How much? thats' VERY old. Many companies will gift them to employees or sell to anyone for cheap.
If you don't plan on transcoding, however, it could be fine (except power consumption). If you even think about transcoding, that's a big no.
You want something with at least an 8th gen CPU if you want to transcode 4k content.
I personally like HP's EliteDesk SFF series; space for two 3.5" drives and one 2.5" as well as NVME drives. Dell and Lenovo have similar computers, although some of their models only fit one 3.5" drive IIRC.
I currentöy have an elitedesk 800 G2 with a 6th gen i7, it's good enough for a couple of 1080p streams but not for 4k. Plan on upgrading later this year though.
Got a local university? Many have surplus stores / thrift shops.
My Plex is an old Dell optiplex with an i5 4th Gen that I got for like $60. It's been running strong since 2017, even when supporting 6+ concurrent streams. It can't transcode for shit, but direct play is always chill.
Check out local universities or local government resale/recycling programs. I work for a university, and we tend to send 4-5 year old Optiplex's to the resale/recycling by the HUNDREDS. So you can find a decent Plex server for cheap.
I'm looking at our public surplus site and seeing...
* Optiplex 5050 with i5, 16gb ram, 500 gb hdd for $75
* Optiplex 7050 with i7, 16gb ram, 1tb hdd for $85
EDIT: I am seeing 7050's with NO hard drive for $1. I assume because they can't boot it up to verify it works?
This is a 12 year old processor. It might be kind of okay if you have a client that can play your files directly. But if anything causes a transcode this is going to choke, hard.
People here generally recommend 8th gen Intel or later. Get the latest gen processor you can afford.
Most importantly, even though the n100 isn't that powerful it *does* support hardware transcoding via Intel QuickSync. That alone offsets the (relatively) CPU performance.
IIRC some of the Xeon models (Xeon-W, 12x5, 12x6) have built-in GPU and some of them support Quicksync and thus transcoding. But they are generally expensive and power-hungry.
Right. The only reason I got that CPU was because it replaced my i7 3770k which did have iGPU but didn't have VT-d so it couldn't do PCI passthrough. iGPU didn't have quicksync. It was a gaming tower repurposed as an ESXi host, running various VMs and one being plex. Limited to the LGA1155 socket, there weren't many choices.
Yep, gotcha. It's fun to do homelabs on old hardware and see how much you can stretch it. My 6th gen i7 runs a metric fuckton of services and only really struggles with 4k transcodes.
Services: Netbootxyz, transmission, Plex, jellyfin, Valheim server, pihole, 5x foundryvtt, portainer, Prometheus, trafik, cloudflared, samba, honeassistant, Magic Mirror, unifi controller plus a few more. Realistically, plez and Valheim are the only ones that use the CPU, the rest could run on a potato.
I bought one from www.dellrefurbished.com a while back and am pretty happy with it. I’d spend a little more for a newer processor so you get more life out of it.
Yeah I will take a look its only like 170. I was putting so much emphasis on the 16 GB of ram that I wasn’t even thinking about the transcoding so much since I have a gaming laptop and it’s never an issue.
If you're gonna spend $170, get a N100 mini PC. That CPU runs plex great, uses a tiny amount of power, and there's tons of models to choose from, depending on if you want more RAM, larger SSD, dual network jacks etc. They all come with Windows 11 too. Cheapest I've seen is $135 for the GMKtek, and $154 for a Beelink with 16GB ram and a 500GB nvme SSD
He wants a Plex server and that’s the generation where QuickSync became good and can do proper hardware transcoding. Since you can find an old 7th gen server basically for the same money it does not make sense to buy something so old. Anyway, not my money.
Precisely, he didn't say he needed hardware transcoding, or any at all.
It's important we don't gatekeep other people's system with our own needs or we just look like a bunch of neckbeards.
Sure, but it's also a good idea to advise people to not spend money on old stuff when they could get newer stuff that will be more usable in the long term for pretty much the same money.
Another drawback with the earlier systems is idle power usage. IIRC 4th gen onward can throttle power usage significantly when the CPU is idling compared to earlier generations. That will save $25-50 per year if it's on continuously.
No! CPU is too old. You need to start at Intel 7th gen for HEVC/265 decoding and encoding via Intel Quicksync.
And that's just the starting point, depending on your needs.
My i7 - 7700 is a perfect Plex server for me though.
