Hey guys,
I have a spare laptop with a decent amount of grunt, it’s an i7 2.9ghz with 8gb of ram and 256gb ssd.
It’s just sitting around so I figured I’d use it as a plex server. I don’t want to spend too much money. Is there a recommended NAS storage for someone who doesn’t need it to do transcoding? Or is it ok just to have an external hdd connected to the laptop? Thanks
Hey man
You are doing just what I did.
I re-purposed an i7 with 8 gig and 256 SSD for my media server and it works GREAT.
I can stream 5-7 movies concurrently with that setup.
I think you will be very happy setting that up.
All you really need are HDDs to put your media on. (The most expensive part of you adventure lol)
I have 100tb in my disk farm and maintain 3 copies of my libraries for backup.
Now I have added to my equipment…
a laptop cooler pad.
A small UPS to keep HDDs and router and modem up… (Laptop has it’s own UPS LOL)
A good router
Network Switches (If you are gonna CAT 6 connect your devices to PMS)
That’s about it.
Install windows PMS and it’s done.
Very simple, Painless, not messing with esoteric configuration, VERY stable, and works great!!!
Wow 100TB that’s crazy.
I guess what I really want to know is how to start in terms of storage? I don’t think I’d need more than 10TB or so atm however I want to make sure that my setup is always upgradable.
Easy
Just buy the drives you want and USB connect them to your laptop.
Expandability is easy with USB Hubs.
Yeah. My disk farm got ridiculously big over the last 2 years.
3500 movies
17000 tv shows
65000 music tracks
and with 2 backup copies… 100tb sort of sneaks up on you
LOL
Awesome thanks for your help!
I was thinking of just getting a HDD enclosure with maybe 4 bays and connect that to the laptop? Is that really about it?
Yup… That should do it!!!
LOL
That’s exactly what I finally did after my drive count got over 10. I got a 5 bay enclosure and putting 8TB drive in as I continue to expand
Should have gotten the enclosure a LONG time ago. lol
Here is a admin hint
Once you get your server set up on the laptop.
Dedicate it to only PMS.
Enable RDP on the laptop
Now wherever your server is sitting (Mine is in a closet upstairs)
you can use RDP and log into the laptop remotely to move media around. configure your server etc.
LOL (Being Lazy). I never need to run upstairs to install media or work on the server. I do it in comfort at my desk…
Oh… Be sure to set your laptop up to use Static IPs not DHCP (IMPORTANT)
Oh… Be sure to set your laptop up to use Static IPs not DHCP (IMPORTANT)
Ah, so is this why randomly my server will say it’s offline and then start working again after a reset?
Thanks for all the advice, I think I’m set. As someone who gets a bit too carried away with hobbies I would not be surprised if sometime in the future I’ve also got 100TB lol!
Brother!!!
I PMed you…
