Building a Home Server

[arges86]

I have been looking into building a home server for sometime, and have a question on some parts...
Its uses will be running some form of linux (haven't decided yet between Ubtuntu server and Linux Mint and uninstall Cinnamon) as an experimental LAMP stack. It'll also run Samba to share files to a couple of Windows PCs, Plex, and a FTP server,

So, I was picking out parts and came up with this list. At about $600 its all I really play with at this time. While doing some research, i ran across Intel's Avoton SOCs which seemed much closer to my needs.

Would using something like ASRock's C2550D4I (with an Avoton C2550) instead of a full blown Xeon be more inline with the needs of a home user? That option will shave off $75 from the system price

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

 

[newtekie1]

I don't really see any reason why you couldn't do what you need with an i5 and a desktop motherboard. Or heck, an i3.

 

[alucasa]

How about an inexpensive NUC with a Celeron of some sort?

Or get an i3 version that comes with M.2 and a HDD slot. Add 2 tb 2.5inch HDD and load OS onto a 60gb M.2.

 

[silentbogo]

That's quite a list and helluva budget for a home server project...
If you simply want to play around with linux, familiarize yourself with LAMP etc, then I'd go with this instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157497

...or one of the newer octa-core Intel atom C2750s.

It's not like you need to overcompensate for something

EDIT: I've been using an ARM embedded miniPC for almost 2 years for pretty much the same purpose. It has less than 10% of the performance of that board I mentioned, but was still enough for web server, FTP and UDP proxy for IPTV.

 

[Sasqui]

Have you considered a robust NAS like the Qnap TS-251 or 451 ?

 

[arges86]

I assumed it was a bit overkill, But I wanted something that wouldn't stutter with a few Plex streams going. And would last me a few years (my old server is still rocking Windows Server 2003, but it starting to show its age).

'silentbogo', According to Plex to transcode a 1080P stream they recommend a CPU with a PassMark score of at least 2000, and the Celeron J1900 gets a score of only 1876, so I was worried that something like that wouldn't be able to keep up with demande
I think I'm leaning towards something like the Intel atom C2750s... I've had an Atom based device in the past and they were so very slow. I guess things have changed. Have you ever used one for a server?

'newtekie1' & 'alucasa', I was leaning towards an i3, as it does simplify some things. Something like the Core i3-4130 gets a PassMark score high enough that I shouldn't have any issues trans coding a stream or two. But, I wasn't sure if it would like being on 24/7. Any idea?

As for a NAS 'Sasqui', I need something that I can run a real operating system on and tweak/learn on.

 

[Solaris17]

i personally use a supermicro board with a xeon, however if your budget is strictly $600 may I suggest the gigabyte server SOCs they support IPMI and other server features you should familiarize yourself with if you would like to get into the field.

 

[newtekie1]

But, I wasn't sure if it would like being on 24/7. Any idea?

Shouldn't be a problem if you buy a good quality motherboard. Heck, for the $300 you are looking to spend on one of those server boards and processors you can get an i5 and a Z170/H170 motherboard with cash left over to spare.

 

[hat]

I assumed it was a bit overkill, But I wanted something that wouldn't stutter with a few Plex streams going. And would last me a few years (my old server is still rocking Windows Server 2003, but it starting to show its age).

'silentbogo', According to Plex to transcode a 1080P stream they recommend a CPU with a PassMark score of at least 2000, and the Celeron J1900 gets a score of only 1876, so I was worried that something like that wouldn't be able to keep up with demande
I think I'm leaning towards something like the Intel atom C2750s... I've had an Atom based device in the past and they were so very slow. I guess things have changed. Have you ever used one for a server?

'newtekie1' & 'alucasa', I was leaning towards an i3, as it does simplify some things. Something like the Core i3-4130 gets a PassMark score high enough that I shouldn't have any issues trans coding a stream or two. But, I wasn't sure if it would like being on 24/7. Any idea?

As for a NAS 'Sasqui', I need something that I can run a real operating system on and tweak/learn on.

If your concern is Plex transcoding, the only situation Plex would transcode is if the target device doesn't natively support the codec which the file you're playing is encoded with. For example, if you did a DVDRip and encoded with h.265, and subsequently played this file on a PS3 over Plex. Plex would transcode because the PS3 does not support h.265. Now, if you were to have encoded using h.264, it would play natively as the PS3 supports this codec.

The only other time Plex will transcode is if you have subtitles with your movie. In order to enable subtitles, Plex has to burn them into the movie on the fly, which will trigger transcoding. This will only happen if you enable the subtitles though, you can have them in your movie and not use them and it will just play natively without.

I've done many DVDRips and encoded them with some very aggressive settings in h.264 (in order to retain the best quality and smallest file size at the same time) to load them up on my Plex server and stream to my PS3. My Plex server is the second rig in my specs, with the Athlon II x4. The thing streams nearly 24/7 and under the circumstances I described above (playing files natively supported by the target device, which I have made sure of) there is almost no CPU load coming from Plex. The thing clocks down to 1000MHz (250x4) the whole time it's streaming.