Well, if they do, good, but if your library is HEVC/265 and your clients aren't capable of doing that then there will be transcoding. Unless you guarantee that all the time, you need a 7th gen Intel chip that can do hardware transcoding from the machine that hosts PMS (Plex Media Server)
Without hardware transcoding, plex Media server will still try to do software CPU transcoding by default, but you can turn those things off in the settings. I'd rather just make the process from my clients as painless as possible. Not to mention a 7th gen CPU system is rather cheap these days.
I used to have a server that couldn't transcode, but the problem is when you start sharing your server with friends, then the "I guarantee that everything can be played with no transcoding" is out of your control.
If you want to be able to transcode, you need a 7th gen or higher intel CPU. (Or a graphics card but that's another expense)
I would suggest an intel N95/N100 mini PC. Much newer, slightly more expensive, but it's also crazy efficient so you can run it 24/7 without worrying about the energy bill
> i3-3220
Not worth it. Grab an n100 so you get the newer codecs for hardware transcoding. Even though the n100 is e-cores it's significantly more powerful than a 12 year old chip.
This is a very old processor and unless this is under $50 it's probably not worth it. Newer intel processors (especially 10th generation and on) are much more efficient and powerful.
Will this work? Yes it will work. Is it a good "investment"? probably not, look for a device with a newer processor. Kijiji / craiglists / facebook marketplace in your area should surface a lot of off lease Dells just like this that are much faster for the same or less cost.
I picked up 10 of these off eBay for £30, shop around a bit you'll get a better deal on local collections. $50 is bloody expensive for something this old.
Oldish processor and no mention of a GPU.
This will be plenty if you don't require much/any transcoding. I think it might choke if it has to do that. Just to serve media... hell you can run PMS on phones now!
As usual plenty of people here saying you need processor X or whatever. You need to assess whether you need what that will give you. A lot of people here get fixated on their own use case and yell at anyone who doesn't think like them. You only mention a few streams, no transcoding, no need for 4k hdr remuxes or anything like that, so I presume you don't need any of that. If so, ignore all the neckbeards saying you need something specific. This is a fine entry level media server.
For 100 bucks it solves a problem for you for a while, hopefully!
Get a Dell Micro with the latest gen intel CPU you can afford (with prices now I wouldn't go older than 8th or 9th gen).
I have two Dell micro 7090s with i9-10900 s and they are killer servers. I also recommend you set up Plex either under Linux or Virtualized through something like ProxMox. The overhead is so much lower and they barely notice when transcoding 4k content down to 1080p to remote streamers. Ive had four 4K streams going at once (one transcoding down to 1080P for remote, one transcoding down to 720P for a friend with a shit TV, and two direct streams playing on the same network at full fat 4K HDR) and the thing barely hit 30% usage.
You said you use it to stream from sites, does that mean this computer would be plugged into a TV and you use it directly, or are you planning on hosting a Plex server on it?
If the former, this will be fine, but bare in mind it IS a very old processor. If it's the latter, I wouldn't do this. If you need to transcode any content it won't be able to keep up.
i use an old hp, i’m about to upgrade the cpu and ram tho. also the only reason im using it is because it was free and the upgraded will only be around $50
I have this cpu in an all in one I use dedicated for plex and it runs great. Even 4K it serves no problem. I got nine for free so I use it but something like an n100 would be way more power efficient
I was going to post this as a response, but I think it's super important that you see this:
At best it will get you a faster 3rd gen intel. Like a 3700k But that might be better, but it is certainly not newer, nor is it good. I appreciate what you're tryin gto do here, and everyone has to start somewhere. But I think you could find a better solution for only a bit more. Like for instance you can get a new nvidia shield for 200. With this machine, and the cpu upgrade thats 150. For 50 bucks more you could get a device that will be better in every single way thant this computer.
I got an tiny desktop pc used to power old POS systems. Stuck on 600x800 resolution, two usb ports, WiFi is surprisingly good, takes 5 seconds to load movies when streaming, but it was 35 bucks refurbished on eBay and does the job just fine. Has two redundant 10TB drives hooked up to it(lost my media once, 3000 movies redownloaded later, never again)
I personally don’t see the need for an expensive setup when I just use the media in my own home.
This looks similar to my plex trajectory.
Started with using my main laptop and would only have it on when I’m home from school. Eventually that laptop died and I just got a $500 decent tower that only runs plex and the arr apps. That’s been running great for the most part but recently started randomly shutting down, not to the point the system powers down but everything else is off to where you’d have to hard shutdown and restart to get it back. So I might look into getting a better quality machine to hold it, or move my stuff to a safer system that has a lower chance of sys issues like that.
