My latest home project has been a big hardware and network upgrade.
The machine that I've used for several years as a Plex server and a NAS and a media editing workstation was starting to struggle to transcode some of the 4K content I've recently acquired. It's a giant Dell Precision T7500 from about 2009, nicely spec-ed but a little long in the tooth. I decided to build up a new monster workstation, starting with a Dell Precision T7910 chassis that I bought refurbished. Threw in 2 12-core Xeons running at 2.4 GHz and 128 GB of RAM. Added 4 12TB SAS drives for the NAS duties. And an Intel dual-port 10Gb Ethernet HBA. And an Nvidia GTX 1080 video card.
Taking advantage of the fact that I have Cat 6e wires in the walls and 10Gbe Ethernet gear is now available used and is somewhat reasonably priced, I upgraded all my Ethernet gear to 10Gbe. A new 8-port switch in my coms closet and a 4-port switch in my AV cabinet. The old NAS server, which has been repurposed as a backup server, and my HTPC both got new Intel 10Gbe HBAs.
My WiFi access point had exhibited some flaky behavior lately, so I decided to upgrade that too as long as I was frittering away cash. I went with an Engenius EAP1300. Speeds are really good and it's rock-solid.
I'm seeing great throughput on everything. The 10Gbe network runs at its expected nominal speed. The new Plex/NAS box transcodes 70Mb/s 4K content with ease. I can routinely hit 350 Mb/s from my phone on the new WiFi.
Coms closet, with my firewall/router PC, the 10Gbe switch, the WiFi access point, and my Hue controller:
My AV cabinet:
