At TechMikeNY, we've learned that creative work demands hardware that can keep up. After equipping countless post-production houses, design firms, and creative departments with media servers, we know that the difference between smooth workflows and frustrating bottlenecks often comes down to how the hardware performs under real-world conditions.
That's why we put every media server through a rigorous testing process using 4 key benchmarks that matter most to creative teams:
1. Concurrent Project Performance: We test how the server handles multiple team members working with demanding media simultaneously. Because let's face it - in today's creative environments, you need a server that can handle 4K video editing, 3D rendering, and asset management all at once without breaking a sweat. This benchmark ensures your team stays productive whether they're editing raw footage or working with complex 3D assets.
2. Render Queue Management: Creative work doesn't stop when the rendering starts. We validate each server's ability to balance intensive rendering tasks with active editing sessions. This means your team can keep working on their projects while that overnight render queue processes in the background. No more productivity roadblocks or scheduling workarounds just because you need to export a project.
3. Storage Throughput Under Load: Media workflows are uniquely demanding - you might be ingesting raw footage while editors scrub through timelines and artists pull reference files. Our testing simulates these mixed workloads to ensure consistent performance even when combining different types of file operations. Your server needs to maintain speed and responsiveness whether it's handling sequential writes during footage ingest or random access during timeline editing.
4. Project Archive & Retrieval: Creative assets are your lifeblood, and accessing them shouldn't be a waiting game. We test how each server optimizes different storage tiers to give you both lightning-fast access to current projects and quick retrieval of archived work. This ensures you can instantly access active projects while pulling archived assets within seconds - no more digging through external drives or waiting on slow network transfers.
These benchmarks aren't theoretical - they're built from real-world experience. Every configuration we recommend has been pressure-tested against the actual demands of creative professionals. We've learned from video production teams that need to stream 4K footage across multiple editing bays, VFX studios juggling massive render farms, and creative agencies managing decades of client assets.
Recently, we helped a production company upgrade with 14x R740xds to facilitate live-streaming at scale. These machines had 48 cores at 2.70Ghz, 192GBs of 2933Mhz RAM, 10GB networking, 2x capture cards and 1x nVidia RTX GPUs each. They needed the exceptionally high performance and reliability of the R740xd platform to facilitate real-time editing across dozens of live camera streams, super-fast NVMe content storage, and the expandability to add a total of 28x PCIe capture cards and 14x nVidia RTX series GPUs to their workflow.
We've also configured thousands of Plex Media Servers and high-performance TrueNAS servers. Our step-by-step guide, How to Set Up TrueNAS Scale to Host Plex, provides a comprehensive walkthrough for installing TrueNAS Scale for media hosting and streaming. We've also covered the fundamentals in Plex Media Server: The Basics, Background, and Mike’s Recommended Build. Whether you're looking for a scalable TrueNAS installation or a high-performance enterprise solution, our team is here to help you find the right media server setup for your needs.
The reality is, creative work shouldn't be held back by hardware limitations. While cloud solutions promise flexibility, they often come with hidden costs like egress fees and inconsistent performance that can wreak havoc on creative workflows. On-premise media servers put you back in control - predictable performance, no surprise charges, and the freedom to scale exactly how you need.
By rigorously testing against these real-world scenarios, we deliver media servers that are powerful, reliable, and cost-effective. You get enterprise-grade performance without the premium price tag that typically comes with creative workstation hardware.
Want to see our top pick? Check out our Best General Purpose Media Server. Need help configuring the perfect solution for your creative workflow? Our team is always ready to share our expertise. And of course, you can always visit our CTO to build your own custom configuration.
At TechMikeNY, we're obsessed with performance because we know your creative work depends on it. Let us build you a media server that passes the tests that matter.