I am running low on space on the MyCloud, and have found the Shield great as a player but not as a server. As such would like to upgrade to system to fully utilize 4k playback and also remote streaming for people outside my network.
I am in the process of sourcing the correct components, so far I have;
Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF, i5 4570, 8gb ram. This will host my Plex Server plus everything to download media.
2 12tb WD reds.
Nvidia shield as the client.
12tb WD external drive.
Everything will be cat6 hard wired.
My main problem left to solve is how to handle the WD Red drives, options I am thinking are;
a Synology NAS - seems overkill as the PC will doing most of the operations, however RAID1 is out of the box plus any back up operations should be handled seamlessly.
external hard drive caddies - lower cost but i would have to manually handle all the syncing between drives, and also the additional external drive.
Would anyone be able to give any advice on which way to go?
Use case is 4K streaming at home, 1080 remux transcoding remotely and torrent automation.
storage depends on how technical you are, and what OS.
on linux, you can use mdraid or even ZFS to mirror your disks.
on windows, it is a little more complicated, but you could use drivepool (Iβve never used, but many folks here have recommended it)
if you want something essentially plug and play and easily expandable, I would recommend a nas with 4 or more bays, the more the better (for later expansion) as much as you can afford.
finally, regarding the 4k/1080, if you are keeping separate 4k/1080, then you will not need to try to transcode the 4k files so your cpu should be sufficient, but not very future proof.
but if you meant transcode 4k TO 1080 for remote, then the cpu you have will not suffice.
for 4k transcoding you need an intel 7000 series cpu with a 600 series integrated gpu.
a used nvidia 1050 or even a new 1650/1660 are fairly reasonable and can handle a few 4k transcodes easily.
but to your point, the rest of my post stands.
for example, I have several (now older) readynas nas devices, ranging from 4 bays to 8 bays. They now serve as backup units.
my current pms/storage server is a homebuilt 24 bay case with a dual xeon (older) server board and an nvidia 1650 for transcoding, using debian linux.
I have 4 different mdraids with btrfs built among the 24 bays, that I have to manage from command line.
now that ZFS is coming to ubuntu, that might be a better path if you were starting new.
so again, it call comes down to how much time/money you have to spend, either managing it all yourself (linux/windows) or let a sufficient size nas manage it for you.
