What LGA 1156 CPU to run Plex?

[master7045]

I currently am using a core i3 550 to run my Plex server. Which can handle DVD MKVs just fine. I am starting to get more Blu-Ray's and would like to be able to stream these to Roku as well as Apple i devices & remote PCs. All of my rips include the feature film and multiple audio streams up to DTS-HD Master & DD-TruHD in addition to the standard DD 5.1/DTS track. So, back to the topic at hand, would an upgrade to an i5 be worthwile? This would have to be in the 1156 socket so I was looking at a 650 or 750? Also trying to keep this under $100 upgrade. Thanks!

 

[Vectronic]

I would think an i5 is a bit overkill if that's all it has to do, my 3570K will stream 1080p by barely coming out of idle. (1.6 to 2.6-2.8GHz), and it's not using more than maybe 2 cores, about 6% total usage.

I would think a decently fast i3 would do it, I don't think your i3 550 going to i5 750 is going to change much (same clocks, just more cores), perhaps disable hyperthreading?

 

[Face2Face]

Plex loves cores and clock speed. Even though the new transcoder is more efficient than the last iteration, it still likes clock speed and cores. I have a Plex server with 6 core 1035T . I can stream a 1080P 10Mbps Bitrate movie at the same time to these devices - All transcoding -

Roku 2 XS -1080p - 10mbps
Droid DNA - 1080P - 8mbps
iPad 2 - 720P - 4mbps
iPod Touch 4th gen - 720P - 4mbps

Anymore devices and it chokes

If I watch a 4-5mbps bitrate movie, the server can handle up to 8-10 transcodes.

So the real question is what bitrate do you plan on ripping your Blu-rays at? Audio and Video. And you don't have to transcode everything. You could always rip them in a MP4 H.264 and they would direct play on the Roku and PC's, not sure about the i Devices.


Keep in mind Roku states there top tier model Roku XS, can handle bitrates up to 8mbps. I have done up to 15mbps bitrate movies on the Roku, but the server has to be strong enough to transcode within the 10 second HLS segments it's given. My old X3 struggled, but would do it.

My advice would be to rip a blue-ray at an acceptable bitrate and try it before you buy anything. Also, how many transcodes do you think you will be running at a time?

 

[master7045]

Plex loves cores and clock speed. Even though the new transcoder is more efficient than the last iteration, it still likes clock speed and cores. I have a Plex server with 6 core 1035T . I can stream a 1080P 10MB/s Bitrate movie at the same time to these devices - All transcoding -

Roku 2 XS -1080p - 10mbps
Droid DNA - 1080P - 8mbps
iPad 2 - 720P - 4mps
iPod Touch 4th gen - 720P - 4mbps

Anymore devices and it chokes

Great information here, I'll have a look at my settings as I never understood fully what they all meant 🙂.

So the real question is what bitrate do you plan on ripping your Blu-rays at? Audio and Video.

I rip them using MakeMKV, so I'm not sure what bitrate that uses, whatever is on the disk I assume.

And you don't have to transcode everything? You could always rip them in a MP4 H.264 and they would direct play on the Roku and PC's, not sure about the i Devices.

I am trying to find a good easy way to re-encode or remux (not sure which applies) to MP4. I've used Handbrake a few times, but I don't like how long it takes. (I realize that is a very snobby answer 🙂)

My advice would be to rip a blue-ray at an acceptable bitrate and try it before you buy anything. Also, how many transcodes do you think you will be running at a time?

I would see maybe 2-3 streams at once. I really don't know how to change the bitrate in Handbrake. I generally just grab the ATV3 preset as that retains 1080p (I think) and then I try to make sure I grab the highest audio available since Plex will transcode it down if it needs to. <--Not sure if that is best practice or not. I really want to avoid having to re-do this in x years b/c I left something out.

 

[Face2Face]

Here is a good list to get an idea what the total bit-rate a Blue-Ray movies are.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=3338

Pretty high right 😉

I have never used MakeMKV, so I don't have any advice there. 🙁

I only use Hardbrake and like it a lot. I know some movies can take forever to encode

Read this article though - Some good info here.

http://www.winxdvd.com/resource/handbrake-video-quality-settings.htm

Calculator here

http://lifehacker.com/5610568/calcu...brake-video-encoding-settings-for-your-device

Not sure how well the CPU would hold up with multiple 10 + MB/s bitrate movies at the same time? I would follow the guide on how to rip with Handbrake or WinX DVD/HD Video Converter and aim for a 10-12mbps file. I know with handbrake if I set the RF to 17, there is no visual loss of quality for me.

