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Good VPS for Plex?
I'm looking for a good VPS that can run a Plex server. No need for storage since I'll be connecting to GDrive via Plexdrive. Only requirement would be really good network in the EU (I'm from Finland) since I'll be using 4K content also. Most content will be direct play but I'll be occasionally transcoding 1080p content.
Any recommendations?
Comments
A VPS with a dedicated CPU would be good http://buyvm.net/ or https://hosthatch.com/ have these.
Hosthatch has a Swedish location which could fit better (Don't know about transit from SE to FI maybe someone could elaborate?)
Can recommend both providers
Do you think a 1/2 core would suffice, or should I go for the whole 1 core on BuyVM? Would love to keep costs as low as possible
1 whole core would be more reliable
Don't take my words for granted but since your not transcoding, CPU usage shouldn't be too high (It's that way for me at least).
Maybe you should start with a half core and if isn't enough you could upgrade to next higher instance.
Didn't Hetzner open a Finland location? Might look into that one
Btw. is storing such media on GDrive really that good a choice or do you additionally use something like boxcryptor?
As long as you don't share it publically(public facing web server,etc), you'll be fine.
Many people enable encrypt their uploads as well.
If you’re really never going to transcode, pretty much anything with a CPU will do.
I would say aim for 4gb ram at a minimum and the HD depends on much you want to store. I run a server from dacentec (link in signature) for $275/yr, 16gb ram and 2tb HD.
I don't think so. I run a medium sized instance and it takes 385MiB Memory at this very moment.
4K content with occasional transcoding.. and you recommend 385 MB?
No i didn't
They don't offer Cloud from Finland, at least not yet. Might look into that in the future though. And not sure how well they would take it if I transcoded on the 2vCPU slot. The 4vCPU is a bit too steep for my budget.
Well, I said "occasional transcoding", so yes, I will be transcoding. Just not all the time. Most of my watching will be on my nVidia Shield.
@jiiikoo is right. We don't have our cloud products in Finland yet. We will most likely make an announcement here when they are ready, as long as one of the LET readers doesn't beat us to it. You guys are quick. If you use the Robot customer administration interface to order your server with us, you can see which locations the product you want is available in during the ordering process. --Katie, Marketing
What's the downside using plex cloud ? I am using plex cloud, as long as it is not transcoding, it'll be just fine. Because it's basically play directly from Google Drive.
I used it when it first came out for Plex Pass holders (little over a year ago iirc) and my main issue was that new media scans took for-fucking-ever. Probably would only become apparent if you have a huge library, but I mean if you're using Google Drive for media storage you probably do. That combined with the fact that scans for new content would only occur when you logged into Plex and not at a convenient time, like say in the middle of the night while sleeping.
Plus transcodes (if you ever need them) are hit or miss depending on what server of their's you get stuck on and how many others are using the same server at the time.
Maybe they overcame these issues since the last time I've used it, maybe not.
Funny, just spent this morning looking for an alternative to my Plex installation with ZXHost...
The best I found for my needs was this deal from oneprovider for an Atom C2750 with 8GB RAM and 1TB HDD currently going for €13.00/month in Paris (Online.net). You can easily get 1080 transcoding with it (for personal use) and until something cheaper comes along it suits me just fine.
https://oneprovider.com/dedicated-servers/paris-france
One TB for a plex drive is probably not enough. Than you're better off with the SSD version and plexdrive.
I'm glad to pay the 13€/month for an atom C2750 with 8GB ram and 1GBps unmetered connection... the 1 TB HDD is just a bonus feature, the way I see it
Mind you, it's my first experience with oneprovider and still waiting for the server to be deployed... I may be hugely disappointed with it but until proven otherwise I'm really looking forward to a big upgrade to my plex server.
Yes, sometimes media scans / refresh meta data took very long. I don't know how long is considered long because I don't have any other plex server.
They change how scan media works. Now, we must initiate the scan manually.
Transcode (not that I need them) is very horrible, mainly because they don't have server on Asia. I'll stick with direct play. But for $5 / month, it's great. I don't need to worry about installing stuff. And I have unlimited google drive from my school.
I've decided to try out Hetzner. I've had a good experience with their dedicated servers in the past. I'll see how they perform and switch if it isn't powerful enough. Thanks everyone!
Make sure to stick to GDrive for storage then because storing DRM/copyrighted media on Hetzner isn't gonna go well.
+1. I hope you're doing the media collection on a different machine/network or at the very least using a VPN/proxy.
Yup. It will only run Plex and Plexdrive, nothing else.
Aight. You might alternatively wanna look into the likes of bitport who basically offer the whole setup already and you are just streaming.
try to grab a KS-3 from kimsufi sometime when they run the sales. I have an i3 server that easily transcodes 1x1080p and costs me $11/month
Hahahaha, no. Have you tried sharing your Plex library (w/ and w/o transcoding) with a Cherrytrail CPU? I tried it for fun, and heck, it was slower than manually drawing the frames out.
Keyword from Nekki's comment was never, @doghouch. Basically just a file serve at that point
Using plex cloud with Google drive and unencrypted movies and series is never a good idea right?
One scan over your folders and your account is eligible for termination..
Not really what you would want.
I would like to encrypt my "private" content, like vacation movies (or something else), upload that to Google drive, and supply plex cloud with a key so that they can read the file and I can play it.
But Google can not read it.
Isn't that more or less what boxcryptor does? You might wanna check if it works with plexidrive
And rclone crypt + rclone mount. Works like a dream. Been without any issues for 6+ months.
But no plex cloud with anything encrypted unfortunately as far as I'm aware.