I am currently running Plex Server on a Windows 10 intel NUC i3 2.3GHz with 16GB RAM. I have a standard 1TB HDD and it’s filled up so I’m considering adding a NAS to expand and give myself room for growth. I’ve pretty much decided on the WD PR4100. I’m wondering if I should run the server still on my NUC and just connect to the NAS or run Plex solely from the NAS? I would think running from the NUC would be faster, but wondering about speeds from pulling the files in and then trans-coding. I definitely don’t want any stuttering which I experience very intermittent now with my current HDD being 95% full.
I’ve heard that WDs running Plex can be a headache. Also, if your i3 is capable of hardware acceleration then I would definitely stick with that. The WD won’t be able to keep up with it.
Also, as a final note, I prefer to keep separation of church and state, so I can upgrade components individually.
Also, to add… I don’t think there is anything preventing you from running both simultaneously to test.
So you think running Plex on the desktop and then pulling from the NAS is probably the best route? Just want to make sure I’m following.
Admittedly, I haven’t had NUC experience, but if the processor contained within supports QuickSync then I believe you’d be much better off sticking with that. If it does not, then it might be a tossup between the two for performance, and I’d try running both side by side to compare results.
A quick way to answer this is to go into Settings > Server > Transcoder… and see if you have the “Use hardware acceleration when available” checkbox. If it’s there, you’ll be way better off sticking with the NUC as a server.
I also know that lots of people complain about running directly from a WD setup. Files that require transcoding my prove too taxing for it.
You might want to consider setting some RAM aside as space to transcode. I am Running RHEL 7.3 with 16GB of RAM and 12 of that is used as a RAM disk and it works fantastic for me.