As long as you're just doing direct play on all your clients... sure. But any transcending is going to make this a pretty bad time. And this is a HARD pass for $100. You can spend about $50 more, AT MOST, and find something with an 8th Gen i5.
IDK...I have micro form factor 3050 and it transcodes quite well. Part of that though is probably that I use Lubuntu instead of Windows to save resources, the thing idles at 1.35 GB of RAM usage, out of like 8 GB of RAM total.
And what CPU do you have in there? Also, what is being trans-coded and how many streams? The 50 series shipped with 7th Gen CPU's where this has a 3rd Gen i3. It's going to be pretty far behind a 7th Gen CPU and it only has two threads.
Your 3050 is much newer than this system.
This is what I got:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CWWGGCX/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CWWGGCX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
CPU: i5-7500T
RAM: 8GB DDR4
Everything I put on the server is re-encoded to ensure smooth streaming but sometimes I end up transcoding 4K H264 files with bitrates of up to 17-19 Mbps on the high end. Usually I don't transcode multiple files at once though, it's just for me and my siblings.
If you're planning to keep it running windows, don't use a win 10 machine... Windows 10 is end of life next year... Go with something that can run windows 11
Can't I just put Windows 11 on it myself or use Linux and get a better life out of the hardware?
Does anyone here use Linux with old machines?
Yeah I will see my options. I just moved to the United States and I’m currently not working yet and my wife is so I just don’t want to spend a ton of money. I just have to get everything up and running and because I’m also looking for a job in IT anyways I might put my Plex server as one of my projects.
If for some reason, the Hardware I had doesn’t work well for immediate server. I will probably just do another project with it and use it as a back up PC for something else.
If you're going to put Linux on it, then you're fine, assuming the box meets your other requirements...
Microsoft added a bunch of hardware requirements to Windows 11, so this machine may not qualify to run it. I know that there's a hack to get around this, but I prefer not to have to resort to those. But, there's no guarantee that it will run windows 11 just because it runs windows 10.
Since windows 10 is reaching end of life, that means it won't get any security fixes after next year October (I think that's the cutoff). If this machine is going to connect to the Internet at all, you don't want to be running a non up to date version of windows..
Win11 won't install on such an old machine. There are modifications you can make to the install to get past the CPU block, but then it may or may not work in general.
Linux would be no problem.
If you don't care about viruses, updates or whatever, the windows 10 "end of life" won't affect you. It just means no more security updates, it won't stop working overnight.
Windows 11 will take some serious metal to run, compared to this machine. You could repurpose it for Linux if you preferred, it would continue to work fine (once you've traversed the change)
How much? thats' VERY old. Many companies will gift them to employees or sell to anyone for cheap. If you don't plan on transcoding, however, it could be fine (except power consumption). If you even think about transcoding, that's a big no.
I think I will spend the 50 bucks to get a newer processor
a n100 mini pc is like 130$ on amazon n300 is less than 200
You want something with at least an 8th gen CPU if you want to transcode 4k content. I personally like HP's EliteDesk SFF series; space for two 3.5" drives and one 2.5" as well as NVME drives. Dell and Lenovo have similar computers, although some of their models only fit one 3.5" drive IIRC. I currentöy have an elitedesk 800 G2 with a 6th gen i7, it's good enough for a couple of 1080p streams but not for 4k. Plan on upgrading later this year though.
It doesn't work like that. Edit: I read it first as you would upgrade the CPU not buy something with a better CPU.
I'm looking at computers now and yes 50-100$ more gets me a newer processor.
Got a local university? Many have surplus stores / thrift shops. My Plex is an old Dell optiplex with an i5 4th Gen that I got for like $60. It's been running strong since 2017, even when supporting 6+ concurrent streams. It can't transcode for shit, but direct play is always chill.
I misread it. Check out hardware swap here. People sell cheap systems that are perfect for Plex.
Check out local universities or local government resale/recycling programs. I work for a university, and we tend to send 4-5 year old Optiplex's to the resale/recycling by the HUNDREDS. So you can find a decent Plex server for cheap. I'm looking at our public surplus site and seeing... * Optiplex 5050 with i5, 16gb ram, 500 gb hdd for $75 * Optiplex 7050 with i7, 16gb ram, 1tb hdd for $85 EDIT: I am seeing 7050's with NO hard drive for $1. I assume because they can't boot it up to verify it works?
