I am looking to set up a plex server on an old Dell Xeon I have and host my media etc on a separate dedicated NAS. The plan is to host a mixutre of MP3, DVD, blu ray, home video, photos and backups etc that I access when i want to by turning the server on.
How fast does the NAS need to be to serve the content to the server so as not to cause a bottleneck? I don’t have a massive budget so i am looking at getting a reasonable secondhand NAS and spending the extra on good drives. I see several QNAP T419s for sale but they don’t appear to be the fastest at serving files.
I think that most folks in this particular category are likely running Plex on their QNAP devices themselves. I have a QNAP TS-453Be and I’ve been able to run multiple streams directly off the NAS itself without much issue.
the choice of nas to serve plex entirely depends on your budget, your content, and your clients… and whether or not they can direct play or you expect transcoding, and how many simultaneous streams you expect to play.
generally even the most basic and cheap nas can direct play to a handful of clients at the same time.
transcoding is a whole other level of power, depended on the content 720/1080 or 4k?
most ARM based nas are not going to be doing any transcoding.
most x86 can handle some transcoding of standard hd 720/1080
for 4k transcoding you need a relatively new and power cpu and/or a suitable gpu that works with plex hardware accelleration.
but the whole object is to avoid transcoding as much as possible and use content and clients that can direct play.
As @TeknoJunky stated, it all really depends on your budget and needs.
In terms of a NAS, if you are wanting just a lot of bulk storage, I would look at getting something like a TS-431X2 or TS-832x for a starting point. Some will get into things like the TS-1635 even or bigger.
For just storage you can probably get by with an ARM based model, but you will be limited in terms of running docker/plex/vm’s on them. Since you have your Dell Xeon for that, it shouldn’t be a big issue.
Most of QNAPs newer models have 10Gb NW connectivity which comes in handy as PCIe 10GbE cards are now down below $100US.
Realistically though, unless you are running say (8) 7200 RPM NAS rated drives in them, you won’t be able to hit 10Gb throughput anyway. It also gives you some future proofing for when you upgrade your server.
I would make sure and check Qnap’s EOL page here: https://www.qnap.com/en/product/eol.php
before you buy any model (especially used ones) to see make sure the NAS are still under full support.
Mostly it will be direct play but with some transcoding and other bits which is why I have the Xeon.
I will look at the links and model numbers and see what i can find for sale. Most likely the common ones listed or sale will be more than fast enough for several years to come.
