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Dedicated PC for Plex Media Server worth it?

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Dave3000

Golden Member
I'm right now using my one and only PC as a gaming/work/media server rig. It's an i7-4930k, 32GB RAM, GTX 780Ti system, and my MKV files are stored on a 2TB external HDD. I have Plex Media Server installed on my PC and use my Roku 3 as my media streamer. All this is in my bedroom where my PC, TV, Roku are in close proximity to each other. I find my PC a bit too loud for using as a Media Server since it's only a few feet away from my right ear when I'm watching movies due to it being 45 degrees from my right ear and a few feet away when I turn around to sit and watch movies through my Roku. Would it be redundant to buy a dedicated low cost pre-built PC like a Dell Inspirion with an i3-4150 to use as a Plex Media Server?
 
If you were asking 3-5 years ago I would say, yeah. But almost anything these days can run 1080P. I just watched a guy on YouTube with the new HP Stream mini run Kodi (ahem, XBMC) for 1080P video and as a streamer for his homerun PC (?).

I plan on giving it a try as soon as mine arrives. I figured I could plug in a couple of 3TB drives full of content I already have and see how it goes. $180 for said mini.
 
I was also thinking instead of buying a PC to dedicate as a media server, buying a HTPC and using Kodi as the media player program. I recently was trying out the Kodi media player program on my PC and I like it. There is no need for transcoding with Kodi when using MKV files with lossless audio formats and I find that Kodi's interface works pretty good with my Xbox one controller even though I prefer to use my Harmony remote instead if it's possible. I'm not sure if my Harmony remote would work with Kodi. Whether I dedicate a 2nd PC as a media server or a HTPC, it will be the same pre-built PC I'm considering on buying, the Dell Inspirion with the i3-4150 and Intel HD 4400 Graphics. Will that PC handle 1080p MKV's with lossless audio?
 
Dave3000 said:
I was also thinking instead of buying a PC to dedicate as a media server, buying a HTPC and using Kodi as the media player program. I recently was trying out the Kodi media player program on my PC and I like it. There is no need for transcoding with Kodi when using MKV files with lossless audio formats and I find that Kodi's interface works pretty good with my Xbox one controller even though I prefer to use my Harmony remote instead if it's possible. I'm not sure if my Harmony remote would work with Kodi. Whether I dedicate a 2nd PC as a media server or a HTPC, it will be the same pre-built PC I'm considering on buying, the Dell Inspirion with the i3-4150 and Intel HD 4400 Graphics. Will that PC handle 1080p MKV's with lossless audio?
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You don't need much to do that. Heck, I was streaming 1080p MKVs with an Intel Atom processor a couple years ago. Granted I had a dedicated video card to do the decoding of the video, but the only reason I upgraded from the thing was because using the GUI to pick what to watch was slower than I liked; videos all played fine.

Nowadays, any of the Intel i3 (or less) series of processors will take care of you. Use the onboard graphics with 4 GB of RAM, and you will be just fine. I do recommend an SSD if you are going to have much of a GUI with it (like XBMC, or some variant like Plex) especially if you are making something that needs to pass the "wife factor" of ease of use and speed.

As for a dedicated Plex Media Server - yes, it's a good thing to do in my opinion. I have one that runs plex from a closet downstairs. How powerful it needs to be depends on your use case. If you won't depend on it for transcoding media, and won't have many simultaneous feeds going, any old PC will do. If you have a lot of people who could use it at once, or you need to transcode your media to different formats for different devices, a better CPU is better, since the media server does all the work. The reality is, when using Plex, the server is the one that does most of the work. Your clients usually don't have to be powerful at all.
 
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Yeah. Get a separate PC just for the energy saving standpoint. In general a watt is around a dollar per year if left on 24/7.
 
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