CPU upgrade from Xeon D-1541 for Media Server

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PnoT

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Mar 1, 2015
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I know you've already picked up a new motherboard and are going a different route but did you consider throwing a Nvidia P2000 into your current setup to handle all of your PLEX needs?
 

IamSpartacus

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Mar 14, 2016
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I know you've already picked up a new motherboard and are going a different route but did you consider throwing a Nvidia P2000 into your current setup to handle all of your PLEX needs?
I have considered that but the evidence is still showing me that CPU transcoding is higher quality than GPU at this point. If that changes, I can ways throw a GPU ino my new system.
 

kapone

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May 23, 2015
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I have considered that but the evidence is still showing me that CPU transcoding is higher quality than GPU at this point. If that changes, I can ways throw a GPU ino my new system.
While that may be technically true...in practice, very few people other than die hard videophiles will notice the difference. I'm not a videophile per se, I classify myself as an above average video enthusiast :p, and with a 120" screen, a 4K projector (which replaced a 1080p one recently) and a viewing distance of ~15ft, I cannot see a difference. It may be there, but unless you're looking to find it, I doubt you'll find it. I use a P2000 as well.
 

IamSpartacus

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Mar 14, 2016
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While that may be technically true...in practice, very few people other than die hard videophiles will notice the difference. I'm not a videophile per se, I classify myself as an above average video enthusiast :p, and with a 120" screen, a 4K projector (which replaced a 1080p one recently) and a viewing distance of ~15ft, I cannot see a difference. It may be there, but unless you're looking to find it, I doubt you'll find it. I use a P2000 as well.
Are there any benchmarks similar to CPU Passmark that give rough estimates on how many transcodes different GPUs including the P2000 can handle?

Also, have others successfully passed through GPUs to a Plex docker as that's how I run Plex and don't have any desire to change that.
 
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kapone

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Are there any benchmarks similar to CPU Passmark that give rough estimates on how many transcodes different GPUs including the P2000 can handle?
There's unofficial videos and information that claims that the P2000 can handle >16 4K streams. I've never reached that high, my Plex server never runs more than 5-6 streams and the P2000 easily handles that.

Also, have others successfully passed through GPUs to a Plex docker as that's how I run Plex and don't have any desire to change that.
Can't comment on that, I run a dedicated Plex server (that sleeps and wakes up perfectly).
 

Ixian

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Oct 26, 2018
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I have considered that but the evidence is still showing me that CPU transcoding is higher quality than GPU at this point. If that changes, I can ways throw a GPU ino my new system.
Depends on how picky you are. If you are supporting Plex clients on displays with basic (or no) calibration you (or your viewers) won't notice at all. More advanced setups like clients using MadVR paired with good calibrated displays, yes, it's obvious, but that is a bit of a stretch for most "transcode lots of streams" scenarios.

For Docker passthrough, you want to read this: NVIDIA Docker: GPU Server Application Deployment Made Easy

I'd dispute the "made easy" claim but it is doable. A P2000 is certainly cheaper than what you are looking at doing, assuming you have a slot open.
 

IamSpartacus

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There's unofficial videos and information that claims that the P2000 can handle >16 4K streams. I've never reached that high, my Plex server never runs more than 5-6 streams and the P2000 easily handles that.


Can't comment on that, I run a dedicated Plex server (that sleeps and wakes up perfectly).
When you say 4k streams, do you mean transcodes?


Depends on how picky you are. If you are supporting Plex clients on displays with basic (or no) calibration you (or your viewers) won't notice at all. More advanced setups like clients using MadVR paired with good calibrated displays, yes, it's obvious, but that is a bit of a stretch for most "transcode lots of streams" scenarios.

For Docker passthrough, you want to read this: NVIDIA Docker: GPU Server Application Deployment Made Easy

I'd dispute the "made easy" claim but it is doable. A P2000 is certainly cheaper than what you are looking at doing, assuming you have a slot open.
Thank you for the link. I will look into this. I like the idea of a GPU for hardware transcoding in addition to my CPU/MoBo upgrade.
 

Ixian

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I remember someone getting it to work but I think it might have been Emby.

Simplest way is to run Plex in a VM, of course.
 

kapone

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May 23, 2015
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When you say 4k streams, do you mean transcodes?
Apparently. I can't verify that one way or another, there's too many different factors (HEVC, h.265 vs 264, HDR etc etc).

That said, like I said I've had 5-6 4k transcoding streams going with my server at the same time, and it has been able to handle that easily.
 

IamSpartacus

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Mar 14, 2016
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I remember someone getting it to work but I think it might have been Emby.

Simplest way is to run Plex in a VM, of course.
Yea I'll have to do some more research to see if it's possible in docker because I'm not switching to a VM. I run all my home media services in Dockers on Unraid and it's super convenient.
 

