Seeking Guidance

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Seeking guidance on a PLEX/NAS build, that will also become home file storage. The primary goal is to have a media repository that is fast enough to handle 5 or 6 streams at max (1080p) (Realistically maybe only 3 streams, but trying to hit the max goal if possible because I would like to have overhead to spare)

My initial plan was to have a PC with a supported CPU for hardware accelerated transcoding for the PMS, and have the media stored on a fast NAS such as a Synology DS1618+. I have a Meraki MS220-8P for switching duties, and was going to aggregate two ports on that and two ports on the Synology to ensure I had bandwidth to spare on the media, but then I discovered that unless I somehow find a way to get NIC teaming to work in a non server PC I’m going to be stuck with the bottleneck at the PC.

So then I started to think that having the NAS be the PMS would be the way to go, but I’ve read through reviews that unless it has an actual desktop CPU, that transcoding would suffer and I wouldn’t be able to have subtitles on atom based units. And I do need subtitles.

Having the NAS unit be the PMS removes bandwidth problem, but then am I limiting the number of potential streams and possibly losing subtitles?

Having a PC for the PMS gives me the transcoding power I need, but I run the risk of bottlenecking the data.

Initial configuration thoughts
Plex PC:

Intel based SFF: Zotac Zbox (Beause it’s something I already own that has dual intergrated LAN)
NAS:
Synology DS1618+: 2 LAN ports set in Aggregate mode

Second configuration thoughts
PLEX/NAS:

Synology DS418play: 2 LAN ports set in Aggregate mode

Third configuration thoughts
PLEX/NAS

Synology DS1618+: 2 LAN ports set in Aggregate mode

Not sure what the best option to go with is. And I don’t know linux at all, so trying to get NIC teaming and PLEX working on linux would be a challenge for me.

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You don’t necessarily need NIC teaming on the NAS. Blu-ray 1080p rips run 10 - 40 Mbps. Five 1080p streams would pull ~200 Mbps. That said, configuring link aggregation on a Synology is very easy via the DSM GUI. No linux skills needed. Installing Plex on a Synology NAS is also performed via the DSM GUI. No need to use the CLI.

You could start with your second configuration, using a 418play, 918+, or similar. With the Celeron J3455 CPU you can enable hardware accelerated transcoding. You won’t get five concurrent transcodes, but you might get two.

If you hit the limit of the NAS, you can then employ something like the Zotac Zbox. If you then hit the limit of the Zbox, you can upgrade it w/o having to replace the NAS.

If you want to go with the NAS only approach, take a look at QNAP as well. They’ve NAS with i3/i5/i7 CPUs. I’ve no experience w/ QNAP, but from reading posts, others are quite happy with them.

1 Like
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I chose Synology for my examples because I’ve had experience with them in the past and found them very good for corporate standard use. I’ll read into the QNAP reviews and check those out.

I didn’t know how much bandwidth 1080p streams ate up, so that’s good to hear. My worries of being bottlenecked at the data throughput level are no longer a concern.

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FYI, there’s a sort by bitrate (instead of by title, date added, etc) in Plex Web, Plex Media Player, and probably several other clients.

“Get Info” in Plex Web & PMP shows the bandwidth. https://support.plex.tv/articles/201998867-investigate-media-information-and-formats/

You can also analyze the file with MediaInfo to see the bandwidth.

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My Linux skills are next to non-existant. :-/

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Thanks for filling in the details.

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