BUILD Upgrade CPU and/or other hardware

[flyinfitz1]

Preface: the wife has given permission to look into an upgrade! Woo hoo!

I currently am running a lenovo TS140 with i3-4130 with 12GB ECC RAM, 4x3TB (RAIDZ2). I generally use FreeNAS for Plex and light data storage through SMB. Ive found that high framerate movies tend to stutter (most marvel movies, avatar etc) just slightly. They are streamed over Ive tinkered with the client settings (FireTV) in plex to eliminate them as the source (direct play vs. transcoding etc). When I check the reporting in FreeNAS I find the CPU at 100% on and off which would seem to me that its transcoding and transmitting chunks of the movie. My questions are:

1. Would a marginal upgrade to a xeon CPU (E3-1225 V3 Quad-core (4 Core) 3.20 Ghz) make a big difference?
2. Are used commercial dual CPU servers a good option
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Prolian...880223&hash=item59044b810f:g:49cAAOSwU4FaS~hV
3. Am I missing any other hardware upgrades to try first like RAM?

I know its very broad questions so any insight would be helpful

 

[jgreco]

No, they're not very broad questions. You hit everything important.

If you're hitting 100% CPU, yes, that will hurt if Plex is transcoding. That i3 is a two-core, four-thread affair, and will run out of steam somewhat quickly. I seem to recall the TS140 can be upgraded to Xeon, and if so, then the 1225 is a good option. You've obviously done some research and found that you needed a *5 Xeon to have the onboard graphics. The core speed of 3.2GHz is a bit lower, but the onboard 8MB cache is nearly 3x that of the i3 part. To the best of my knowledge, Plex will make good use of multiple cores when transcoding. I don't run Plex on FreeNAS though. Expect the Xeon to be about twice as fast as your current CPU.

The Proliant you mention is an older generation unit, and even with eight cores it probably is going to be only a little faster than the four core Xeon 1225, and the individual per-core performance isn't as good, which will hurt Samba performance and probably other stuff.

RAM is not likely to be significantly helpful, but it is possible that a little more RAM would reduce the amount of work the CPU has to do. Having too little RAM can stress ZFS and cause it to do more work. RAM never hurts.

 

[Chris Moore]

Would a marginal upgrade to a xeon CPU (E3-1225 V3 Quad-core (4 Core) 3.20 Ghz) make a big difference?

That would not be a marginal upgrade, that would more than double your transcode capacity and you would probably see

Am I missing any other hardware upgrades to try first like RAM?

A little more memory couldn't hurt, but the system you have now would be better (with the Xeon upgrade) than the one you linked to.

 

[jgreco]

That would not be a marginal upgrade, that would more than double your transcode capacity

"more than double" is probably a bit optimistic for single session transcoding, but definitely a substantial increase. The raw CPU numbers are a bit shy of double, but there's more cache and also FreeNAS overhead doesn't have to be counted against the new cores.

 

[tvsjr]

The upgrade sounds like a reasonable path forward... but if you're going to go to the effort and cost, there are faster E3-12xx chips available - all the way up to the E3-1286 v3. The faster, the better...

 

[jgreco]

The upgrade sounds like a reasonable path forward... but if you're going to go to the effort and cost, there are faster E3-12xx chips available - all the way up to the E3-1286 v3. The faster, the better...

Well, that's true, and shopping carefully on the used market sometimes gets you a really good deal. However, more often it is the stuff that's widely used that is cheapest, look at the E5-2670 debacle from a few years ago. Obviously it doesn't hurt to look at the high end to see if you can find a bargain though.

 

[Chris Moore]

Are used commercial dual CPU servers a good option

There are some good options out there, it just depends on the real need you have for storage. In your place, I would just upgrade the CPU and maybe add some memory. That should get you where you need to be performance wise, without having to speed a lot of cash.
If you need to expand you storage pool though, you might consider a chassis upgrade, but the system board you have is a good base even if you add some new components.

What is the end state you would like to get? Do you need more drives/ more storage capacity, or is it just the transcoding that is getting you?

 

[tvsjr]

Well, that's true, and shopping carefully on the used market sometimes gets you a really good deal. However, more often it is the stuff that's widely used that is cheapest, look at the E5-2670 debacle from a few years ago. Obviously it doesn't hurt to look at the high end to see if you can find a bargain though.

Yeah, eBay is fraught with "engineering samples". You can avoid them, but you have to be careful. I don't think he's going to have much luck finding a 1286 v3 on the used market... but some watching may net him something like a 1275 v3, which was more mainstream. May as well look a bit and try to get the most speed possible!

 

[flyinfitz1]

The upgrade sounds like a reasonable path forward... but if you're going to go to the effort and cost, there are faster E3-12xx chips available - all the way up to the E3-1286 v3. The faster, the better...

I think this is the route Ill head. Seems like this one might do it what do you think:
e3-1240

Pair it with 8 more GB of RAM and a beefier client like NVidia Shield and see where we stand after.

There are some good options out there, it just depends on the real need you have for storage. In your place, I would just upgrade the CPU and maybe add some memory. That should get you where you need to be performance wise, without having to speed a lot of cash.
If you need to expand you storage pool though, you might consider a chassis upgrade, but the system board you have is a good base even if you add some new components.

What is the end state you would like to get? Do you need more drives/ more storage capacity, or is it just the transcoding that is getting you?

Storage isnt an issue yet. Been running the HD's for almost three years now. When its time for replacements Ill look at chassis's. Just need a quick boost in the streaming category.

