn’t know that

[@FeelTheVoid]

Is quick Sync better than NVIDIA transcoding now?

[@NhatLinhNguyen82]

More power efficient i guess

[@ericcraver4908]

Dude, seems a but much. I stream 4k on plex server on i7 10th gen build. Files on blue drives, apps ok nvme, 32GB ram. I even play fornite while plex is streaming movie.

[@kumailfajwani768]

I want to build a similar system, just have a question. About the liquid cooler 360mm radiator size, will the space be sufficient in the hard disk configuration? And if yes, then should it be front or top mounted? Thanks

[@nagantm441]

I gotta disagree with that motherboard choice, a more basic workstation board with that same chipset/ram capability plus a used enterprise 10gb NIC/SAS HBA would be cheaper and just as good

[@onlyzach1]

No Plex drive for me. It's on my main cache drive. The only time I notice a hick-up is having the mover running transferring everything over to the array from the cache drive when that happens and I'm playing something through Plex. Would doing a second dedicated Plex drive solve that issue? Knocks on wood my server keeps on ticking, built it (with help) in 2017 haha. Have you done a video on this? I need to look into moving my Plex over. Have a spare 2.5 500GB SSD I can use for that. Really good informative video. Would def stay away from those NVME drives haha, can't believe those prices! Would have liked to see a PCPartPicker build list attached on your video. That would have helped with a visual aid.

[@Bytemybits]

No the separate drive wouldnt stop your plex buffering while mover running. I run in to the same issue. The main drives just seem too busy to be able to do all the parity calculations and read data. It's pretty annoying and an issue I haven't spent enough time on to figure out.

[@carterworo4467]

I have my old pc which is an intel chipset. I'm looking to set it up as a server but no idea where to start.

[@CharlesLScofieldJr]

Jason... Great video. I too have been contemplating a new Plex Server build. I currently am running my primary server on an old Asus Z87 board with a Intel i74470K OC'd to 4.2 Ghz with 32 GB of memory running Windows 10 Pro. This system is starting to age a bit as it has been running 24/7 since 2013 or 2014. I also run a secondary Plex Server from a Synology DS1819+ with 32 GB memory. I have one question you seem to base all your tests on trying to acheive X number of streams. In my current configurations the most number of streams I would ever encounter is 3 since there is only my wife, my son, and myself to watch them. If I were to have streaming issues I could always choose to stream from the Synology DS1819+ thus freeing up one stream from the primary Plex Server. My main issue right now for my primary Plex Server is drive space. I have four 12TB WD Red and one WD Red 4 TB drives for media storage. I only have 3 SATA ports left unused on my secondary controller card.

[@aemonblackfyre4159]

hey jason I'm having trouble getting quicksync to work on my nuc box with ubuntu. any chance of making a quick how to video?

[@mdh.3421]

I don’t know about getting something wrong but I know you got the case right!

[@Pro4TLZZ]

Get the artic liquid freezer ii for your CPU cooler. Top end for good price

[@davidkpelle5472]

please tell me theres a Plex setup using this build

[@overratedprogrammer]

If it's recommend to have around 1gb of ram per 1tb with zfs, then I should get even more for plex transcoding? Is there a rule of thumb for how much per transcode? This server is gonna be expensive.. lol

[@ikkuranus]

I like onboard stuff but you're never going to get onboard sfp+ cages on a consumer board and faster than gig on unraid is still mostly not worth the price for the speed gain. I have a pair of sata cache drives in btrfs raid 1. I see no reason to have more as that's enough to comfortably run a bunch of dockers and VMs

[@jonaswingfield5178]

So if you are using the cpu graphics for plex in a docker, can you also utilize the cpu's gpu in a win10 vm that is running blue iris and using the intel gpu setting at the same time? I currently have a 10th gen cpu but am passing thru a video card for plex to transcode with, and then my win10 vm with blue iris is using the cpu for the graphics. Would like to eliminate the gpu and free up a slot.

[@soundfire79]

RAM transcoding & a dedicated NVME Plex metadata drive for me.

[@boss2688]

1st gen Epyc + U.2 enterprise grade ssd's like the intel p4510. you get 128 lanes of pcie 3.0., 8 channel ram, and the first gen ones can be found pretty cheap, i got a 7551p with the board for less than $600

[@meccu19]

But power consumption?

[@boss2688]

@@meccu19 system is about 240w total normally running. my ryzen 3700x system was around 200w idle so not too much of a difference.

[@meccu19]

@@boss2688 200w idle is too much for ryzen, this is with plenty drives spun up?

[@boss2688]

@@meccu19 not just the CPU, this was the full system with a 1060 etc.

[@gerardiucci2537]

What is your opinion on using max studio m1 utra as plex server?

[@manslayerdbzgt]

Got out of just waiting for the AMD and see who is better power management cuz the Intel one a lot of enthusiasts even gaming at the Easter having a downgrade down clock it just avoids to stay stable and a good temps I want to see AMD so see you more power efficient I would have waited and then compare

[@Bytemybits]

AMD can't compare to Intel for power, when it comes to hardware accelerated transcoding. Plex simply does not support it yet.

