Hello all
I wanted to check my logic on deciding on my drive setup for my new plex server.
So my current setup is:
Windows 10 PC, Intel i7-5930K 3.5GHz, 32G Ram.
Data stored on 3 external hard drives, 1x8TB, 2x4TB connected via USB 3.
My new NAS:
QNAP TS-453Be 4 Bay.
Currently loaded with 2x6TB drives (a third is on it’s way)
So my plan is to use my external hard drives for backup. Connecting them every month or some and chucking the new files from my PC hard drive onto it.
Now we come to RAID or not to RAID.
Currently I have setup the 2x6TB drives in RAID 0. Giving me 10.5TB of usable space. Currently this gives me 3.5TB of space after migration. (So 7TB library at present).
My plan is to add the third hard drive not in the RAID for other files (about 3-4TB worth). Again backed up to the externals.
So here is my thinking about the other RAIDs as I understand them. (1 and 5)
Firstly all of them lose me capacity - My max library size on a RAID 1 will be only 12TB which isn’t a great deal to expand into. 16TB on RAID 5 which is better.
Keeping the server going. - So if a drive fails I can take it out put a new one in and the RAID will rebuild but from what I’ve read for the size of my library this will take at least a day. It’s not clear how the performance of plex would be affected using it during rebuild and some things I’ve read suggest it is best to just leave it to rebuild.
It has taken me 2 days to set the thing up from backups so I don’t see it’s much of a gain for the cost, I would still need a new drive.
Future expandability - if I expand a RAID 5 the max drive size I will get is a 6 even if I get a bigger drive it won’t see the extra. So I could expand up to 16 TB and to go any bigger I would have to rebuild the whole thing anyway. I would also need to buy 3 drives at once at the bigger capacity to RAID 5 again without losing potential space.
With my current plan if I get close to my limit I could buy 2x10/12TB drives (or whatever), take out my unraided 6 and then create a new RAID 0. Once setup move the lot over and start again. Using the old drives to either fill the bays or expand my backup.
From what I understand in terms of performance RAID 0 is best followed by 5 then 1 but it is unlikely to be the rate limiting step in my Plex performance.
The other alternative is to forget RAID and just have seperate disks so no rebuilding, just replace and copy the files.
Is there a fatal flaw in my thinking or can anyone kindly suggest a better alternative?