Ixian

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Definitely not possible with Unraid because the Nvidia drivers aren't part of the base install. That's been a long-requested enhancement. Only Quicksync is supported for hw decoding in that setup.

Also, GPU acceleration only works for decoding, not encoding, on Linux. And GeForce cards are limited to 2 streams which is why those who are serious about this get the Quadros (and run Plex in Windows).

Sounds like if you want to stick with an Unraid Docker beefing up your CPU/subsystems is the way to go.
 

IamSpartacus

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Definitely not possible with Unraid because the Nvidia drivers aren't part of the base install. That's been a long-requested enhancement. Only Quicksync is supported for hw decoding in that setup.

Also, GPU acceleration only works for decoding, not encoding, on Linux. And GeForce cards are limited to 2 streams which is why those who are serious about this get the Quadros (and run Plex in Windows).

Sounds like if you want to stick with an Unraid Docker beefing up your CPU/subsystems is the way to go.
Yea looks that way. This upgrade gives me lots of future headroom to upgrade my CPU even further and add a GPU for hardware transcoding down the line if it ever becomes supported on my system.

Over the years I've run Plex in Windows 7, Windows 10, Linux VMs, docker inside Linux VMs, and now just straight docker on bare metal Unraid. I much prefer my current setup over all the others. I used to have a very complex home network but I've spent the last 1+ year simplifying it to prepare for having much less free time with my first child just weeks away.
 
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Ixian

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I like Unraid as a complete system a lot. Not a lot of love for how it deals with storage.

Their UX is so nice there's a case to be made for simply using it just for docker/VM management and a separate ZFS NAS for storage. Though if you are going to go through that may as well do it right and build around an ESXi/FreeNAS/Docker host concept.
 

IamSpartacus

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I like Unraid as a complete system a lot. Not a lot of love for how it deals with storage.

Their UX is so nice there's a case to be made for simply using it just for docker/VM management and a separate ZFS NAS for storage. Though if you are going to go through that may as well do it right and build around an ESXi/FreeNAS/Docker host concept.

I hear you but I actually don't see any big benefit to using ZFS for a home media storage server. I get that many people store more than just media on their home storage servers but I think you can easily separate out the irreplaceable storage from the media. I think NSA (non striped arrays) are the way to go for large media storage.
 

Ixian

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Fair enough. I started going AIO and do a lot of things besides store and serve media; I also have been using FreeNAS/FreeBSD a lot longer (close to two decades in the case of the latter :) ) so it was a more natural choice for me when I first overhauled my home servers several years ago.

Recently I've been building out an ESXI server that leverages a FreeNAS VM with passed through disks for bulk storage management/sharing. With some research, a fast P3700 or 900p for ZIL/L2Arc, and 10GbE, and you have a hell of a AIO setup, though admittedly well beyond what the typical "home media server" user needs. I use a Debian VM to handle Docker duties w/Portainer.

I do have to hand it to Unraid, they have created a user experience that makes some pretty tricky things easy, which is no mean feat.
 

IamSpartacus

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So I've got my X11SPM-TPF | Motherboards | Products - Super Micro Computer, Inc. (for some reason the link to the product page isn't working) in hand but I'm having second thoughts while I wait to purchase a Xeon Scalable CPU to pair with it.

The more I've been researching the more I'm thinking that buying a CPU without an iGPU for hardware transcoding isn't smart. It seems have to such an impact on transcoding performance and since 80% of what my server is used for is a dedicated Plex server I'm finding it hard to pass up. But the other side of the coin is that I do run 3-4 "production" level VMs currently on the same server and having 6-8 available vCPUs for those VMs is pretty crucial.

I'm kind of stuck because this whole discussion would be moot if my OS was Windows as I could simply throw a P2000 on the Xeon Scalable platform and have a kick ass system. But I'm very opposed to running my Plex server on Windows. Been there, done that and having migrated to Linux, then docker in Linux and now docker in Unraid I can't see myself migrating back.

This whole process is making me reconsider my entire setup in so many ways which is not good when my wife is 2 weeks away from giving birth!
 

K D

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Dec 24, 2016
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I can definitely recommend a CPU with iGPU. I kinda went through the same path as you. Plex on Windows to Linux to Linux VM to Windows VM with P2000 passthrough to Docker on Unraid with iGPU passthrough. The plex on unraid setup runs smoother than my silver 4116 ever did.
 

IamSpartacus

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I can definitely recommend a CPU with iGPU. I kinda went through the same path as you. Plex on Windows to Linux to Linux VM to Windows VM with P2000 passthrough to Docker on Unraid with iGPU passthrough. The plex on unraid setup runs smoother than my silver 4116 ever did.
What CPU/MoBo are you running in your Unraid server that runs Plex?