Advice on home server CPU choice.

[elsmandino]

Hi,

I am hoping to build a new home server and would be grateful for advice on what CPU to use (has been a while since I bought one).

The server is going to run Windows 10 along with Argus TV and Emby and will run headless.

From what I can ascertain, it is not going to be doing any transcoding (i.e. it will not need to transcode when Emby is streaming Media and I will not be using the server to change video formats).

What do you guys recommend?

Research has led me to think that a Haswell Celeron is the way to go.

[shaithis]

Celeron or FM2 cpu is all you should need.

I use a gaming/HTPC PC to run Emby server although I am looking to offload it and my tests have shown that even an old Microserver (AMD N40L) should be more than adequate, meaning even a Kabini would probably be enough. The amount of CPU it uses is VERY small.

[Jowsey]

I use a Gen 8 Microserver with a Celeron G1610T and have no issues with plex or general file server business.

Like above, an FM based platform would also do the business.

[DanceswithUnix]

My headless home server runs an AMD A8-6500 and I am very happy with it, these days I would use a A8-7600 (in the same Asus A88XM-A motherboard: http://www.ebuyer.com/611200-asus-a8...rboard-a88xm-a unless you need the 8 SATA ports of the plus model).

Cheap (£65) quad core, integrated graphics so no graphics card needed, enough SATA ports for my small RAID array and ability to add disks in future if I want, four RAM slots for lots of RAM (I run several virtual machines on it). My server pulls about 50W from the wall in total despite a pair of mirrored hard drives, 16G of ram in 4 sticks and a workload that means it is never idle, the machine is quiet enough that it sits under the living room TV and no-one notices any noise from it. The 7600 should be better than that

[herulach]

My N54L handled those duties fine before I upgraded (its currently gathering dust till I find another use for it).

However Emby was (in my experience) a royal PITA, at least on linux. PLex is much better, but its difficult to get that to not transcode - not a problem at the moment as its now on a Xeon based system, but it was annoying. If you're looking for non-transcoding streaming I'd suggest Kodi is a better option.

[Jowsey]

PLex is much better, but its difficult to get that to not transcode - not a problem at the moment as its now on a Xeon based system, but it was annoying. If you're looking for non-transcoding streaming I'd suggest Kodi is a better option.

Link.

I've never encountered an issue on my weak dual core celeron. Reciving devices are normally a Chromecast, a Nexus 4 or a LG G4 (were. Bleedin' wifi bug!)

I've always felt that plex is really good at choosing the correct delivery method. Though of course, it depends on the target device, so YMMV.

[elsmandino]

Thanks very much for all that - seems that a Celeron is indeed going to fit the bill.

Which one would you go for?

Should I plump for the G1820 (cheapest regular chip) or perhaps get something slightly more power for only a little bit extra?

To make things slightly more complicated, the G1830 seems to be more expensive than the G1840. The G1830 is slightly slower but has better graphics.

http://ark.intel.com/products/78954

http://ark.intel.com/products/80800

I also had lots of trouble with Emby originally but now I use Kodi (on various windows and android plugins) with the Emby plugin and it works very well - I think that it is the fact I use Kodi means that the server never (as far as I can tell) has any need to transcode any streams.

[herulach]

Link.

I've never encountered an issue on my weak dual core celeron. Reciving devices are normally a Chromecast, a Nexus 4 or a LG G4 (were. Bleedin' wifi bug!)

I've always felt that plex is really good at choosing the correct delivery method. Though of course, it depends on the target device, so YMMV.

Yeah, knew about those settings, but as far as I can see you can't force it, although since the worst target I have is an iPad 2 everything needs transcoding anyway!

As far as CPU choice goes OP, whichever is cheapest. graphics is a non issue, and both will be ample cpu performance.

[abaxas]

My N54L handled those duties fine before I upgraded (its currently gathering dust till I find another use for it).

However Emby was (in my experience) a royal PITA, at least on linux. PLex is much better, but its difficult to get that to not transcode - not a problem at the moment as its now on a Xeon based system, but it was annoying. If you're looking for non-transcoding streaming I'd suggest Kodi is a better option.

My N54L has no issues with transcoding once I increased the 'transcoding throttle buffer'. TBH I don't think there is a CPU out there which can always transcode high bitrate inputs/outputs at a speed >1x without it.

[shaithis]

My N54L handled those duties fine before I upgraded (its currently gathering dust till I find another use for it).

However Emby was (in my experience) a royal PITA, at least on linux. PLex is much better, but its difficult to get that to not transcode - not a problem at the moment as its now on a Xeon based system, but it was annoying. If you're looking for non-transcoding streaming I'd suggest Kodi is a better option.

I found Emby to be a breeze, although I do run it on Windows and all the paths in my libraries are defined as UNC paths. I haven't seen it transcode apart from when I intentionally tried transcoding, which I must say I was completely underwhelmed with the transcoded PQ

[Jowsey]

Yeah, knew about those settings, but as far as I can see you can't force it, although since the worst target I have is an iPad 2 everything needs transcoding anyway!

As far as CPU choice goes OP, whichever is cheapest. graphics is a non issue, and both will be ample cpu performance.

I've never had the chance to test a IOS device with Plex so that would be interesting.

What is also interesting is when my parents or GF's parents come around and we Cast to the TV from the server which is in another room. It's basically witchcraft to them!

[elsmandino]

Superb - thanks everyone for the advice.

Seems that any regular Haswell Celeron (G1820, G1830, G1840, G1850) would do.

Am I correct in thinking that the power usage (particularly idle) is going to be largely the same for all these?

[DanceswithUnix]

Superb - thanks everyone for the advice.

Seems that any regular Haswell Celeron (G1820, G1830, G1840, G1850) would do.

Am I correct in thinking that the power usage (particularly idle) is going to be largely the same for all these?

Idle power is more down to motherboard choice than CPU choice. An i7 will idle around the same as a Celeron.

[spacein_vader]

Superb - thanks everyone for the advice.

Seems that any regular Haswell Celeron (G1820, G1830, G1840, G1850) would do.

Am I correct in thinking that the power usage (particularly idle) is going to be largely the same for all these?

You may be as well going for an embedded or AMD AM1 based solution. They're very low power and you can get a mobo for £25 with a processor for not much more.

I bought a clearance Acer Aspire machine from Ebuyer for £100 using a AMD E2-6110 with 4GB RAM and it happily runs Emby in Win 7 Pro. It'll even do 1 1080p transcode stream but will choke on more than that. TDP is 15w.

[elsmandino]

Thanks everyone for you help on this - I ended up going for a G1840 as it was on offer for about £27.00 - absolute bargain.