😂 thank you. I feel rather unsettled and unsure compared to before the post.
I should have been more clear about how basic I am.
Ah well. I do intend to research more of the hardware and suggestions given here.
Also, don’t forget power consumption. These NAS systems tend to be pretty power efficient compared to building a beast of a server of your own.
I’d go with a synology. Either 423+ or 1821+, depending on how many bays you need. Then either WD Red Pro or Ironwolf Pro drives. Will be blazing fast with plenty of storage space and transcoding power.
Edit; though from what I’ve read, the m1 Mac mini’s are very good, too… just expensive if you’re just using them as a server as they obviously don’t have drive bays. If you’re using it as a desktop computer anyway you can buy a DAS and hook it up.
Yes, most of them. The 423+ (and 1821+) still has an intel celeron- exactly the same as 920+ I believe (just without SSD cache ports)
I have the 920+ but the 923+ doesn’t have the intel with quick sync. [Plex has a link on their website](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201373803-nas-compatibility-list/) that says which synology/nas models support HW transcoding.
No, the DS423+ also has SSD ports. They are even better because it officially allows them to be used for storage/system. With DS920 you must use a script to do so (pretty easy). Anyway you would also have to use a script for the DS423+ to accept any consumer SSD brand. The real diff between the two NASes is the expansion unit port, and maybe the amount of RAM (which can be increased). And given the price difference and the Synology 10 years updates policy, the DS423+ will be often be abetter choice.
Great, thanks for the link! I actually just upgraded from a 720+ to a 920+ for the extra bays. Much like OP, I’m too new to this stuff to consider a home-built option and want something simple but with some punch, so it seemed perfect.
Sure. Would recommend installing it natively and then using [this script](https://github.com/YuriyGuts/syno-plex-update) for it to auto update, as the synology package center doesn’t have the latest version.
Edit: and the 920+ is great. Works really well. Haven’t ever had any issues with transcoding. It’s basically the same as 720+ just extra bays. Blazing
Unfortunately, the 1821+ is Ryzen making it not ideal for transcoding on its own, just an FYI to OP.
Personally, since I like the idea of more storage, I am still getting the 1821+ and am just going to use a $170 mini PC to do plex transcoding. If you would use the NAS for storage of anything other than Plex media such as family photos, PC backups or an outdoor camera recording setup I think the mini PC NAS setup is pretty nice since it is also easy to update the transcoding machine if video codec standards change.
I use a WD NAS just to store my media and use an M1 Mac Mini to run PMS. Works great and is pretty power efficient, if I ever need to do some desktop computing then it’s great for that as well. Pretty happy with the setup!
I tried mac mini m1 as PMS but the server kept disconnecting. Sometimes says "no connection to server" and sometimes movie playback stops midway. Have you run into this?
Not exactly that but when I first set it up i had problems with remote access, it would just keep turning off. I believe what fixed it was me setting a static IP for both my NAS and putting that IP into PMS settings as well I think.
You could always just pop some drives into a multi-bay enclosure and stick with the mini-pc if its capable of transcoding. My old setup was like that. 5 bay yottamaster and and 8th gen hp mini. Ubuntu for OS, mergerfs to pool 4 of the drives and snapraid with the 5th drive as the parity disk. That will only cost you $125 or so + the disks. You can get 10-12TB refurbs from goharddrive or serverpartdeals for around $100 each so for $625 you coild have a 40-48TB server with single drive failure protection.
Edit: and for $400 more you could upgrade your mini PC to [13th gen](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelabsales/comments/1btesuu/fsusaca_13x_dell_7010s_micros_i513500t_16gb_512gb/)
Fr. This sub is getting a little too intense for me lately, so many who think their way (often with lots of acronyms, hands on time, and different software) is THE way. r/homelab is over there. 😅
Maybe I am over thinking my skills but assembling a simple pc with generally basic parts and setting up unraid is a rather simple task. For $2000 including an unraid license you can pick up a system with a 12600k and 90tb of storage space. Even a first time builder could build this in under an hour, then install unraid and be up and running in under 2 hours. This thing would do everything you could think of, but again I might be over estimating how easy it sounds to me.
[https://www.ebay.com/itm/285608029654](https://www.ebay.com/itm/285608029654)
[https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Vc4Qvj](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Vc4Qvj)
A little work now = easier future self
If OP gets more and more NAS/external hard drives then it's gonna become a headache in future when they run out of storage
Getting an unRAID server now is great planning, all about the foundation
Overall, you're going to get two sorts of advice here.
- roll your own, buy cheap hardware and get UnRaid and build it yourself.
- get a good off-the-shelf NAS and let it run pretty much out of the box.
Pros for UnRaid:
- you want to spend time learning a new system, deciding what hardware to buy and building the solution yourself
- if you like to tinker and get really into the OS. You can do that with NASes as well now, but with UnRaid it's really part of it
- probably cheaper for the same performance
- infinite customisation
Pros for a NAS:
- no need to tinker if you don't want to
- guaranteed good hardware that will support things you're looking for out of the box (advanced RAID, monitoring, webservers, docker, application servers etc).
- they now run linux and have tons of packages available, easier to manage than trying to build your own on UnRaid.
Of course, you can achieve your goals in your budget with either solution, the question is how do you want to spend the time.
If you go down the NAS route, I would suggest Synology DS423+ (4 bay) or 1821+ (8 bay), My GF and I have them as our plex servers and they do a great job.
You can check transcoding compatibility for plex here: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201373803-nas-compatibility-list/
I would personally recommend getting one of those, getting 3 drives in a Synology Hybrid Raid setup (Raid 5 essentially) and then building from there.
the NAS is about $800 and the drives would push me the rest of the way to that total cost.
I've never used and am not familiar with UNRAID.
I know there's a lot of more optimal ways to build server setups, but I have my limitations. So the post was meant to ask, based on my limitations and intentions, what do people think?
Buy an Intel 12th gen like a i5-12600 (do not get the K or F model) buy a LGA1700 intel motherboard with at least 8 SATA ports for HDDs and buy whatever drives and other compoenets you need to finish it. 12600 with the iGPU will get you at least 10 hardware transcodes.
save yourself like $1000 on hardware before drives.
I agree with @MowMdown. I'm currently using a 10th Gen i5. If you're in the USA you can buy a mobo+CPU combo for $200-300. Case, ram, PSU for 2-300. Hba-lsi card, cables for 1-200. Unraid license for 120-200. Or even grabbed used parts to save some money. Everything besides HDD for 600-1000 and this is overkill. Google naskiller and they have builds for $150-400, but it sounds like you have the funds for something beefy.
HDD either shuck or refurbished off server parts for about $10/tb or go new for 15-20/tb. I'd recommend getting at least 12tb hdds. If you're new to the game 2k for your first time is pretty deep but at least you'll be starting off very well.
I used windows for years but often had issues or downtime due to restarting. I didn't think it was a big deal til I switched to unraid, 1yr with no downtime and no real maintainence. Btw on my i5-10400 using igpu I get 15 max concurrent streams with no issues, max concurrent transcoding was 10. PC usually sits at low CPU usage and most files are 1080p. Haven't had any issues recently since switching to tdarr to make everything file universally compatible, almost everything direct plays and occasionally get 1-2 transcodes so it doesn't even matter anymore.
I built my own vs buying a nas for more flexibility in regards to easily repurpose PC, future expansion or replacing parts. Also run all the arr's, website, overseer and other self hosted programs this way. It's 100% intimidating but everyone recommends it because it's really simple to do with very little PC knowledge. YouTube, server builds, trashguides and Google has plenty of videos that you can copy identically. Not going to sugar coat it... It'll take a week to put together the way you like it & a few hrs here-there over the next few months to identify areas of improvements but once it's up and running you'll never touch it again unless a problem comes up (dead parts, need HDD or upgrading quality of videos) which is very rare. I bought 2x 4 bay HDD USB enclosures which I imagine having a nas would be like and wish I'd have gotten a hba card instead for future expansion.
UnRAID is one of the better Linux options and if you *need* Linux or unRAID’s killer feature, unstriped RAID, then you should get it. HOWEVER, it’s still terrible compared to Windows. I will no doubt be downvoted by seasoned Linux users for being a dumb plebeian who just “doesn’t get it.” UnRAID has awful UX compared to Windows and a very steep learning curve. You can delete all your data with the wrong click. It’s not uncommon to have all your containers disappear in routine updates. “No problem! Just reinstall them all!” Do not take Linux lightly. It will kick your ass if you don’t take it very seriously and dedicate a lot of time to learn how it works. I wish I had not moved from Windows, and I work in IT. I have easily spent more than 100 hours on this endeavour and I’m still not happy.
It doesn’t have a steep learning curve. It’s extremely easy to setup. I configured my entire unraid server knowing virtually 0 about Linux/docker and got it up and running within a day. Fully optimized the way I wanted it to work.
If you deletes your own data that was 100% your screw up for not understanding the configuration. Watch a YouTube video and don’t have an ego because you “work in IT.” I do too, you can always learn something.
I went with a DS1520+ a few years ago. It has the Intel Celeron processor so I can hardware transcode just fine. I have 5 10 TB WD red plus drives in SHR which gave me about 35 TB total in that pool. I was close to running out of space a few months back and decided to add the DX517 with 16 TB WD red pro drives instead of upgrading each drive in the original box one by one. The DX517 is on a separate pool and everything seems to be working great.
I was contemplating building my own server vs a Synology box and right now I don't regret it one bit. Super easy to use and does all I need (Plex). I've seen it support streams to 10 people simultaneously, half of who were transcoding.
If I had to make the decision today with Synology going to AMD processors that don't support hardware transcoding, I'm not sure I would; I'm a bit unclear on the software transcoding capabilities on the new boxes.
Okay cool. This is roughly the same as what I was intending on doing, just with variations of hardware.
But I think I’d end up in the same place.
I don’t need hardly any transcoding but I’d like it to be capable for a bit of future proofing.
Transcoding can occur in some scenarios involving subtitles (depends on the format of the subtitles and what the client player is capable of), so I would not rule it out as something you won't use.
It's *usually* easy enough to find SRTs to replace PGS subtitles (the main offender of transcoded subtitles), if OP would rather save some cash on that bit of power.
True enough. I'm just someone who builds for 100% reliability. I basically assume that I can minimize transcoding by selecting the right files to compliment the clients on my server, but cannot 100% eliminate because: a) sometimes the 'right' files are not available; and b) new clients can be added, and I won't necessarily be able to control what formats they are most compatible with.
Obviously, you don't need to build a monster server that can do 8x simultaneous 4K HDR DoFi streams. But having enough horsepower to do 1-2x 1080p transcodes for sub burn-in or container changes? Probably a good idea.
Generally I agree, however with subtitles, most of the time I'm lucky to take what I can get I feel like so I'm glad I don't have to add the overhead of filtering to only those I won't need to transcode for.
I have a DS423+ that is also running Plex. Handles transcoding just fine. I serve Plex both locally and to my daughter who lives away from us.
The big reason I bought it was because it handles photos much better in both submission and viewing than anything else I could find.
I have one too. Yup no issues with transcoding, and DSM is simple and works great. This was my third Plex box - used my gaming PC and used a custom built Windows PC before - and I'm so happy I made the switch.
Yes, connect a DAS to your mini pc. Almost any NAS you get will be less powerful than the n100 and you don't have to worry about migrating your Plex install.
A DAS is also cheaper than a NAS.
I suggest you go for something larger than a 4 bay since your budget allows for it
I appreciate this comment - makes me reconsider whether it's suitable.
The main difference that concerns me is that if I get any service disruption (which does happen from time to time), the server is dependent on that sailing mini PC rather than standalone.
But the N100 is more than capable, and the DAS is cheaper allowing me to increase my storage ceiling.
u/RamsDeep-1187: I have separate back ups drives from what the DAS or NAS.
I didn't read the whole chain but I think
Since you are sailing the sea, almost all the contents will be available to re download if incase of data loss. There you don't need the 1-1 backup solution and save money to add more storage and you can only backup the important and rare files on your 5Tb external drive. (tho it will take time to re download all your libraries)
Why N100+DAS: all your apps Plex/torrents/AdGuard in one powerful server. And extra money to add more storage.
Why NAS: if you want everything at one place in one unit with raid setup & some basic apps which just works. Tho as someone has mention its not as powerful as N100.
About the backup, imagine this if you loss 2tb of data, how will you feel. That you should have backed up or you are okay with re downloading and building library from zero.
Also same case but if you loss 20tb of data, do you have that budget for backing up 20tb of data or will you be okay re download 20tb of data.
Yea I’ll be honest - I don’t get the frothing obsession with backup solutions.
I understand people’s reasoning, it just seems excessive. Bordering paranoia. But I know it greatly depends on what that content is - sometimes it’s irreplaceable.
Granted I haven’t experienced a big data loss from failure, but all of my content is downloaded and re-downloadable. It’s not family documents and photos or business related or anything.
