Per my previous post, I’m working on updating my server that’s running a J3455 Celeron with 16gigs of ram.

Goals:

  • Support at least six hard drives (currently have six drives in software RAID 6). Can move 7th main drive to nvme.
  • Be faster at transcoding video. This is primarily so I can use PhotoPrism for video clips. Real-time transcoding 4K 80mbps video down to something streamabke would be nice. Despite getting QuickSync to work on the Celeron, I can’t pull more than 20fps unless I drop the output to like 640x480. Current build has no PCIe x16 slot.
  • Energy efficiency. Trying to avoid a dedicated video card.
  • Support more RAM. Currently maxed at 16gb.
  • Price: around $500
  • Server-grade hardware would be nice, but I want newer versions of quicksync and can’t afford newer server hardware. Motherboard choice is selected primarily because of chipset, number of SATA ports, and I found one open box.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JX2gHG

Hoping to move my main drive to the NVME and keep the other six drives as-is without needing a reinstall.

Thoughts?