Recommendations on CPU

[virtualtinker 8]

So apparently my current CPU is not good enough for the day to day demands of my household.  I found this out unfortunately when I was enjoying a nice episode of 24 and my wife griped at me because she couldn't watch her HGTV.  Because of this, I'm on the lookout for a new CPU and I am trying to decide between the $200 I5 and the $300 I7.  Looking at the specs, the only real discernible difference I see between the two I'm eyeing is that the I7 has a bit more cache and, more importantly, supports hyperthreading.

 

What I am trying to figure out now, is how good is the Server component at handling multiple cores?  Will I see a lot of improvement in the transcoding with hyperthreading enabled, or would I be better off sticking with the I5 because the hyperthreading doesn't yield enough of a performance improvement?  Specifically, I am talking about transcoding here as that seems to be the only real thing where the CPU is the bottleneck in my current setup.

 

Any input or comments would be appreciated, thanks!

[MrFlibbles 21]

Rather than getting a bigger CPU, is there a way you could reduce the transcoding? If you have the bandwidth, most clients should be able to play content directly without transcoding. Often the clients have an option to set bandwidth limits which, if set too low, will cause them to always transcode on the server. It may not apply to you but worth mentioning as it could save you forking out $$

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

I am guessing these are Haswell or Fourth Generation CPUs. Cost doesn't really say much. I don't think Hyperthreading will give you a benefit currently. The system only seems to use two streams per transcode. This can improve though.

 

On my server, Sandy Bridge i5-2500K, I can support my household. This chip is several years old. I use two Rokus as HTPCs and they don't require transcoding except when subtitles are included. I have both of them set at 20 Mbps. Both are wired on Gigabit Ethernet. Each media center is on its own switch but shares with other devices like Bluray players, Xboxs and a Wii. Wirelessly we have 3 laptops, 5 iPhones, 3 Kindle Fires, an Old School iPad and a Samsung Tablet. These run off two wireless access points broadcasting individual WiFi networks. Of course not all wireless devices are active at once. Rounding out the home network, we have two wired desktops attached to the main router where the cable enters the house. In addition to MediaBrowser, we stream Time Warner Cable, Hulu and Netflix.

 

So I am guessing you can get by with the i5 and save some money if it is compatible with your current motherboard and RAM.

[Melyan 2]

My current HTPC uses an i3-3225 (using HD4000 cpu graphics) in the main room serving two seperate Roku 3's in the bedrooms.  I've had no problems transcoding a 15GB rip to the Roku while another user plays recorded wtv files (FFWD'ing/Pause/RW) and recording two HDTV shows in Win7 Media Center simultaneously.

 

What is you're current setup?  Maybe it's possible that the setup needs tweaking instead of a new CPU.

[ecrispy 23]

The server I am building (bought an old server from ebay) will have an AMD Opteron cpu so its quite old.

 

Wayne, how come your Roku doesn't need transcoding? I used to have a Roku 2 and running it from Plex it almost never did direct play. Which container are your files in - mp4 or mkv?

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

All of my files are MKV with h.264 video. Many files are DVDs rips with AAC audio. I have the roku set to stream 20 Mbps. The Rokus are connected via ethernet to a Gigabit network. It does transcode if I play an uncompressed HD video or include subtitles. The transcode process doesn't usually last the entire duration of video playback though.

 

I don't use MP4 because it cannot hold subtitles. They have to be burned into the video which removes the ability to turn them off.

[virtualtinker 8]

A little more information about my setup

 

I run an i3 Ivybridge dual core 2.8 ghz (3220T) with hyperthreading disabled.  This is connected an Asus P8 H77-I mini ATX board.  I've also got 8 gigs of memory installed.  On it, I run Windows 8.1 with FlexRAID (t-raid) for my media.  I also run the MB server component on this machine.  Regarding Windows, I have an SSD drive for my OS so my page file has been disabled.  I've also repointed my transcoding directory to a magnetic drive.

 

All of my media has been encoded using Handbrake and with my compression on average my files are around 6-8GB mkv files.  I have no problems with watching the videos direct via MBT or my Roku.  I don't have problems handling a single transcode either, nor are there problems doing a combination of a direct stream and transcode.  The only problem I've run into was when I tried to run two transcode jobs.  As in the instance above, I was watching 24 on my iPad, and my wife was trying to stream a recorded episode on her laptop.  I don't know what bitrate I had my stream as I can't seem to figure out how to change it on the iPad, but I don't think it is that high based on the quality.  My wife's was at 1.5 mbps.

 

The CPU's I am eyeing are ivyBridges and not Haswell as the socket type for my board is an LGA1155.  I am specifically looking at the i5-3570 and the i7-3770.  These are both 3.4 Ghz quad core processors.  As mentioned, the only real difference I see between the two is the i7 has a bit more onboard cache and supports hyperthreading.

 

Does that better explain where I stand?  Are there any other questions?  Thanks!

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

The obvious choice would be the i7. Even if the server doesn't utilize hyperthreading now, it gives you more room to grow.

[virtualtinker 8]

The obvious choice would be the i7. Even if the server doesn't utilize hyperthreading now, it gives you more room to grow.

Forgive me but why would this necessarily be the obvious choice?  Aside from the slightly larger cache and hyperthreading, is there some other key differentiators between the i5 and i7 that I am missing?  And I am of the impression that ffmpeg is what is doing the transcoding.  As you mentioned, I believe it can only run on 2 cores currently, but is there any idea of the roadmap and if ffmpeg will go beyond more than 2 cores and if so, how will it handle hyperthreaded cores?  Could MB maybe run multiple ffmpeg sessions if multi-core support is not something that will be supported by the app in any forseeable amount of time?  There could be other factors as well that I'm not seeing in addition to what I just rattled off.

