Upgrade current CPU Freenas Plex server ?

[erodz1892]

Hello, hope this is the right thread for this question. I recently build my second Freenas Box for Plex and could not be more happy with it. Except for one thing I was looking at power consumption as the top priority and I chose the AMD Sempron 3850 1.3Ghz 25W as the CPU with a 2TB green WD I wasn't planning to do much trans coding as I currently convert most of the video media at home but it seems that this CPU doesn't take the transcoding very well I am looking to upgrade to the top Athlon 5350 2Ghz same TDP now on windows when you boot a new CPU it'll take you to the BIOS to set new values and then reboot windows for it to recognize it. Will this be the same case on the Freenas server ? will it ruin or brick the Freenas box ? will Freenas recognize the CPU right away? I really dedicated a lot of time tuning the plex server it'll a shame if that would be the case. Thanks in advance

 

[Ericloewe]

A simple CPU upgrade should not be a problem, assuming that's all you change. FreeNAS in particular doesn't really care about hardware changes, since you can only use the drivers that ship with the OS.

 

[cyberjock]

Windows is the only OS that freaks out if you change the hardware. FreeNAS/FreeBSD is pretty agnostic and will adjust accordingly.

As for CPU, I'm not sure if that CPU will be good enough for Plex. The CPU you are wanting to buy has a CPUMark of 2600. My 4 year old laptop CPU scores 4300. We often recommend the G3220 for FreeNAS boxes, but we also add that transcoding and encryption shouldn't be expected on the G3220. It scores almost 3200.

So I'd say if you really plan to do a CPU replacement, you're going to need something more powerful than what you are trying to put in.

If you are making your choices based on TDP, don't. TDP doesn't specify the idle power, only the maximum power under load.

 

[erodz1892]

Thank you ! so much for cutting corners :( I should've went intel on this one I am going to have this box 24/7 so I assumed that this was the CPU for it. I do have a spare 3570K Ivy Bridge just got to get a mini ITX motherboard for it. On my other Freenas the electricity is not a problem so I run a AMD 6400k @ 4.1Ghz on that one and it does pretty good, I think the i3 are overpriced that's why I've stayed away from them this is the one I was looking at as a second option http://www.microcenter.com/product/419423/Core_i3_4340_36GHz_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor the upgrade is going to be pricey.

 

[SwampRabbit]

What are you streaming to, the PleX client on windows, or a set top box?

I have not tried it myself yet, but I know others that do use it, could always try to use XBMC with the PleXBMC addon.

https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/27270-plexbmc-client-for-xbmc/

This may allow the majority of the muscle to happen locally.

It might help you from upgrading right away until you can put it all together the way you want.

 

[joeschmuck]

In your first posting you said you convert your video into the proper format so you don't need to use transcoding, but I assume you don't always do that. Why not? If you did then you could just use Plex without the transcoding and not replace your CPU. Of course if you do plan to do some transcoding then I guess that spare Ivy Bridge CPU looks good.

 

[SwampRabbit]

My apologies, if you got to the last page (111!) of that thread you'll see they moved to a new one.

https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/106593-plexbmc-xbmc-add-on-to-connect-to-plex-media-server/

Those 25W Semprons are nice, but maybe you are hitting its limits. I had a 25W Dual Core Athlon "u" model in an old HTPC with onboard ATI Radeon HD 4250 that handled 1080p like a champ off my file server, so don't give up on it yet.

 

[erodz1892]

T

In your first posting you said you convert your video into the proper format so you don't need to use transcoding, but I assume you don't always do that. Why not? If you did then you could just use Plex without the transcoding and not replace your CPU. Of course if you do plan to do some transcoding then I guess that spare Ivy Bridge CPU looks good.

I do convert most of the video at home where I use a FX 9590 with dual 780s but I found myself using way too many devices from Smart TV apps ,Roku, all kinds of mobile devices and many more sometimes I'm not at home to convert these and that's when the buffering starts I'm sure is not bandwidth because at home I use 100mbps down and not sure how many up but they are good connections on both sides.

 

[erodz1892]

Thanks for the replies,

What are you streaming to, the PleX client on windows, or a set top box?

I have not tried it myself yet, but I know others that do use it, could always try to use XBMC with the PleXBMC addon.

https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/27270-plexbmc-client-for-xbmc/

This may allow the majority of the muscle to happen locally.

It might help you from upgrading right away until you can put it all together the way you want.

Well I have a friend to share the library and we use all kinds of devices I want all the load to be taken on the server itself Ill have to get into the XBMC see how that's works out

 

[erodz1892]

Thanks for the replies, I live next to a microcenter I probably going to pick up something later. They don't have good mini ITX for the Ivy Bride platform (phasing out) I guess, other choices are the A10 6400k with a max TDP of 65W under full load witch I assume it will be when transcoding is happening also this has a lower TDP than the I5 3570k (77W) that I have however the A10 is a dual core and I am not sure how plex transcoding uses the cores. Also I know Intel architecture is more efficient than AMD but that's on windows not sure if that's the same case with Freenas. I was looking at some of the Passmark scores and AMD looks terrible Ill probably get a I5 4570K with a nice mini ITX motherboard that will be around $250 for both. Also the Intel I3 4340 has twice the passmark score of the Athlon 5350 and thats $129 with a TDP of 54W that could be my other choice.