Most affordable NAS with 1080p Transcoding

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Hi there I'm relatively new to plex, started using it about 3 months ago and I love it. I'm currently running my PMS from my home computer! Its a year old three thousand dollar gaming rig. At any time Its running media to 4 different computers aswell as 2 Chromecast while trans coding at the highest possible quality (or so I think). No problem what so ever! I have a Duel band wireless AC1900 router and I have never lost connection to plex, frozen or experienced any delay what so ever. All of this has made me really enjoy the Plex experience!

 

But now I'm really thinking more long term, I don't believe my gaming computer should be on 24/7 (Has to be everyone in my house works different times and yes some people watch movies at 4 in the morning) and my 3TB hard drive is starting to get full! Looking in to solving this matter I have discovered "NAS" seemed like the most affordable reasonable solution to my dilemma! After doing some research and looking at price points I decided upon the "Qnap TS-469L NAS W/ 4 Sata II Bays" I was actually about to drive to the store and purchase it. I decided to do some last minute research on plex compatibility with my soon to be NAS... But I found out that Plex will not transcode in 1080p quality on such a device, instant deal breaker for me I have decided not to buy it.

 

So I'm asking the plex community for help. What is the most affordable solution!? I want a NAS that can transcode 1080p video flawlessly to at least 4-6 devices that has 4 or more hard drive  bays. I did take a glimpse at some one making there own Plex computer or something but I'm not sure that would be a long term solution. I pretty much want to be able to enjoy the experience I'm receiving right now but with out my gaming rig running for 3 months at a time. ANY help at all would be appreciated.

2

Why a NAS?  Other than the geek street cred of saying you own one?  They're very expensive, especially for one with the power you're wanting.  My suggestion?  Get a Mac Mini and an external RAS/DAS!  You'll be fine serving 2D and 3D 1080p content like you're doing now with a Mac Mini from mid-2010 to now, so if you find a good deal on Craigslist or eBay on a used one, grab it.  Other than that, a new one will run you between $500-700, although a gently used one will shave $100-300 off that depending upon age and specs.  Now find a good deal on an external array in the size you want/can afford.  You'll want a RAS/DAS in either Firewire800 or USB 3.0, depending upon the age of the Mac Mini you purchase. 

I personally use a two Firewire800 RAID arrays in a daisy chain and have zero issues streaming, transcoding, and sharing my server.  Quite often all at the same time!  Seriously, the Mac Mini and RAS/DAS combo will cost less, offer more computational power, is designed to run 24/7/365, is virtually silent, will fit nicely behind your HDTV, and will do TONS more than any NAS will ever do!  Remember, you're going to use the Mac Mini as not only your PMS, but the Plex Client on the HDTV it's attached to, plus it becomes your family's HTPC, and can even be a gaming computer with your HDTV as the monitor.  I use mine to access my seedbox and various sites used in conjunction with it, and then FTP in the files for directly adding them onto my HD arrays, and then scanned into Plex.

Yes, there are reasons for having a NAS with Plex, but not all that many.  Especially when you compare costs and capabilities.  Personally, I just don't think a NAS is the way to go for most people for running a PMS.  For other things?  Sure.  Especially if Plex is a secondary or tertiary application.  But getting a NAS just to run Plex?  Why?

3

Well I have NAS just to store data and as you can see (on my signature) I have a sort of long list. So I combine the storage of a NAS with PMS for actually handling all that data... Nothing much else I do with them.

4

Yes, but I can get the same storage capacities and redundancies by using a RAS/DAS connected to a Mac Mini.  Why pay a lot of money for mediocre computing power shoved into my array, when I can just let my Mac Mini with tons more power and capability do the same thing for less?  Is there something I'm missing?

5

Thanks for that wineaux I'm intrested. Could you explain more by any chance? I'm very new to the storage and transfering of media side of computing I attempted to look up "external RAS/DAS" but I find it some what confusing. What would I set up to the Mac mini to make it have more space then just its small 1tb hard drive. If you would be so kind to explain in more detail the set up and what I would have to buy I would be thankful! 

Also why mac? Is there a windows equivalent you would be comfortable suggesting? Never been huge on apple products but I'm by no means anti-apple, just not familiar.

The main reason I was first thinking NAS is because it could for example hold say 4 4tb nas hard drives and keep them stable and in good condition while being on 24/7 and I could just plug it in to my Asus AC Router. 

6

RAS = RAID Attached Storage = Smart Controller either in the box or in the computer

DAS=Direct Attached Storage = The computer does it all.

NAS=Networked Attached Storage = A computer in the external HDD box (Usually a Pentium 4, but maybe a little beefier.  You pay for more computing power.  Sometimes quite a lot.  Even then they're slow by today's standards.)

