I am trying to figure out whether the setup that I am planning to use will suit my needs.
Synology DS918+
4 x WD Red 4TB (WD4003FFBX) or possibly 4 x WD Red 6TB (WD6003FFBX)
8GB RAM (2 x 4 GB matched RAM) I am assuming that I will have to order these separately and won’t be able to just order a second stick to add to the one that comes with the box?
Some sort of UPS
I have multiple family members that I share my library with and many different types of media containers in my library (.avi, .mp4, .mkv, etc). I currently have no 4K content but may start to add some in the near future. I may have multiple streams simultaneously from various clients ie: Roku, Firestick, iOS, web client, etc. I am attempting to start with the most cost effective solution for my needs while also setting up a system that will provide some room for expansion (both in storage needs as well as performance for the maximum number of multiple streams).
I am currently running my PMS on a laptop with an i3 processor with 4GB of RAM connected to a 2TB external drive that is nearly full.
Also, I have plans to purchase an OTA antenna and a digital tuner box so that I may watch OTA channels with Plex, as well as record to my NAS allowing remote access to that media as well.
Any help and/or suggestions for how I should move forward will be greatly appreciated!!
Looks like a good setup to me. PMS typically runs very well on Synology hardware/software. A couple of things to note:
don’t plan on transcoding 4k content for non-4k equipment. Read this for more detail
run PMS as offered in the Synology Package Centre, it’s a lot more efficient than running it on Docker and will allow you to use hardware transcoding for sub-4k material
(with apologies if I’m teaching you to suck eggs) be aware that 4x 4TB disks will not get you 16TB of usable storage. Using Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) for your data volume you’ll lose the equivalent of 1x your largest disk in the array to redundancy (so 4TB in your case) and it’s strongly recommended not to go over 80% utilisation of the volume as performance is degraded past this point. You may decide that redundancy isn’t necessary, that’s a choice for you to make
Maybe one 4K transcode, but still expect buffering (my experience anyway). The Celeron processor, even w/ hardware acceleration, just isn’t up to the task. No problem transcoding 1080p.
Agree with @gary_parker to run the native, not Docker, version. Note that you will need to download the package from Plex. The version in the Synology Package Center will not run on the DS918+. Long story in a thread somewhere. Short version is “Synology bureaucracy.”
To add to the disk sizing comments: 4 x 4 TB with 1 redundant drive gives you 10.9 TB of storage. A 4 TB drive is really 3.64 TB once installed & formatted. This is because drive manufacturers say 1 kilobyte is 1000 bytes and Synology says 1 kilobyte is 1024 bytes. Something to be aware of when you’re looking at what size drives to purchase. There is minimal price penalty per TB for 8TB vs 4TB drives these days. You might consider starting with 2x8TB (7.2 TB real world). You’ll still have two open slots and can grow as needed.
I run PMS on a DS918+ and am very happy with it. I don’t use DVR or run multiple streams. However, it works great streaming 4K HDR to my Nvidia Shield.
I agree with everything @gary_parker and @FordGuy61 have recommended. I run a DS918+, and love it. My notes for you:
If you can afford an extra ~$100, splurge for the DS1019+. It is identical to the 918+, you just get an extra drive bay and 8GB of RAM. You would be really close to the cost of a DS1019+ after buying a 918+ with extra RAM anyway, so go ahead and get the extra drive bay for future expansion.
If you are debating 4TB drives or 6TB drives, then go ahead and get the 6TB. (If you like WD drives, take advantage of the regular 20% discounts you get through Plex Pass Perks and save some $$$)
You do not NEED to have matching RAM sticks in terms of brand (yes it is good practice to do so) I purchased a single 4GB stick of Crucial RAM from amazon that was the same spec as the provided stick, and have not had any issues for well over a year. In the off chance you do have problems, just order a second stick later.
If you have the capability to direct play 4K, then it should be fine, but in-addition I recommend ripping the standard blu-ray and use handbrake to compress it down to SD resolution so that your family doesn’t kill your NAS when playing one of those 4K files remotely. This would give you two files for the movie (4K+SD). The SD version will only be around ~1.5GB depending on your handbrake settings.
For the sake of repeating and clarity, Download/Install the Plex Media Server manually from Plex. The Synology package center is always behind on the version number, and running it in Docker will add overhead.
I agree with all of the above, just wanted to point out that when I said get PMS from the Synology Package Centre I didn’t mean to stick with that version forever, as it would soon prompt you to upgrade to latest version available direct from Plex. However, if the Syno hosted version doesn’t even work on a 918 then it’s moot; just grab it straight from Plex
@Scott-M I was originally planning on the DS1019+, but cannot remember why I decided to abandon it. I have been doing quite a bit of reading/research in preparation for this setup and it escapes me why I decided to opt for the DS918+. Do the DS1019+ and DS918+ both support QSV? I’m thinking that may have been something that I read and was confused about. I will revisit that as an option and thank you for your suggestions.
I think that you are right on the HDD front, I will either go with 4x6TB or get 2 larger size disks leaving me room for expansion later.
Redundancy is definitely something that is important in my setup. As I stated before, I have all of my media on a single external drive and am nervous about it failing and losing my entire library, so I want to setup for growth and redundancy, hence the reason that I will probably go with 4-5 drives to start (depending on which NAS I choose) with the best RAID option for my needs.
