Newbie Nas!

Mortymoose

Mortymoose

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So I have been running Plex server from my PC at home for the past 5 years. Connected to two Xboxes, two other PC's and a Rasplex.

As the years have rolled on, my storage has become a problem.

I thought about using all my spare PC parts and building a NAS using Freenas, but it will be bulky and a schlep. So I was thinking of buying

NAS.jpg

I have the 2 x 4TB drives to place inside this, but what I want to know, will I be able to stream directly to my old TV without any "player" in between?
Is this a good buy?

cheers & thanks
M
 
I'm sure a few MyBB members might have one of these to sell to you for a much better price....

A nicer option if you want to keep the hardware you already have and support more drives is UnRAID.


As for the TV question, it really depends on the TV and it's DLNA support protocols. However, if it supports Plex that would always be the better way to go as these units can run Plex as well.

If you plan to use anything more than 1080p streaming then you probably want the fancier + model.
 
You will need a smart tv or a media player attached to the tv that is plex compatible.

Some notes for you.
You will have to format your hard drives when they are installed.
If you want the full *TB storage space run it as RAID 0 but then you lose everything if a drive fails.
 
No, DON'T waste your money on that Synology. There are no decent brand name NAS available for around R3000-R4000 for streaming high quality video.

The minimum spec you should look at is the Synology DS218+. Thats between R5K- R6K.

Don't buy anything with an ARM based processor - you can forget about transcoding in Plex and high bitrate 4K. Get one with an Intel x86 processor only. If you are direct streaming 4K in Plex (no transcoding) then ay LEAST a dual core Celeron, which is the minimum also for 4K transcoding.
 
Have you considered the HP micro servers? Been running mine for a about 6 years now, awesome piece of kit.

Not sure how well they do trans coding though. Otherwise get a cheapass i3 or something and a mobo with onboard raid. Probably still get away with around 4k or less.
 
Kosmik said:
Have you considered the HP micro servers? Been running mine for a about 6 years now, awesome piece of kit.

Not sure how well they do trans coding though. Otherwise get a cheapass i3 or something and a mobo with onboard raid. Probably still get away with around 4k or less.
Click to expand...

I have an old Till in a storeroom, has 4 SATA slots, 1GHZ processor and 2 x 1GB DDR300 RAM..... scrap.... think it might be missing a PSU, it's not big and bulky ...... Surely this could make a homemade NAS....? :unsure:
 
Sensorei said:
No, DON'T waste your money on that Synology. There are no decent brand name NAS available for around R3000-R4000 for streaming high quality video.

The minimum spec you should look at is the Synology DS218+. Thats between R5K- R6K.

Don't buy anything with an ARM based processor - you can forget about transcoding in Plex and high bitrate 4K. Get one with an Intel x86 processor only. If you are direct streaming 4K in Plex (no transcoding) then ay LEAST a dual core Celeron, which is the minimum also for 4K transcoding.
Click to expand...
This.

I tried streaming a 4k vid with Plex from my pc (4670K) to the TV and it stuttered on every split second, until I bought a 1080ti.
I was hoping that the TV would do the transcoding for me.
 
Kosmik said:
Have you considered the HP micro servers? Been running mine for a about 6 years now, awesome piece of kit.

Not sure how well they do trans coding though. Otherwise get a cheapass i3 or something and a mobo with onboard raid. Probably still get away with around 4k or less.
Click to expand...
This. I'm running Plex in a Linux Mint VM on a HyperV install running on an i3 CPU with 8Gb RAM. Works nicely, but can't say about heavy workloads etc.

Bare-metal i3 may cut it, but i5 (or better) if you want to virtualize things.
 
Mortymoose said:
I have an old Till in a storeroom, has 4 SATA slots, 1GHZ processor and 2 x 1GB DDR300 RAM..... scrap.... think it might be missing a PSU, it's not big and bulky ...... Surely this could make a homemade NAS....? :unsure:
Click to expand...
2Gb RAM... ouch. You'll want more RAM though.

What type of CPU?

Can you send picshers?
 
The_Librarian said:
This. I'm running Plex in a Linux Mint VM on a HyperV install running on an i3 CPU with 8Gb RAM. Works nicely, but can't say about heavy workloads etc.

Bare-metal i3 may cut it, but i5 (or better) if you want to virtualize things.
Click to expand...
Does it stream 4K X265 content?
My 80 Gb version of Watchmen won't play smoothly without my GFX Card.
 
CamiKaze said:
This.

I tried streaming a 4k vid with Plex from my pc (4670K) to the TV and it stuttered on every split second, until I bought a 1080ti.
I was hoping that the TV would do the transcoding for me.
Click to expand...

Yea I played a 50GB 4k movie with the DS218+ using it's software and played flawlessly but tried it via plex using software encoding on a 4core 8 thread Xeon and it stuttered frequently (no plex pass).
 
CamiKaze said:
This.

I tried streaming a 4k vid with Plex from my pc (4670K) to the TV and it stuttered on every split second, until I bought a 1080ti.
I was hoping that the TV would do the transcoding for me.
Click to expand...

There should be no need for transcoding, it should just direct play.

Most likely you've got an image file format subtitle....OR the audio track is being transcoded causing kak.

I can Direct Play remuxed 4K stuff from a Microserver without issue.

If the Synology can be had cheaply off a forum member and will only do 1080p max then it will do the job.

But a multiple drive Microsoft with Unraid is a much better solution for future forward planning.
 
Mortymoose said:
I have an old Till in a storeroom, has 4 SATA slots, 1GHZ processor and 2 x 1GB DDR300 RAM..... scrap.... think it might be missing a PSU, it's not big and bulky ...... Surely this could make a homemade NAS....? :unsure:
Click to expand...

As a NAS, 100%. The transcoding may be an issue but then jsut get yourself a cheap android h265 player rather than stream.
 
AstroTurf said:
Yea I played a 50GB 4k movie with the DS218+ using it's software and played flawlessly but tried it via plex using software encoding on a 4core 8 thread Xeon and it stuttered frequently (no plex pass).
Click to expand...
is the 50GB X265?
 
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