Hardware Transcoding on HL15 with TrueNas Scale and Plex app

General
1

I have a pre-built HL15 on the way with Xeon Silver 4210 processor that I plan to load up with TrueNas Scale and run Plex.

I want to get a graphics card for the system for two reasons:

  1. For the initial installation, I don’t know if the IPMI port will use DHCP to grab an IP so I can do the initial setup without a monitor connected to the system. A video card would be a good fallback if I run into problems with the initial IPMI setup. Note: My computer monitor doesn’t have a VGA connector, so a graphics card so the built-in VGA connector on the stock HL15 doesn’t help me.

  2. For plex transcoding within TrueNas scale. I did some Google searching and in general, people recommend the Intel arc a310 or a380. I looked at both and they are inexpensive, silent, and don’t draw much power. However, they are PCIE 4.0 cards and the mobo has PCIE 3.0 slots. My concern is that the card doesn’t have a power connector and draws all its power from the PCIE slot and perhaps may not be able to draw enough from a PCIE 3.0 slot.

Has anyone run one of these cards in one of these pre-built systems or one they built using the same Supermicro mobo?
Has anyone used it for TrueNas Scale/Plex app hardware-accelerated transcoding?
If you’ve used a different card in on of these mobo’s with TrueNas/Plex app for hardware-accelerated transcoding, I’d like to hear about which.

Thanks

2

I think the default for the IPMI is DHCP.

You can add a VGA-to-HDMI adapter to your toolbox. I use this one with old Supermicro motherboards;

The spec for the power delivery from the PCIE slot did not change from PCIE 3 to PCIE 4, 75W. The A310 has a maximum draw of 30W. The A380 does have an 8-pin connector, but its maximum draw is 75W.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/arc-a380.c3913

3

It looks like the H15’s now ship with 1000w PSU’s but 75W vs 30W makes me want the A310 instead. I’m not going to be gaming on it. Thanks for the references. I’m hoping it will work fine in a TrueNas Scale/App container (docker). Guess I’ll find out soon.

4

I run TrueNAS Scale and have a (Nvidia) GPU, but it is as PCIe passthrough to a VM. I don’t use Plex. There seem to be mixed reports of using GPUs with the Docker apps, and of OS support for the Intel Arcs, on the TrueNAS forums. Some things might have been fixed in the minor releases after 24.10. Hopefully an A310/A380 user can provide better info.

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