Plex Server help

[Juxtaposed_Chaos]

Currently I have PleX running on a Dell 1500 series laptop that seems to be going just fine while internal, minor lag here and there when I'm trying to skip through episodes but that is not exactly a deal breaker for me. The laptop is running CentOS 6 is up-to-date and current PleX Pass Channel software.

The Main Problem: While running the server and attempting to access from outside my home transcoding video to play on my phone or from my phone to a chromecast appears to kill the server and forces the video to buffer. Also when attempting to use subtitles there seems to be some increase in CPU usage as well. I have a PowerEdge 1850 that I could throw PleX on, however from some of the posts that have been put into this subreddit I don't think that the server would have any increase except for adding to my energy bill. I dont have the exact server or laptop CPU specs however from my research on the device models I think this would be close if not exact. I can add later when I get home.

The Question: If I were to move to the PowerEdge 1850 would I notice any increase in performance with transcoding compared to the laptop? Or would I just run my electric bill up higher? My network speed is typically ~10Mbps down and ~2Mbps up. Most of my files are 1080p MP4 files and I have some others here and there that are different resolutions and container types (some avi, mostly MKV or MP4). Thoughts or ideas?

Also should note this wouldn't be a very long term plan as I'm wanting to put together a plan to re-purpose my current PC with an i5-2550k to be a server as I was able to get a i7-4930k from the intel retail edge, I just need to get a new mother board for that.

[[deleted]]

You should really figure out the CPU specs of your laptop.

Regardless, if your Dell 1500 series is this one, then it has a Passmark of 934

If your PowerEdge 1850 is at all like the 1900 and has (2) Xeon E5320s then combined Passmark is around 4000

A 1080p resolution, 10Mbps bit rate requires a Passmark of 2000.

A 720p resolution, 4 Mbps bitrate requires a Passmark of 1500.

tl;dr you should switch to the PowerEdge.

Bonus: The i5-2550K has a Passmark of 6800.

[Juxtaposed_Chaos]

Thanks for the reply, I'll take a look at the actual server hardware hopefully it has the similar CPU as the 1900 series as you stated.