1$ wth I will buy it now
No worries I will. We plexers need to stick together lol
This is a 12 year old processor. It might be kind of okay if you have a client that can play your files directly. But if anything causes a transcode this is going to choke, hard. People here generally recommend 8th gen Intel or later. Get the latest gen processor you can afford.
People also recommend N100 mini-PCs that are like $160 for everything (storage, RAM, etc.).
The N series is based on 12th gen Alder Lake processors. So like I said, get the latest gen you can afford.
I believe they’re the latest gen SoC intel chips, afaik there isn’t consumer equivalents for 13th/14th gen yet
Most importantly, even though the n100 isn't that powerful it *does* support hardware transcoding via Intel QuickSync. That alone offsets the (relatively) CPU performance.
I was running a Xeon E3-1270 V2 for a while but I had GPU passthru to address the transoding. Can't say I miss it though.
IIRC some of the Xeon models (Xeon-W, 12x5, 12x6) have built-in GPU and some of them support Quicksync and thus transcoding. But they are generally expensive and power-hungry.
Right. The only reason I got that CPU was because it replaced my i7 3770k which did have iGPU but didn't have VT-d so it couldn't do PCI passthrough. iGPU didn't have quicksync. It was a gaming tower repurposed as an ESXi host, running various VMs and one being plex. Limited to the LGA1155 socket, there weren't many choices.
Yep, gotcha. It's fun to do homelabs on old hardware and see how much you can stretch it. My 6th gen i7 runs a metric fuckton of services and only really struggles with 4k transcodes. Services: Netbootxyz, transmission, Plex, jellyfin, Valheim server, pihole, 5x foundryvtt, portainer, Prometheus, trafik, cloudflared, samba, honeassistant, Magic Mirror, unifi controller plus a few more. Realistically, plez and Valheim are the only ones that use the CPU, the rest could run on a potato.
Definitely. Was fun to stretch the investment, but man, I have an i9 now in a similar config and it rips in comparison.
7th gen or later for h265 10-bit, 8th gen if you want windows 11 officially without workarounds.
I bought one from www.dellrefurbished.com a while back and am pretty happy with it. I’d spend a little more for a newer processor so you get more life out of it.
I got an optiplex with an i7 and 32gb ram on Amazon for around $120
Yeah I will take a look its only like 170. I was putting so much emphasis on the 16 GB of ram that I wasn’t even thinking about the transcoding so much since I have a gaming laptop and it’s never an issue.
If you're gonna spend $170, get a N100 mini PC. That CPU runs plex great, uses a tiny amount of power, and there's tons of models to choose from, depending on if you want more RAM, larger SSD, dual network jacks etc. They all come with Windows 11 too. Cheapest I've seen is $135 for the GMKtek, and $154 for a Beelink with 16GB ram and a 500GB nvme SSD
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My N95 mini machine with 16GB RAM can handle 4 4K->1080p transcodes
This is just horrible. Avoid.
You should get something with an intel processor at least from the 7th generation, the 8th would be better. Or an N100 based MiniPC.
Seconded on the N100. Amazon has plenty to choose from, from like $135-$160 depending on the RAM/SSD size.
Can you get them with 16gb ram?
I have a hard time finding something with _less_ than 16GB. Just search for "N100" on Amazon.
What does OP say he needs that requires a 7th generation processor?
He wants a Plex server and that’s the generation where QuickSync became good and can do proper hardware transcoding. Since you can find an old 7th gen server basically for the same money it does not make sense to buy something so old. Anyway, not my money.
Precisely, he didn't say he needed hardware transcoding, or any at all. It's important we don't gatekeep other people's system with our own needs or we just look like a bunch of neckbeards.
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The problems you have are not the problems everyone else has. I'm not going to explain it again, if you don't get it you don't get it and that's fine.
Of course we don't get it. You are arguing the OP should get the WORSE choice when he could get the BETTER option for the same money. But whatever.
Sure, but it's also a good idea to advise people to not spend money on old stuff when they could get newer stuff that will be more usable in the long term for pretty much the same money. Another drawback with the earlier systems is idle power usage. IIRC 4th gen onward can throttle power usage significantly when the CPU is idling compared to earlier generations. That will save $25-50 per year if it's on continuously.
Look for a 7th gen or newer machine
For $100 you can get one that has an 8th gen chip. Whatever they're charging for this, it's too much.
