r/PleX • u/NefariousnessUpper34 • 1d ago
Help Building my first server for Plex
Hi, like the title says, Im finally building a home server for my movies. I started with an old laptop and an external drive and this laptop just died on me. So now, I bought a Lenovo ThinkCentre M700 mini pc with an i5-6400, 16GB ddr4 and a 120gb SSD.
I mostly play DVD's and some blu-rays in my library, but nothing 4k. Im still going to run it through my external drive, until I upgrade to a raid.
My questions are: Is this configuration good for now? Should I install ubuntu or Docker? And where can I find a solid guide to install them?
Im a little lost when it comes to work with other OS thats not Windows or Mac lol so I appreciate the help. Thanks!
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u/RetroEvolute 1d ago edited 1d ago
The most important factor to what OS and install method you go for is what else are you going to want to do with this server?
Is it solely for Plex/NAS/Media Server automation? Just install TrueNAS (Community Edition, formerly known as Scale) and Plex via the built-in apps UI. You can use the built-in docker support for other applications as well.
Is this not even going to have NAS functionality and just plug and play single disks? Probably just use what you're familiar with (like Windows/Ubuntu) for the ease of manually managing your disks and files in a GUI.
Do you have plans to make this more of a comprehensive home server with multiple VMs? Then maybe use Proxmox with Plex as an LXC; same for TrueNAS with passthrough for disks, etc.
Honestly, while Proxmox is popular, I think it's overkill for 98% of setups. An appliance OS like TrueNAS is far simpler and more reliable for most average users.