My Plex library is growing fast and I want to invest in a NAS device to run Plex, so that I don’t have to have a computer always on and running the services. Most of my files are in .mkv and so transcoding ability is important and preferred. I don’t want to invest to much money in it but I am looking for a powerful, inexpensive, fast, NAS server with at least 4tb of storage. I have been looking into the WD My Cloud Ultra EX2, it seems promising, but I don’t know if it’s capable of transcoding. Netgear seams powerful and certainly capable, but would get really expensive after you buy all the required hard drives. I will be investing in the near future and would love your feedback of NAS devices and how well they run Plex. Thanks in advance!
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@win22jim said:
I am looking for a powerful, inexpensive, fast, NAS server with at least 4tb of storage.
There is no such thing as powerful, inexpensive and fast NAS that can handle transcoding from an off the shelf vendor. If there were everyone would be running one. You may be able to build one that can fit the bill, if you have the skills and desire to mess with it. but buying one ready made for less than $500 that can handle transcoding just ain’t going to happen…
If you want transcoding you want a REAL CPU in it. Nothing like an Armada or Celeron or ATOM or anything else like that… They just haven’t got enough horsepower to handle the job. Think i3, i5 or i7. (Look at passmark scores and aim for 5K minimum, and don’t scrimp. If you can afford a model with 10K passmarks, spend the money on it now, rather than try to make it work for you. Anything else is going to be a disappointment in the long run.
This puts it to just a handful of models from an even smaller selection of manufacturers. Synology, QNAP and Asustor make a few that can do the job. Now you get to do some research to decide if you want to spend the kind of money for this endeavor. (With no drives in the bays, you are looking at about $1000 just for the NAS itself.
FYI, I run an Asustor AS-7004T with an i3-4330 that clocks about 5K passmarks. I have 30TB hanging off or in this machine, and it has handled 2 transcodes comfortably while Direct Streaming to 5 other devices. (Yes, that’s 7 streams at one time.) This was before I started messing with the HW transcode Beta… The only thing I wish I would have done differently with this unit is go with the 8-bay or 10-bay model instead of the 4-bay. I’ve had 2 other lesser models, and they were disappointing to say the least. Even if I minimized transcoding, I still had issues.
My advice is, research the models that can fit the bill. Then figure out how much media you intend to keep and multiply that storage requirement by at least 4 times. Then figure out how many drives it’s going to take to fit that amount of media. Now you know which models to start looking at.
We all would love a powerful AND inexpensive NAS 
I’m not sure what your exact requirements are, but you might want to consider the Synology DS916+, it’s capable of transcoding a single stream if necessary, just dont expect it to handle really high bitrates.
@win22jim said:
My Plex library is growing fast and I want to invest in a NAS device to run Plex, so that I don’t have to have a computer always on and running the services. Most of my files are in .mkv and so transcoding ability is important and preferred. I don’t want to invest to much money in it but I am looking for a powerful, inexpensive, fast, NAS server with at least 4tb of storage. I have been looking into the WD My Cloud Ultra EX2, it seems promising, but I don’t know if it’s capable of transcoding. Netgear seams powerful and certainly capable, **but would get really expensive after you buy all the required hard drives.**I will be investing in the near future and would love your feedback of NAS devices and how well they run Plex. Thanks in advance!
What the other guys said …
AND I will add you don’t have to fill the NAS - you can start with 2 drives in a 4+ bay unit
Do you presently have a “desktop/tower” computer you aren’t using anymore? Many people upgrade to notebook/laptops and the old perfectly working desktop goes unused.
Do you happen to fit into this group and have a computer laying around not being used much?