[@tropmonky]

Intel smashes AMD CPU's for PLEX use due to the built in hardware accelerated transcoding. For instance, my Plex server is a HP laptop with a Intel i5-1135G7 and it has a TDP of 12-28 WATTS!!!!!! This thing can handle many PLEX transcodes at a time, and even handles a few 4K transcodes like a champ. I LOVE AMD, but the lack of hardware accelerated transcoding makes it a poor choice for servers that need it like PLEX and Blue Iris.

[@wannabesq]

You should team up with the band Bite Me Bambi with the bmbsucks domain :)

[@ichigoofy]

I see you're wearing an unRaid t-shirt, so unless they're sponsoring I wouldn't do a new build using unRaid, if you're buying all the same size drives, start off with a much superior truenas or xpenology that will give you the benefits of zfs. Unraid shines when you have many different drive sizes an it an excellent product, I use it for my Plex server and use a 1050ti in addition to transcoding in ram. Something else to look at, I run proxmox on my dell R640.

[@Inmysightstarget]

I run two nvme drive one for Plex and the os and one for the cache and meta data ...its so fast no load wait times

[@Pro4TLZZ]

If I heard correctly you are going to use 128gb of ddr5? Wow that's gonna be hard to train and post. Also for your ssd get the sn850 instead

[@Bytemybits]

Curious.. Why? Sabrent does cost a little more, but has better TBW and Write speeds.. The SN850 has a little better IOPS, but really lacks on write speed (compared to Sabrent). So just wonder why you'd prefer the SN over the Sab? SPECS; Sabrent Rocket 4 2TB: R/W: 7,000MBps / *6,850MBps* (Endurance) TBW: *1,400 TB* RR: 650K IOPS RW: 700K IOPS 5 Year Warranty WD Black SN850 2TB: R/W: 7,000MBps / 5,100MBps (Endurance) TBW: 1,200 RR: *1,000K IOPS* RW: *710k IOPS* 5 Year Warranty

[@Pro4TLZZ]

@@Bytemybits I didn't realise that they have updated the rocket 4 plus with a new controller. If you can get a good price on it then go for it

[@TimmySkorcher]

No graphics card??????

[@brianhecimovich4488]

Why couldn’t you upload this 2 weeks ago 😂😭 I’m building my own Unraid server in a Fractal Node 804 at the moment. Just waiting on my 12gb 3060 from NewEgg

[@brianhecimovich4488]

As I’m watching I’ll keep commenting… I personally went with a 12600k knowing that I can either upgrade to a 13900k this fall or potentially move to the new AMD socket for even more future upgradability.

[@brianhecimovich4488]

My reasoning for DDR4 is because it’s way cheaper. I’ll wait for DDR5 because my home only has gigabit switching and cabling right now.

[@Bytemybits]

DDR4 is 100% OK. Node 804 is...OK too, but future expansions might be limited. I'd forget about the video card unless you want it for something else. Seriously, with enough system RAM, you absolutely do NOT need a GPU with these gen processors. It's a waste of money and power annnd more so, a downgrade in performance.

[@brianhecimovich4488]

@@Bytemybits all good points… My rational for the GPU was to take strain off the CPU, but you’re right if I’m only gonna be transcoding a couple videos at a time at max, I’m probably better off with just my 12600k or the 13900k. Cool video though 👍

[@cb253]

Should have went with the Ice Giant CPU cooler. The AIO killer.

[@ZachariahWiedeman]

With this system, what would you suggest using to expand the HD capacity up to 18 after you use up the six SATA connectors on the motherboard? I'm really inexperienced with setting up large RAID arrays, but I am looking at doing one soon. I want to do 8 16TB HDD's on a RAID 6, but I noticed this motherboard only supports RAID 5. Okay, so even if I go with that, I still run out of SATA connectors, so I'm assuming you add a PCIe card with SATA connectors... This is where I'm completely lost. Is it possible to get RAID 6 on this build? And regardless, how would I build it and plan for expansion of the number of HDD's I have connected to the system?

[@NIronwolf]

Especially if you're using unRAID as your operating system, you probably just want to see the disks directly rather than configure them with hardware RAID. L1Techs has a good video about the current state of RAID. kzbin.info/www/bejne/omaYeJl3rMZriKs

[@ZachariahWiedeman]

@@NIronwolf Thank you for your reply. I used to work as a network engineer, but I was trained very old school back in 2005 - on even older hardware - so I'm totally unfamiliar with a lot of the newer technology and capabilities. I really appreciate your reply!

[@NIronwolf]

@@ZachariahWiedeman Yeah, I definitely wasn't aware that RAID wasn't doing what I thought until I saw that a couple days ago.

[@patricklayton9748]

So no GPU and the CPU doesnt have an iGPU. so no transcoding lol

[@100MilWill]

What was going on to the right side of him @1:15 ?

[@dexheavy85]

Arctic liquid Freezer II 360 is a little bit better than Fractal AIO.