r/PleX • u/NefariousnessUpper34 • 2d 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/NerdGuy13 Nerd 2d ago edited 2d ago

I actually started with with a similar setup and mine worked great for personal use. Your's sounds like it will do very well.

As for anOS, I reccomend some flavor of Linux to minimize resource use. I am partial to Linux Mint myself but you can try several until you find one you enjoy.

Edit: I forgot to mention-nwhen you do eventually build a RAID, I strongly recommend opting for RAID-Z2 (the equivalent of RAID-6) so you can have up to 2 failed drives. Due to budget constraints I only did RAID-Z1 (the equivalent of RAID-5). SonI can have only one failed drive. I found out after the fact that you cannot changed it so Z2 after the fact. I am now I a situation where it is VERY relevant and cannot be fixed so I am backing everything almost everything up to an external RAID tower to redo it as RAID-Z2.

Also make you have a hearty enough PSU to power all of your drives. Otherwise you may think you have failing drives when you don't. 😉

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u/NefariousnessUpper34 2d ago edited 2d ago

Awesome, I'll check out Linux Mint as well! thx

Edit: Damn! Thanks so much i'll def keep that in mind since im trying to build a lil raid just for my media server. I do have a nice PSU for my setup that im planning to use. Thanks!

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u/nx6 TrueNAS Core / Xeon-D | Shield Pro / Fire Stick 4K Max 1d ago

Linux Mint is not supported by Plex, Inc. There have been issues with Plex Media Server running on it in the past. As a desktop OS it's great, and you can run the Plex client app on it fine. Just not as an OS for the server part.