@spikemixture said:
@win22jim said:
My Plex library is growing fast and I want to invest in a NAS device to run Plex, so that I don’t have to have a computer always on and running the services. Most of my files are in .mkv and so transcoding ability is important and preferred. I don’t want to invest to much money in it but I am looking for a powerful, inexpensive, fast, NAS server with at least 4tb of storage. I have been looking into the WD My Cloud Ultra EX2, it seems promising, but I don’t know if it’s capable of transcoding. Netgear seams powerful and certainly capable, **but would get really expensive after you buy all the required hard drives.**I will be investing in the near future and would love your feedback of NAS devices and how well they run Plex. Thanks in advance!What the other guys said …
AND I will add you don’t have to fill the NAS - you can start with 2 drives in a 4+ bay unit
Thats a great Idea. So the NAS Server will work even though not all the bays are filled? After doing some further research I was very impressed with the WD My Cloud Pro series and Im thinking about investing in one of those, it supports unto 4 simultaneous transcoding at 1080p. I am not super familiar with NAS, but if I got the 4 bay model could I start with 1 Hard drive and in time expand from there, or do I have to start with 2 Hard drives? Also is it possible to use regular hard drives in the NAS Servers, or do they have to be specific NAS Drives, like the WD Red series? I know that they might not perform optimally or last as long, but as a temporary solution until I invest in more Red drives would it work? Also most of the configurations that I found all of the bays had the same size Hard drives, would it cause issues if I were to have for instance 1 4TB drive and 1 6TB drive? Again thank you so much for your help! I know little to nothing about NAS but I think this will be a worthwhile investment for me.
@cayars said:
Do you presently have a “desktop/tower” computer you aren’t using anymore? Many people upgrade to notebook/laptops and the old perfectly working desktop goes unused.Do you happen to fit into this group and have a computer laying around not being used much?
I do have a tower that was about 10 years old, I switched out some parts and fixed it up and have it running again, but Im afraid it wont last very long.
For those of you who have this same question in the future here are some resources that helped me make my decision.
This is a list that Plex made of all the supported NAS devices and what they are capable of. This helped me a ton, check the NAS compatibility guide found in this article-
Here is an article by Plex about the device that I selected if you would like to learn more.
Thanks everyone for your help.
I personally went the “built your own” route. Spoiler alert: a NAS is “a computer running all the time”.
I would strongly advise against any RAID model that doesn’t have at least 2-drives’-worth of redundancy. It might give you warm fuzzies, but with modern drive capacities you’re likely in for an unpleasant surprise if you actually need to rebuild a failed drive using a mirror or RAID5/RAIDZ1 without additional redundancy. Losing data on a RAID array sort of defeats the purpose.
@win22jim said:
@cayars said:
Do you presently have a “desktop/tower” computer you aren’t using anymore? Many people upgrade to notebook/laptops and the old perfectly working desktop goes unused.Do you happen to fit into this group and have a computer laying around not being used much?
I do have a tower that was about 10 years old, I switched out some parts and fixed it up and have it running again, but Im afraid it wont last very long.
That’s pretty old but ironically may still be more powerful than many off the shelf NAS units you may purchase today! ← sucks but may be true
I want to post a word of caution to you and to give you something to think about. Many NAS type products that can support multiple drives require you to set up things up front. EG 4 drive configured as a RAID drive with one mount point or drive letter. Some will allow you to mount each drive as a letter/mount point.
You need to investigate and understand how this will work. For example suppose you purchase a box that allows 8 drives but you only populate it with 4 drives to start with. What happens when you want to add 1 additional drive? Can you do this? Does the NAS require you to add drives in sets? Will it require you to dump all existing data to external media and rebuild the “set” then reload?
Most NAS docs are “limited” in their explanation of this. As a video “horder” you will find you will expand, expand, expand, and then expand some more. 
so you need to take this into consideration in your planning.
If you look at my SIG you can see I run a pretty decent size system. Needless to say I’ve been doing this for a long, long time. I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t.
My gut feeling is to “abandon” looking for a NAS and to “build one” yourself. Of course it then wouldn’t be a NAS per say. But if you build a cheap PC computer that is a desktop or tower you will probably be able to host a couple of hard drives and RUN Plex on it.
KNOWING what I know: I’d recommend an i7 that supports QuickSync and not settle for anything less than this. It’s really not that expensive. Walmat, Egghead or BestBuy can be your friend especially if you ask about open box items which can get you 30% or more off the typical sell price.
Don’t worry about stock drive bays. You can add for $300 or so an 8 drive bay eSate/USB3 enclosure to your computer that greatly expands your storage and allows you to control it.
So there is no reason you can’t walk out the door with a real computer for $300-$500 and run up to 20 TB with ability to add 8 more drive with an enclosure that hold 8 drives (10TB each) and then another $300 for 8 additional drives.
I work in data centers all day long and see all kinds of crazy expensive servers and storage devices. I KNOW what’s out there and KNOW Plex well. I’ve built a low end Plex system that anyone could build with tons of storage and could easily be doubled with no problem at all for less than the cost of “decent” NAS systems.