I suggest the Mac Mini because it is very small, very quiet, uses very little power, doesn't run too hot, and is very affordable.  OSX is a lot more stable than Windows, so you can keep running without crashes for a lot longer than a Windows machine. (I own both Windows and Mac computers).  It just works without all the PITA tinkering you end up having to do with a Windows computer, and that's exactly what you need for a media server and HTPC.

The only Windows based computers which are right around the same size as the Mac Mini, and aren't slow Netbooks re-purposed as a very mediocre HTPC, are the Intel NUC's.  At first glance they appear less expensive than a Mac Mini, however they're sold as barebone's kits that quickly equal and surpass the cost of a Mac Mini while offering no discernible benefits over the Mac Mini that I can tell, other than the OS.

A fully loaded RAS with drives will cost the same, and usually less than a driveless NAS box that's moderately okay for 1080p streaming, and you've still got to buy HDD's!  Toss in the cost of a Mac Mini, and I'm still spending a lot less money than I would buying a good NAS, and I'll have a MUCH more robust Plex Server platform capable of doing things that a NAS could never do.

My advice to you is to start stalking Amazon's Warehouse deals on 12-24TB RAID arrays with at least a Firewire800 connection, and hopefully a USB 3.0 port as well.  If a cheap Thunderbolt array shows up, then buy it fast before it's gone!  I've picked up two loaded RAS's via Amazon Warehouse.  Both have Firewire800 and USB 3.0 connections.  One is a 15TB and the other is an 8TB RAID array, and I spent less than $1,000 for both!  That's a whole lot less than a bare Synology NAS!  I picked up a used mid-2010 Mac Mini off of eBay for only $375.  Factoring in the cost of the Mac Mini, I still spent less than you'd pay for a bare NAS with enough power to do what you want, and you'd still have to buy 23TB worth of bare drives to drop in that box!

7

Wineaux you have convinced me! Im currently in the process of looking for a used mac mini! Question tho... I have no previous experiance with apple I was just wondering whats the likelihood of me buying a macmini and its messed up? I almost will never buy a desktop tower windows pc used IE fans burnt out electrical shorts GPU issues. Also your 100% confident with leaveing your set up on 24/7 for months at a time? Year?

I have one last request if you could be so kind. Could you send me links to products that make up the set up you speak of just so I can be exact? Just from a retail store or something would be fine. just so Im a 100%.

8

Wineaux you have convinced me! Im currently in the process of looking for a used mac mini! Question tho... I have no previous experiance with apple I was just wondering whats the likelihood of me buying a macmini and its messed up? I almost will never buy a desktop tower windows pc used IE fans burnt out electrical shorts GPU issues. Also your 100% confident with leaveing your set up on 24/7 for months at a time? Year?

I have one last request if you could be so kind. Could you send me links to products that make up the set up you speak of just so I can be exact? Just from a retail store or something would be fine. just so Im a 100%.

Check this as well.....My bet is it's a lot cheaper

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-d54250wyk.html

/T

9

I need help finding a good RAS/DAS thats not to pricey... I can live with out thunderbolt would like to have 3.0. Im not to sure what RAID is or what it adds same with firewire800. Looking for one at least 10tb or more can hold atleast that. either 3 or more slots.

10

I would personally check out the QNAP TS-x51 series NAS. They use the new Celeron processor and from what I can tell it can do up to five 1080p transcodes. It also has user upgradable RAM and can run a VM.

11

Check this as well.....My bet is it's a lot cheaper

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-d54250wyk.html

/T

Sorry, I just got back from a long family vacation so I've not been able to throw some links at you yet.

That said, the Intel NUC's at first glance seem like a great value.  That is until you start adding in all the fiddly bits that you'll need to actually use the thing as a PMS and HTPC, like RAM, internal HDD, OS, etc.  When all is said and done, you've spent at least as much as you would have on a Mac Mini, have less warranty, close to zero tech support, an external power brick that's almost as large as the NUC itself, both the NUC and the brick run very hot (according to reviews that I've seen, but they may have fixed that somewhat by now), and you'll be stuck with an OS that crashes WAY more often than OSX does which is less than optimal for a media server meant to be running 24/7/365.  And we haven't even talked about the utter hell that is Windows device driver support... 

Having built and sold PC clones since the 8086 days, used Windows since 1.0, and might even still have the original boxed copy of it lying about somewhere, I've almost completely moved over to Mac's now.  I can't tell you how nice it is to have an OS, computers, and software that just work.  Not having to be the family tech support desk has also removed a ton of stress and frustration from me as well.  Yes, I spend some extra money here and there as my Apple Tax, although much less than many would assume, but it's been worth ever penny!

12

I would personally check out the QNAP TS-x51 series NAS. They use the new Celeron processor and from what I can tell it can do up to five 1080p transcodes. It also has user upgradable RAM and can run a VM.

