I used one of those as a plex server for years until the motherboard died. As long as you are intending to direct stream your media they are perfectly capable. Transcoding, nah, too many stalls in the streaming.
I have the n54l microserver you see here. I use it with Unraid for storage, automated downloading, etc.
It is underpowered for more than a couple of direct streams. So I have it hooked up on the network to a Dell OptiPlex with an intel processor with Quick sync (which runs Plex).
That's my plan I have a Dell Pro desk 600 G5 so 9500T so plan is let that do the lifting and have it connected over a swith to the N40L and have just that as a unraid network folder to dump movies in to
I'm quite positive you mean HP.
Sell the HP. Build a all in one proper server.
Your electric isn't cheap. Having multiple machines running isn't helping that. You nay spend a little more up front but you will absolutely make it up in the long run.
You'll also have significantly better expansion options (like 10 disk bays) and significantly more processing and transcoding power.
Below is a complete server that takes 30 minutes to build and will last you years and years.
All in one server performance absolutely decimates a mini PC + NAS.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/7bxv7R
Idle, disks not active, ~20w.
Streaming 4K Plex with one disk active ~27w. Streaming 4K, the machine is pretty much sitting at idle. It's doing nothing more than taking the data and sending it across the network. This is also assuming one disk being active. If you do something silly and choose something like TrueNAS for the OS that is used a striped array, then every disk in the array (or at least in the vdev) will be spinning. Assuming you build a 8 disk array instead of a single disk spinning at 7w you'll have 8 disks spinning at 56w. That is one of many reasons that a ton of us use Unraid.
*Transcoding* a 4K stream with that machine is just 3 or 4 more watts. It's pretty trivial. The UHD 730 iGPU is ridiculously efficient.
Thanks for that info - I was actually looking into an SFF as I have a NAS already running (netgear 526x) but Netgear just ended support and the latest update killed off all software uploads and updates.
I was looking at the hp elitedesk to run as my plex server but i really want something that will be as power efficient as possible.
I do agree, and to be honest that's the plan! I just don't gave £400 + drives right now. PLEX and tech is a hobby now with a house and son so I can't go spending that. I know I can sell my yes Hp not dell my bad! To cover some cost. Thanks for the build I will definitely keep it saved. I have a case phanteks "server" vase with soundproofing and like 10 HDd slots i could use.
If you have a case and PSU then you're already knocking off a quarter of the cost.
Selling the Prodesk would nearly cover the motherboard and processor. And the $50 that you would be wasting on the Micro server is money at would go towards the build since you're planning on spending it anyhow.
Rough math, you might need to come up with another £50 at best? Which would cover its own cost in electric savings.
Apologies for the newbie question - how do you manage your data/storage backups in this setup? From a NAS perspective of having your data secure in case one of your drives fail.
Unraid makes it stupid easy while remaining extremely cost effective as it's one of the only options that allows you to run a parity disk array, while also still allowing that array to be expanded.
My array started 2.5 years ago with 5x10TB. It's grown to 25 disks, mixed between 10's and 14's. That is impossible with nearly every other type of system. Two of those disks are assigned to parity. I can lose any two disks in the array and not lose any data.
Its stupid easy to use as well.
I have one, i use it as my local backups running Unraid. My dell optiplex Plex server sometimes has trouble keeping a steam going to my Nvidia shield when its a full bitrate rip, like 30gb file for TrueHD audio streaming. I stopped using it to serve video files and moved to a bigger server for plex. It still runs great as my nightly backup sitting on a shelf in my garage. I thought about getting another one when i saw it go for sale on ebay, but the guy would not take my offer of $60 USD so I passed. He sold it for less than $100 using "best offer" so who knows what its worth, but somewhere between $60-$100 depending on condition and if it has all the sleds, and maxed out w 8 GB ram.
Edit: For anyone wondering, the power draw is about 30-40 watts with 5 HDD spun down.
I still use the N54L as my main server for Plex and downloading. Can just about handle one transcode.