Yeah, eBay is fraught with "engineering samples". You can avoid them, but you have to be careful. I don't think he's going to have much luck finding a 1286 v3 on the used market... but some watching may net him something like a 1275 v3, which was more mainstream. May as well look a bit and try to get the most speed possible!

Whats an engineering sample?

 

[flyinfitz1]

This seems to get good scores on PassMark

https://www.ebay.com/p/Intel-Xeon-E...d=292234140001&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

 

[tvsjr]

Be careful... the E3-12x0/12x1 chips don't have graphics on-chip. The 12x5/12x6 chips do. If you need video (I'm not familiar with the TS140, but I assume it doesn't have IPMI... thus you need a graphics card to manage it) you'll need the right chip.

An engineering sample is a chip sent out by Intel for various testing, etc. purposes prior to the chip being finalized. Some are perfectly functional. Some have entire parts of the chip that are non-functional (I've seen them have zero functional L1 cache, for example). Some have heisenbugs. Just to pick on one random eBay link (not an appropriate chip for you, BTW):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-ES-Q...epid=0&hash=item25e7ec1098:g:3cIAAOSwEEBaMvot
You'll notice there's no mention of "engineering sample" in the body. But, you do find "ES". Also, the "INTEL CONFIDENTIAL" stamped on the chip is a dead giveaway. It also doesn't have the "stepping" (find a list of steppings here) stamped on it.

If you are going to buy something used, I'd suggest extreme caution. I wouldn't buy anything from an overseas seller... especially known trouble countries like China, HK, etc. (no disrespect to those countries... but the amount of fraudulent electronics gear that comes out of there is HUGE compared to the US). I've purchased several chips off eBay (mainly E5s, which are too expensive for me to buy brand new) without issue, but you must proceed with caution.

 

[flyinfitz1]

Be careful... the E3-12x0/12x1 chips don't have graphics on-chip. The 12x5/12x6 chips do. If you need video (I'm not familiar with the TS140, but I assume it doesn't have IPMI... thus you need a graphics card to manage it) you'll need the right chip.

An engineering sample is a chip sent out by Intel for various testing, etc. purposes prior to the chip being finalized. Some are perfectly functional. Some have entire parts of the chip that are non-functional (I've seen them have zero functional L1 cache, for example). Some have heisenbugs. Just to pick on one random eBay link (not an appropriate chip for you, BTW):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-ES-Q...epid=0&hash=item25e7ec1098:g:3cIAAOSwEEBaMvot
You'll notice there's no mention of "engineering sample" in the body. But, you do find "ES". Also, the "INTEL CONFIDENTIAL" stamped on the chip is a dead giveaway. It also doesn't have the "stepping" (find a list of steppings here) stamped on it.

If you are going to buy something used, I'd suggest extreme caution. I wouldn't buy anything from an overseas seller... especially known trouble countries like China, HK, etc. (no disrespect to those countries... but the amount of fraudulent electronics gear that comes out of there is HUGE compared to the US). I've purchased several chips off eBay (mainly E5s, which are too expensive for me to buy brand new) without issue, but you must proceed with caution.

Much appreciated! Thanks

 

[flyinfitz1]

I found this list of supported CPUs

https://download.lenovo.com/parts/ThinkCentre/ts140_partslist_09182013.pdf

I would assume I would have to go with one of these? Some of the linked processors Ive found on ebay with the appropriate socket 1150 are not on this list

 

[flyinfitz1]

Nevermind I found the true supported list

https://lenovopress.com/lp0034.pdf

 

[flyinfitz1]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7dw3w9v3ngXq8IA82

So here's a screenshot of my CPU Spike's while streaming a movie. Would more transcoding power help here?

 

[tvsjr]

Are you seeing any issues during playback? Plex will typically transcode a fair ways ahead of the actual playback and buffer that content, so if you choose to fast forward or whatever, you won't see a delay while it jumps and starts transcoding from a new location.

 

[flyinfitz1]

It's a slight stutter especially on heavy action scenes. It never buffers, it's more of a slight annoyance than a true play back issue.

I bought a new 240hz tv and it's way easier to notice now. On Netflix, HD channels and YouTube HAD all don't have this issue

 

[Chris Moore]

This seems to get good scores on PassMark

https://www.ebay.com/p/Intel-Xeon-E3-1246-V3-3-50ghz-Sr1qz-LGA-1150-Haswell-4-cores-Processor/527155740?iid=263433748806&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIM.MBE&ao=2&asc=47300&meid=8c95920a02854cf3a1732fd0c0413ede&pid=100005&rk=2&rkt=6&sd=292234140001&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

That should give you enough processing power. I have the Xeon E3-1230 @ 3.20GHz which is a v1, quad core and I never have trouble with transcoding speed. It will sometimes run up to 80% use if the video needs a lot of transcode, but many of my movies can direct play because of the way I captured them to begin with. Just be sure you are getting a chip that is compatible with the system board.

 

[flyinfitz1]

but many of my movies can direct play because of the way I captured them to begin with.

Thanks Chris. By this do you file format (.mp4, .mkv etc)?

 

[Chris Moore]

Thanks Chris. By this do you file format (.mp4, .mkv etc)?

Either mp4 or mkv work for a container but I use handbrake and select the, "HQ 1080p30 surround" setting. It gives me a file that down-samples to 720p nicely for the smaller screens or up-samples nicely for the big screen in the living room. I find that videos I encode this way look phenomenal on my 55" LED TV and it takes less storage than trying to store things at 4k resolution.

I bought a new 240hz tv

I am not sure how the higher frame rate will affect any of that. My TV is a year old now and if I recall correctly it was around 120 frames a second. I do see the difference with some of my older movies that were encoded at standard or 720p but the things I have stored at 1080p look great.