If after reading this you're still expecting to be doing lots of transcoding for some reason, I might be taking a look at building a system around an AMD FX8320. It'll come out cheaper than the Intel offerings, and the chip will be plenty powerful for that. Encoding is one thing those AMD chips aren't too terrible at. It'll still get beat out by the more expensive Intel offerings, but that chip will be able to handle a decent transcoding workload.

 

[arges86]

Thanks for all the replies. Only recently I've been ripping blue-rays to h.265, most are the more compatible h.264 format.

I'm also interested in learning/using features like a BMC Controller. I've never really had an opportunity to work with that feature before.

The FX-8320 is about $140 on NewEgg, is that really any better for server usage over a comparably priced Intel part, like the i3-4370?

 

[JunkBear]

Arges where do you come from??

 

[newtekie1]

The FX-8320 is about $140 on NewEgg, is that really any better for server usage over a comparably priced Intel part, like the i3-4370?

It will be slower in single-threaded tasks, but a lot faster with multiple threads. My home server is Rig3 in my sig, the FX-8350 computer. It streams all the media in the house, usually there are 2-3 people streaming from the server at a time, as well as acting as a web server and FTP server.

 

[arges86]

i personally use a supermicro board with a xeon, however if your budget is strictly $600 may I suggest the gigabyte server SOCs they support IPMI and other server features you should familiarize yourself with if you would like to get into the field.

Are you referring to ARM processors like these?
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/motherboards/37380-gigabyte-server-releases-arm-motherboard-soc
I don't even see sites to buy them... Just reviews.

 

[Solaris17]

Are you referring to ARM processors like these?
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/motherboards/37380-gigabyte-server-releases-arm-motherboard-soc
I don't even see sites to buy them... Just reviews.

they actually responded to me on FB awhile back. let me see if i cant find a link.

was actually referring tot his

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128754

 

[silentbogo]

'silentbogo', According to Plex to transcode a 1080P stream they recommend a CPU with a PassMark score of at least 2000, and the Celeron J1900 gets a score of only 1876, so I was worried that something like that wouldn't be able to keep up with demande
I think I'm leaning towards something like the Intel atom C2750s... I've had an Atom based device in the past and they were so very slow. I guess things have changed. Have you ever used one for a server?

Also Plex website has a hardware compatibility list for NAS boxes, and devices based on Celeron J1900 are listed as capable of handling 1080p transcoding with some exceptions (hiccups with high-bitrate video).
There are also embedded solutions based on Pentium J2900 with a bit better performance.

C2750 has almost twice the performance of J1900 and it is equally fast in single-threaded tasks, which makes it a perfect candidate for multi-purpose home server/streaming box.
There is only the question of price: Celron J1900 boards cost somewhere between $65-80 new, while Atom C2750 goes upwards $300 (which makes the whole system just as expensive as i3-4130 equivalent).

 

[hat]

Thanks for all the replies. Only recently I've been ripping blue-rays to h.265, most are the more compatible h.264 format.

I'm also interested in learning/using features like a BMC Controller. I've never really had an opportunity to work with that feature before.

The FX-8320 is about $140 on NewEgg, is that really any better for server usage over a comparably priced Intel part, like the i3-4370?

It's quite possible you may require transcoding then, if you're using h.265. Some devices to natively support it, but not many. Even in PC hardware, the only 3 things I know of that support hardware h.265 are the GTX950, GTX960, and Intel Skylake iGPUs (and, Haswell iGPUs to an extent, but not fully).

You may want to consider using h.264 instead, this will greatly reduce the processing power required for playback. I'm confident my Plex server would run on one of those shitty Atom/Celeron based boxes with no problem, because my files play natively (shitty in terms of computational power only). If you still want to continue using h.265, your options are to either update everything else so your target devices support h.265, or build your media server with the grunt to handle it. I would suggest either making your home h.265 compatible or just encode in h.264, because personally I feel encoding in h.265 just to transcode it into a compatible format later is wasteful, not only in the sense of repeating the same computations needlessly, but also wasting quality. Any time you transcode something you lose a little bit of quality, so it can only be at its best if you rip to h.264 from the source (or natively play back h.265).

 

[arges86]

they actually responded to me on FB awhile back. let me see if i cant find a link.

was actually referring tot his

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128754

An Avoton CPU is something I've been looking at. I like the idea of server features in a relativity low price package. Have you used one?
Thought it was interesting that NewEgg wasn't sure what NIC the board has:

• 4 x GbE LAN ports (Intel? I354)

Maybe that question mark is a typo?

 

[Sasqui]

As for a NAS 'Sasqui', I need something that I can run a real operating system on and tweak/learn on.

That's cool if you're tinkering. Many NAS units like QNap run "real" operating systems