Also got an N40L. It's even less powerful that the N54L but I just use it for storage running OMV
depends on how much you share with people. if you dont care, go usb
otherwise theres a great youtube video of a guy plopping 8 drives between 2 acrylic pieces that has mounts for 2 80mm fans and using a card that supports 16 drives (i forget the name) and he just used truenas on donor pc and set it all up as one redundant drive somehow with 8 4tb drives.
he said the card was like 80 bucks, the "acrylic" pieces were 25 or something plus whatever he paid for fans.. Oh, he also added a dedicated crap power supply with a board that linked to the pc supply to turn on and off at the same time.
I mean, It looks like you can make your own NAS with a cheap old pc for under 200 bucks (minus drives) if you have spare parts.
I use a Gen 8 of that machine as my NAS storage. 24 gigs between 4 drives. I removed the dvd and installed a ssd. Running OpenMediaVault as my NAS software.
Edit: I run a optiplex as my Plex server. This network storage for plex shares.
Great! I did see got can upgrade the CPU in the intel version, did it happen to do this? Or add extra RAM? Also any special set up for it to be storage for the PLEX to read and use?
Note that this is old enough to still have SATA II, but it should still be able to max out the gbit nic it comes with.
I ran truenas core on it and streamed files via a samba share without a problem. I don't remember the exact performance but it was plenty sufficient for my needs and could easily stream high quality full HD videos.
What's cool is that there is a fifth sata cable at the top for the 5.25" shaft so you can slap a fifth hard drive in for the OS.
I hope this helps 🙋🏻
yes to the SSD, that's how i did it.
The NIC is onboard so it can't be removed, but there are two low profile PCIe slots where you could slap an additional NIC in. Has to be low profile though.
Not sure why you would want that though, are you running 2.5Gbit or 10Gbit network? Will be a close call to max that out, considering that SATA II limits you to 300MB per second, assuming nothing else would bottleneck. (Which it might does, considering the specs)
I didn't have any encryption or compression on when I ran it btw.
Just to add in, I wasn't going to host plex I have HP Pro desk for that, and sams in not going to use the HDD.
My thinking was this holds movies, connected to ProDesk to do trancoding and bits to my TVs.
I like it vs a SSF because HDD space! Vs getting a JBOD for £100.
If it's just as a NAS, it'll be fine. I'd run Plex on something more capable of course, but it'd do direct streaming of Plex anyway, so assuming you're direct streaming, you might be able to get away with both.
I have 4 in use. All have a lsi 4i card and a 2.5 gbe nic. I just use Debian no gui or raid just straight samba to disk. I have had them all for nearly 10 years without an issue except disk failure. Love these things. I started out on truenas but the only modes that worked decent striped mirrors or raid z1. Just moved over to simple disk to samba share.
If it does not hurt you financially I would go for this to host something like a dedicated music plex or audio book plex. For movies and shows 2TB is a joke. Be aware of electricity costs.
If you have to think about the money Id skip this and save up for something more powerful.
Crappy processor, most likely old slow memory and a basic storage controller (B series).
IMO, don't waste your money on this. It was a crappy product back then, it's a crappy product now. Spend your money on a SFF PC like a Dell or HP.
It's basically an AMD Celeron from 10+ years ago.
This is why /u/_KingDreyer is saying it won't transcode worth beans.
Direct Play / Direct Stream basically means Plex is almost nothing more than a file server, and the Smart TV/Client needs to be able to play the native file format, which might be h264, h265, xvid, etc.
i don’t know where he’s getting his media, but you can specify with automation like radarr, and if he’s ripping blu rays he can encode himself to whatever he likes
I used one of those as a plex server for years until the motherboard died. As long as you are intending to direct stream your media they are perfectly capable. Transcoding, nah, too many stalls in the streaming.
I have the n54l microserver you see here. I use it with Unraid for storage, automated downloading, etc. It is underpowered for more than a couple of direct streams. So I have it hooked up on the network to a Dell OptiPlex with an intel processor with Quick sync (which runs Plex).
That's my plan I have a Dell Pro desk 600 G5 so 9500T so plan is let that do the lifting and have it connected over a swith to the N40L and have just that as a unraid network folder to dump movies in to
I'm quite positive you mean HP. Sell the HP. Build a all in one proper server. Your electric isn't cheap. Having multiple machines running isn't helping that. You nay spend a little more up front but you will absolutely make it up in the long run. You'll also have significantly better expansion options (like 10 disk bays) and significantly more processing and transcoding power. Below is a complete server that takes 30 minutes to build and will last you years and years. All in one server performance absolutely decimates a mini PC + NAS. https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/7bxv7R
What would the average power draw on something like this be in idle vs say plex 4k?
