Ive read many articles on the Best CPU etc for a Plex Media Server and I would like to know from the experts on this forum the best choice for a processor as this seems to be the key to everything. I know this subject has been beaten, died and was buried, but I would like to resurrect it one more time as hardware changes seem to be a constant in the industry.
My requirements are simple I would like to know the best CPU, Xeon or i7 for streaming and transcoding to multiple external clients at the same time. The other parts of the system I have got covered and shared what I am planing to purchase below, but its that main brain called the CPU which has me perplexed.
I've tried to answer some of the basic questions below so that we can get right into it and would love to see your recommendations on the best CPU and why.
1 - Do you need transcoding? How many concurrent streams? - 6-10 external users will be connecting to the box from different parts of the world. mainly wired but some wirelessly as I do when i travel.
2 - How many clients you need to serve on direct play? What kind of client? **Four clients on the same network wired and another four via wireless. Main player runs on mac mini with Plex media player
**3 - How much space you need? Storage is on Synology Nas boxes so the server will only store the very basics like the OS.
4 - OS ? Windows 10 for the server
5 - Budget? open
**Motherboard: **
ASRock X99M Extreme4 or Asrock X99 WS-E/10G
Internal Storage: Samsung 950 PRO -Series 512GB PCIe NVMe - M.2 (for OS)
Secondary storage: Samsung 850 PRO 512GB
Memory: DDR4 or ECC depending on the final CPU chosen.
Nas Storage
Synology DS2015xs or DS1815+
Network: Gigabit, (considering 10GbE connection between Switch and Synology DS2015xs)
Processor
The Need: No gaming, only Streaming of media, HD content and music
Uptime: On 24/7 365, 99%
Access: As fast as possible
Processor choices: i7-5830k, i7-5960k or Xeon E5-2630 v3 2.40 GHz
When it comes to Xeon I have no clue which to go for, i am not looking to run a dual CPU board only one CPU, there are so many Xeon processors its really a minefield in choosing the correct one for my needs.
If the Xeon processor chosen above is not correct please suggest a more suitable one.
What i know for sure is I will not do any gaming on this machine or overclocking of the CPU, i also don't mind if the board does not come with graphics on board as cards are reasonably priced these days. What I am looking for is performance and reliability with ample head room for steaming to many clients without their access buffering or slowing down, I know this also depends on their connection but I don't want my server to be a bottleneck or run out of steam.
Looking forward to your suggestions.