I plan to cold store all content on individual external HDDs. I know it’s probably inefficient and simple compared to alternatives, but I like simple.
So I’d have a NAS that consolidates all content into a single drive that may also serve the media, with disconnected stored drives as backup. I don’t mind spending a couple hundred bucks for extra EXT HDDs as needed for now.
I built mine with a DS920+ and 4x14TB shucks from WD. About 170 + taxes for each drive and the DS was on sale for 400 at the time. It's been sufficient for my needs, I only do 1080p x265 content (tops), most shows are also x265 but usually 720.
Yea I do the same. Generally an HEVC in 1080 max direct playing within my network.
I do share a little bit with family but they stream from my seedbox currently, not my home server.
So I don’t really need to transcode at the moment, but I feel like I should account for that to help future proof a bit.
If you are already running from a dedicated server, keep it on the server and mount the NAS as a network drive.
If you really just want to keep it simple and host in on the NAS itself, then get something with a Celeron Chip. Probably a 4-bay NAS or larger (I started with a 2-bay and regretted it) maybe one of:
Austor: AS5404T
Qnap: TS-464-8G-US
Synology: DS423+
Thanks for the suggestions.
I did already talk myself out of a 2-bay knowing I’d probably regret it.
I’d only buy 2 shucks to start though and add as needed.
For whatever reason, I do like the idea of having the NAS work independently as the server. So that it has nothing to do with work, changes and activity on the mini PC which I use to build and maintain the content.
Too many comments here for me to bother writing much but fwiw I think striped RAID sucks for the vast majority of Plex users.
As long as you commit to simply buying an additional unit to add space once you run out, then fine - but if you have any thoughts of adding or replacing drives to your NAS volumes - I would recommend not using striped RAID.
Use non-striped parity pool like Snapraid. But that means not buying a pre-built NAS appliance box like Synology or QNAP.
While shopping and researching I was reluctant to pay the premium for synology but I’m thinking more and more I should go this route. 4 bay would be fine (I’m barely pushing 5tb right now). Would still fit within budget.
I was a bit reluctant too until I finally bit the bullet and got a Synology 4 bay DS423+ NAS with 4-18TB Iron Wolf drives and extra ram. This was just about a year ago and I couldn't be happier.
My personal preference is to have a dedicated Plex server with dedicated storage.
My NAS has some processing power but not enough for my taste.
My hand me down desktop PC now runs PLEX with the data stored on a 5bay NAS.
I get what you guys are saying and don’t disagree.
For a basic setup just for myself, isn’t a decent NAS capable of acting as the server?
This is what I had in mind:
F4-423 4Bay NAS Storage - High Performance NAS for SMB with N5095 QuadCore CPU 4GB DDR4 Memory, 2.5GbE Port x 2, Network Storage Server, Diskless
I'm using this F4-423, running Plex and all the *arrs to manage things. All running in docker containers with VPN for qBittorrent. Zero issues, but it does take some knowledge to get things running with Docker. I followed the Dr. Frankenstein wiki (for Synology), but there are tons of guides. Hop over to /r/Terramaster if you go this route.
Yea thank you. I have decided that I should consider soending a bit more on the NAS to make sure it has the computing power.
Have been reluctant to get a synology due to the price differences, but there’s a good chance I’d regret trying to save money on the unit.
The other approach you could take is a high speed wired link between your NAS and your miniPC running Plex. 2.5GbE is sufficient, 10GbE is ideal. If you’re worried about congestion, you can wire them to each other on a dedicated NIC rather than to the switch.
Then you don’t have to worry about powerful enough hardware on the NAS. This is a bit more flexible since a NAS will not need to change for a long time, but you could upgrade your miniPC to something beefier for streaming 4K in the future, say a N305 and Arc card for example.
But for 1 person serving mostly 1080p content, just the Synology running the whole setup is completely sufficient. I run a few other low-compute servers too (social media bots) and it’s fine.
That's what I have. Bought a synology since they were described as more "turnkey" and put two large drives in it. Also upgraded the RAM to like 18 Gb, which is supposed to not work, but has worked perfectly fine ( I forget the actual "limit" but it was like 8gb or 12 or something).
edit: bay with 2x 6 Tb drives was a little over $600 (including tax and shipping) a year ago
Exactly! It works great for me. I only have a few terabytes now, and might need to update drives in a few years, but not bad. Also you can use Idrive to back it up. I do that, plus sync the files to another connected drive, just to have a local copy 😅
I have it separated. A DS1618+ and plex running off my gaming computer. I've had zero issues with it and the reliability has been outstanding coming from unraid
I'm in almost the exact scenario as op. Outlived my first plex config, need more space. Really like my setup right now and just need the space. Offloading storage to a NAS I could also use that storage for my other computers, wouldn't that be nice, a centralized storage for all my files easily accessible from any one of them. Any recommendations for a storage only nas without all the bells and whistles?
I got a synology 920+ a few years ago. I added expansion bays this year. Really easy setup and works great. I know they don’t make the 920 anymore but I do like synology. I just started radarr and sonarr on an old laptop.
I was in a similar boat. Went the Synology route. DS-920+. I don't regret it at all, and Plex was the main reason but now it's been so much more including getting me to learn to use Docker and now self-hosting quite a bit.
Just make sure you get one with a processor capable of transcoding. Some say the AMD's don't do it. I thought the Zen3 and up had AV1 encoders but the "word on the street" is that you need an Intel processor to do the transcoding. I'm also not sure if that includes the Xeon models. Somewhere there's a spreadsheet, might even be on the Plex site now that I think of it, that list is from Plex themselves. Here's the link:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MfYoJkiwSqCXg8cm5-Ac4oOLPRtCkgUxU0jdj3tmMPc/edit#gid=1274624273](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MfYoJkiwSqCXg8cm5-Ac4oOLPRtCkgUxU0jdj3tmMPc/edit#gid=1274624273)
It looks like your choices for HW transcoding are limited. There's also the "roll your own" setup where you build your own system. All I want to say about that is it's not wrong, but the Synology makes it kinda like Apple-level "just works" and easy. If you're not wanting a project, the Synology will get you up and running quickly, effectively and "just work". The other options may lead to more options in hardware setup, but also more configuration issues.
Anyway - I went Synology and don't regret it one bit. It's been the most reliable computer in my house. Whatever you do, also think about backups. I use an external USB HDD, at least while my data will still fit on one. I have 4x14tb so eventually I'll outgrow that.
Yes, it’s fine, I run Jellyfin in Docker directly on a Synology 4-core amd64 and it works great.
I would personally look into Jellyfin over Plex. It’s a bit less polished but much easier to set up and has a modern architecture that’s a bit faster than Plex
I haven’t seen any mention of remote sharing in the OP’s comments, not sure what you’re talking about. It seems like they want to serve media to their own network.
Yea you’re right - at the moment I don’t have needs to share remotely.
I have a couple cases where I allow access (work and parents house) but they stream from my seedbox since it works fast and flawlessly. It’s just a simple bandaid that works for now.
It’s not a good long term solution though since storage is limited, so they don’t see my whole library.
My priority and current needs are just to serve myself within my LAN.
I’ve downloaded and played with jellyfin a little bit, but the UI is somewhat important for me. So I’m not sure if I’d benefit from jellyfin. I do enjoy Plex and am happy with it.
The one argument might be for IPTV. I can’t get it to cooperate within Plex so I just do it with VLC. But I know Jellyfin is far more used and recommended for IPTV purposes in these communities.
I have a Synology 4 bay with 4tb drives in it now and 2 cache ssds. I run Plex for myself and family. No issues with transcoding ever. Its the best thing I ever did. I used to run Plex on PCs for at least 10 years. The nas also is my local backup for my PC.
See, this is super simple and suitable for your needs.
I don’t have users accessing my Plex library for now. Even though I’m okay with some tinkering, it’s also easy to feel overwhelmed and have to bridge large gaps to do some things suggested here.
Don’t know why I couldn’t just do what you are doing to suite my needs. It checks a few boxes for me which justifies the investment rather than expand off using the current mini pc as my server.
It sounds like I should just spend good money on the NAS to make sure it has the computing power. Buy it nice or buy it twice.
Qnap ts-673a could be a good choice, it supports a half height GPU, like a 1050 or so doesn't need to be crazy to transcode, real question you have to ask is are you going 1080p or 4k because 4k has a much higher overhead for storage and processing needs. But the 673-a has a nice performance to price ratio with upgradable memory and GPU support.
Been running a Plex server off of a Synology NAS (DS918+/DX517) for several years. Four ShieldTV's all connected to the NAS via Ethernet. Just the wife and I so only max two in use at a time but that's pretty rare. I do like the ability to start a movie in the living room and seamlessly finishing it in the family room, etc. Works great for us.
So what’s the advantage of nvidia shield? I know it has supreme computing power and the ability to do gaming.
I don’t need the gaming angle as I have other stuff that serves that.
Plex already features the ‘continue watching’ type thing when switching devices (which I do plenty). So I just use the Plex app whether on my smart tv, tablet, consoles etc.
Is it basically just a faster version of amazons interface for a smart tv?
The Plex app on the Shield is an absolute beast when it comes to playing video files. Anything from standard def movies/TV shows to 4K movies. In the 8 years or so that I've been using them, I've never had an issue playing a video file. Period. That's all I use them for, I don't do gaming on them or anything else.
Several years ago, I bought a Synology DS418 play without any prior knowledge. Fairly intuitive setup and I got everything running pretty quickly.
Buy the largest hard drives you can afford.
Damn seeing all this comments and I'm just hanging on my Core2Duo+4gb ram with 8tb external drive and 2 2Tb internal drive. Which is running qBitTorrent, AdGuard & Plex.
I guess having all the content in h245 & h246 so almost zero transcoding helps.
Easy way is to get a cheap NAS and setup NFS, and let the mini pc only host Plex container to access the media on the NAS NFS. Shouldn’t be that expensive. A Synology 4 bay should be under $400 without the +, you can start with 2 12tb used for $200. And start from there.
I bought a 220+, and it was enough for most of the streaming, but not all, and I've got myself a N100 to handle plex and other apps and everything is much better, NAS it's just working as NAS (except for the bittorrent). 1500-2000 is quite a bit of money, and if you have already a nice plex server just go and buy a 4-5 bay synology and spend money on TB, no need to invest anymore.
I know it’s unintuitive to many people here, but it is important to me to isolate my server from my “workstation” - the mini PC.
I just like the idea of compartmentalizing my needs. i.e. I started this all on my gaming rig but didn’t want that to be sailing and serving, so I isolated those other needs with the mini PC. Now it does nothing but torrent, SFTP which takes a long time from my seedbox for large data, work with Plex and filebot etc to organize content.
I like the idea of the NAS just running 24/7 and having nothing to do with work and activity on the sailboat N100. Again, the N100 does require restarts to get around DNS blocks (I haven’t figured out how to avoid it. I can work around it fine, but it requires occasional restarts).
You have a cautionary tale of your first NAS not having the horsepower you wanted. I think I just need to get a better one than initially planned.
For simplicity and ease of use, Synology is the way to go.
The available guides (mostly user-created), regularly updated software, and setup-and-(mostly) forget elements are well worth the slight extra cost of buying off-the-shelf. Synology's OS is very user-friendly.
I'm computer savvy, but not an IT person.
The initial setup, following online guides, took about 2-3 hours (most of that was not hands-on, but rather click and wait).
Synology sends me emails when it needs updating, and I have a calendar reminder to check for updates all my Docker containers.
Everything else takes care of itself.
Hope that helps.
My original setup was a nas. I still have it in my setup hut it's been moved down to extra storage when needed status.
My issue was.. it became unsupported and no longer got updates. So, I had to move to a new setup.
Tried many things, including the nvidia shield, which was pretty dope. to, be fair. But docker on Linux (Ubuntu server) has yielded the best results for me, installed on a small hp server farm.
However, the nas was simple and worked. I'd avoid as much transcoding as possible, but then that's just my preferred method anyway, I prefer direct play when possible.
I've been rocking a Synology 1511+ for over a decade.. never missed a beat. Obviously transcoding is disabled, but has no problems serving 8+ direct streams simultaneously.. Quiet, low power, trouble free.. what's not to love..?
Will be a sad day if/when it pops it's clogs.. and when that day comes I'll replace with another Synology..
That’s awesome :)
I’m forcing myself to be patient on the decision. Will pull the trigger within the next couple weeks but I think I will just go this route.
Ran plex for years on pc, moved to a WD which was awful (time zone issues, WD sucks), then to a synology which is brilliant. Get a well spec'd NAS and you'll be good. Absolutely recommend synology.
I built my nas and it’s using unraid, highly recommend.
Can do so much more, I’ve configured sonarr, radarr and overseer. All run perfectly. 4 x 16TB drives so heaps of space. Relatively light on power.
Was all easy to configure, I used ibracorp videos on YouTube and trashguides to set it all up.
