PR4100 or PR2100 for PLEX Media Server

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Hello,

My goal is to set up a PLEX media server in my house for my movies, home videos, music, photos, etc. I want to use either the PR2100 or the PR4100 - principally because of the Built-in hardware transcoding and the performance benefits I expect that to provide when video is streamed to various devices (tv, phones, tablets).

I am not concerned about using RAID 5 or 10 mode in the 4100. I will be fine with just using RAID 1. However, I am concerned about my media library outgrowing the initial capacity down the road and thus am considering the 4100 as future-proofing me vs the 2100.

But, not being an expert with NAS, and being unfamiliar with the 4100 I have the following questions for you … If things won’t work the way I hope I will just buy a 2100 …

**Q1 … **With the 4100 as an example can I do the following?

Drives 1 and 2 are 4 TB each set up in Raid 1 - lets call this DriveSetA with 4TB usable capacity
Drives 3 and 4 are 4 TB each set up in Raid 1 - lets call this DriveSetB with 4TB usable capacity

So can I have 2 different Raid 1 drivesets within the 4100? And do the sizes of all 4 drives in this case have to be identical, or just each Raid 1 pair? Can DriveSetB be 6 TB drives each vs the 4TB drives in DriveSetA?

Q2 … If I can have two different Raid 1 drivesets in the 4100 , can the PLEX server within the 4100 be used to hold and host movies on both DriveSetA AND on DriveSetB? Or can the PLEX server only have movies coming from one set of drives eg. DriveSetA ? The software based PLEX servers I’m familiar with only let you define ONE path for movies. A different path can be defined for music and home videos and photos but each topic (movies, music, home videos, photos) can only have 1 path defined. I don’t know if the hardware based server of the 4100 lets you define multiple paths for movies and the other topics.

I would expect I can have a different path for music than movies but the key question is whether the Plex server on the 4100 lets you have multiple paths for movies??

If not, can I at least specify that movies come from DriveSetA but home videos, music and photos are on DriveSetB?

Q3 … Assuming the multiple paths for movies works in Q2 above … Can I start with 2 drives in the 4100 (DriveSetA) now and at a later date, say 2 years down the road add Drives 3 and 4 to create DriveSetB. (again both sets are Raid 1) ? Will DriveSetA be deleted / impacted in any way if at a later date DriveSetB gets created? Or is it safest to start with all 4 drives at once and Create the two Raid 1 drivesets at the same time (less than ideal)?

Many thanks in advance for your help!!!
Gary

2

Hello in answering the question Q1 you will have the answer to the other question.
unable to mount 2 RAID 1 system on the PR4100
Disk 1 & 2 and Disk 3 & 4 (no)
The solution would be parametric PR4100 in JBOD (just a bunch of disks): all disks form a single storage space. If a disk fails, only the data it contains is lost.

3

A PR2100 it is then! Thank you for your feedback.
Cheers,
Gary

4

One more question … If I go with the PR2100, I guess I don’t really care about backed up data since I have a backup copy on a different disk …

So, should I set up the PR2100 as RAID0 for faster read/writes or as JBOD? Do you think there is any difference in the Plex Media Server capability in either scenario?

Cheers,
Gary

5

Hello so if you use another backup system the pr2100 with disks set in RAID 0 will be perfect for your use however remember that if a disk fails you lose your data. for increased speed RAID 0 will be perfect.