- #Build dedicated plex media server how to#
- #Build dedicated plex media server 320kbps#
- #Build dedicated plex media server install#
#Build dedicated plex media server 320kbps#
It can be a gateway to high-resolution audioįor years, I’d settled for the iffy 128Kbps MP3s that I’d collected from iTunes and Napster (the old Napster, mind you), or for the somewhat better 320Kbps Ogg Vorbis streams on Spotify. One powered USB 3.0 hub and a power strip later, and I had my dedicated media server-sluggish, noisy and temperamental, mind you, but extremely satisfying from an economic perspective. An old 512GB hard drive sitting on another desk became a media storage device, and when I dug out another dusty 512GB HDD from a drawer (I thought it was dead, but it came to life when I plugged it in), I decided to combine them into a 1TB RAID drive (which you can do in a few clicks using the MacOS Disk Utility tool). That 10-year-old MacBook Air I was going to give away: could I turn it into an always-on server for my media? Why sure (with a little help from Amphetamine, a free MacOS app designed to keep your Mac awake indefinitely). The starting point was that Raspberry Pi that had been languishing on my desk, but then I started thinking bigger. Oh, and I later sprung for a $40 powered USB 3.0 hub Remove non-product link and a $15 power strip Remove non-product link (for reasons I’ll explain in a moment). Being the beginner that I am, I opted for a rock-bottom budget, spending just $25 for an external DVD drive Remove non-product link (after realizing that I’d long ago shed my old PCs with optical drives) and $30 for a new 256GB USB memory stick Remove non-product link (which holds my entire 200-CD music collection, in lossless FLAC format, with tons of room to spare). It’s certainly possible to spend thousands of bucks on NAS drives, “endpoints” and other hardware for your home media server.
There are limitations to installing Plex on a desktop PC or a laptop-namely, you’ll need to keep it running whenever you want to stream media-but it’s a great, low-effort way to see what all the fuss is about.
#Build dedicated plex media server install#
In minutes, you can simply install Plex Media Server on a Mac or Windows PC, pick some folders filled with music, videos or other media, and start streaming away. Of course, you don’t necessarily need a Raspberry Pi to set up a home media server. I’m no expect at building PCs, but I had my first media server up and running on a Raspberry Pi in only a few hours. I then tossed some old MP3s and home video files on the memory stick, and before I knew it, my unused Raspberry Pi had turned into a media server. Mounting an 8GB USB thumb drive (I decided to start small until I knew what I was doing) on the Pi turned out to be a little trickier, although I even had that licked after another 45 minutes or so.
#Build dedicated plex media server how to#
There are plenty of online tutorials on how to install Plex Media Server on a Raspberry Pi, and within an hour or so I had Plex up and running.
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