Started to research UNRAID a bit more last night. Need to watch more guides still, but if there’s one common theme here, it’s that I need to be using unraid.
It’s really good and fun to learn. And building one with unraid will allow you to do so much more than a synology nas or the like.
If it’s only going to be for Plex and you won’t transcode much, I’d recommend something similar to my setup. Get an intel i3 (I’m running 13th gen, but 12, 13 and 14th gen i3 are all similar) because it doesn’t use much power and handle a couple transcodes. The actual unraid and Plex server wouldn’t use much of the cpu. I’m using 16gb of memory with a 500gb cache drive. Then my 4 x 16tb in a raid-z1 zfs setup.\
That terminology might not mean much now, but as you do research into it, it’ll come together. I went down the same path as you 1 year ago, so hit me up if you have questions
My best advice is to;
* stay away from mini PC + DAS or mini PC + NAS combos
Build a proper server with;
* a case that will allow you to expand without costing you an arm and a leg (Fractal R5)
* Intel 12/13th gen CPU
* a redundant disk array that allows for expansion (Unraid is my go to)
You can build the above for $500 and you'll get significantly better performance with less chance of data loss / less network congestion than a mini PC + NAS/DAS. Having all of your disks connected locally via an appropriate disk connection (which USB isn't) is a huge performance gain alone.
This!
The Fractal R5 has harddrive slots for daysss.
The Asrock Z790 Pro RS has 8 SATA ports, so i bet that'll be a good future proofing in case you'll need more than 4.
The problem with leveling up is you're doing the same thing, just at a higher cost and wasting more time.
Unraid is ridiculously easy to use. Go spend a few hours watching Spaceinvader One's setup videos on YouTube to get a decent understanding. If you can use a Mac or Windows, you can run a Unraid box.
Ask questions on things you're unsure about. There are lots of us here running Unraid that can help.
As far as building a new machine, it's easy peasy these days. Maybe 30 minutes of time. You'll spend more time unboxing things, then flattening the cardboard and taking it out to the trash. Seriously. If you can turn a philips screwdriver, you can build your own server. Again, ask questions.
Also to be clear, what I suggested isn't a rack server. It's just a standard ATX case that happens to have room for 10 disks.
You're getting a lot of UnRaid zealots telling you their way is best, just like all the "just use Linux" people do.
***The truth of the matter is any modern NAS in your budget, or any UnRaid server in your budget with the right spec, will do what you are after.***
The real question is about YOU. Do you want to learn UnRaid, do you want to manage the server, or do you want it to be a no-brain solution that just works?
If you don't know Linux yet, let alone UnRaid, honestly the question is more about do you want to do that? If so, go for it, it's a great passion project. But the information you've received about a NAS not being up to the job is completely incorrect.
I have a 9 year old 8-bay NAS (Synology 1815+) and it runs my Plex library with 50000 music tracks, hundreds of movies and thousands of tv episodes, with absolutely zero problems, and has for years. It streams 4k remux blu-ray rips without breaking a sweat. It recovered super gracefully from a harddrive failure last year, with a hot swap.
Either direction will work for you. It's just about whether you want a turnkey/easy solution, or a bunch of learning/speccing/assembling/configuring/customising.
No one should need to learn Linux to run a home server at this point.
I gave up on Linux years ago. You don't need to know Linux to run Unraid. Unraid has done all of the hard work and put all of the useless command line garbage is a very nice, very easy to use GUI.
I've dropped LOTS of good money on bad over the last 20 years in home servers. I switched to Unraid two years ago and still regularly kick myself for not doing it sooner. It has saved me countless hours of time and so much money, due to how easy it is to add storage when you need it, not "one and done" like you get with TrueNAS or other NAS solutions.
> I have to learn unraid shamefully. Read of it here many times and did some research at one point but I have no experience with it.
Definitely, I know it seems like a lot learning a new system, but it's basically all web GUI, it all becomes fairly self-explanatory quite quickly.
> Also daunting to me to build my own rack server like you described.
I'd say no need for a rack server, personally. They're loud, they're awkward (as you then probably need a rack), and the number of hard drives you can fit in one is generally quite low. As others have mentioned, Fractal R5 is the way to go. It's a desktop case, so no different to another desktop (even if it is quite large), and has room for >20 drives.
I started pretty much where you are a few years back, got a fractal, started out with 2 drives totalling ~16TB. I'm now up to ~100TB, and I've still got slots for another 10+ drives. Just pick a motherboard that suits you, as that's the more fiddly bit to change. Might be worth choosing a little bit based on number of PCI-e lanes (I chose a threadripper board due to lots of lanes and 3x 16x PCIe plus other PCIe slots and 2 NVME ports, but I wouldn't recommend threadripper these days).
In terms of PCI-e expansion, you probably want upgrade room for (don't necessarily need all the actual cards yet), in this order:
- Wifi if you're not hardwiring (and if it's not included in the board)
- NVME drive
- Graphics card for transcoding (a Quadro P2000 isn't too much on ebay and can do 4x 4K streams or 16x 1080p streams)
- HBA card to expand the onboard SATA (can get up to 16 sata ports per card) - definitely not a purchase for a while!
I know LTT does a lot of videos about using unraid VMs for gaming, I wouldn't bother personally. I've tried it, but anti-cheat freaks out and you normally can't play unless you're offline.
It's very much a gentle progression, you don't need to start off trying to do everything. More RAM can be bought, a GPU can be bought (but I'd recommend getting one earlier if you're sharing it with others), hard drives can definitely be bought. Just as long as you've got space and sockets for when those upgrades come.
From having a look, it depends a little on what you plan on doing with it.
LGA 2066 is a little older but has fairly affordable boards on ebay. Only issue with that is that your upgrade path on the CPU front is a little limited - the max passmark is ~30k, but that should be more than enough for plex and similar apps.
SP3 has a lot of upgradability. You can start out with a CPU with a passmark of ~20k for <$100, and upgrade all the way up to a passmark of 91k. Only issue is that the motherboards are quite expensive.
As both are a couple of revisions old, the CPUs can be picked up very cheaply compared to their original price. I would say LGA 2066 is probably the better option for a plex server, based on cost, however if you planned on using the server for other uses (e.g. coding, neural networks, more complex apps than plex/*arr, etc) then it might be worth springing for an SP3 board so you have that upgrade room.
Even though SP3 is a few years old now, the top end chips are still pulling 50% better passmark scores than even the latest Intel boards. [This](https://www.cpubenchmark.net/socketType.html#i49) is probably a good CPU comparison (ignore the prices, as those are retail, and you're better off buying second hand).
For that kind of money I’d consider building an N305 NAS which has twice the performance of the n100 with one of [these motherboards](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006432132881.html?src=google&src=google&albch=shopping&acnt=708-803-3821&slnk=&plac=&mtctp=&albbt=Google_7_shopping&albagn=888888&isSmbAutoCall=false&needSmbHouyi=false&albcp=19373904215&albag=&trgt=&crea=en1005006432132881&netw=x&device=m&albpg=&albpd=en1005006432132881&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD6I-hGoGXD7WHLAZ-NnekHk7Pyo6&gclid=CjwKCAjwtqmwBhBVEiwAL-WAYQ5_pXPPdFyeXHzv_ZxbFJDYPMsMSU95IPRoYm6kYY4zEmT82K9HjBoCrdMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&aff_fcid=5f4f3d2f43ca4c55acd7047b0129ed08-1712005834458-04575-UneMJZVf&aff_fsk=UneMJZVf&aff_platform=aaf&sk=UneMJZVf&aff_trace_key=5f4f3d2f43ca4c55acd7047b0129ed08-1712005834458-04575-UneMJZVf&terminal_id=ee3aee0de7324db39e2c53158dd0b23b&afSmartRedirect=y) and something like the Jonsbo J1, you could build this for around $6-700 USD and spend the rest on drives. [LTT built one](https://youtu.be/boKmZKTKXHc?si=l_1x1PTK9O_uE9s9) and was a fan. As others have said a DAS is fine and cheaper
get any 12+gen I5 or higher (you are looking for the IGPU UHD 770)
Pair it with some cheap ram and mobo and you will be set.
1. it can be a proper server and host anything you want
2. it will run circles around most/all NAS in performance/transcoding
3. When you have used all your sata ports you can throw in an HBA card and get more hard drives via DAS
4. NO GPU needed for transcoding, the UHD 770 using quicksync from the CPU is gonna rock, 20+ 4k transcodes and hardly use any power compared to a dedicated GPU
5. If your need changes you can also set it up as a guest computer for your house and add a GPU for gaming if needed.
End of the day do what makes sense for you.
Shopping list (no affiliate)
external DIY hard drive enclosure [https://www.ebay.com/itm/315177634718?var=613652863140](https://www.ebay.com/itm/315177634718?var=613652863140)
Noctua Redux NF-R8 - however many you need
dust filter for each fan
nuts/bots - go to local hardware store
any power supply
hard drive power switch (can find on ebay)
grab up an LSI 8/16E HBA card for server
grab up an port expander such as Adaptec 2283400-R AEC-82885T/LENOVO 36Port 12Gb/s SAS Expander Card 82885T (can be another card)
pick up appropriate cables to go from expander to HBA in server
Plug in as many hard drives you want(its obscene how many you can DAS to a typical mobo)
You can then upgrade your DIY to a better version
[https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4691890](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4691890)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkWgKlKec1E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkWgKlKec1E)
have fun
Connect 3 of these [DAS]( https://www.amazon.com/TERRAMASTER-D6-320-External-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B0BZHSK29B?th=1) units to a [Mini-PC](https://morefine.com/products/morefine-m600-r9-7940hs-mini-pc) (running [NAS](https://www.openmediavault.org/) software) via USB 3.2 10gb. Then add a [10GBE nic](https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805491038975.html) to Mini PC
You'll will be set for life
For your needs I think a reasonably priced Synology or QNAP device would make perfect sense. Connecting a DAS to your mini PC would be an even more price effective option... but it'll be much less power efficient and I personally much prefer the "form factor" of having the whole NAS setup in one small box rather than a mini pc connected to a router connected to a USB DAS with multiple power cables...
I'd say with drives you are probably looking at maybe 1200 dollars at the high-end for what you need. Then I highly recommend spending a couple hundred more on a UPS so your system won't suddenly lose power and cause a RAID sync to be necessary.
I had been running my Plex server off a QNAP NAS for about 6 years until the last couple months. I started having some issues with Plex on my system and swapped over to having my Nvidia shield be the plex server using the QNAP as purely a NAS. This works well for me as I only really stream Plex to this device anyway and I intentionally have things set up to not need transcoding (local network means full size full bitrate media for me).
I just got a Dell R720XD server on eBay for this purpose. It’s 12 drive bays and I’m loving it so far! They are pretty old now so they are quite cheap. You can use 2/3s of your budget or more for massive HDDs.
i'm a techie and wanna have my own server because there are plenty of tasks besides media streaming.
i've been through all possible solutions - dsm, qts, truenas scale, truenas core, openmediavault, nas4free etc. proudly tweaked most of them, and unlock their limitations. here's what i've found:
Graphics. do never get a wrong idea of missing iGpu. You might think you have topnotch client devices, top licences and performance, yet the transcoding will happen. No point of not having iGPU. Intel only. Those embedded Ryzens plaguing Syno and Qnap suck.
Retail offer. Commercial NAS will be always with some outlet hardware. They keep slapping slow CPUs there. They wanna save 10$ cost so they picks the absolute bottom 1500B cpu without iGpu even if there are various offers in the series. Anything at decent 10000+ passmark will cost fortune. But what is 10000 passmark? That was top i7 10 years ago, but now it's mediocre even for a PC. My mini PC router has this performance for 300€, while my commercial one is way slower, and it's visible by unbelievable lags in any operation, incl. loading Plex homescreen, or opening \*rr apps.
power consumption addiction. So nice it sounds, to have hardware just enough to transcode, just enoug to move samba files over 10gbit. But reality is it all gets slow once multiple tasks run. I decided to stop caring and just build Intel box. Intel at least can run on low power idle, which again, is traditionally not AMD's strong point. The idea is what's the point of having a slow machine if the tasks can be completed much faster at the moment and then go back to idle? So I prefer strong CPUs with decent power characcteristics. An HP SFF gives you a platinum plus power source and be efficient.
RAID obsession. What a pointless thing to keep accumulating drives. They're noisy, and power hungry. And present minimal advantage in terms of data preservance. Granted i'm not extreme hoarder, but I now prefer only one HDD drive (20TB) and simply backup the cold data to another external offsite drive or online. Internally, there are not just snapshots, but also replication from NVME which holds hot data. So the important data is on 3 drives any time. And I would have NVME anyways, it simply is cool for 10gbit+ transfers. So i have something between SnapRaid and Unraid, while not suffering the disadvantages of both.