So buyer beware and do your homework before spending your hard earned $.
Carlo
@cayars said:
@win22jim said:
@cayars said:
Do you presently have a “desktop/tower” computer you aren’t using anymore? Many people upgrade to notebook/laptops and the old perfectly working desktop goes unused.Do you happen to fit into this group and have a computer laying around not being used much?
I do have a tower that was about 10 years old, I switched out some parts and fixed it up and have it running again, but Im afraid it wont last very long.
That’s pretty old but ironically may still be more powerful than many off the shelf NAS units you may purchase today! ← sucks but may be true
I want to post a word of caution to you and to give you something to think about. Many NAS type products that can support multiple drives require you to set up things up front. EG 4 drive configured as a RAID drive with one mount point or drive letter. Some will allow you to mount each drive as a letter/mount point.
You need to investigate and understand how this will work. For example suppose you purchase a box that allows 8 drives but you only populate it with 4 drives to start with. What happens when you want to add 1 additional drive? Can you do this? Does the NAS require you to add drives in sets? Will it require you to dump all existing data to external media and rebuild the “set” then reload?
Most NAS docs are “limited” in their explanation of this. As a video “horder” you will find you will expand, expand, expand, and then expand some more.
If you look at my SIG you can see I run a pretty decent size system. Needless to say I’ve been doing this for a long, long time. I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t.
My gut feeling is to “abandon” looking for a NAS and to “build one” yourself. Of course it then wouldn’t be a NAS per say. But if you build a cheap PC computer that is a desktop or tower you will probably be able to host a couple of hard drives and RUN Plex on it.
KNOWING what I know: I’d recommend an i7 that supports QuickSync and not settle for anything less than this. It’s really not that expensive. Walmat, Egghead or BestBuy can be your friend especially if you ask about open box items which can get you 30% or more off the typical sell price.
Don’t worry about stock drive bays. You can add for $300 or so an 8 drive bay eSate/USB3 enclosure to your computer that greatly expands your storage and allows you to control it.
So there is no reason you can’t walk out the door with a real computer for $300-$500 and run up to 20 TB with ability to add 8 more drive with an enclosure that hold 8 drives (10TB each) and then another $300 for 8 additional drives.
I work in data centers all day long and see all kinds of crazy expensive servers and storage devices. I KNOW what’s out there and KNOW Plex well. I’ve built a low end Plex system that anyone could build with tons of storage and could easily be doubled with no problem at all for less than the cost of “decent” NAS systems.
So buyer beware and do your homework before spending your hard earned $.
Carlo
Wow thank you so much for this response. This helps me so much. I definitely have more homework to do before making a final decision. If I were to end up buying a NAS system such as the WD My Cloud Pro, where would I find all that information about adding drives and upgrading and all that stuff that you mentioned? The specifications says that there are “multiple RAID options” and it says that “you’re able to easily add or replace hard drives in a matter of moments.” I know that the wording can be deceiving, do you know where/how I can get the answers to those questions that you told me to look into? I definitely appreciate your word of caution and definitely want to look into this.
If that system doesn’t end up being quite what I wanted it to be, do you have a build list of what stuff exactly to get to build a system that you described here, or a similar one?
Again thanks for your help, I am fairly familiar with computers and everything but this is my first time doing anything with NAS, and/or building my own system that would accomplish what I’m wanting to do now.
Before spending hundreds or thousands on hardware you really should look at Plex Cloud if you have a good Internet connection. It has a limit of three simultaneous transcodes which should suit most domestic arrangements although probably not those who share their libraries with friends & relatives. The only cost is Plex Pass plus $10/month for G Suite Business. If you want to test it out you can buy one of these dodgy $8.95 Google Drive lifetime unlimited storage deals from eBay.
Win22jim,
As nigelpb comment - l really don’t think Plex cloud is close to being a reliable alternative.
And certainly not for a big library.
With Synology NAS I know you just add the new drive and their proprietary raid does it all.
Same when increasing the size of a single drive - take out the old one and slip in same or bigger and the NAS just fixes it .
I am pretty sure this is the process with most NAS but can only speak for Synology.
You seem keen on the WD Cloud Pro - the price is not much different from the Synology or Qnap - which are probably the most popular 2 NAS brands for Plex.
