Looking for some help deciding how to update from an Nvidia Shield. I’ve just about filled the 500GB storage, and would also like something with some sort of backup drive incase the hard-drive fails.
Something with a backup drive, plenty of storage, is fairly easy to get setup for someone not terribly technical, and can stream 2 - 3 at the same time… with a budget of under $750. It will just be used for storing movies/shows and streaming to ipads/iphones/TVs through plex.
I have a Velop mesh system running at home for wifi, and mostly use a Mac… if that matters.
you have filled the 500g drive with MEDIA or with apps/database content?
there are no other single solution client/server devices.
are you wanting to replace the shield as a client or server or both ?
if you are looking for a server, there are many NAS’s out there that can run plex server directly, and you could continue to use the shield as a client.
or you can connect the shield server to the nas storage (storing media on the nas, while shield remains the plex server).
You can also attach larger USB drives directly to the shield for additional media storage.
Not sure i’m technical enough to understand client vs server and answer perfectly, however, right now the shield does everything for me. I store my movies on it, have the plex media server app installed on it…and stream everything from it. And yes, the 500GB is 95% movies (around 200 titles I believe currently).
So i’d like whatever I get to do something similar, and not require me to plus the shield into it. My issues with the shield are that it needs to be running 100% of the time incase family/friends are streaming from my plex catalog (which I don’t think the shield was intended for), it’s almost out of storage and I’d like something with a backup…so not sure adding a usb stick would address. Also, I’m concerned if more than two stream of HD quality (or maybe 4K in the future) are running the shield wouldn’t be able to handle.
One suggestion I’ve heard is a DS918+… or someone from my work mentioned a Dell T30 that would take a little more setup? Was just looking for some advice. Thanks!
plex has 2 parts, or functions…
– plex server, is the part that normally runs all the time and is what indexes your content, downloads the metadata/images, and serves out content to other plex clients (client is what plays the video/audio) including the plex client on the shield and it sounds like your remote users.
– plex client is an app or program that runs on many different devices, and it connects to a server (yours or whomever has invited you to theirs).
you can connect an external usb drive (like 8tb or whatever) it doesn’t have to be a usb stick
I don’t know what the max streams the shield server will support, so if you plan to rip 4k in the future then a dedicated nas or server box will probably be what you want.
nas’s tend to be more expensive, but also come with relatively user friendly web based interface so you can monitor/update/install apps on them.
dedicated servers/pc’s you will of course need to install and manage the OS and any disk drives all by your self, so if you go that route be warned that while you can save money re-using an old PC or server, things can get very technical very fast.
hopefully others will chime in with info and suggestions, you are not the first to overgrow your initial plex server and need to upgrade/expand.
everything simply comes down to how much already know about servers/technology, how much money you want to spend, and how much time you have to learn and/or maintain your system once it is up and running.
Thanks for the help @TeknoJunky, do you have any NAS you recommend?
@ChuckPa, you seem to be pretty knowledgeable on this topic. Do you have any current recommendations for a NAS box or a home use server (like the dell T30 or HP Microserver), and a specific CPU you would spec out?
Buy a NAS! Something like Synology DS918+ with two or free hard drives will be fine for the start, and it will be easy to use. The Plex Media Server (PMS) will run on the NAS, and on Shield just use the Plex Media Player (PMP) and disable the server function.
P.s.: Building custom media server should be more cost effective solution, but IMO it’s not for you.
Unfortunately I do not have any recommendations, but this forum is filled with threads and people with many nas, you just have to search/research and read them for yourself.