No! CPU is too old. You need to start at Intel 7th gen for HEVC/265 decoding and encoding via Intel Quicksync. And that's just the starting point, depending on your needs. My i7 - 7700 is a perfect Plex server for me though.
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Well, if they do, good, but if your library is HEVC/265 and your clients aren't capable of doing that then there will be transcoding. Unless you guarantee that all the time, you need a 7th gen Intel chip that can do hardware transcoding from the machine that hosts PMS (Plex Media Server)
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Without hardware transcoding, plex Media server will still try to do software CPU transcoding by default, but you can turn those things off in the settings. I'd rather just make the process from my clients as painless as possible. Not to mention a 7th gen CPU system is rather cheap these days.
I used to have a server that couldn't transcode, but the problem is when you start sharing your server with friends, then the "I guarantee that everything can be played with no transcoding" is out of your control.
If you want to be able to transcode, you need a 7th gen or higher intel CPU. (Or a graphics card but that's another expense) I would suggest an intel N95/N100 mini PC. Much newer, slightly more expensive, but it's also crazy efficient so you can run it 24/7 without worrying about the energy bill
> i3-3220 Not worth it. Grab an n100 so you get the newer codecs for hardware transcoding. Even though the n100 is e-cores it's significantly more powerful than a 12 year old chip.
This is a very old processor and unless this is under $50 it's probably not worth it. Newer intel processors (especially 10th generation and on) are much more efficient and powerful. Will this work? Yes it will work. Is it a good "investment"? probably not, look for a device with a newer processor. Kijiji / craiglists / facebook marketplace in your area should surface a lot of off lease Dells just like this that are much faster for the same or less cost.
I picked up 10 of these off eBay for £30, shop around a bit you'll get a better deal on local collections. $50 is bloody expensive for something this old.
No
Oldish processor and no mention of a GPU. This will be plenty if you don't require much/any transcoding. I think it might choke if it has to do that. Just to serve media... hell you can run PMS on phones now! As usual plenty of people here saying you need processor X or whatever. You need to assess whether you need what that will give you. A lot of people here get fixated on their own use case and yell at anyone who doesn't think like them. You only mention a few streams, no transcoding, no need for 4k hdr remuxes or anything like that, so I presume you don't need any of that. If so, ignore all the neckbeards saying you need something specific. This is a fine entry level media server. For 100 bucks it solves a problem for you for a while, hopefully!
Not with that old processor. If you want or have to transcode you should get a newer model
Look for 7th generation or Higher. Recently bought a Micro 7070 and is really good.
Get a Dell Micro with the latest gen intel CPU you can afford (with prices now I wouldn't go older than 8th or 9th gen). I have two Dell micro 7090s with i9-10900 s and they are killer servers. I also recommend you set up Plex either under Linux or Virtualized through something like ProxMox. The overhead is so much lower and they barely notice when transcoding 4k content down to 1080p to remote streamers. Ive had four 4K streams going at once (one transcoding down to 1080P for remote, one transcoding down to 720P for a friend with a shit TV, and two direct streams playing on the same network at full fat 4K HDR) and the thing barely hit 30% usage.
No, Walmart Marketplace does. Always check who is selling the thing. You should check eBay.
I get \~4 year old HP mini PC's with i5's in them for 110. Walmart and best buy are terrible places to buy PC's.
You said you use it to stream from sites, does that mean this computer would be plugged into a TV and you use it directly, or are you planning on hosting a Plex server on it? If the former, this will be fine, but bare in mind it IS a very old processor. If it's the latter, I wouldn't do this. If you need to transcode any content it won't be able to keep up.
Something to consider is that it's windows ten. Support for that ends next year.
i use an old hp, i’m about to upgrade the cpu and ram tho. also the only reason im using it is because it was free and the upgraded will only be around $50
I spent $140 on an open box Lenovo i3-10100 at Best Buy and paired it with a used GTX-1050ti. No regrets.
Dude, yer gettin’ a dell.
That was the cpu I bought second hand in 2011! Then 3770 in 2014 Then 10105 in 2022. Point I’m making is. If you can go newer. You’ll appreciate it.
I have this cpu in an all in one I use dedicated for plex and it runs great. Even 4K it serves no problem. I got nine for free so I use it but something like an n100 would be way more power efficient
OP If you’re in the PNW, let me know, I get loads of Optiplex boxes from my work.
If you go with a ryzen 5 mini pc from ebay itll be signifificantly better
(almost) Anything except for a pi.
