Which Tiny/Mini/Micro to Get for a 4K Plex Server?

[witchdoctor]

I am setting up a media center for my home theater. I have devices to play media, I need devices to rip and store media. I want to rip 4K UHD discs with a Tiny/Mini/Micro that will also be my plex server then store the files on a NAS. I am considering a Dell Optiplex 9020 (Intel Core i7-4770 Upto 3.9GHz, HD Graphics 4600 4K Support, 32GB RAM) or a HP Elitedesk 8300 G3 (Intel Core Quad i7 6700 up to 4.0 GHz, 16GB DDR4).
Any suggestions would be helpful, I want to keep the investment under $400 if possible. I will be connecting an external 4K bluray drive to handle the actual discs. Thanks

 

[BlueFox]

I would get something with a 7th gen CPU or above. That's the oldest generation that will do HEVC 10-bit decoding in hardware, which is what you'll want for UHD Blu-ray playback.

 

[witchdoctor]

Great tip, I will post what I find available, THANKS BlueFox.

 

[witchdoctor]

OK, here is what I found, any other suggestions are welcome.:

1) Dell OptiPlex 5050 Mini Tower (Intel Core 7th Generation i5-7500, 16GB DDR4, 256GB SSD) less than $300
2) Lenovo ThinkCentre M710q Tiny Desktop, Intel Core i5 7500T up to 3.30GHz, 16GB DDR4, 512GB NVMe less than $400
3) HP EliteDesk 800 G3 Small Form Desktop, Intel Core 7th Gen i5 7500 3.4Ghz, 32GB DDR4 RAM, 128GB SSD Hard Drive, USB Type C-Less than $400

 

[zer0sum]

You could also look at the Lenovo m720q/m920q etc. as they are tiny and can take a PCIe card

So, you could also have either 10G networking, or something like an Nvidia P400 for hardware encoding

Lenovo M720Q i5-8600T 4GB-RAM *NO HDD/HDD CADDY* | eBay

Lenovo M720Q i5-8600T 4GB-RAM *NO HDD/HDD CADDY*.

www.ebay.com

 

[witchdoctor]

I appreciate the recommendation and am going to get it, great suggestion!!
Once it arrives I'll post a pic too and the specs.
Thanks zer0sum

 

[Sean Ho]

I'd ensure your HTPC is capable of direct-playing whatever you rip (e.g., recent Apple TV), avoiding transcoding, then your Plex box only needs to direct-stream, very minimal requirements. Why go to the trouble of acquiring and ripping your discs only to transcode them down to poorer quality for viewing?

 

[Wasmachineman_NL]

You could also look at the Lenovo m720q/m920q etc. as they are tiny and can take a PCIe card

So, you could also have either 10G networking, or something like an Nvidia P400 for hardware encoding

Lenovo M720Q i5-8600T 4GB-RAM *NO HDD/HDD CADDY* | eBay

Lenovo M720Q i5-8600T 4GB-RAM *NO HDD/HDD CADDY*.

www.ebay.com

Only $220? I'm going to put up my OptiPlex 3040 for sale and import one of these!

 

[witchdoctor]

I'd ensure your HTPC is capable of direct-playing whatever you rip (e.g., recent Apple TV), avoiding transcoding, then your Plex box only needs to direct-stream, very minimal requirements. Why go to the trouble of acquiring and ripping your discs only to transcode them down to poorer quality for viewing?

The difference between streaming a movie and playing a disc is significant in terms of both SQ and PQ in my setup. I would guess the improvement is about 25% to 30% better playing a disc on my Sony Universal player than streaming from Amazon or Vudu on same. I'll have to compare playing files directly from the PC via the HTPC compared to the Plex app through Amazon apps on the Sony. No way to tell until I A/B it.

This article says direct stream is much preferred so I will try and set it up if needed.Thanks:

Plex: Transcoding Versus Direct Play / Direct Stream

Learn about the difference between Plex transcoding and Plex Direct Play or Direct Stream

bytesized-hosting.com

 

[T_Minus]

Only $220? I'm going to put up my OptiPlex 3040 for sale and import one of these!

