Hey all, just wondering what others are using for a rack mount server option. I don’t want to break the bank, and I have a P2000 I plan to use for transcoding. I had picked up a Hyze Zeus server, but unfortunately, the GPU won’t fit in that box. I plan to have this machine dedicated to Plex. All of my data will be stored on my trunas server and server up to plex via NFS shares, so the server doesn’t need much storage capacity. I would prefer the server to be a 1u rack mount… but if 2u is going to offer the best option, I will settle for 2u.
Never heard of the Hyve Zeus before, looks like a pretty neat server.
Is the p2000 too long? From some online images it looks like the cooler is longer than the card’s actual length, so it’s possible you could make it smaller by getting a shorter “VGA Cooler” for that card. Since it’s only being used for transcoding I wouldn’t expect a smaller cooler to negatively affect the card’s temps too much.
As far as alternatives, you could get away with a more efficient setup by going for an Intel NUC (sadly not rackmount ☹️) and using the onboard QuickSync for transcoding, although this would really only make sense if you have one laying about unused
Yeah, I love the Hyve Zeus servers. I currently have three making up my proxmox cluster. They are great so long as you have another system for storage, as they only fit 2x 2.5" drives otherwise. I have my cluster linked to an SSD pool on trunas via 10gb for all my vm’s.
As for the GPU - Yeah, it’s too long because of the cooler. It’s possible I could get an alternative cooler, and it’s something I could look at. Although the server I bought for it has already been sent back since the gpu didn’t fit.
The NUC isn’t a bad idea, but I got a good deal on the P2000 and was hoping to utilize that. I recently started hosting plex for my in-laws, and want to get our daughter setup with an account with her going off to college. My current plex setup works fine, but as I’m adding people accessing it remotely, I just figured it would be nice to put the P2000 into play.
Honestly, a modern Intel processor with quick sync will do a far better job of transcoding than that p2000.
I think you are definitely getting into overkill territory here with a server rack dedicated to Plex and a GPU. Most igpus on Intel chips can transcode 10+ 1080p streams and 2ish 4k streams. Unless you have 100 users seems over kill to me.
Edit. I’m on Unraid with about 30 users, and I only give Plex and all my other containers 6 cores from an i7 10700k.
Trying to recreate a server at Netflix scale? A tiny PC is all you need.