 

Maybe the questions above can't be answered.  In any case, I'm just trying to better understand all the factors that could potentially influence my decision between the two processors as the $100 difference is currently a lot of money to me right now.  If the differences are worth it, then I'll suck it up and save up, but I want to make sure my decision is aligned with where the technology is going so I see the best value for my dollars.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

Just my opinion. All things considered, same speed, same number of cores, hyperthreading is what you'll have to improve performance with future software enhancements. The i7 also comes with better graphics in case you need to use the machine as a client as well or to help manage media. You have to figure in how long of a life you want on the machine as well. I don't build a machine if I can't get 5 years of life out it minimum.

[MrFlibbles 21]

..I don't know what bitrate I had my stream as I can't seem to figure out how to change it on the iPad..

 

Settings cog > General Settings > Scroll down to "Stream Settings". If you are on decent wireless, try uping your Local Quality to 10 mb/s and see if that at least allows video to be played natively, leaving only 5.1 audio to be transcoded.

 

Why is your wife's laptop streaming rather than playing natively? Is it running though MBT or web client on her laptop?

 

Sorry, I know you asked about CPUs for transcoding, but my focus has always been trying to avoid transcoding so I look at what the clients can handle natively. That way, the server is left with headroom to service other clients and requests

[virtualtinker 8]

Settings cog > General Settings > Scroll down to "Stream Settings". If you are on decent wireless, try uping your Local Quality to 10 mb/s and see if that at least allows video to be played natively, leaving only 5.1 audio to be transcoded.

 

Why is your wife's laptop streaming rather than playing natively? Is it running though MBT or web client on her laptop?

 

Sorry, I know you asked about CPUs for transcoding, but my focus has always been trying to avoid transcoding so I look at what the clients can handle natively. That way, the server is left with headroom to service other clients and requests

I was under the impression that only mp4 format could be played natively via the web client; all of my media is in mkv format. My wife views everything via the web client one because she finds it more convenient, two because there is sometimes skipping direct playing on my wireless, three and what she watches is live tv which is not available via MBT yet. About my wireless, it is a 2.4 ghz N network, no dual radios and my wife's laptop doesn't support it even if I did have it. I've also run site surveys occasionally to make sure I am running on the least congested channel from 1,6 and 11.

 

Thanks for the comment regarding the stream settings, I will check that out and I appreciate the comments I've gotten so far.

[DeeMac 17]

WIth default transcoding settings.... and a core i7 2600 - and 10GB of ram I have:

0 devices transcoding - 0-1 % cpu usage

1 devices transcoding - ~20% max cpu usage (and no hiccups to my browser or android client, though my xb360 seems to have some hiccups or quirks)

2 devices transcoding - ~25% max cpu usage (no hiccups noticed)

3 devices transcoding - ~30% max cpu usage (chrome browser hiccups and repeats the last second every 3 seconds, but then seemed to eventually settle down.  XB360 stopped and resumed playback every so often )

 

Device1 = xb360 running Bruno ISO (GIGABIT Network - Quality seemed to be mediocre)

Device2= Android Client on HP Touchpad running Book of Eli ISO (WIFI to FIOS actiontec 10/100 model - Quality seems very good)

Device3= Desktop with Core i7 920 running Chrome and Wreck it Ralph ISO (GIGABIT Network - Quality seems excellent albeit, its a cartoon)

 

Eventually I turned on livetv with indy car racing under WMC7 with no issues whatsoever.... then I noticed the CPU usage barely changed  and was fluctuating around 25%... but my xb360 was pausing for seconds at a time.

During all of this, the android client running on my HP Touchpad performed awesomely over a wireless network running Cyanogenmod 11. 

 

Summary

I believe the problems encountered with the occasional glitching was not the HTPC, but the devices being transcoded to... so there are more factors than just the CPU... and my cpu was purchased around July 2011.

Edited June 1, 2014 by DeeMac

[Blusky 1]

I'm a newbie here but I thought I would throw in my 2 cents. I built a HTPC about 6 months ago . I realize it is an overkill but I plan on also using it for gaming with the kids.

Here are my hardware specs:

 

Intel i7 4770k processor

 

GPU -GTX 780

 

Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case CC-9011030-WW - Black

 

2 Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III SSD's in Raid 0 config

 

Asus Z87 PRO LGA 1150 Motherboard

 

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB)

 

Swiftech H220 Quiet Power PLUG-AND-PLAY Liquid Cooling System 4 Pin 2x 120mm Fans 3/8 Fitting, Water block for GTX780.

 

Windows 7 Pro with WMC.

 

Ceton InfinTV 6 PCIe cable tuner

 

 

 

2 WD black 4GB hard drives

 

 

 

I recently upgraded from MB2 to MB3 server on my HTPC and the IPad client on an ipad2 , and iOS client on an iPhone 5.

 

Did a little testing today with the HTPC watching live tv my CPU loads are about 6%. I then connected to the MB3 server through my DNS address with my ipad and the load went to between 80 and 86%. I then used my iPhone 5 through the iOS client and my load went to -about 93%. My transcode setting is set to Max quality.

If I play everything the same as before but instead use the media browser client for ipad instead of going through my DNS address my CPU load only goes to 16%??

 

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks to all the Dev as I am really enjoying MB3. Incredible work. Thanks.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Edited June 3, 2014 by Blusky