ebay - Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n Nano, i3-8145U, 8GB, 256GB SSD, Win 10 Pro, 1 YR On-site Warranty $299.99

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10-30-2020 at 12:27 PM #2

This would make an absolutely killer low power Plex server since it supports Quick Sync. Just slap on an external storage drive and you're golden.

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10-30-2020 at 12:31 PM #3

Quote from ThriftyHalibut7655 :

This would make an absolutely killer low power Plex server since it supports Quick Sync. Just slap on an external storage drive and you're golden.

Never thought about that. So I could just hook up a series of external drives through a hub and configure a plex server that way?

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10-30-2020 at 12:37 PM #4

Quote from alxshanti :

Never thought about that. So I could just hook up a series of external drives through a hub and configure a plex server that way?

Yes, ensuring the drives had their own power, it would work fine. You'd keep Plex installed on the SSD though, which means all your metadata and transcoding scratch space would stay there. Just your media files would be on the externals.

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10-30-2020 at 12:55 PM #5

Quote from ThriftyHalibut7655 :

Yes, ensuring the drives had their own power, it would work fine. You'd keep Plex installed on the SSD though, which means all your metadata and transcoding scratch space would stay there. Just your media files would be on the externals.

Very enticing, considering I have a couple of USB 3 external docks for my drives. I was about make a move to a NAS, but this might be a more versatile option, certainly more affordable. I'll need to get a monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.

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10-30-2020 at 02:14 PM #6

Quote from alxshanti :

Very enticing, considering I have a couple of USB 3 external docks for my drives. I was about make a move to a NAS, but this might be a more versatile option, certainly more affordable. I'll need to get a monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.

I do this exact setup with a NUC. But I also have a NAS for the actual storage.

Please keep in mind that the advantage that Quick Sync has is that you can have many many streams active in Plex at the same time. This is good for sharing out Plex with friends.

If you don't share it out and use it by yourself or just your family, it may make more sense to actually build a NAS. Then just have its CPU do the transcoding for you in Plex. The only reason I went with a NUC and no longer run Plex on the actual NAS is so I can handle 10+ streams concurrently.

As far as 'more affordable', you can build a NAS out with reasonable specs that you can put your drives into that'll run Plex just fine for about the same price as this mini PC.

There are wonderful guides out there for how to do this on the cheap. I recommend this one to start out with: https://forums.serverbuilds.net/t...-125/667/5

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Last edited by ThriftyHalibut7655 October 30, 2020 at 02:16 PM.

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10-30-2020 at 10:33 PM #7

I posted this before, on lenovo website directly. and got no love!

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10-30-2020 at 10:34 PM #8

https://slickdeals.net/f/14469704-lenovo-thinkcentre-m90n-small-desktop-unit-doorbuster-sale-free-2-days-shoprunner-shipping-299

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10-30-2020 at 10:57 PM #9

Quote from MinhLe_GB :

I posted this before, on lenovo website directly. and got no love!

256gb SSD versus your 128GB SSD.

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10-30-2020 at 10:59 PM #10

Quote from psg190 :

256gb SSD versus your 128GB SSD.

ah ah ok.

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11-01-2020 at 07:03 AM #11

Everytime I see these I forget how small they are. Soldered ram is definitely a trade off, so not for everyone. SFF models are also pretty small and usually more upgradable but this is like half the size of those. Pretty amazing.

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11-01-2020 at 08:44 AM #12

Will this be suitable for just basic web browsing and printing for parents?

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11-01-2020 at 08:52 AM #13

Quote from rsx1285 :

Will this be suitable for just basic web browsing and printing for parents?

Yes. Got one for father in law with a deal on the 32 inch lenovo 1440p monitor. Whole setup for not much over 500 bucks. Perfect for his needs.

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11-01-2020 at 10:02 AM #14

Pretty amazing how small these are. My parents could use something like this

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11-01-2020 at 03:22 PM #15

Quote from ThriftyHalibut7655 :

I do this exact setup with a NUC. But I also have a NAS for the actual storage.

Please keep in mind that the advantage that Quick Sync has is that you can have many many streams active in Plex at the same time. This is good for sharing out Plex with friends.

If you don't share it out and use it by yourself or just your family, it may make more sense to actually build a NAS. Then just have its CPU do the transcoding for you in Plex. The only reason I went with a NUC and no longer run Plex on the actual NAS is so I can handle 10+ streams concurrently.

As far as 'more affordable', you can build a NAS out with reasonable specs that you can put your drives into that'll run Plex just fine for about the same price as this mini PC.

There are wonderful guides out there for how to do this on the cheap. I recommend this one to start out with: https://forums.serverbuilds.net/t...-125/667/5

Thank you for that. I really appreciate the detailed explanation! Yeah, I'm in a far different place that you are, only using Plex to watch movies with the family in the living room. No multiple simultaneous streaming or trascoding on the fly. So I probably don't need the power of a NUC. But I was thinking it could be an alternative to a NAS. I could just plug my external docks into it and go from. I also like the fact that it would much easier to add/remove drives, use different-capacity drives, etc. etc. I don't get the redundancy of a RAID array of course, and that is something to think about. Building a NAS box on my own. I don't know, man. I'll look into that. Thanks you.

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