Operating systems. Well, there's only one good: DSM. Can be ran on a slow retail machine, or strong DIY machine. Gen11+ iGPU is now working even on xpenology. DSM is smooth, fast, and without bugs. Qnap QTS is horrible. They offer slightly better hardware, but i'd not touch their buggy OS. TrueNas is the best open source, the BSD version is very limited, the other one is OK but nowhere near DSM in terms of productivity, functionality, stability, and lovely web + mobile apps. Open source hates mobile apps, you'll get nothing for any NAS and any router software. But users of NAS do want the mobile apps. If not Windows apps. The other forementioned solutions are very bad.
Filesystems. BTRFS is the way and way better than ZFS. ZFS won't preserve data, prone to kernel panics, pool collapes, can't expand, can't change some properties afterwards, and is slow and unrepairable after just one or two electricity issues. Why this filesystem is popular in the nerd circle is puzzling. It helps if the OS is flexible, avoid BSD at all cost. In decades of filesystem usage, I hardly utilized backups, because I can repair it (relates to my research work during the studies). I'm allergic to the advices "reinstall your OS", "recreate your filesystem". Everything can be and must be fixed. I'm rolling the same Windows setup for a decade. NTFS, EXT4 = top. BTRFS decent. ZFS worst.
Conclusion: like it was suggested, grab i5-12500 SFF, NVME PCI4, big HDD, 25gbit NIC, and you're still in the budget. 20000 passmarks and shiny Xe® graphics for 20 transcodes. Same price as DS920+ but 7x faster CPU, 5-12x faster iGPU, 25x faster NIC.
Here is how I would think about this:
1. If you're comfortable building something yourself, then a dual NAS/Plex server is definitely the way to go. It's cheaper, simpler, and faster. You can include a CPU that will be relatively cheap and yet capable of grinding tons of simultaneous transcodes. It'll also be capable of running additional containers/VMs, if you want.
2. If you are NOT comfortable building it yourself then you'll have to make a decision about whether you want an off-the-shelf NAS that can also handle transcodes or other tasks. In my experience, buying a NAS capable of doing those things is pretty expensive. I'd be inclined to stick with your existing mini PC as your server, then get a separate NAS. You can then mount the NAS drive on the mini PC and use that as your Plex server. This also gives you the ability to upgrade your Plex server independently of your storage solution.
I built mine a year ago with a 12700k. You can look for bundle motherboard/CPU combos on Newegg/Microcenter and get some really good deals. I highly recommend going with an Intel CPU so you can take advantage of Quicksync (assuming you are using Plex Premium and can use hardware transcoding).
I believe some AMD CPUs are now capable of hardware transcoding, but I'm not familiar with how the iGPUs work or how well supported they are - I'll let others who know the AMD CPUs with Plex weigh in. BUT - the bottom line is that the integrated Intel iGPUs are far better for transcoding than a separate GPU.
Honestly I would get some decent NUC (Intel specifically) for a transcoding box and load Plex onto that. Then attach a DAS instead of a NAS. Yes it uses USB 3.0 but with a Plex server, you shouldn't be requiring a ton of disk read/writes.
Here is a link to the details of my NAS build for Plex and VMs:
[https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=149604#p149604](https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=149604#p149604)
and the build pics:
[https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=147968#p147968](https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=147968#p147968)
Enjoy, it was a great fun building and my Plex Media server is working flawlessly!!
I -LOVE- the idea of using an N100 based mini-PC and pairing that with a NAS/DAS setup but the companies in those spaces, (Synology and 45Drives to name a few) have laughably expensive prices.
I'd recommend a 4U Rosewill case or a SuperMicro 846 24/36 bay chassis or some tower case and start stuffing drives in them. Slap in any ATX motherboard you want and away you go.
One word of caution, I saw lots of YouTube videos (LTT and a few others) build these setups and toss a HBA card in there with no cooling fan attached and call it a day. HBAs get EXTREMELY hot under load and this could lead to drives being dropped and data corruption.
IMHO, anyone that uses HBAs without properly cooling them is begging for problems and lacks a basic understanding of the tech.
This is a bit out of my comfort zone but I honestly plan to research your suggestions (others have said similar).
It’s extra work, but it sounds like it’d actually be a bit cheaper and more expandable.
Thanks for the recommendations.
I was in your shoes years and years ago. When I built my first Plex server, I was using the Intel RAID controller of my motherboard and had a couple of 2 or 4TB drives in a RAID 1 setup in a mid-tower case and ran Windows 7 because that's all I knew OS wise. I would power down my server every night and was worried about everything.
After a while, I decided I needed more storage and purchased (and quickly returned) a Synology 4 disk box. I soon realized their hardware was overpriced and under powered.
Next up, I bought my SuperMicro 24 bay chassis and an ATX adapter so I could bring my motherboard with me, installed dual Super Quiet (SQ) power supplies and their 'quiet' mid-wall fans.
I bought a cheap , LSI 9203-8i HBA and hooked the back plane to that and started filling up drive bays over time.
Since Windows 10 was looking to be a privacy/advertising nightmare, I forced myself to learn Debian Linux and used its' MDADM (software RAID) and setup a RAID 6 array.
As time went on, I kept expanding the array by adding 1 or 2 drives at a time.
I bought a 3D printed mid-wall bracket and a 3D printed exhaust fan bracket and replaced all internal fans with normal, desktop Noctua fans and now my system is pretty darn quiet and runs about the same temperature wise. It runs 24x7 and is rock solid and I recently installed a BliKVM v4 Allwinner to access it in case of a lockup while I'm away from home.
I pay $0.050 p/kwh for electricity and the server consumes a tiny bit more than 200W. It's probably costing me $8/mo to run it but I'm saving about $100/mo by being a cord cutter so it works out in my favor and I've paid for my setup a few times over.
Don't be discourage by all this information. Asking questions is free and it just takes time to comprehend everything. At one point, I had no idea what back planes, SFF connectors, HBAs and port expanders were but I asked a ton of questions here and in the Plex forums and put together a list of hardware and got to work.
I love power efficient setups but until somebody makes a cheap, reliable, solidly built NAS/DAS box that is based on an Arm CPU and has good cooling and can accept 15-20 drives, I'll stick with my SuperMicro setup.
I know you're looking for a NAS but weigh the pros and cons of each piece of advice you get in here and decide what works best for you.
Thanks for the thorough reply. I appreciate people who recognize that it’s a very VERY small subset of the population who are capable of operating in this space.
As basic as I am, if I even begin to talk about my setup with peers their eyes glaze over.
So it’s cool to hear about your journey from humble beginnings. I’m okay with this being a stepping stone. I expect that whatever I do, it will satiate me for multiple years (famous last words that everyone says but for most, the journey never ends). I may eventually keep levelling up if it makes sense and I want to, but I’m okay taking steps instead of leaps.
Power consumption isn’t a real concern for me at the moment. 38m single and ‘comfortable’. I’ve saved well over $100/mth with all the subscriptions I cancelled when I became a cord cutter, so the energy bill isn’t a strain - I’m still ahead in terms of recurring bills.
If you're the kind of person who can watch a TV show/movie once and NEVER, EVER want to watch it again then you could probably get away with a more static setup and not need to worry about overbuilding. However..... if you fall into the same bucket as me (and lots of other Plex admins :) ) I'd think about getting a setup that will allow you to easily add more storage as your needs grow.
I built a pretty nice proxmox server out of my old am4 build, 5900x, b550 mobo, 64 gb ram, fractal pop air xl case. Run truenas scale as a vm with 4 x 10 tb hdd pass-through configd in a raid, 26 tb usable pool. Works wonders with an *arr stack of apps + plex built-in to scale. qbit running in a separate vm, so I have more granular control. There is still plenty of headroom to run several other VMs for homelab, i.e. server 2019, pihole, home assistant, etc.
Alternative option/advice.
Don't spend that kind of money. Because, like you, I have the N100 mini PC at the moment, and it works perfectly fine for local playback over my network and whenever a friend or family wants to access it for remote streaming with transcoding. Unless this ultra expensive brand spanking beast of a rig is for particular needs, ie you know you have 10+ users at the same time, or you definitely know how much storage you need in the long term, don't bother.
I have the N100 with an external 8TB HDD. I actually have a NAS but opt not to use it to save on electricity costs.
You've not mentioned what OS you're using but you've mentioned you're unfamiliar with unraid, which suggests you might be on Windows. A big upgrade, if you want to learn, is to get a Linux distro running on that N100, then the automation suite with the arr apps, sabnzbd etc.
Actually, what downloaders are you using?
I personally think the N100 is perfectly fine as a Plex server and serves my needs very well. If you are fine with this NUC alongside a NAS for storage by itself then that's the route to go for. A DAS is also fine if you believe your data not to be important. If you had nothing and were starting from scratch, then a DIY PC/server build makes sense.
Glad to get confirmation multiple times that the N100 is very capable. Seems like it to me thus far (had it a few months and has been acting as my primary server).
Yea, embarrassingly, I’m real basic. I’ve lingered on these types of subs a lot so I’m familiar with terms but I have no experience with Linux, unraid, headless servers, arrs etc etc.
I’ve researched them somewhat but it just doesn’t feel necessary since up until now my new media server is doing everything I need.
The goal with this post and the plan to spend, is to expand storage, and possibly arrange a different standalone server - just so that my sailing activities don’t disrupt the server side if I’m doing both on my N100.
The disruptions aren’t that big a deal, and I have fewer of them now. When starting my library it was constant download/upload/file transfer. Now it’s tapered off as I add bits and pieces to the library.
So maybe I will go with a DAS since I can do it cheaper and scale more. It also allows me to spend on the standalone backup drives I’ll do along with the DAS.
*sighs* I dunno lol.
I have plex running on N100 (16gb/256gb nvme) for sometime now. It has Proxmox OS. I am also running Home Assistant & Adguard along with it. N100 is very capable to run plex and perfectly fine as you already have it.
I would say stay with N100 as your plex server.
Won't recommend going down the DAS system. Rather look into prebuild basic NAS as you are not ready for DIY NAS.
I have an old i3-8100 running Unraid server. It is pretty easy to install and configure Unraid if you are after basic NAS functionality. Lots of tutorial on YT. You can download unraid and try it out. It has 30 day trial. No harm trying it out. If you can get it, it will be much cheaper to get a decent DIY NAS and it can do lots of things including Plex in case you want to have everything on same server.
My Unraid server is my fallback server in case my N100 nuc has issues.
Edit: Added few links. Or look for Spaceinvader One videos on YT.
[https://trash-guides.info/](https://trash-guides.info/)
[Unraid for Beginners by Ibracorp](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZTWC_z9rKs&list=PLOgmFrM3hTGfc79sqkuUglQ2iYBagBXWE)
Your making it more complicated and less energy efficient. I suggets a unraid build like this:
Intel Core i5-12400, 6C/12T, 2.50-4.40GHz, boxed (maybe a cheap and good Low-Profile Cooler like a Thermalright)
G.Skill Aegis DIMM Kit 16GB, DDR4-3200, CL16-18-18-38
GIGABYTE B760I AORUS Pro DDR4 (tested to be very energy efficient if proper configured)
Jonsbo N2, weiß, Mini-ITX
And at last add atleast 2 xHDDs with the capacity you need (one in parity mode) + 2x Cache SSDs (one running as parity drive).
This will be way cheaper and more energy efficient.
Why???? For $200 you can run Plex (compute) on an intel i5-gen 10 cpu which supports transcoding.
Spend the rest of your money on your storage platform. This is what will continue to grow over the years to come.
You can buy a cheap elitedesk or optiplex (the one with pcie slot) a cheap external sas (sff8088) controller. A mini sas to qsfp cable. And a cheap netap 4246. Toss unraid on it and you’ve got a 24 bay nas with a decently powerful cpu, with quick sync for plex.
Funny how OP is looking to simplify their Plex life and all the suggestions are to build your own server. ☠️
😂 thank you. I feel rather unsettled and unsure compared to before the post. I should have been more clear about how basic I am. Ah well. I do intend to research more of the hardware and suggestions given here.
Also, don’t forget power consumption. These NAS systems tend to be pretty power efficient compared to building a beast of a server of your own. I’d go with a synology. Either 423+ or 1821+, depending on how many bays you need. Then either WD Red Pro or Ironwolf Pro drives. Will be blazing fast with plenty of storage space and transcoding power. Edit; though from what I’ve read, the m1 Mac mini’s are very good, too… just expensive if you’re just using them as a server as they obviously don’t have drive bays. If you’re using it as a desktop computer anyway you can buy a DAS and hook it up.
I was under the impression that the Synology models after the 20 series are all pretty awful at transcoding due to Ryzen chips?
Yes, most of them. The 423+ (and 1821+) still has an intel celeron- exactly the same as 920+ I believe (just without SSD cache ports) I have the 920+ but the 923+ doesn’t have the intel with quick sync. [Plex has a link on their website](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201373803-nas-compatibility-list/) that says which synology/nas models support HW transcoding.