They cost the same as a Mac Mini (Core i5 or Core i7) with a wimpier processor, no real OS, and won't be your family's living room HTPC at the same time as it's being your PMS.  It's a netbook without a keyboard and screen, or even a real OS and HDD (It has two empty internal HDD bays, as opposed to a decent sized HDD included with the Mac Mini!).  Seriously, this is exactly type of device whose main function is to give you geek street cred in your forum sigs.

13

They cost the same as a Mac Mini (Core i5 or Core i7) with a wimpier processor, no real OS, and won't be your family's living room HTPC at the same time as it's being your PMS. It's a netbook without a keyboard and screen, or even a real OS and HDD (It has two empty internal HDD bays, as opposed to a decent sized HDD included with the Mac Mini!). Seriously, this is exactly type of device whose main function is to give you geek street cred in your forum sigs.

They actually can be your families living room HTPC, with HD station being able to run XBMC, Chrome, etc.. The thread was asking for the least expensive NAS that can transcode 1080 and this series of NAS certainly fits the bill. Sure I know that an I core possessor would work very well between the Mac mini and Intel nuc but who says he hasn't considered that already and is still wanting a NAS for whatever reason?
14

1) I don't count a device as an HTPC just because it can run a web browser and check email.  I expect an HTPC to be a full featured and robust computer that just happens to use your HDTV as its monitor.  If you can count a NAS as an HTPC, then I can hook up my smartphone to an HDMI port and call it an HTPC as well, and it's probably closer to the definition of one than a NAS.

2) A NAS is still the most expensive and underpowered way to run a media server that I know of.

3) He has already purchased a Mac Mini and is now looking for a good deal on an external array, and the two pieces of equipment combined will still be less expensive, more powerful, and more versatile than a NAS capable of streaming full 1080p to multiple devices at the same time with comparable storage.

4) While there are some very legitimate uses and needs for a NAS (Mostly business related), the vast majority of Plex/XBMC users who buy one, have only done so because they don't really understand the technology and the available alternatives.  That, or they're just engaged in virtual geek ePeen waving via forum sigs.

In all seriousness, the first reply to anyone on the forums here who ask which NAS would be the best one to get for running a PMS, should always be "Why do you think you need a NAS?"

15

Ok so I'm not tech savvy I guess but:

1. I didn't bought my NAS for Plex but just to store my files

2. I enjoy the other programs in the NAS like the download machines, the FTP capacity, the fact that I have my own personal could device

3. I don't like Apple

4. I have no clue how to set up a raid stuff with my 50 HD

5. So having a NAS is simple, allows me to put my webpages online on my own server without a fuss, allows my friend to picks files they need from my FTP without having to me upload them somewhere.

I guess you can do that with your Mac Mini also (pretty sure yo can do anything to replicate all the stuff I get from a NAS) but really I don't have to know anything about how it works, it just does. So there are no mistakes to fix, no trial and error. It just work because it is designed to do so. That's why I get NAS. Yes I'm lazy that way.

16

I would agree with previous posts in this thread warning about the suitability and capability of NAS devices to handle the workload of transcoding. I think there is a third option or middle ground here though. NAS devices are good at managing storage and making that as easy as possible.


Using something like a Mac mini for running the plex server itself also makes a lot of sense. It has the horsepower to handle the transcoding tasks and because it is so small and is very quiet it can be a great little home theater PC hooked up to your avr or tv.


If you are able to hardwire the connection between the Mac mini and a NAS then you can really combine those two and let the plex server access shared media storage on the NAS. That is what I do - and it is a very effective combination. I purchased a Synology DS1813 to manage my storage needs for a wide variety of purposes. However the DS1813 is not up to the task of transcoding. I tried that first and it simply was overwhelmed with just one active transcoding session. I use my NAS as a central location for lots of things besides just my media collection. And I use the security camera app features, crashplan backup, etc as well off of that device. I also make use of all 4 Ethernet ports in a bonded setup to give maximum throughput for client access.


So if the features of the NAS in terms of storage management and some of the other things they can run effectively make sense for your environment - then go that route. I would do that only if you have a hardwired connection to your NAS though from your HTPC - if you try wireless you may find your network gets pretty saturated and would be more prone to stutter, etc. If you don’t need those other functions and don’t need access to the storage required from multiple devices both internal and external to your network - then going with a Mac mini and locally attached storage makes sense as long as you have space for both in your theater setup. Down the road if you needed to make that local storage available in your network to other clients you could always do that - just keep in mind that will present extra load on the network and io of the Mac mini that might interfere with any plex server activities that might be going on at the same time.