 

[86waterpumper]

I have been using a athlon x2 regor cpu @ 2.6ghz to stream plex to my roku and even it works fine at least at 720p. The cpu load seems to hop around alot, but even so the computer is still responsive and usable for other things. I ordered a x4 610e for more headroom. I'm sure that 1080p is more taxing, but unless you want to do alot of other things while you stream seems a i3 would be plenty?

One question I've got is I see on the roku end, i can adjust the quality, and there is a 720p 2.0 and 720 3.0 mbs stream. What is the difference in these?

 

[Face2Face]

One question I've got is I see on the roku end, i can adjust the quality, and there is a 720p 2.0 and 720 3.0 mbs stream. What is the difference in these?

The Mbps refers to your network's bandwidth. The higher the bandwidth the better movies will look. If you have the bandwidth available then select 4 Mbps. On a local network you should have 4 Mbps available. If you are streaming content outside your network using Myplex or if your sharing your content with a friend - You and your friend would need to select a Mbps that would equal your internet connections upload speed.

For example - My max upload with Time Warner is 2mbps. Which means if I watch a movie on my phone outside my network I can watch a movie @ 2Mbps 720P. If I am sharing my movies with a friend using Myplex, he would have to adjust his quality to 2Mbps 720P in the quality options when selecting the movie. if you haven't already, you should really check out MyPlex it's awesome.

I also had a Athlon II X2 @ 3.0Ghz in my Plex server at one time, and it would not stream 1080P 10mbps movies at all. Constant buffering.... If you have lower bit-rate 1080P movies it should be fine - one at a time-

 

[UNhooked]

My dam Roku chokes and freezes if I trying to stream at 20Mbps. Didn't know there was a limit.

8Mbps seems to work best. It however still chokes and restarts when streaming MTS stream. MKV works fine

 

[master7045]

My dam Roku chokes and freezes if I trying to stream at 20Mbps. Didn't know there was a limit.

8Mbps seems to work best. It however still chokes and restarts when streaming MTS stream. MKV works fine

I'm going to have to take a look at my Roku settings as well as I don't think I've ever changed them. Is this within the plex App or Roku device settings?

Were you having issues with your i5 or i7 rig in your sig running your PMS? Seeing answers like yours are what make me think my i3 is not up to par for the task.

 

[imagoon]

I was able to transcode 1080i mkv to my xbox and roku's on a Q6600 stock 2.4ghz. I think it is more cores related that peak clock speed really because the E6600 at 3.0 ghz would choke.

However I moved it to my ESXi testing server in an effort to save power and that is running an i5 3750k and I have not had an issue since even with the VM limited to 1 CPU. Take that as what you will.

 

[86waterpumper]

thanks for the reply face2face. My roku is running wifi and I don't have it hardwired so I'm not sure if that's a limitation or not. Right now most of my movies are just crappy dvd rips, I don't think I have anything that is super high quality. In fact alot of stuff seems to default to 480p 🙄 Still it's nice to plan for the future...still waiting on bluray drives to come down in price a bit. I also agree that if someone hasn't gotten hardware yet quad core is the best way to go for plex rather than worry as much with clockspeed.

 

[UNhooked]

I think my issue is more related to Roku and Plex limitations and not my machine. This was streaming from my i5 3570K server @ stock settings.

 

[Face2Face]

thanks for the reply face2face. My roku is running wifi and I don't have it hardwired so I'm not sure if that's a limitation or not. Right now most of my movies are just crappy dvd rips, I don't think I have anything that is super high quality. In fact alot of stuff seems to default to 480p 🙄 Still it's nice to plan for the future...still waiting on bluray drives to come down in price a bit. I also agree that if someone hasn't gotten hardware yet quad core is the best way to go for plex rather than worry as much with clockspeed.

Glad I could help. I have a Roku HD in my bedroom (Far from the Router) set to 4Mbps @ 720P and everything plays fine (720p and 1080P Content). With the 480P rips you should be good all day long with 2Mbps or lower.

 

[Face2Face]

I think my issue is more related to Roku and Plex limitations and not my machine. This was streaming from my i5 3570K server @ stock settings.

The Roku is limited hardware wise. I haven't reached it yet, but I am sure it's below 20 MB/s videos. The Roku is really just a Raspberry PI in nice clothing. Plex just transcodes the content to a format the device can support. The Roku is still doing all of the work playing the video. Keep an eye out... Looks like a new Roku (4200X) Is over the horizon. It just passed through the FCC - I am hoping for better hardware 🙂

 

[Face2Face]

I'm going to have to take a look at my Roku settings as well as I don't think I've ever changed them. Is this within the plex App or Roku device settings?