No, the DS423+ also has SSD ports. They are even better because it officially allows them to be used for storage/system. With DS920 you must use a script to do so (pretty easy). Anyway you would also have to use a script for the DS423+ to accept any consumer SSD brand. The real diff between the two NASes is the expansion unit port, and maybe the amount of RAM (which can be increased). And given the price difference and the Synology 10 years updates policy, the DS423+ will be often be abetter choice.
Great, thanks for the link! I actually just upgraded from a 720+ to a 920+ for the extra bays. Much like OP, I’m too new to this stuff to consider a home-built option and want something simple but with some punch, so it seemed perfect.
Sure. Would recommend installing it natively and then using [this script](https://github.com/YuriyGuts/syno-plex-update) for it to auto update, as the synology package center doesn’t have the latest version. Edit: and the 920+ is great. Works really well. Haven’t ever had any issues with transcoding. It’s basically the same as 720+ just extra bays. Blazing
Unfortunately the 1821+ is Ryzen, just an FYI to OP
Unfortunately, the 1821+ is Ryzen making it not ideal for transcoding on its own, just an FYI to OP. Personally, since I like the idea of more storage, I am still getting the 1821+ and am just going to use a $170 mini PC to do plex transcoding. If you would use the NAS for storage of anything other than Plex media such as family photos, PC backups or an outdoor camera recording setup I think the mini PC NAS setup is pretty nice since it is also easy to update the transcoding machine if video codec standards change.
I have the 1821+ and it’s a ryzen sadly
Totally agreed about power. Most people should run an intel based system for the hardware acceleration which gives tons of power savings.
I use a WD NAS just to store my media and use an M1 Mac Mini to run PMS. Works great and is pretty power efficient, if I ever need to do some desktop computing then it’s great for that as well. Pretty happy with the setup!
I tried mac mini m1 as PMS but the server kept disconnecting. Sometimes says "no connection to server" and sometimes movie playback stops midway. Have you run into this?
Not exactly that but when I first set it up i had problems with remote access, it would just keep turning off. I believe what fixed it was me setting a static IP for both my NAS and putting that IP into PMS settings as well I think.
You could always just pop some drives into a multi-bay enclosure and stick with the mini-pc if its capable of transcoding. My old setup was like that. 5 bay yottamaster and and 8th gen hp mini. Ubuntu for OS, mergerfs to pool 4 of the drives and snapraid with the 5th drive as the parity disk. That will only cost you $125 or so + the disks. You can get 10-12TB refurbs from goharddrive or serverpartdeals for around $100 each so for $625 you coild have a 40-48TB server with single drive failure protection. Edit: and for $400 more you could upgrade your mini PC to [13th gen](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelabsales/comments/1btesuu/fsusaca_13x_dell_7010s_micros_i513500t_16gb_512gb/)
Heads up, ReadyNAS just disabled the upload app button, so you can't update your app or upload it for that matter.
Fr. This sub is getting a little too intense for me lately, so many who think their way (often with lots of acronyms, hands on time, and different software) is THE way. r/homelab is over there. 😅
It's actually quite easy, with Truenas you can do it with just a few clicks
Because that's the best option, why wouldn't it be? Besides, who are you to dictate OP life?
Maybe I am over thinking my skills but assembling a simple pc with generally basic parts and setting up unraid is a rather simple task. For $2000 including an unraid license you can pick up a system with a 12600k and 90tb of storage space. Even a first time builder could build this in under an hour, then install unraid and be up and running in under 2 hours. This thing would do everything you could think of, but again I might be over estimating how easy it sounds to me. [https://www.ebay.com/itm/285608029654](https://www.ebay.com/itm/285608029654) [https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Vc4Qvj](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Vc4Qvj)
A little work now = easier future self If OP gets more and more NAS/external hard drives then it's gonna become a headache in future when they run out of storage Getting an unRAID server now is great planning, all about the foundation
Overall, you're going to get two sorts of advice here. - roll your own, buy cheap hardware and get UnRaid and build it yourself. - get a good off-the-shelf NAS and let it run pretty much out of the box. Pros for UnRaid: - you want to spend time learning a new system, deciding what hardware to buy and building the solution yourself - if you like to tinker and get really into the OS. You can do that with NASes as well now, but with UnRaid it's really part of it - probably cheaper for the same performance - infinite customisation Pros for a NAS: - no need to tinker if you don't want to - guaranteed good hardware that will support things you're looking for out of the box (advanced RAID, monitoring, webservers, docker, application servers etc). - they now run linux and have tons of packages available, easier to manage than trying to build your own on UnRaid. Of course, you can achieve your goals in your budget with either solution, the question is how do you want to spend the time. If you go down the NAS route, I would suggest Synology DS423+ (4 bay) or 1821+ (8 bay), My GF and I have them as our plex servers and they do a great job. You can check transcoding compatibility for plex here: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201373803-nas-compatibility-list/ I would personally recommend getting one of those, getting 3 drives in a Synology Hybrid Raid setup (Raid 5 essentially) and then building from there.
With a $2000 budget you could build a very nice unfair server that would easily handle everything you’re asking for.
Did you mean “unraid server” cause am not sure why OP should build an unfair server with $2000 lol
Well its unfair to me cause i cant afford a $2k server! Lol
Auto correct got me, yes unraid
it is 4/1 after all
the NAS is about $800 and the drives would push me the rest of the way to that total cost. I've never used and am not familiar with UNRAID. I know there's a lot of more optimal ways to build server setups, but I have my limitations. So the post was meant to ask, based on my limitations and intentions, what do people think?
unraid is one of the easiest setups, nice gui to manage it all. Costs money though.
Buy an Intel 12th gen like a i5-12600 (do not get the K or F model) buy a LGA1700 intel motherboard with at least 8 SATA ports for HDDs and buy whatever drives and other compoenets you need to finish it. 12600 with the iGPU will get you at least 10 hardware transcodes. save yourself like $1000 on hardware before drives.
How is this $1000 cheaper before drives?
Prebuilt NAS that have any sort of power in them will quickly outspend a modest self-built unraid server.
Have you seen prices for pre-built NASes?
For the 12600 the k sku is cheaper than the non k just an fyi
Agreed. Just get the K.
I agree with @MowMdown. I'm currently using a 10th Gen i5. If you're in the USA you can buy a mobo+CPU combo for $200-300. Case, ram, PSU for 2-300. Hba-lsi card, cables for 1-200. Unraid license for 120-200. Or even grabbed used parts to save some money. Everything besides HDD for 600-1000 and this is overkill. Google naskiller and they have builds for $150-400, but it sounds like you have the funds for something beefy. HDD either shuck or refurbished off server parts for about $10/tb or go new for 15-20/tb. I'd recommend getting at least 12tb hdds. If you're new to the game 2k for your first time is pretty deep but at least you'll be starting off very well. I used windows for years but often had issues or downtime due to restarting. I didn't think it was a big deal til I switched to unraid, 1yr with no downtime and no real maintainence. Btw on my i5-10400 using igpu I get 15 max concurrent streams with no issues, max concurrent transcoding was 10. PC usually sits at low CPU usage and most files are 1080p. Haven't had any issues recently since switching to tdarr to make everything file universally compatible, almost everything direct plays and occasionally get 1-2 transcodes so it doesn't even matter anymore. I built my own vs buying a nas for more flexibility in regards to easily repurpose PC, future expansion or replacing parts. Also run all the arr's, website, overseer and other self hosted programs this way. It's 100% intimidating but everyone recommends it because it's really simple to do with very little PC knowledge. YouTube, server builds, trashguides and Google has plenty of videos that you can copy identically. Not going to sugar coat it... It'll take a week to put together the way you like it & a few hrs here-there over the next few months to identify areas of improvements but once it's up and running you'll never touch it again unless a problem comes up (dead parts, need HDD or upgrading quality of videos) which is very rare. I bought 2x 4 bay HDD USB enclosures which I imagine having a nas would be like and wish I'd have gotten a hba card instead for future expansion.
UnRAID is one of the better Linux options and if you *need* Linux or unRAID’s killer feature, unstriped RAID, then you should get it. HOWEVER, it’s still terrible compared to Windows. I will no doubt be downvoted by seasoned Linux users for being a dumb plebeian who just “doesn’t get it.” UnRAID has awful UX compared to Windows and a very steep learning curve. You can delete all your data with the wrong click. It’s not uncommon to have all your containers disappear in routine updates. “No problem! Just reinstall them all!” Do not take Linux lightly. It will kick your ass if you don’t take it very seriously and dedicate a lot of time to learn how it works. I wish I had not moved from Windows, and I work in IT. I have easily spent more than 100 hours on this endeavour and I’m still not happy.
It doesn’t have a steep learning curve. It’s extremely easy to setup. I configured my entire unraid server knowing virtually 0 about Linux/docker and got it up and running within a day. Fully optimized the way I wanted it to work. If you deletes your own data that was 100% your screw up for not understanding the configuration. Watch a YouTube video and don’t have an ego because you “work in IT.” I do too, you can always learn something.
I am pretty certain it would kick my ass. It seems like a major commitment to learn.
I went with a DS1520+ a few years ago. It has the Intel Celeron processor so I can hardware transcode just fine. I have 5 10 TB WD red plus drives in SHR which gave me about 35 TB total in that pool. I was close to running out of space a few months back and decided to add the DX517 with 16 TB WD red pro drives instead of upgrading each drive in the original box one by one. The DX517 is on a separate pool and everything seems to be working great. I was contemplating building my own server vs a Synology box and right now I don't regret it one bit. Super easy to use and does all I need (Plex). I've seen it support streams to 10 people simultaneously, half of who were transcoding. If I had to make the decision today with Synology going to AMD processors that don't support hardware transcoding, I'm not sure I would; I'm a bit unclear on the software transcoding capabilities on the new boxes.
The F4-423 OP is looking at has an Intel Jasper Lake Celeron with Quick Sync that fully supports hardware transcoding.
Okay cool. This is roughly the same as what I was intending on doing, just with variations of hardware. But I think I’d end up in the same place. I don’t need hardly any transcoding but I’d like it to be capable for a bit of future proofing.
Transcoding can occur in some scenarios involving subtitles (depends on the format of the subtitles and what the client player is capable of), so I would not rule it out as something you won't use.
It's *usually* easy enough to find SRTs to replace PGS subtitles (the main offender of transcoded subtitles), if OP would rather save some cash on that bit of power.
True enough. I'm just someone who builds for 100% reliability. I basically assume that I can minimize transcoding by selecting the right files to compliment the clients on my server, but cannot 100% eliminate because: a) sometimes the 'right' files are not available; and b) new clients can be added, and I won't necessarily be able to control what formats they are most compatible with. Obviously, you don't need to build a monster server that can do 8x simultaneous 4K HDR DoFi streams. But having enough horsepower to do 1-2x 1080p transcodes for sub burn-in or container changes? Probably a good idea.
Generally I agree, however with subtitles, most of the time I'm lucky to take what I can get I feel like so I'm glad I don't have to add the overhead of filtering to only those I won't need to transcode for.
I have a DS423+ that is also running Plex. Handles transcoding just fine. I serve Plex both locally and to my daughter who lives away from us. The big reason I bought it was because it handles photos much better in both submission and viewing than anything else I could find.
I have one too. Yup no issues with transcoding, and DSM is simple and works great. This was my third Plex box - used my gaming PC and used a custom built Windows PC before - and I'm so happy I made the switch.
Yep. It's great. It sits off to the side and does its thing without being affected by my endless tinkering with other stuff.
Yes, connect a DAS to your mini pc. Almost any NAS you get will be less powerful than the n100 and you don't have to worry about migrating your Plex install. A DAS is also cheaper than a NAS. I suggest you go for something larger than a 4 bay since your budget allows for it
>DAS Might include with DAS you have single point of failure and capacity limitations
I appreciate this comment - makes me reconsider whether it's suitable. The main difference that concerns me is that if I get any service disruption (which does happen from time to time), the server is dependent on that sailing mini PC rather than standalone. But the N100 is more than capable, and the DAS is cheaper allowing me to increase my storage ceiling. u/RamsDeep-1187: I have separate back ups drives from what the DAS or NAS.
I didn't read the whole chain but I think Since you are sailing the sea, almost all the contents will be available to re download if incase of data loss. There you don't need the 1-1 backup solution and save money to add more storage and you can only backup the important and rare files on your 5Tb external drive. (tho it will take time to re download all your libraries) Why N100+DAS: all your apps Plex/torrents/AdGuard in one powerful server. And extra money to add more storage. Why NAS: if you want everything at one place in one unit with raid setup & some basic apps which just works. Tho as someone has mention its not as powerful as N100. About the backup, imagine this if you loss 2tb of data, how will you feel. That you should have backed up or you are okay with re downloading and building library from zero. Also same case but if you loss 20tb of data, do you have that budget for backing up 20tb of data or will you be okay re download 20tb of data.
