Ideal setup for an automated media library (SAB, *arrs and Plex)
reddit / selfhosted

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Zhyphirus · 2023-12-21 21:03

Hello, currently I'm using my personal PC to run some services like
Sonarr, Radarr, SABnzbd and qBit and other lighter services I'm
running on a OrangePi Zero 3 (Prowlarr, Flaresolvarr and some other
docker container that don't strain the CPU).

Apart from the problem of power consumption that rig has, lately I've
started to notice that while something was downloading and being
processed by SAB, my disk (8tb 5400rpm) started to gag, making my plex
buffer alot, since the media is on the same drive as the completed
downloads are.

My question is: What should my next step be to improve the current
setup? Or should I Invest on a NAS with some better disks?

specs:

* cpu: i5 11400
* mem: 32gb 3200mhz
* 1 nvme, i don't use the nvme for anything but apps
* 2 hdd, 8tb 5200 and 1tb 7200
* gpu: 4060ti

Any other device is also appreciated, thanks.

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nuvcmnee · 2023-12-21 21:50

are you sure it‘s the hdd rather than cpu usage?

Scheduling might help: have it downloading only at night, plex doing
it‘s maintenance jobs afterwards, so that no hardware intensive
processes need to run during day.

For comparison: I have a passive cooled Intel J4105-ITX and never have
problems (I use Jellyfin though).

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Zhyphirus · 2023-12-21 22:00

yep, I'm pretty sure it's I/O problem, whenever I download something
through SAB my CPU gets at most 30-50% used, but my Disk D (5200 that
I mentioned) jumps to 100%, or if I'm seeding with no limit, my disk
gets destroyed too, so I schedule for my qbit to seed with no limits
it at night post 10pm

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myjoeky · 2023-12-21 22:44

Reading and writing to the same disk at the same time might decrease
performance. I download and extract on disk 1 and then permanently
move to disk 2. Extracting is much slower than just moving data, at
least in my case. Extracting while using plex also didn't work for me
and with just moving I never notice it.

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Zhyphirus · 2023-12-21 22:49

Hm, makes sense, but the problem is, since I download both sab and
qbit on the same instances, I can't really move the files if I want to
seed them, I could copy, but still weird.
Not sure if theres a straight forward way of doing this

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PuckSR · 2023-12-21 23:20

I run even more docker containers than you on an old chromebox and a
usb hdd.

But I run everything os on an ssd

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Zhyphirus · 2023-12-21 23:21

Yea, the only problem is that sab takes too much from hdd, maybe using
a ssd would solve the problem, if I ever build a nas I will probably
use one to test it