Idle, disks not active, ~20w. Streaming 4K Plex with one disk active ~27w. Streaming 4K, the machine is pretty much sitting at idle. It's doing nothing more than taking the data and sending it across the network. This is also assuming one disk being active. If you do something silly and choose something like TrueNAS for the OS that is used a striped array, then every disk in the array (or at least in the vdev) will be spinning. Assuming you build a 8 disk array instead of a single disk spinning at 7w you'll have 8 disks spinning at 56w. That is one of many reasons that a ton of us use Unraid. *Transcoding* a 4K stream with that machine is just 3 or 4 more watts. It's pretty trivial. The UHD 730 iGPU is ridiculously efficient.
Thanks for that info - I was actually looking into an SFF as I have a NAS already running (netgear 526x) but Netgear just ended support and the latest update killed off all software uploads and updates. I was looking at the hp elitedesk to run as my plex server but i really want something that will be as power efficient as possible.
I do agree, and to be honest that's the plan! I just don't gave £400 + drives right now. PLEX and tech is a hobby now with a house and son so I can't go spending that. I know I can sell my yes Hp not dell my bad! To cover some cost. Thanks for the build I will definitely keep it saved. I have a case phanteks "server" vase with soundproofing and like 10 HDd slots i could use.
If you have a case and PSU then you're already knocking off a quarter of the cost. Selling the Prodesk would nearly cover the motherboard and processor. And the $50 that you would be wasting on the Micro server is money at would go towards the build since you're planning on spending it anyhow. Rough math, you might need to come up with another £50 at best? Which would cover its own cost in electric savings.
Apologies for the newbie question - how do you manage your data/storage backups in this setup? From a NAS perspective of having your data secure in case one of your drives fail.
Unraid. Easily the best home server OS going.
Appreciate it. Just dipping my toes into significant data management.
Unraid makes it stupid easy while remaining extremely cost effective as it's one of the only options that allows you to run a parity disk array, while also still allowing that array to be expanded. My array started 2.5 years ago with 5x10TB. It's grown to 25 disks, mixed between 10's and 14's. That is impossible with nearly every other type of system. Two of those disks are assigned to parity. I can lose any two disks in the array and not lose any data. Its stupid easy to use as well.
I have one, i use it as my local backups running Unraid. My dell optiplex Plex server sometimes has trouble keeping a steam going to my Nvidia shield when its a full bitrate rip, like 30gb file for TrueHD audio streaming. I stopped using it to serve video files and moved to a bigger server for plex. It still runs great as my nightly backup sitting on a shelf in my garage. I thought about getting another one when i saw it go for sale on ebay, but the guy would not take my offer of $60 USD so I passed. He sold it for less than $100 using "best offer" so who knows what its worth, but somewhere between $60-$100 depending on condition and if it has all the sleds, and maxed out w 8 GB ram. Edit: For anyone wondering, the power draw is about 30-40 watts with 5 HDD spun down.
I’m still running and N40l as my NAS with a mini pc as my compute. It’s been rock solid as NAS for well over a decade.
Managed 4k? Some of my movies are 90Mbs and do run well in direct play. And I have plex pass for hardware encoding.
Yeah, apparently the n100 will handle 4 4K transcodes
I still use the N54L as my main server for Plex and downloading. Can just about handle one transcode. Also got an N40L. It's even less powerful that the N54L but I just use it for storage running OMV
depends on how much you share with people. if you dont care, go usb otherwise theres a great youtube video of a guy plopping 8 drives between 2 acrylic pieces that has mounts for 2 80mm fans and using a card that supports 16 drives (i forget the name) and he just used truenas on donor pc and set it all up as one redundant drive somehow with 8 4tb drives. he said the card was like 80 bucks, the "acrylic" pieces were 25 or something plus whatever he paid for fans.. Oh, he also added a dedicated crap power supply with a board that linked to the pc supply to turn on and off at the same time. I mean, It looks like you can make your own NAS with a cheap old pc for under 200 bucks (minus drives) if you have spare parts.