@gary_parker Thank you for your comments. Yes, I am aware of this. My thinking was that since I have just under 2TB of media, I would be okay going with the 4TB drive which would give me some room for growth, but after some thought I think that I will go with the 6TB drives instead. Redundancy is very important to me to build into this setup so that my collection is backed up in case of disk failure. I also read a recommendation to acquire the drives to be used from different vendors to ensure that they are from different batches in case of failure. Any thoughts?
@FordGuy61 Thanks for your comments. I guess that I will try running my PMS on the NAS that I end up choosing to buy and if it does not perform the transcoding that fit my needs in the future, I guess I can always pick up another machine with an i7 or i9 to run the server and just use the NAS for storage.
Also running the 918 and added another 4gig of ram for a total of 8. Running 4 8T WD red shucked from easystore drives when they were 129 at bestbuy. Currently my library is at 54% of total capacity including full 4k content.
Been running flawlessly for a year now running PMS on the NAS although I also have one of my shields with PMS running as backup.
I would do this setup again.
@audiomixer It sounds like you have a similar amount of media to me only yours in in 4K, while mine is mostly 1080p… Are you accessing your content at all remotely? Is your NAS ever having to transcode?
Yeah, good plan. If you have two drives go at once you’re stuffed. I speak from experience
One drive started throwing bad sectors, so I swapped it out and started rebuilding the RAID, but the increased disk activity of the rebuild triggered a failure in a second drive. That took some work to get back online
So, I guess I should maybe buy only 2 or 3 from WD and get the remainder from another source… Dang, I was enjoying getting that 20% discount with my plex perks…
This will be my first RAID… So, I was thinking that I would go with RAID 6 to offer more redundancy, is my thinking correct here? Or should I go with the SHR2 setup?
If you go with a DS1019+, you could use 2 drive redundancy (SHR 2, or RAID 6) and not sacrifice storage capacity considering you were looking at the 918+. You would need to loose 3 drive in order to loose everything at that point.
I understand and fully agree with the idea of drives failing in batches. However, for me personally, the savings of ~$200 on drives is a perk I don’t want to give up (Though I do have a second Synology set up remotely for my backup if something happens so I’m not worried about data loss… RAID redundancy is not a true backup by itself.)
Any particular reason you are going with Red Pro Drives? I understand they are faster rpm, and have 2 years more on the warranty, but you can get the regular Red’s for $760 with the discount. For the purpose of a media server I would have to argue that the difference between 7200rpm and 5400rpm is negligible other than metadata loading a little faster (an NVMe SSD cache could help with that also.)
@Cameleon
I only have about 18 titles in remux 4k and I also have the 1080p versions, the rest is a ton of tv programs and 1080p films. Only on occasion do I do any remote access. In network, I seldom see a transcode as most all is direct played using a shield.
I have to agree with @Scott-M concerning the drives. I run the WD-red 5400rpm with 256cache WD80EFAX and are more than up to the task. I use SHR. I also keep two backups of my media at other locations just in case.
In a previous Synology DS411+II which apparently is limited to 4x4T drives but really too slow to run PMS anyway, I ran the HGST nas drives. Bullet proof, but sounded almost like a mini Hoover running in the background. They are still running strong going on 7 years as media container only.
Old, underpowered, NASs can come in really handy as, well…a NAS
The term NAS (literally Network Attached Storage) gets misused a lot these days. Most people tend to use their NAS as a proper server, handling all sorts of processing tasks and services (like Plex!), but older hardware can still be used simply as a box full of disks available on the network. Those 4x4T drives can be RAIDed up and served at a decent speed over NFS to the server you’re running PMS on, giving you extra storage space, at considerably less cost than adding a storage rack to a high end Syno box would.
With regard to my choosing the devices that I did, I have a way of talking myself into things that I don’t really need so I’m happy that you all have recommended other options. I also didn’t realize before getting into this that the RAID wouldn’t be sufficient for a backup solution so I am going to need to figure that important part out as well. So, saving money on this build has become more important than I previously expected.
@audiomixer
The “mini hoover” sound is coming from the drives or the box? Extra noise is something that may be an issue for me due to where I am planning to have this box live (and the boss/wife won’t like a noisy gadget where I’m putting it )
I am not quite ready to make the purchase of the equipment just yet, so I will definitely be checking into the Ultrastar drives before pulling the trigger.
I think the (non-pro) WD Reds will be more than enough for what you need. I was just recommending the Ultrastar drives over the WD Red Pro if you were to go that route.
@Cameleon
Mini Hoover, yeah the hgst 7200 rpm are louder than the wd-red 5400 rpm that I have in my 918. The 5400 rpm reds are nice and quiet. Agree with @Scott-M on the ultrastar (or are they called deskstar NAS?) over wd-red pro. Agree that the regular Wd-reds are more than adequate.
So, from the increase in rpm on the pro or the ultrastar I will only experience negligible performance increase? Also, what about expected life of the drive(s).
Another question, what are your thoughts on adding 1 or 2 M.2 SSD drives for cache? Will this help in any way to improve performance of my plex server? If so, what size drive(s) should I be looking at? I do have plans to use the NAS for other things on top of it being my plex server…
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