Great discussion - and certainly no one right answer. Depends on your other requirements and some of the setup variables that play into your specific situation.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

17

Personally, I have my Mac Mini connected directly to my router via a Gigabit Ethernet connection, and my two RAID arrays daisy chained to the Mac Mini via Firewire 800.  At some point I'll update to a newer Mac Mini with USB 3.0 ports and connect my arrays that way since they already support the spec, but Firewire 800 certainly seems fast enough for my purposes right now.  I certainly don't think I've seen or noticed a bottleneck due to disk transfer speeds, but maybe I've just missed it.  I will say that right now I'm currently copying all of my Movie files to my new 8TB array via Firewire 800, and it's going to have taken approximately 48 hours to have accomplished this task for the 4.68TB's of data being copied.  My 15TB array was getting very full, so I'm splitting off my movies to the new array, and keeping my music and TV shows on the old one.

Now, if there was a way for me to make my connection from my Mac Mini to my router faster, I'd be very interested in that.  I only have the one GB Ethernet port on the Mac, so I don't see how that would be possible, but I'm open to suggestions.

The fact that a NAS would function as a torrent box intrigued me until I started sharing my Plex server with some relatives and friends, and my upload bandwidth became a precious commodity.  I don't have FIOS as an option where I live yet, so I'm paying quite a bit for 25 down and 5 up so folks can stream from me without constant buffering issues.  Since using a NAS as a torrent box is no different than using my Mac when it comes to bandwidth usage for uploading, and keeping it well saturated for downloading means everyone in the house's basic web usage suffers, I moved all of that offsite to a VERY affordable seedbox where I have unlimited data transfers and GB bandwidth.  Then I just FTP in those files directly to my arrays via an FTP client (Captain FTP) which supports segmented downloading.  My upload bandwidth basically stays free for streaming content from my Plex server. 

This combination works splendidly, and quite frankly keeps me from ever having to deal with bandwidth throttling by my ISP, because all it will ever see are FTP transfers as opposed to seeing torrent transfers which are quite often targeted for bandwidth shaping.  They don't dare mess with FTP transfers because they're almost exclusively used by business and academia since most home users are totally clueless about the service.  I also keep my home IP address out of any swarms, which at least makes me "feel" a tad bit more secure.  I will say this though...  Having the seedbox has unequivocally made it easier and MUCH faster to expand the content of my Plex server, as well as making that content an order of magnitude tidier than if I seeding from home.  It allows me to run FileBot the second I get new content on my arrays, so I can rename and sort my files into something that not only makes sense to anyone looking at it, but for Plex to match music, movies, and TV shows much faster and with MUCH more accuracy!

18

I have a similar setup to the above but it’s a Mac mini with a drobo connected to it and honestly it’s the way to go. Simple and very cost effective and even with a heavy load silent than any windows machine will be.

19

At various times I have considered and used both approaches. One being the dedicated HTPC, the other a NAS. My current ancient qnap 439 can't handle any significant transcoding load. I plan to upgrade it because of this. But I haven't decided which qnap is the best fit yet. I'm open to suggestions from those who have experience with using a NAS to handle transcoding.

My problem with the HTPC setup is power consumption and reliability. I've been an enterprise storage guy for a couple of decades now. I'm singularly unimpressed by most consumer storage solutions. Many of them are noisy. Most of them - that I have tried - have hot spot issues that result in drive failures. Most of them aren't terribly energy efficient.

What I look for is a sufficiently high performance solution to make my experience seamless that is also reliable, quiet, low power and for which somebody else with a lot of experience doing so provides support for my intended use case or something very close to it.

So far, I have found the best fit for me to be NAS. I really like the qnap nas because of the work qnap have done to make their devices quiet, energy efficient and reliable. I find a NAS implementation to be very "clean" (and therefore maintaining a high Spousal Acceptance Factor) implementation. It's just a quiet, cool running box that connects to the network. No thunderbolt/firewire/etc cables to a storage device or two.

Still, I sometimes look at the mac mini solution and am tempted by it.

20

I'm using enterprise level storage solutions connected to my Mac Mini which is designed to run cool and quiet with very little power consumption.  They are after all built around laptop components, sans a battery and screen.  My Mac Mini sits underneath my HDTV, and fits perfectly in the space between the bottom of the TV and the shelf it sits on.  My RAID arrays sit behind the HDTV and are not visible at all.  Now, if you had your HDTV mounted on the wall, then things would be a little different, but mine isn't.  Even if it was, I'm very certain that I could pretty easily hide those two boxes and my Mac Mini in some sort of mesh cube/shelf with a ventilated door covering the opening.  Quite honestly, you could always buy a Mac Mini for right around the same cost, or less of a NAS upgrade, and still keep your current NAS as storage only, letting the Mac Mini take over as both your PMS, and the Plex Client for the HDTV it is connected to.  Then you just have one little thin silver box to hide that can be mounted either horizontally, or vertically.