You would change the quality/bandwidth setting in the preferences section of the Plex app on the Roku.

 

[master7045]

You would change the quality/bandwidth setting in the preferences section of the Plex app on the Roku.

Ahh then I have messed around with these before. I need to find the magic number. I think I changed it to 10 MBs @ 1080p since the roku + PMS is hardwired to a gigabit switch. I'll try lowering it a bit tonight.

 

[imagoon]

The Roku is limited hardware wise. I haven't reached it yet, but I am sure it's below 20 MB/s videos. The Roku is really just a Raspberry PI in nice clothing. Plex just transcodes the content to a format the device can support. The Roku is still doing all of the work playing the video. Keep an eye out... Looks like a new Roku (4200X) Is over the horizon. It just passed through the FCC - I am hoping for better hardware 🙂

To be fair, the roku does have a hardware decoder (the PI doesn't). That is the main reason it is so picky about streams.

 

[Face2Face]

Ahh then I have messed around with these before. I need to find the magic number. I think I changed it to 10 MBs @ 1080p since the roku + PMS is hardwired to a gigabit switch. I'll try lowering it a bit tonight.

Once you open the quality/Bandwidth option. Looks at the top of the screen. It will tell you your available bandwidth.

 

[Face2Face]

To be fair, the roku does have a hardware decoder (the PI doesn't). That is the main reason it is so picky about streams.

True True - Good Point 😉

 

[master7045]

Once you open the quality/Bandwidth option. Looks at the top of the screen. It will tell you your available bandwidth.

Just to keep this alive, Plex is reporting 0kbps as my current reported bandwith. This is on both the plex and plex test channel. I have it set to 4Mbps, 720p and it is working fine though. The transcoder doesn't seem to be working on MKVs that are 1080p rips from the disk. Not sure what happened, but moral of the store is: i3 550 is good enough to playback 1080p MKV rips

 

[Face2Face]

Just to keep this alive, Plex is reporting 0kbps as my current reported bandwith. This is on both the plex and plex test channel. I have it set to 4Mbps, 720p and it is working fine though. The transcoder doesn't seem to be working on MKVs that are 1080p rips from the disk. Not sure what happened, but moral of the store is: i3 550 is good enough to playback 1080p MKV rips

I find it odd that your bandwidth is not reporting correctly. I tried last night on both my wired and wireless Roku's and I was able to see my available bandwidth. You say your transcoder is not working correctly, so is it direct playing the MKV? The Roku can support some MKV's that are H.264 encoded. If the movie is playing and your Plex server CPU is not spiking then I assume the movie is direct playing. if that is the case then try to drive the quality up to 8mbps 1080P - It should play perfectly. You may be able to go higher, although the quality difference to me is negligible from 8-20 Mbps.

 

[master7045]

Does it take a few seconds or minutes maybe for the available bandwidth to show up?? I was semi impatient and only let it sit there for about 15 seconds.

 

[Face2Face]

Should happen instantly,the second you open the setting.

 

[sm625]

From plex web site: "Officially, Plex recommends a 2.0GHz or faster Core 2 Duo CPU for 720p transcoding, and a 2.4GHz or faster Core 2 Duo for 1080p transcoding"

Remember this is streaming video. It doesnt take all that much power to transcode at 30fps. On my i5 it transcodes at like 200 fps, which is overkill, even if you're running 3 streams at once it still sounds like overkill. I would like to see a test of 3 different 1080p streams sent to 3 different devices at once. But I bet any desktop i3 would do it just fine.

 

[Face2Face]

From plex web site: "Officially, Plex recommends a 2.0GHz or faster Core 2 Duo CPU for 720p transcoding, and a 2.4GHz or faster Core 2 Duo for 1080p transcoding"

Remember this is streaming video. It doesnt take all that much power to transcode at 30fps. On my i5 it transcodes at like 200 fps, which is overkill, even if you're running 3 streams at once it still sounds like overkill. I would like to see a test of 3 different 1080p streams sent to 3 different devices at once. But I bet any desktop i3 would do it just fine.

It's all about Bit-rate. If OP retains his huge bit-rate Blue-rays encodes and doesn't scale them down to a more manageable bit-rate, then he will have issues with 3 streams. I agree though, he should just test it out before buying anything.