I now have a Synology DS220+ NAS. I have movies on it that I play with Plex. Now I am looking for a 4bay NAS and I came across the DS423+ and the DS923+.
According to the Plex compatibility list, the DS423+ is better than the DS923+. The DS423+ is just as good as the one I have now. I also read on the Plex website that the faster the CPU, the better the performance. I saw in the compatibility list that if I want to be able to play everything and transcode via Plex, I will end up with a NAS of several thousand euros.
Which NAS should I choose or what is important to look at? It may also be another NAS.
How many people are using the media server?
The DS220+ has only a dual core CPU while the DS423+ has a Quad Core CPU.
The DS923+ has a AMD Ryzen CPU which is not good for transcoding because of the missing iGPU.
If many people play content from outside your network a Intel CPU will help with transcoding (but don’t expect wonders from the integrated NAS-CPU) .
Personally I would go for the 423+ because of the CPU mentioned above.
You can turn any computer in to a NAS using Unraid and add multiple drives easily. If you are technically inclined you can build a computer to your liking.
I built my own in a server case and run 10 drives with over 15 TB of data storage. I use a AMD Ryzen CPU and it has no issues transcoding multiple streams. Unraid supports docker containers and virtual machine so it is very flexible to run support software for your plex server.
thanks. that’s right you can make a nas from anything but i’m also a bit concerned about the costs. shouldn’t be too expensive. do you know a nas or something that never gives problems with transcoding? sometimes the film hangs because i turn on subtitles but that’s not the case with every film. despite the fact that they are the same file type etc.
I had my NAS running for about 5 years now and have not had any issues including using subtitles and remote usage. For the 4K movies I use store 1080p versions of the move as well so my non 4K TV use it and remote users will get the 1080p versions gets transcoded. You are very limited with the per-built NAS and you can probably built a better machine for the cost of a pre-built.
My system is as follows:
Micro-Star International Co., Ltd B450 TOMAHAWK (MS-7C02) , Version 1.0
American Megatrends Inc., Version 1.80
BIOS dated: Mon 17 Jun 2019 12:00 AM
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Six-Core @ 3200 MHz
Memory: 24 GiB DDR4
Samsung 1TB M.2 SSD for cache drive
1 4 TB Parity Drive
9 Data Drives of various sizes 2 & 4 TB Total 26 TB
The server is running 19 docker containers and 1 Windows Server VM.
Nornal CPU Usage is less then 10%
Docker and VM use about 8 Gig of Ram leaving 15 Gig free.
Like I said: the DS423+ has a Quad Core CPU while the DS220+ only has a Dual Core CPU.
If you play your movies only on your LAN and don’t need to transcode even the CPU of a Raspberry Pi would be enough.
But if you need to transcode (for example because your upload speed isn’t sufficient, your client settings force a transcode or you wanna watch a movie on cellular network and transcode to 480p to avoid burning your monthly data) it could quickly add a lot of load to the CPU (especially if you transcode 4K movies which I don’t recommend on a Syno).
Plex likes many CPU cores (the more the better). I usually don’t have any transcoding problems.
Possible trouble makers are usually Hyper Backup (too much RAM usage) or the integrated Anti Virus (scanning could cause much CPU load). Other services like the Photo Station or the Time Machine Service are not causing any problems.
If you don’t have a lot of technical skill or aren’t up to the challenge of learning (there can be a fairly steep learning curve depending on what you decide to do) then purchasing one of those expensive NAS “Appliance” boxes is the better choice.
– They relieve you of the bulk of the work needed to create storage and launch a Plex server
If you have some technical skills / are willing to learn then you can get away with a fair amount of DIY (Do It Yourself) by buying cheaper computers and connecting HDDs, or even a bare-bones cheap NAS. to it.
In the spectrum from “Total Newbie” → “Have computer skills”. where are you in that spectrum ?
This is a interesting post for I expect many Plex Subscribers. My instillation is of a number of HDDs connected to my Mac Mini M4 pro which over time have gained interest in a NAS for storage only, as opposed to my current setup.
Now to narrow down my logic I have a medium to large Collection at any given time. That being in Tb / size or Number of Titles. I do collect Movies as I see them as I will definitely watch again, as opposed to TV Series not so much and tend to prune mostly with exceptions of cause. Another consideration is Library share is only small, example: 3 remote and 3 local.
So considering all these factors mentioned in choosing a NAS like the OP suggests a sensible and cost effective Plan, even with level of skill may not be required if used for storage only? Personally I find this a huge consideration and keen to have discussed.
I know a little about computer stuff but as soon as it goes deeper in terms of configuration and network and such I know a bit less. So superficially I know something but not really deep in the matter
I am asking because I’m trying to figure out if it’s better for you to have a NAS (which is both storage and provides compute power for Plex & transcoding) or just a plain “Storage Device” NAS (which has a much smaller processor and puts a bigger burden on you to make your media playable )
Do you have / want to play a lot of 4K media ?
Are all your devices 4K capable (if you have / want it) ?
i have 4k movies but not all. my devices can all handle 4k. what i find easy with the standard nas is the interface etc. i have no idea what to expect from a diy nas. i think if i were to do a diy nas someone or a website would have to tell me which components fit together and in which housing etc.
What would you think for my situation?
I also read that you can do better by hand tranacoderen so the nas can play a direct play so that the CPU is not so heavy
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