Xeon e5-1620v3

[julong]

Will this CPU be able to transcode h.265 videos?

 

[Chris Moore]

Will this CPU be able to transcode h.265 videos?

That is entirely possible but it depends on the resolution you are transcoding from and to as to the amount of work that is required.
There are many better solutions. Why are you looking at this one?

 

[julong]

I have the x10srl-f motherboard and it only supports 1600v3/4 and 2600v3/4.
I found an oem 1620v3 on Amazon for 150. I can't find any other ones for under 500. In those two classes. Do you have abetter recommendations?

 

[Yorick]

With a pass mark of 9k7, you will be able to transcode one uhd (4k) stream, or about four hd (1080p) streams.

Is that sufficient for your use case?

 

[julong]

With a pass mark of 9k7, you will be able to transcode one uhd (4k) stream, or about four hd (1080p) streams.

Is that sufficient for your use case?

Is that uhd h.265? Honestly, yes I'm the only one right now that watches the movies. When my child gets older then I can upgrade. My wife only watches TV if I'm watching it. At my house we will be watching the server using either Roku(living room) or nvidia shield(bedroom). When I'm away from home I either use my phone or a tablet (but only one using it at that time).

 

[Chris Moore]

Is that uhd h.265?

Why do you want to use that? It is more burdensome on the processor and provides little benefit.
Also, there is this:
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wifi-porter-review/

 

[Yorick]

Yeah that’s a standard codec for 4k Blu-ray - hevc also known as h.265. I can transcode one of these on my FreeNAS server.

When you are streaming to a 4k tv you can do that without transcode. If you ever need to stream to several 1080p devices, you could use handbrake to store a hd version of the movie. Plex is smart enough to use the right resolution version depending on target device

 

[julong]

Why do you want to use that? It is more burdensome on the processor and provides little benefit.
Also, there is this:
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wifi-porter-review/

I have a few videos that are encoded that way. I don't have many but some I only find that way.

 

[julong]

Yeah that’s a standard codec for 4k Blu-ray - hevc also known as h.265. I can transcode one of these on my FreeNAS server.

When you are streaming to a 4k tv you can do that without transcode. If you ever need to stream to several 1080p devices, you could use handbrake to store a hd version of the movie. Plex is smart enough to use the right resolution version depending on target device

What's your specs?

 

[Yorick]

I’m assuming you’re on mobile, otherwise the specs are right there in my .sig. I use an e3-1230v6 with a passmark of 9k8. With the benefit of hindsight, I’d have gone for a 1225v6 in hopes of hw transcode sometime 11.2-u4 or thereabouts.

 

[julong]

I’m assuming you’re on mobile, otherwise the specs are right there in my .sig. I use an e3-1230v6 with a passmark of 9k8. With the benefit of hindsight, I’d have gone for a 1225v6 in hopes of hw transcode sometime 11.2-u4 or thereabouts.

Yes I am on mobile. I keep reading about hardware acceleration, can I use a gpu to help transcode videos and take pressure of course?

 

[Yorick]

can I use a gpu to help transcode videos and take pressure of course?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: It depends. Reword the question. "Will I be able to use a GPU built into an Intel CPU to take pressure off the CPU?" Possibly yes. A few things have to be true. Your CPU has to have a built-in GPU; your chipset has to support that; FreeNAS has to support it.

FreeNAS support is cooking and keeps getting pushed back. Maybe 11.2-U4, unless it gets pushed again.
Chipset support: If I read the wiki entry right, it's the C216, C226, C236, C246(?). More to the point, the C612 doesn't.
CPU support: E3, some do; E5, none do. For E3, it's the xxx5 processors.

 

[julong]

Short answer: No.

Long answer: It depends. Reword the question. "Will I be able to use a GPU built into an Intel CPU to take pressure off the CPU?" Possibly yes. A few things have to be true. Your CPU has to have a built-in GPU; your chipset has to support that; FreeNAS has to support it.

FreeNAS support is cooking and keeps getting pushed back. Maybe 11.2-U4, unless it gets pushed again.
Chipset support: If I read the wiki entry right, it's the C216, C226, C236, C246(?). More to the point, the C612 doesn't.
CPU support: E3, some do; E5, none do. For E3, it's the xxx5 processors.

So is it because of freenas that you cant use an external gpu to use hardware acceleration on Plex or Plex doesn't allow it?

 

[Yorick]

External GPU acceleration isn't a thing on Plex. There may be exceptions to that rule if running Plex on Windows, but the Plex docs aren't extremely clear on that.

I wouldn't hold my breath on that. External GPU is just such a niche idea outside of Windows, I don't expect to see much if any effort expended on it in the FreeBSD realm by Plex or FreeNAS. Certainly not in any version of "soon" you'd like to contemplate.

 

[julong]

External GPU acceleration isn't a thing on Plex. There may be exceptions to that rule if running Plex on Windows, but the Plex docs aren't extremely clear on that.

I wouldn't hold my breath on that. External GPU is just such a niche idea outside of Windows, I don't expect to see much if any effort expended on it in the FreeBSD realm by Plex or FreeNAS. Certainly not in any version of "soon" you'd like to contemplate.

Well as long as I can play at least 1 4k at a time that's cool. But when I'm home I dont need to transcode so the CPU doesn't matter right if I am playing on a 4k device?

 

[Yorick]

Yes, exactly. It'll depend on your Plex client some, not all Roku devices support 4k, for example. And, assuming your client/device supports it, you can "Direct Play" or "Direct Stream". The first uses just about no CPU, the second a tiny bit just for the container change. I'm using that with a Roku Ultra from MKV containers that are taken directly from BluRay, and it works great and doesn't transcode.

 

[rvassar]

FreeNAS support is cooking and keeps getting pushed back. Maybe 11.2-U4, unless it gets pushed again.
Chipset support: If I read the wiki entry right, it's the C216, C226, C236, C246(?). More to the point, the C612 doesn't.
CPU support: E3, some do; E5, none do. For E3, it's the xxx5 processors.

How about those of us running i3's on C202?

 

[Yorick]

How about those of us running i3's on C202?

You’re out of luck.

The Intel specs are helpful here. If integrated graphics aren’t supported, it’s a no go.

Or snarkily: http://lmgtfy.com/?iie=1&q=Intel+c202

 

[Chris Moore]

You’re out of luck.

The Intel specs are helpful here. If integrated graphics aren’t supported, it’s a no go.

Very helpful.

 

[rvassar]

You’re out of luck.

The Intel specs are helpful here. If integrated graphics aren’t supported, it’s a no go.

Sure enough... Right there in the spec's:
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/52803/intel-c202-chipset.html

Or snarkily: http://lmgtfy.com/?iie=1&q=Intel+c202

You're gonna get me in trouble! ;)