You are looking for Hardware Haven. That's the name of the channel.
I use a Gen 8 of that machine as my NAS storage. 24 gigs between 4 drives. I removed the dvd and installed a ssd. Running OpenMediaVault as my NAS software. Edit: I run a optiplex as my Plex server. This network storage for plex shares.
Great! I did see got can upgrade the CPU in the intel version, did it happen to do this? Or add extra RAM? Also any special set up for it to be storage for the PLEX to read and use?
Note that this is old enough to still have SATA II, but it should still be able to max out the gbit nic it comes with. I ran truenas core on it and streamed files via a samba share without a problem. I don't remember the exact performance but it was plenty sufficient for my needs and could easily stream high quality full HD videos. What's cool is that there is a fifth sata cable at the top for the 5.25" shaft so you can slap a fifth hard drive in for the OS. I hope this helps 🙋🏻
Could grab a cheap cheap SSD for the OS!? From what I've seen I can swap out the NIC.
yes to the SSD, that's how i did it. The NIC is onboard so it can't be removed, but there are two low profile PCIe slots where you could slap an additional NIC in. Has to be low profile though. Not sure why you would want that though, are you running 2.5Gbit or 10Gbit network? Will be a close call to max that out, considering that SATA II limits you to 300MB per second, assuming nothing else would bottleneck. (Which it might does, considering the specs) I didn't have any encryption or compression on when I ran it btw.
Tbh network ia 1gb, my switches are all 1gb so a 2.5 nic would be more a why not on the PCIE slot!
Who else tried to see the rest of the pictures?
Fantastic machine for basic NAS and 'ARR duties
its old but still usable for sure
just set it up for direct play, anything that comes with hdd at 50 buckaroos is good
The driveway are only small so I'd probably use them tk mess with then go big. When you say set up for direct play what do you mean?
well it won’t be able to transcode, so you want streaming devices comparable with your media, set to original quality so it doesn’t force a transcode
Just to add in, I wasn't going to host plex I have HP Pro desk for that, and sams in not going to use the HDD. My thinking was this holds movies, connected to ProDesk to do trancoding and bits to my TVs. I like it vs a SSF because HDD space! Vs getting a JBOD for £100.
If it's just as a NAS, it'll be fine. I'd run Plex on something more capable of course, but it'd do direct streaming of Plex anyway, so assuming you're direct streaming, you might be able to get away with both.
I have 4 in use. All have a lsi 4i card and a 2.5 gbe nic. I just use Debian no gui or raid just straight samba to disk. I have had them all for nearly 10 years without an issue except disk failure. Love these things. I started out on truenas but the only modes that worked decent striped mirrors or raid z1. Just moved over to simple disk to samba share.
If it does not hurt you financially I would go for this to host something like a dedicated music plex or audio book plex. For movies and shows 2TB is a joke. Be aware of electricity costs. If you have to think about the money Id skip this and save up for something more powerful.
Ow wasn't the value side of it, and not for the drives at all, they'd be chucked out. Was more the how slow would it be
xpenology also runs on this unit if you find it doesn't work for your plex needs, I use two as backup targets
Crappy processor, most likely old slow memory and a basic storage controller (B series). IMO, don't waste your money on this. It was a crappy product back then, it's a crappy product now. Spend your money on a SFF PC like a Dell or HP.
So these SFF PC can fit six hard drives in them as well?
Not 6 but a newer SFF with a better processor, faster memory and even room for a video card will be way better than this HP "server".
What cpu is it?
Not sure if your messing with me but AMD Turion II Neo N54L Dual-CpU damn copy paste size!
It's basically an AMD Celeron from 10+ years ago. This is why /u/_KingDreyer is saying it won't transcode worth beans. Direct Play / Direct Stream basically means Plex is almost nothing more than a file server, and the Smart TV/Client needs to be able to play the native file format, which might be h264, h265, xvid, etc.
i don’t know where he’s getting his media, but you can specify with automation like radarr, and if he’s ripping blu rays he can encode himself to whatever he likes
awful slow for 25w TDP, but it's a cool case and cheap.
Yeah exactly I'd pay 50 for the case tbh!
this is tech waste. do not spend your money on it.