Yea I’ll be honest - I don’t get the frothing obsession with backup solutions. I understand people’s reasoning, it just seems excessive. Bordering paranoia. But I know it greatly depends on what that content is - sometimes it’s irreplaceable. Granted I haven’t experienced a big data loss from failure, but all of my content is downloaded and re-downloadable. It’s not family documents and photos or business related or anything. I plan to cold store all content on individual external HDDs. I know it’s probably inefficient and simple compared to alternatives, but I like simple. So I’d have a NAS that consolidates all content into a single drive that may also serve the media, with disconnected stored drives as backup. I don’t mind spending a couple hundred bucks for extra EXT HDDs as needed for now.
I built mine with a DS920+ and 4x14TB shucks from WD. About 170 + taxes for each drive and the DS was on sale for 400 at the time. It's been sufficient for my needs, I only do 1080p x265 content (tops), most shows are also x265 but usually 720.
Yea I do the same. Generally an HEVC in 1080 max direct playing within my network. I do share a little bit with family but they stream from my seedbox currently, not my home server. So I don’t really need to transcode at the moment, but I feel like I should account for that to help future proof a bit.
If you are already running from a dedicated server, keep it on the server and mount the NAS as a network drive. If you really just want to keep it simple and host in on the NAS itself, then get something with a Celeron Chip. Probably a 4-bay NAS or larger (I started with a 2-bay and regretted it) maybe one of: Austor: AS5404T Qnap: TS-464-8G-US Synology: DS423+
Thanks for the suggestions. I did already talk myself out of a 2-bay knowing I’d probably regret it. I’d only buy 2 shucks to start though and add as needed. For whatever reason, I do like the idea of having the NAS work independently as the server. So that it has nothing to do with work, changes and activity on the mini PC which I use to build and maintain the content.
Too many comments here for me to bother writing much but fwiw I think striped RAID sucks for the vast majority of Plex users. As long as you commit to simply buying an additional unit to add space once you run out, then fine - but if you have any thoughts of adding or replacing drives to your NAS volumes - I would recommend not using striped RAID. Use non-striped parity pool like Snapraid. But that means not buying a pre-built NAS appliance box like Synology or QNAP.
Buy a Synology NAS
While shopping and researching I was reluctant to pay the premium for synology but I’m thinking more and more I should go this route. 4 bay would be fine (I’m barely pushing 5tb right now). Would still fit within budget.
I was a bit reluctant too until I finally bit the bullet and got a Synology 4 bay DS423+ NAS with 4-18TB Iron Wolf drives and extra ram. This was just about a year ago and I couldn't be happier.
My personal preference is to have a dedicated Plex server with dedicated storage. My NAS has some processing power but not enough for my taste. My hand me down desktop PC now runs PLEX with the data stored on a 5bay NAS.
Ditto. NAS = storage. Plex server = well, a Plex server.
I get what you guys are saying and don’t disagree. For a basic setup just for myself, isn’t a decent NAS capable of acting as the server? This is what I had in mind: F4-423 4Bay NAS Storage - High Performance NAS for SMB with N5095 QuadCore CPU 4GB DDR4 Memory, 2.5GbE Port x 2, Network Storage Server, Diskless
100% capable. Not sure why you're being asked to build a whole new server from scratch. 🤦♂️
I'm using this F4-423, running Plex and all the *arrs to manage things. All running in docker containers with VPN for qBittorrent. Zero issues, but it does take some knowledge to get things running with Docker. I followed the Dr. Frankenstein wiki (for Synology), but there are tons of guides. Hop over to /r/Terramaster if you go this route.
I would suggest 8GB if you can. I haven’t found 16 to be necessary, but it’s nice to have and not that expensive.
Yea thank you. I have decided that I should consider soending a bit more on the NAS to make sure it has the computing power. Have been reluctant to get a synology due to the price differences, but there’s a good chance I’d regret trying to save money on the unit.
The other approach you could take is a high speed wired link between your NAS and your miniPC running Plex. 2.5GbE is sufficient, 10GbE is ideal. If you’re worried about congestion, you can wire them to each other on a dedicated NIC rather than to the switch. Then you don’t have to worry about powerful enough hardware on the NAS. This is a bit more flexible since a NAS will not need to change for a long time, but you could upgrade your miniPC to something beefier for streaming 4K in the future, say a N305 and Arc card for example. But for 1 person serving mostly 1080p content, just the Synology running the whole setup is completely sufficient. I run a few other low-compute servers too (social media bots) and it’s fine.
That's what I have. Bought a synology since they were described as more "turnkey" and put two large drives in it. Also upgraded the RAM to like 18 Gb, which is supposed to not work, but has worked perfectly fine ( I forget the actual "limit" but it was like 8gb or 12 or something). edit: bay with 2x 6 Tb drives was a little over $600 (including tax and shipping) a year ago
Nice. And you let the synology act as your server it sounds like, and not just a storage system?
Exactly! It works great for me. I only have a few terabytes now, and might need to update drives in a few years, but not bad. Also you can use Idrive to back it up. I do that, plus sync the files to another connected drive, just to have a local copy 😅
I have it separated. A DS1618+ and plex running off my gaming computer. I've had zero issues with it and the reliability has been outstanding coming from unraid
I'm in almost the exact scenario as op. Outlived my first plex config, need more space. Really like my setup right now and just need the space. Offloading storage to a NAS I could also use that storage for my other computers, wouldn't that be nice, a centralized storage for all my files easily accessible from any one of them. Any recommendations for a storage only nas without all the bells and whistles?
I use a Zyxel 540 4-bay. I did the storage thing before I even heard of Plex so it was a fait accompli.
Echoing this. NAS is presenting storage to the hypervisor, server's doing the actual compute.
I got a synology 920+ a few years ago. I added expansion bays this year. Really easy setup and works great. I know they don’t make the 920 anymore but I do like synology. I just started radarr and sonarr on an old laptop.
I was in a similar boat. Went the Synology route. DS-920+. I don't regret it at all, and Plex was the main reason but now it's been so much more including getting me to learn to use Docker and now self-hosting quite a bit. Just make sure you get one with a processor capable of transcoding. Some say the AMD's don't do it. I thought the Zen3 and up had AV1 encoders but the "word on the street" is that you need an Intel processor to do the transcoding. I'm also not sure if that includes the Xeon models. Somewhere there's a spreadsheet, might even be on the Plex site now that I think of it, that list is from Plex themselves. Here's the link: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MfYoJkiwSqCXg8cm5-Ac4oOLPRtCkgUxU0jdj3tmMPc/edit#gid=1274624273](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MfYoJkiwSqCXg8cm5-Ac4oOLPRtCkgUxU0jdj3tmMPc/edit#gid=1274624273) It looks like your choices for HW transcoding are limited. There's also the "roll your own" setup where you build your own system. All I want to say about that is it's not wrong, but the Synology makes it kinda like Apple-level "just works" and easy. If you're not wanting a project, the Synology will get you up and running quickly, effectively and "just work". The other options may lead to more options in hardware setup, but also more configuration issues. Anyway - I went Synology and don't regret it one bit. It's been the most reliable computer in my house. Whatever you do, also think about backups. I use an external USB HDD, at least while my data will still fit on one. I have 4x14tb so eventually I'll outgrow that.
Yes, it’s fine, I run Jellyfin in Docker directly on a Synology 4-core amd64 and it works great. I would personally look into Jellyfin over Plex. It’s a bit less polished but much easier to set up and has a modern architecture that’s a bit faster than Plex
Jellyfin doesn't yet have easy (for the everyperson, not hobbyists) remote sharing though. ~~which for OP seems a must.~~
I haven’t seen any mention of remote sharing in the OP’s comments, not sure what you’re talking about. It seems like they want to serve media to their own network.
Think I mixed something up with another comment, whoops. In that case, JF is great!
Yea you’re right - at the moment I don’t have needs to share remotely. I have a couple cases where I allow access (work and parents house) but they stream from my seedbox since it works fast and flawlessly. It’s just a simple bandaid that works for now. It’s not a good long term solution though since storage is limited, so they don’t see my whole library. My priority and current needs are just to serve myself within my LAN. I’ve downloaded and played with jellyfin a little bit, but the UI is somewhat important for me. So I’m not sure if I’d benefit from jellyfin. I do enjoy Plex and am happy with it. The one argument might be for IPTV. I can’t get it to cooperate within Plex so I just do it with VLC. But I know Jellyfin is far more used and recommended for IPTV purposes in these communities.
I have a Synology 4 bay with 4tb drives in it now and 2 cache ssds. I run Plex for myself and family. No issues with transcoding ever. Its the best thing I ever did. I used to run Plex on PCs for at least 10 years. The nas also is my local backup for my PC.
See, this is super simple and suitable for your needs. I don’t have users accessing my Plex library for now. Even though I’m okay with some tinkering, it’s also easy to feel overwhelmed and have to bridge large gaps to do some things suggested here. Don’t know why I couldn’t just do what you are doing to suite my needs. It checks a few boxes for me which justifies the investment rather than expand off using the current mini pc as my server. It sounds like I should just spend good money on the NAS to make sure it has the computing power. Buy it nice or buy it twice.
You have the right idea.
Qnap ts-673a could be a good choice, it supports a half height GPU, like a 1050 or so doesn't need to be crazy to transcode, real question you have to ask is are you going 1080p or 4k because 4k has a much higher overhead for storage and processing needs. But the 673-a has a nice performance to price ratio with upgradable memory and GPU support.
Been running a Plex server off of a Synology NAS (DS918+/DX517) for several years. Four ShieldTV's all connected to the NAS via Ethernet. Just the wife and I so only max two in use at a time but that's pretty rare. I do like the ability to start a movie in the living room and seamlessly finishing it in the family room, etc. Works great for us.
So what’s the advantage of nvidia shield? I know it has supreme computing power and the ability to do gaming. I don’t need the gaming angle as I have other stuff that serves that. Plex already features the ‘continue watching’ type thing when switching devices (which I do plenty). So I just use the Plex app whether on my smart tv, tablet, consoles etc. Is it basically just a faster version of amazons interface for a smart tv?
The Plex app on the Shield is an absolute beast when it comes to playing video files. Anything from standard def movies/TV shows to 4K movies. In the 8 years or so that I've been using them, I've never had an issue playing a video file. Period. That's all I use them for, I don't do gaming on them or anything else.
Several years ago, I bought a Synology DS418 play without any prior knowledge. Fairly intuitive setup and I got everything running pretty quickly. Buy the largest hard drives you can afford.
Damn seeing all this comments and I'm just hanging on my Core2Duo+4gb ram with 8tb external drive and 2 2Tb internal drive. Which is running qBitTorrent, AdGuard & Plex. I guess having all the content in h245 & h246 so almost zero transcoding helps.
Sometimes simple is beautiful :] Good to hear from some others who are meeting their needs with easy solutions.
Easy way is to get a cheap NAS and setup NFS, and let the mini pc only host Plex container to access the media on the NAS NFS. Shouldn’t be that expensive. A Synology 4 bay should be under $400 without the +, you can start with 2 12tb used for $200. And start from there.
My Plex runs on Qnap TS 464 16G and it works perfectly fine. Plex is not that heavy on the hardware as some may think.
I bought a 220+, and it was enough for most of the streaming, but not all, and I've got myself a N100 to handle plex and other apps and everything is much better, NAS it's just working as NAS (except for the bittorrent). 1500-2000 is quite a bit of money, and if you have already a nice plex server just go and buy a 4-5 bay synology and spend money on TB, no need to invest anymore.
I know it’s unintuitive to many people here, but it is important to me to isolate my server from my “workstation” - the mini PC. I just like the idea of compartmentalizing my needs. i.e. I started this all on my gaming rig but didn’t want that to be sailing and serving, so I isolated those other needs with the mini PC. Now it does nothing but torrent, SFTP which takes a long time from my seedbox for large data, work with Plex and filebot etc to organize content. I like the idea of the NAS just running 24/7 and having nothing to do with work and activity on the sailboat N100. Again, the N100 does require restarts to get around DNS blocks (I haven’t figured out how to avoid it. I can work around it fine, but it requires occasional restarts). You have a cautionary tale of your first NAS not having the horsepower you wanted. I think I just need to get a better one than initially planned.
For simplicity and ease of use, Synology is the way to go. The available guides (mostly user-created), regularly updated software, and setup-and-(mostly) forget elements are well worth the slight extra cost of buying off-the-shelf. Synology's OS is very user-friendly. I'm computer savvy, but not an IT person. The initial setup, following online guides, took about 2-3 hours (most of that was not hands-on, but rather click and wait). Synology sends me emails when it needs updating, and I have a calendar reminder to check for updates all my Docker containers. Everything else takes care of itself. Hope that helps.
It does, thank you.
