Hi, I’ve been running a Plex server on an old HP Intel Core i5-3470 w/ 8GB RAM running Win7 Pro I got free from work. All has been working okay except for remote access (due to my network setup, for another time or thread. I’m getting a Synology DS-918+ soon. Should I move Plex onto the new NAS, or leave it where it is and just pull the media from the Synology? One obvious advantage is that the Synology will be connected directly to my fiber gateway, whereas the PC’s running through a wired switch and a secondary router (probably why I have the remote access issue). Are there any other advantages?
This will probably come down to your use case and how much you depend on transcoding your media.
| … | Core i5-3470 | Celeron J3455 |
|---|---|---|
| PassMark CPU Mark | 6730 | 2473 |
| CPU based transcoding * | 3x 1080p or 4x 720p | 1x 1080p or 1x 720p |
*) What kind of CPU do I need for my Server? | Plex Support
The i5 can theoretically deal with hw-accelerated transcoding – however, back then Intel QSV was still in its early days and… not really good. From what I’ve been reading, hw accelerated transcoding only makes sense from the Kaby Lake architecture onwards.
The 918+'s Celeron however will be able to handle that quite well – the only “major” downside seems to be it’s not capable to encode videos in 10bit H265/HEVC (HDR). → see: NAS Compatibility List | Plex Support
One upside of running Plex on a NAS is that you don’t need to account for network traffic to transfer your source files to the server (given they’re on the same system).
Thanks for the info. I’m leaning towards the NAS solution, as I’m not finding many (any?) advantages to keeping it on the PC.
Is there a tutorial for moving it over, or is it simply a matter of signing into my existing account with the new device, rebuilding the library, etc.?
There’s nothing preventing you from migrating your server but keep the original one running (well… restarting it after you completed your migration). The only downside might be that you need to ensure both devices have a separate machine identifier to avoid “collisions”.
The migration procedure will depend on the OS on your Synology:
- With DSM 6, there’s an established migration documentation → Synology FAQ (DSM 5 & 6) - Questions, Answers, and a few How-To's - #24 by ChuckPa
- With DSM 7 this appears to be a bit more complicated (and work in progress).
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Thanks again for the info!
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