It was $180 last night, all the STH views they must have raised the price

 

[witchdoctor]

STH affiliates take note, your viral marketing campaign starts here

 

[Gene]

HP 290 and HP S01 could work too

[Official] HP S01-pf1013w Owner's Thread and Review

Overview The HP S01 is the successor to the insanely popular HP290. Why they didn’t call it the HP 300, we’ll probably never know. Despite the very similar exterior, many substantial changes have been made. Hardware HP S01-pf1013w Link 1 Link 2 Intel Celeron G5900 (2C/2T, 10th-gen...

forums.serverbuilds.net

 

[Sean Ho]

The difference between streaming a movie and playing a disc is significant in terms of both SQ and PQ in my setup. I would guess the improvement is about 25% to 30% better playing a disc on my Sony Universal player than streaming from Amazon or Vudu on same. I'll have to compare playing files directly from the PC via the HTPC compared to the Plex app through Amazon apps on the Sony. No way to tell until I A/B it.

This article says direct stream is much preferred so I will try and set it up if needed.Thanks:

Plex: Transcoding Versus Direct Play / Direct Stream

Learn about the difference between Plex transcoding and Plex Direct Play or Direct Stream

bytesized-hosting.com

To clarify, I was assuming you'd be ripping + remuxing your DVDs at original quality, so no transcoding for storage on NAS and no transcoding for playback. The online streaming services of course are going to be transcoded to lower quality than what you can view at home with a remux of the original DVD.

 

[witchdoctor]

To clarify, I was assuming you'd be ripping + remuxing your DVDs at original quality, so no transcoding for storage on NAS and no transcoding for playback. The online streaming services of course are going to be transcoded to lower quality than what you can view at home with a remux of the original DVD.

Yes, that is correct. I didn't realize how much transcoding degrades the quality until you posted that info, great tip. I am getting started by setting up a direct streaming system.

 

[witchdoctor]

HP 290 and HP S01 could work too

[Official] HP S01-pf1013w Owner's Thread and Review

Overview The HP S01 is the successor to the insanely popular HP290. Why they didn’t call it the HP 300, we’ll probably never know. Despite the very similar exterior, many substantial changes have been made. Hardware HP S01-pf1013w Link 1 Link 2 Intel Celeron G5900 (2C/2T, 10th-gen...

forums.serverbuilds.net

I am shopping and those units are available at pretty good prices.

 

[Sean Ho]

Note that those are SFF rather than TMM/uSFF, which commands a bit of a price premium. HP 290 is 8th gen; S01 is 10th gen, both Celerons whose QSV is just as capable as that of i5 of the same gens. The Celerons are not too shabby for regular workloads, either; far better than an rpi, for instance.

 

[ReturnedSword]

It’s not necessary to use a PCIe GPU (e.g. Quadro P620 and up). I’m using a Quadro P1000 in my Lenovo P330 Tiny, however when I tested the 8700T’s iGPU was more than sufficient.

For HEVC 10-bit you need at least a 600 series iGPU (7th gen Intel). For VP9 10-bit you need at least a 700 series iGPU (11th gen Intel, note no i3 in 11th gen/Jasper Lake). On PCIe you need at least a nVidia Pascal (except GT 1030) for HEVC-10 bit and VP9 10-bit.

An alternative to a used TMM is something like an ASUS PN41. The Jasper Lake Celeron/Pentium is more than enough.

 

[witchdoctor]

So I pulled the trigger on a Lenovo, thanks Zer0sum for pointing me in that direction. It was around $350 and I got it in this configuration:
Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q
10T7 Tiny Desktop Computer
- 1 x Core i5 8400T / 1.7 GHz - RAM 8 GB - SSD 256 GB

I also got a UHD ripping drive to start ripping my collection. I am thinking of just using an external hard drive, anyone have a suggestion for a NAS under $300?

 

[ReturnedSword]

I made some observations in my Plex storage future upgrade thread how I nearly filled 108 TB on my Synology 8-bay in less than a year doing Blu-ray rips from my collection.

You can start out with an external drive, but you may find yourself quickly filling that up. Commercial “consumer-grade” NAS are hideously expensive. If I didn’t buy my Synology as a gift for a family member who no longer requires it, I would’ve built my own NAS from the start. Between my tendency to over-spec everything, and gentle encouragement from other community members to over kill stuff as well (lol), tbh the cheapest way to do a media library where you have the physical discs is something like MergerFS + SnapRAID.

Do you have some older hardware you can repurpose in the meantime? You can try Open Media Vault, which is basically standard Debian with an easy to use GUI on top where you can easily configure MergerFS + SnapRAID. This probably will work out better than connecting an external drive in the long run.

 

[i386]

I also got a UHD ripping drive to start ripping my collection.

ASUS BW-16D1HT , LG WH16NS60 or one of the pioneer drives?