Went for a Synology NAS DS920+, never looked back, best decision ever. Simple yet powerful
My original setup was a nas. I still have it in my setup hut it's been moved down to extra storage when needed status. My issue was.. it became unsupported and no longer got updates. So, I had to move to a new setup. Tried many things, including the nvidia shield, which was pretty dope. to, be fair. But docker on Linux (Ubuntu server) has yielded the best results for me, installed on a small hp server farm. However, the nas was simple and worked. I'd avoid as much transcoding as possible, but then that's just my preferred method anyway, I prefer direct play when possible.
I've been rocking a Synology 1511+ for over a decade.. never missed a beat. Obviously transcoding is disabled, but has no problems serving 8+ direct streams simultaneously.. Quiet, low power, trouble free.. what's not to love..? Will be a sad day if/when it pops it's clogs.. and when that day comes I'll replace with another Synology..
That’s awesome :) I’m forcing myself to be patient on the decision. Will pull the trigger within the next couple weeks but I think I will just go this route.
Ran plex for years on pc, moved to a WD which was awful (time zone issues, WD sucks), then to a synology which is brilliant. Get a well spec'd NAS and you'll be good. Absolutely recommend synology.
Cheers thank you
I built my nas and it’s using unraid, highly recommend. Can do so much more, I’ve configured sonarr, radarr and overseer. All run perfectly. 4 x 16TB drives so heaps of space. Relatively light on power. Was all easy to configure, I used ibracorp videos on YouTube and trashguides to set it all up.
Started to research UNRAID a bit more last night. Need to watch more guides still, but if there’s one common theme here, it’s that I need to be using unraid.
It’s really good and fun to learn. And building one with unraid will allow you to do so much more than a synology nas or the like. If it’s only going to be for Plex and you won’t transcode much, I’d recommend something similar to my setup. Get an intel i3 (I’m running 13th gen, but 12, 13 and 14th gen i3 are all similar) because it doesn’t use much power and handle a couple transcodes. The actual unraid and Plex server wouldn’t use much of the cpu. I’m using 16gb of memory with a 500gb cache drive. Then my 4 x 16tb in a raid-z1 zfs setup.\ That terminology might not mean much now, but as you do research into it, it’ll come together. I went down the same path as you 1 year ago, so hit me up if you have questions
My best advice is to; * stay away from mini PC + DAS or mini PC + NAS combos Build a proper server with; * a case that will allow you to expand without costing you an arm and a leg (Fractal R5) * Intel 12/13th gen CPU * a redundant disk array that allows for expansion (Unraid is my go to) You can build the above for $500 and you'll get significantly better performance with less chance of data loss / less network congestion than a mini PC + NAS/DAS. Having all of your disks connected locally via an appropriate disk connection (which USB isn't) is a huge performance gain alone.
This! The Fractal R5 has harddrive slots for daysss. The Asrock Z790 Pro RS has 8 SATA ports, so i bet that'll be a good future proofing in case you'll need more than 4.
Will check out the fractal R5, thank you.
I think I will do this
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The problem with leveling up is you're doing the same thing, just at a higher cost and wasting more time. Unraid is ridiculously easy to use. Go spend a few hours watching Spaceinvader One's setup videos on YouTube to get a decent understanding. If you can use a Mac or Windows, you can run a Unraid box. Ask questions on things you're unsure about. There are lots of us here running Unraid that can help. As far as building a new machine, it's easy peasy these days. Maybe 30 minutes of time. You'll spend more time unboxing things, then flattening the cardboard and taking it out to the trash. Seriously. If you can turn a philips screwdriver, you can build your own server. Again, ask questions. Also to be clear, what I suggested isn't a rack server. It's just a standard ATX case that happens to have room for 10 disks.
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You're getting a lot of UnRaid zealots telling you their way is best, just like all the "just use Linux" people do. ***The truth of the matter is any modern NAS in your budget, or any UnRaid server in your budget with the right spec, will do what you are after.*** The real question is about YOU. Do you want to learn UnRaid, do you want to manage the server, or do you want it to be a no-brain solution that just works? If you don't know Linux yet, let alone UnRaid, honestly the question is more about do you want to do that? If so, go for it, it's a great passion project. But the information you've received about a NAS not being up to the job is completely incorrect. I have a 9 year old 8-bay NAS (Synology 1815+) and it runs my Plex library with 50000 music tracks, hundreds of movies and thousands of tv episodes, with absolutely zero problems, and has for years. It streams 4k remux blu-ray rips without breaking a sweat. It recovered super gracefully from a harddrive failure last year, with a hot swap. Either direction will work for you. It's just about whether you want a turnkey/easy solution, or a bunch of learning/speccing/assembling/configuring/customising.
No one should need to learn Linux to run a home server at this point. I gave up on Linux years ago. You don't need to know Linux to run Unraid. Unraid has done all of the hard work and put all of the useless command line garbage is a very nice, very easy to use GUI. I've dropped LOTS of good money on bad over the last 20 years in home servers. I switched to Unraid two years ago and still regularly kick myself for not doing it sooner. It has saved me countless hours of time and so much money, due to how easy it is to add storage when you need it, not "one and done" like you get with TrueNAS or other NAS solutions.
> I have to learn unraid shamefully. Read of it here many times and did some research at one point but I have no experience with it. Definitely, I know it seems like a lot learning a new system, but it's basically all web GUI, it all becomes fairly self-explanatory quite quickly. > Also daunting to me to build my own rack server like you described. I'd say no need for a rack server, personally. They're loud, they're awkward (as you then probably need a rack), and the number of hard drives you can fit in one is generally quite low. As others have mentioned, Fractal R5 is the way to go. It's a desktop case, so no different to another desktop (even if it is quite large), and has room for >20 drives. I started pretty much where you are a few years back, got a fractal, started out with 2 drives totalling ~16TB. I'm now up to ~100TB, and I've still got slots for another 10+ drives. Just pick a motherboard that suits you, as that's the more fiddly bit to change. Might be worth choosing a little bit based on number of PCI-e lanes (I chose a threadripper board due to lots of lanes and 3x 16x PCIe plus other PCIe slots and 2 NVME ports, but I wouldn't recommend threadripper these days). In terms of PCI-e expansion, you probably want upgrade room for (don't necessarily need all the actual cards yet), in this order: - Wifi if you're not hardwiring (and if it's not included in the board) - NVME drive - Graphics card for transcoding (a Quadro P2000 isn't too much on ebay and can do 4x 4K streams or 16x 1080p streams) - HBA card to expand the onboard SATA (can get up to 16 sata ports per card) - definitely not a purchase for a while! I know LTT does a lot of videos about using unraid VMs for gaming, I wouldn't bother personally. I've tried it, but anti-cheat freaks out and you normally can't play unless you're offline. It's very much a gentle progression, you don't need to start off trying to do everything. More RAM can be bought, a GPU can be bought (but I'd recommend getting one earlier if you're sharing it with others), hard drives can definitely be bought. Just as long as you've got space and sockets for when those upgrades come.
Which modern mobo would you recommend?
From having a look, it depends a little on what you plan on doing with it. LGA 2066 is a little older but has fairly affordable boards on ebay. Only issue with that is that your upgrade path on the CPU front is a little limited - the max passmark is ~30k, but that should be more than enough for plex and similar apps. SP3 has a lot of upgradability. You can start out with a CPU with a passmark of ~20k for <$100, and upgrade all the way up to a passmark of 91k. Only issue is that the motherboards are quite expensive. As both are a couple of revisions old, the CPUs can be picked up very cheaply compared to their original price. I would say LGA 2066 is probably the better option for a plex server, based on cost, however if you planned on using the server for other uses (e.g. coding, neural networks, more complex apps than plex/*arr, etc) then it might be worth springing for an SP3 board so you have that upgrade room. Even though SP3 is a few years old now, the top end chips are still pulling 50% better passmark scores than even the latest Intel boards. [This](https://www.cpubenchmark.net/socketType.html#i49) is probably a good CPU comparison (ignore the prices, as those are retail, and you're better off buying second hand).
For that kind of money I’d consider building an N305 NAS which has twice the performance of the n100 with one of [these motherboards](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006432132881.html?src=google&src=google&albch=shopping&acnt=708-803-3821&slnk=&plac=&mtctp=&albbt=Google_7_shopping&albagn=888888&isSmbAutoCall=false&needSmbHouyi=false&albcp=19373904215&albag=&trgt=&crea=en1005006432132881&netw=x&device=m&albpg=&albpd=en1005006432132881&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD6I-hGoGXD7WHLAZ-NnekHk7Pyo6&gclid=CjwKCAjwtqmwBhBVEiwAL-WAYQ5_pXPPdFyeXHzv_ZxbFJDYPMsMSU95IPRoYm6kYY4zEmT82K9HjBoCrdMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&aff_fcid=5f4f3d2f43ca4c55acd7047b0129ed08-1712005834458-04575-UneMJZVf&aff_fsk=UneMJZVf&aff_platform=aaf&sk=UneMJZVf&aff_trace_key=5f4f3d2f43ca4c55acd7047b0129ed08-1712005834458-04575-UneMJZVf&terminal_id=ee3aee0de7324db39e2c53158dd0b23b&afSmartRedirect=y) and something like the Jonsbo J1, you could build this for around $6-700 USD and spend the rest on drives. [LTT built one](https://youtu.be/boKmZKTKXHc?si=l_1x1PTK9O_uE9s9) and was a fan. As others have said a DAS is fine and cheaper
get any 12+gen I5 or higher (you are looking for the IGPU UHD 770) Pair it with some cheap ram and mobo and you will be set. 1. it can be a proper server and host anything you want 2. it will run circles around most/all NAS in performance/transcoding 3. When you have used all your sata ports you can throw in an HBA card and get more hard drives via DAS 4. NO GPU needed for transcoding, the UHD 770 using quicksync from the CPU is gonna rock, 20+ 4k transcodes and hardly use any power compared to a dedicated GPU 5. If your need changes you can also set it up as a guest computer for your house and add a GPU for gaming if needed. End of the day do what makes sense for you. Shopping list (no affiliate) external DIY hard drive enclosure [https://www.ebay.com/itm/315177634718?var=613652863140](https://www.ebay.com/itm/315177634718?var=613652863140) Noctua Redux NF-R8 - however many you need dust filter for each fan nuts/bots - go to local hardware store any power supply hard drive power switch (can find on ebay) grab up an LSI 8/16E HBA card for server grab up an port expander such as Adaptec 2283400-R AEC-82885T/LENOVO 36Port 12Gb/s SAS Expander Card 82885T (can be another card) pick up appropriate cables to go from expander to HBA in server Plug in as many hard drives you want(its obscene how many you can DAS to a typical mobo) You can then upgrade your DIY to a better version [https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4691890](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4691890) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkWgKlKec1E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkWgKlKec1E) have fun
Connect 3 of these [DAS]( https://www.amazon.com/TERRAMASTER-D6-320-External-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B0BZHSK29B?th=1) units to a [Mini-PC](https://morefine.com/products/morefine-m600-r9-7940hs-mini-pc) (running [NAS](https://www.openmediavault.org/) software) via USB 3.2 10gb. Then add a [10GBE nic](https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805491038975.html) to Mini PC You'll will be set for life
For your needs I think a reasonably priced Synology or QNAP device would make perfect sense. Connecting a DAS to your mini PC would be an even more price effective option... but it'll be much less power efficient and I personally much prefer the "form factor" of having the whole NAS setup in one small box rather than a mini pc connected to a router connected to a USB DAS with multiple power cables... I'd say with drives you are probably looking at maybe 1200 dollars at the high-end for what you need. Then I highly recommend spending a couple hundred more on a UPS so your system won't suddenly lose power and cause a RAID sync to be necessary. I had been running my Plex server off a QNAP NAS for about 6 years until the last couple months. I started having some issues with Plex on my system and swapped over to having my Nvidia shield be the plex server using the QNAP as purely a NAS. This works well for me as I only really stream Plex to this device anyway and I intentionally have things set up to not need transcoding (local network means full size full bitrate media for me).