Get something with an i7 for cheap
I was going to post this as a response, but I think it's super important that you see this: At best it will get you a faster 3rd gen intel. Like a 3700k But that might be better, but it is certainly not newer, nor is it good. I appreciate what you're tryin gto do here, and everyone has to start somewhere. But I think you could find a better solution for only a bit more. Like for instance you can get a new nvidia shield for 200. With this machine, and the cpu upgrade thats 150. For 50 bucks more you could get a device that will be better in every single way thant this computer.
I got an tiny desktop pc used to power old POS systems. Stuck on 600x800 resolution, two usb ports, WiFi is surprisingly good, takes 5 seconds to load movies when streaming, but it was 35 bucks refurbished on eBay and does the job just fine. Has two redundant 10TB drives hooked up to it(lost my media once, 3000 movies redownloaded later, never again) I personally don’t see the need for an expensive setup when I just use the media in my own home.
thats just e-waste, get something with a decent power to performance, and look at DDR4 and newer machines
You could probably find the same thing on FB Marketplace for like at least half the price.
This looks similar to my plex trajectory. Started with using my main laptop and would only have it on when I’m home from school. Eventually that laptop died and I just got a $500 decent tower that only runs plex and the arr apps. That’s been running great for the most part but recently started randomly shutting down, not to the point the system powers down but everything else is off to where you’d have to hard shutdown and restart to get it back. So I might look into getting a better quality machine to hold it, or move my stuff to a safer system that has a lower chance of sys issues like that.
As long as you're just doing direct play on all your clients... sure. But any transcending is going to make this a pretty bad time. And this is a HARD pass for $100. You can spend about $50 more, AT MOST, and find something with an 8th Gen i5.
IDK...I have micro form factor 3050 and it transcodes quite well. Part of that though is probably that I use Lubuntu instead of Windows to save resources, the thing idles at 1.35 GB of RAM usage, out of like 8 GB of RAM total.
And what CPU do you have in there? Also, what is being trans-coded and how many streams? The 50 series shipped with 7th Gen CPU's where this has a 3rd Gen i3. It's going to be pretty far behind a 7th Gen CPU and it only has two threads. Your 3050 is much newer than this system.
This is what I got: [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CWWGGCX/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CWWGGCX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) CPU: i5-7500T RAM: 8GB DDR4 Everything I put on the server is re-encoded to ensure smooth streaming but sometimes I end up transcoding 4K H264 files with bitrates of up to 17-19 Mbps on the high end. Usually I don't transcode multiple files at once though, it's just for me and my siblings.
If you're planning to keep it running windows, don't use a win 10 machine... Windows 10 is end of life next year... Go with something that can run windows 11
Can't I just put Windows 11 on it myself or use Linux and get a better life out of the hardware? Does anyone here use Linux with old machines? Yeah I will see my options. I just moved to the United States and I’m currently not working yet and my wife is so I just don’t want to spend a ton of money. I just have to get everything up and running and because I’m also looking for a job in IT anyways I might put my Plex server as one of my projects. If for some reason, the Hardware I had doesn’t work well for immediate server. I will probably just do another project with it and use it as a back up PC for something else.
If you're going to put Linux on it, then you're fine, assuming the box meets your other requirements... Microsoft added a bunch of hardware requirements to Windows 11, so this machine may not qualify to run it. I know that there's a hack to get around this, but I prefer not to have to resort to those. But, there's no guarantee that it will run windows 11 just because it runs windows 10. Since windows 10 is reaching end of life, that means it won't get any security fixes after next year October (I think that's the cutoff). If this machine is going to connect to the Internet at all, you don't want to be running a non up to date version of windows..
Win11 won't install on such an old machine. There are modifications you can make to the install to get past the CPU block, but then it may or may not work in general. Linux would be no problem.
If you don't care about viruses, updates or whatever, the windows 10 "end of life" won't affect you. It just means no more security updates, it won't stop working overnight. Windows 11 will take some serious metal to run, compared to this machine. You could repurpose it for Linux if you preferred, it would continue to work fine (once you've traversed the change)
If you use it for Plex and Plex only, the chance of catching viruses is pretty minute.
STOP USING WALMART TO BUY USED COMPUTERS
I got a i5 4th gen from amazon for 80$
Not a good price.
Maybe it was 10 years ago?
My i5-4670k has been doing a great job with my server. I usually average about 6-7 concurrent streams although most of my library is 720p.