ROCK64 as a server

[Fallen]

I'm looking for a low power replacement for my 1U server.

I run plex media server, apache, and deluge all with very low usage. I was hoping to get 1080p hevc 8bit @ 24fps decoding and 1080p x264 8bit @ 24fps encoding simultaniously (basically transcoding). I'm not sure if that is kind of an unrealistic goal for an single board computer. Apache and deluge sit close to 0% cpu usage on my server so I'm really only concerned with plex transcoding.

I also plan on running ZFS mirrored on 2 USB3 ports (using a splitter on the ROCK64). but I assume that's a little outside the scope of the experts on this forum.

Currently I am between the Odroid XU4 and ROCK64 but if anyone has any better suggestions I'm all ears.

And my last consideration is software. I run Arch Linux on almost all my servers but as I understand it, software support is still very behind on the ROCK64 whereas the XU4 has been around the block.

Is the XU4 or ROCK64 a better choice to suit my needs?

[rontant]

I am using XU4 with Arch Linux Arm also and my Rock 64 just arrived a couple hours ago. 

   

So far I managed to try only Samba using ayufan's Debian Stretch  and it looks Rock 64 can easily beat my XU4 in terms of speed and stability.

Here is what I found when copying a 1.5GB file from Win 10 laptop with SSD to the USB 3 WD Mypassport drive mounted on the Rock 64 running Samba on ayufan's Debian Stretch.


Samba has not even been tuned yet and dmesg shows clean result unlike my XU4 which always runs into USB reset issues when the speed gets above 90Mb/s.

I do hope Rock 64 get the official support from Arch though.

[fire219]

For raw CPU/GPU performance, XU4 wins big time. For raw I/O (USB3, Gigabit Ethernet) performance, Rock64 wins big time.

Software support is obviously behind on the R64, because even developers ( ) have only had their hands on them for about two months at most, compared to the XU4 which has been on the market for about two years. But compared to other non-RPi boards, we're already in an advanced state and it's getting better by the day.

R64 should be able to do what you want with decoding and encoding, as it has hardware built in for that purpose. (Though keep in mind that the h265 encoder is not yet supported under Linux)

[Fallen]

@rontant Thanks for running those test. Happy to know I won't be running any bottlenecks on the USB bus. I'm looking forward to official Arch Linux ARM support as well.

@fire219 Awesome screenshot, do you have a link to that doc, can't seem to find it on the resources page. However this doesn't alleviate all my concerns. Will ffmpeg be able to use these hardware decoders/encoders or is support likely to take 1-2 years if ever? And then on top of that plex media server barely even supports Intel hw acceleration, but I'd still be happy to there is a future possibility.

[rontant]

@rontant Thanks for running those test. Happy to know I won't be running any bottlenecks on the USB bus. I'm looking forward to official Arch Linux ARM support as well.

@fire219 Awesome screenshot, do you have a link to that doc, can't seem to find it on the resources page. However this doesn't alleviate all my concerns. Will ffmpeg be able to use these hardware decoders/encoders or is support likely to take 1-2 years if ever? And then on top of that plex media server barely even supports Intel hw acceleration, but I'd still be happy to there is a future possibility.

Here you go:  

http://opensource.rock-chips.com/wiki_RK3328 
http://opensource.rock-chips.com/images/...170309.pdf

I have tried ayufan's debian strech and now I am testing his Debian Jessie. Being a long time user of Arch Linux Arm, I must say I do miss the neatness and elegance of Arch Linux.

[stuartiannaylor]

@rontant Thanks for running those test. Happy to know I won't be running any bottlenecks on the USB bus. I'm looking forward to official Arch Linux ARM support as well.

@fire219 Awesome screenshot, do you have a link to that doc, can't seem to find it on the resources page. However this doesn't alleviate all my concerns. Will ffmpeg be able to use these hardware decoders/encoders or is support likely to take 1-2 years if ever? And then on top of that plex media server barely even supports Intel hw acceleration, but I'd still be happy to there is a future possibility.

Not sure about ffmpeg as been trying to work that one out myself.

https://github.com/LongChair/FFmpeg


Rockchip MPP(Media Process Platfrom)
https://github.com/HermanChen/mpp

RKMC
https://github.com/JamesLinEngineer/RKMC

As for media server I have been thinking of using a client side aka Kodi solution.
Still waiting for my board so its all guess work at the moment but planning on creating a media mesh of Rock64's with either nfs/samba shares pooled via aufs so it looks like a single volume.

The confusion with Kodi on what they will or will not support, if its android or not... Seems to be circular and just going to have to give it a go.
For a new chip and the updates and work is fast and furious and many vendors seem to be adopting it, so its looking very probable.

[Fallen]

Would be nice to get ffmpeg support. I found this which looks promising: https://patchwork.ffmpeg.org/patch/3962/. It looks like plex will will be a long shot though.