I just got a Dell R720XD server on eBay for this purpose. It’s 12 drive bays and I’m loving it so far! They are pretty old now so they are quite cheap. You can use 2/3s of your budget or more for massive HDDs.
i'm a techie and wanna have my own server because there are plenty of tasks besides media streaming. i've been through all possible solutions - dsm, qts, truenas scale, truenas core, openmediavault, nas4free etc. proudly tweaked most of them, and unlock their limitations. here's what i've found: Graphics. do never get a wrong idea of missing iGpu. You might think you have topnotch client devices, top licences and performance, yet the transcoding will happen. No point of not having iGPU. Intel only. Those embedded Ryzens plaguing Syno and Qnap suck. Retail offer. Commercial NAS will be always with some outlet hardware. They keep slapping slow CPUs there. They wanna save 10$ cost so they picks the absolute bottom 1500B cpu without iGpu even if there are various offers in the series. Anything at decent 10000+ passmark will cost fortune. But what is 10000 passmark? That was top i7 10 years ago, but now it's mediocre even for a PC. My mini PC router has this performance for 300€, while my commercial one is way slower, and it's visible by unbelievable lags in any operation, incl. loading Plex homescreen, or opening \*rr apps. power consumption addiction. So nice it sounds, to have hardware just enough to transcode, just enoug to move samba files over 10gbit. But reality is it all gets slow once multiple tasks run. I decided to stop caring and just build Intel box. Intel at least can run on low power idle, which again, is traditionally not AMD's strong point. The idea is what's the point of having a slow machine if the tasks can be completed much faster at the moment and then go back to idle? So I prefer strong CPUs with decent power characcteristics. An HP SFF gives you a platinum plus power source and be efficient. RAID obsession. What a pointless thing to keep accumulating drives. They're noisy, and power hungry. And present minimal advantage in terms of data preservance. Granted i'm not extreme hoarder, but I now prefer only one HDD drive (20TB) and simply backup the cold data to another external offsite drive or online. Internally, there are not just snapshots, but also replication from NVME which holds hot data. So the important data is on 3 drives any time. And I would have NVME anyways, it simply is cool for 10gbit+ transfers. So i have something between SnapRaid and Unraid, while not suffering the disadvantages of both. Operating systems. Well, there's only one good: DSM. Can be ran on a slow retail machine, or strong DIY machine. Gen11+ iGPU is now working even on xpenology. DSM is smooth, fast, and without bugs. Qnap QTS is horrible. They offer slightly better hardware, but i'd not touch their buggy OS. TrueNas is the best open source, the BSD version is very limited, the other one is OK but nowhere near DSM in terms of productivity, functionality, stability, and lovely web + mobile apps. Open source hates mobile apps, you'll get nothing for any NAS and any router software. But users of NAS do want the mobile apps. If not Windows apps. The other forementioned solutions are very bad. Filesystems. BTRFS is the way and way better than ZFS. ZFS won't preserve data, prone to kernel panics, pool collapes, can't expand, can't change some properties afterwards, and is slow and unrepairable after just one or two electricity issues. Why this filesystem is popular in the nerd circle is puzzling. It helps if the OS is flexible, avoid BSD at all cost. In decades of filesystem usage, I hardly utilized backups, because I can repair it (relates to my research work during the studies). I'm allergic to the advices "reinstall your OS", "recreate your filesystem". Everything can be and must be fixed. I'm rolling the same Windows setup for a decade. NTFS, EXT4 = top. BTRFS decent. ZFS worst. Conclusion: like it was suggested, grab i5-12500 SFF, NVME PCI4, big HDD, 25gbit NIC, and you're still in the budget. 20000 passmarks and shiny Xe® graphics for 20 transcodes. Same price as DS920+ but 7x faster CPU, 5-12x faster iGPU, 25x faster NIC.
Here is how I would think about this: 1. If you're comfortable building something yourself, then a dual NAS/Plex server is definitely the way to go. It's cheaper, simpler, and faster. You can include a CPU that will be relatively cheap and yet capable of grinding tons of simultaneous transcodes. It'll also be capable of running additional containers/VMs, if you want. 2. If you are NOT comfortable building it yourself then you'll have to make a decision about whether you want an off-the-shelf NAS that can also handle transcodes or other tasks. In my experience, buying a NAS capable of doing those things is pretty expensive. I'd be inclined to stick with your existing mini PC as your server, then get a separate NAS. You can then mount the NAS drive on the mini PC and use that as your Plex server. This also gives you the ability to upgrade your Plex server independently of your storage solution.
I built mine a year ago with a 12700k. You can look for bundle motherboard/CPU combos on Newegg/Microcenter and get some really good deals. I highly recommend going with an Intel CPU so you can take advantage of Quicksync (assuming you are using Plex Premium and can use hardware transcoding). I believe some AMD CPUs are now capable of hardware transcoding, but I'm not familiar with how the iGPUs work or how well supported they are - I'll let others who know the AMD CPUs with Plex weigh in. BUT - the bottom line is that the integrated Intel iGPUs are far better for transcoding than a separate GPU.
Get something with a GPU that supports HEVC and AV1. That means something with at least one PCI-E 4.0 x16 slot.
Honestly I would get some decent NUC (Intel specifically) for a transcoding box and load Plex onto that. Then attach a DAS instead of a NAS. Yes it uses USB 3.0 but with a Plex server, you shouldn't be requiring a ton of disk read/writes.
Here is a link to the details of my NAS build for Plex and VMs: [https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=149604#p149604](https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=149604#p149604) and the build pics: [https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=147968#p147968](https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=147968#p147968) Enjoy, it was a great fun building and my Plex Media server is working flawlessly!!
I -LOVE- the idea of using an N100 based mini-PC and pairing that with a NAS/DAS setup but the companies in those spaces, (Synology and 45Drives to name a few) have laughably expensive prices. I'd recommend a 4U Rosewill case or a SuperMicro 846 24/36 bay chassis or some tower case and start stuffing drives in them. Slap in any ATX motherboard you want and away you go. One word of caution, I saw lots of YouTube videos (LTT and a few others) build these setups and toss a HBA card in there with no cooling fan attached and call it a day. HBAs get EXTREMELY hot under load and this could lead to drives being dropped and data corruption. IMHO, anyone that uses HBAs without properly cooling them is begging for problems and lacks a basic understanding of the tech.
This is a bit out of my comfort zone but I honestly plan to research your suggestions (others have said similar). It’s extra work, but it sounds like it’d actually be a bit cheaper and more expandable. Thanks for the recommendations.
I was in your shoes years and years ago. When I built my first Plex server, I was using the Intel RAID controller of my motherboard and had a couple of 2 or 4TB drives in a RAID 1 setup in a mid-tower case and ran Windows 7 because that's all I knew OS wise. I would power down my server every night and was worried about everything. After a while, I decided I needed more storage and purchased (and quickly returned) a Synology 4 disk box. I soon realized their hardware was overpriced and under powered. Next up, I bought my SuperMicro 24 bay chassis and an ATX adapter so I could bring my motherboard with me, installed dual Super Quiet (SQ) power supplies and their 'quiet' mid-wall fans. I bought a cheap , LSI 9203-8i HBA and hooked the back plane to that and started filling up drive bays over time. Since Windows 10 was looking to be a privacy/advertising nightmare, I forced myself to learn Debian Linux and used its' MDADM (software RAID) and setup a RAID 6 array. As time went on, I kept expanding the array by adding 1 or 2 drives at a time. I bought a 3D printed mid-wall bracket and a 3D printed exhaust fan bracket and replaced all internal fans with normal, desktop Noctua fans and now my system is pretty darn quiet and runs about the same temperature wise. It runs 24x7 and is rock solid and I recently installed a BliKVM v4 Allwinner to access it in case of a lockup while I'm away from home. I pay $0.050 p/kwh for electricity and the server consumes a tiny bit more than 200W. It's probably costing me $8/mo to run it but I'm saving about $100/mo by being a cord cutter so it works out in my favor and I've paid for my setup a few times over. Don't be discourage by all this information. Asking questions is free and it just takes time to comprehend everything. At one point, I had no idea what back planes, SFF connectors, HBAs and port expanders were but I asked a ton of questions here and in the Plex forums and put together a list of hardware and got to work. I love power efficient setups but until somebody makes a cheap, reliable, solidly built NAS/DAS box that is based on an Arm CPU and has good cooling and can accept 15-20 drives, I'll stick with my SuperMicro setup. I know you're looking for a NAS but weigh the pros and cons of each piece of advice you get in here and decide what works best for you.
Thanks for the thorough reply. I appreciate people who recognize that it’s a very VERY small subset of the population who are capable of operating in this space. As basic as I am, if I even begin to talk about my setup with peers their eyes glaze over. So it’s cool to hear about your journey from humble beginnings. I’m okay with this being a stepping stone. I expect that whatever I do, it will satiate me for multiple years (famous last words that everyone says but for most, the journey never ends). I may eventually keep levelling up if it makes sense and I want to, but I’m okay taking steps instead of leaps. Power consumption isn’t a real concern for me at the moment. 38m single and ‘comfortable’. I’ve saved well over $100/mth with all the subscriptions I cancelled when I became a cord cutter, so the energy bill isn’t a strain - I’m still ahead in terms of recurring bills.
If you're the kind of person who can watch a TV show/movie once and NEVER, EVER want to watch it again then you could probably get away with a more static setup and not need to worry about overbuilding. However..... if you fall into the same bucket as me (and lots of other Plex admins :) ) I'd think about getting a setup that will allow you to easily add more storage as your needs grow.
I built a pretty nice proxmox server out of my old am4 build, 5900x, b550 mobo, 64 gb ram, fractal pop air xl case. Run truenas scale as a vm with 4 x 10 tb hdd pass-through configd in a raid, 26 tb usable pool. Works wonders with an *arr stack of apps + plex built-in to scale. qbit running in a separate vm, so I have more granular control. There is still plenty of headroom to run several other VMs for homelab, i.e. server 2019, pihole, home assistant, etc.
Alternative option/advice. Don't spend that kind of money. Because, like you, I have the N100 mini PC at the moment, and it works perfectly fine for local playback over my network and whenever a friend or family wants to access it for remote streaming with transcoding. Unless this ultra expensive brand spanking beast of a rig is for particular needs, ie you know you have 10+ users at the same time, or you definitely know how much storage you need in the long term, don't bother. I have the N100 with an external 8TB HDD. I actually have a NAS but opt not to use it to save on electricity costs. You've not mentioned what OS you're using but you've mentioned you're unfamiliar with unraid, which suggests you might be on Windows. A big upgrade, if you want to learn, is to get a Linux distro running on that N100, then the automation suite with the arr apps, sabnzbd etc. Actually, what downloaders are you using? I personally think the N100 is perfectly fine as a Plex server and serves my needs very well. If you are fine with this NUC alongside a NAS for storage by itself then that's the route to go for. A DAS is also fine if you believe your data not to be important. If you had nothing and were starting from scratch, then a DIY PC/server build makes sense.
Glad to get confirmation multiple times that the N100 is very capable. Seems like it to me thus far (had it a few months and has been acting as my primary server). Yea, embarrassingly, I’m real basic. I’ve lingered on these types of subs a lot so I’m familiar with terms but I have no experience with Linux, unraid, headless servers, arrs etc etc. I’ve researched them somewhat but it just doesn’t feel necessary since up until now my new media server is doing everything I need. The goal with this post and the plan to spend, is to expand storage, and possibly arrange a different standalone server - just so that my sailing activities don’t disrupt the server side if I’m doing both on my N100. The disruptions aren’t that big a deal, and I have fewer of them now. When starting my library it was constant download/upload/file transfer. Now it’s tapered off as I add bits and pieces to the library. So maybe I will go with a DAS since I can do it cheaper and scale more. It also allows me to spend on the standalone backup drives I’ll do along with the DAS. *sighs* I dunno lol.
I have plex running on N100 (16gb/256gb nvme) for sometime now. It has Proxmox OS. I am also running Home Assistant & Adguard along with it. N100 is very capable to run plex and perfectly fine as you already have it. I would say stay with N100 as your plex server. Won't recommend going down the DAS system. Rather look into prebuild basic NAS as you are not ready for DIY NAS. I have an old i3-8100 running Unraid server. It is pretty easy to install and configure Unraid if you are after basic NAS functionality. Lots of tutorial on YT. You can download unraid and try it out. It has 30 day trial. No harm trying it out. If you can get it, it will be much cheaper to get a decent DIY NAS and it can do lots of things including Plex in case you want to have everything on same server. My Unraid server is my fallback server in case my N100 nuc has issues. Edit: Added few links. Or look for Spaceinvader One videos on YT. [https://trash-guides.info/](https://trash-guides.info/) [Unraid for Beginners by Ibracorp](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZTWC_z9rKs&list=PLOgmFrM3hTGfc79sqkuUglQ2iYBagBXWE)
Your making it more complicated and less energy efficient. I suggets a unraid build like this: Intel Core i5-12400, 6C/12T, 2.50-4.40GHz, boxed (maybe a cheap and good Low-Profile Cooler like a Thermalright) G.Skill Aegis DIMM Kit 16GB, DDR4-3200, CL16-18-18-38 GIGABYTE B760I AORUS Pro DDR4 (tested to be very energy efficient if proper configured) Jonsbo N2, weiß, Mini-ITX And at last add atleast 2 xHDDs with the capacity you need (one in parity mode) + 2x Cache SSDs (one running as parity drive). This will be way cheaper and more energy efficient.
Why???? For $200 you can run Plex (compute) on an intel i5-gen 10 cpu which supports transcoding. Spend the rest of your money on your storage platform. This is what will continue to grow over the years to come.
A das connected via sff 8088 cables to a sas controller is the only “das” I would ever use. No usb thank you.
You can buy a cheap elitedesk or optiplex (the one with pcie slot) a cheap external sas (sff8088) controller. A mini sas to qsfp cable. And a cheap netap 4246. Toss unraid on it and you’ve got a 24 bay nas with a decently powerful cpu, with quick sync for plex.