What if you already have a couple 2TB drives, a 4TB drive and 1 6TB drive you want to start with?
What happens if you have an 8 drive enclose with 4 drives starting out configured in the array.
Now you want to add a new 8TB drive what happens?
What if you start with 4TB drives and realize they are to small and want to start purchasing 8TB or 10TB drives?
How is your NAS going to deal with this?
They are the types of questions you need to ask and understand before going down the rabbit hole!
Carlo
@spikemixture said:
Win22jim,As nigelpb comment - l really don’t think Plex cloud is close to being a reliable alternative.
And certainly not for a big library.
Have you actually used Plex Cloud? I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks & it’s been very fast & reliable. It’s also amazing for transcoding. I uploaded a 60Mbps 66GB 4K UHD Blu-ray rip as a test & it happily plays on all the clients that I have tried even over 3G/4G for my iPhone. I am really impressed with Plex Cloud for my purposes. The OP is contemplating a 4TB NAS so that is not a large library. Of course if the Internet connection is too slow that is another matter but before spending money on a NAS it behoves the OP to take a look at what Plex Cloud can offer.
Alternatively as a low cost alternative I can recommend the NAS that I use which is a 4TB Seagate Personal Cloud which is the cheapest & lowest powered NAS you can buy. It costs little more than a 4TB USB 3.0 external disk. If you use a decent client like a Roku 3 or Ultra or iPhone 6 then there is no need for transcoding & it will stream at least five simultaneous 1080p videos to various clients.
Don’t forget that all those who have invested heavily in hardware have an interest in recommending purchasing heavy duty hardware to validate their own purchases
check out unRAID if you are looking to build. Great interface, great product. I ultimately went with unRAID over FreeNAS, but both are excellent.
Plex “was born” when media players were rather limited and transcoding was a must. Today we have Nvidia Shield (and some others). Yesterday we had NAS and home-built PCs, today we have clouds…
All in its place, however. My biggest concern with clouds is privacy and security. I would never put my personal videos and photos in a cloud, but I would not mind putting films and tv shows in the cloud. I look to Plex Cloud as a way to load media when I’m out for vacation.
Why spend $$$ on a powerfull CPU for transcoding and need to replace it when it’s no longer powerfull for transcoding ? I would rather put $$$ on NVidia shield and have a CPU in 1600-2000 passmark range (so that transcoding to lower bitrates can be done). This way the NAS (or home-built PC) could grow as needed, and when encoding technology produces another codec standard (widely used) it will then time to replace the media players (high-quality for TV, low quality for PC’s and portables).
@moody_blue said:
Why spend $$$ on a powerful CPU for transcoding and need to replace it when it’s no longer powerful for transcoding ? I would rather put $$$ on NVidia shield and have a CPU in 1600-2000 passmark range (so that transcoding to lower bitrates can be done). This way the NAS (or home-built PC) could grow as needed, and when encoding technology produces another codec standard (widely used) it will then time to replace the media players (high-quality for TV, low quality for PC’s and portables).
As you start to grow your system and share with friends/family you won’t have total control over the environment. They may already have a Roku they use for Netflix and won’t want to “upgrade”. They may want to use a cell phone or web browser.
Basically, the more people you share with the less “control” you have over your environment. Are you really going to make someone spend $180 for a shield when they already have a Roku 3 and only want to “view” a few movies a month? The “few” movies turn into a dozen then a couple of dozen a month over time. Where to you draw the line?
Granted it’s your system and you control who has access but it can be a “thorn” to manage when they are friends/family.
But yes I encourage people I share with to get a shield since it’s the best device available right now and what I use myself.
Carlo
@nigelpb said:
Before spending hundreds or thousands on hardware you really should look at Plex Cloud if you have a good Internet connection. It has a limit of three simultaneous transcodes which should suit most domestic arrangements although probably not those who share their libraries with friends & relatives. The only cost is Plex Pass plus $10/month for G Suite Business. If you want to test it out you can buy one of these dodgy $8.95 Google Drive lifetime unlimited storage deals from eBay.
I actually bought a Plex Pass specifically for the Plex Cloud, I even got Amazon unlimited cloud (which is no longer supported but I chose to keep it anyways to backup all my files). I did beta testing for it and I was not very pleased with it, far to many bugs (I’m sure its better now, but not in comparison to what I want). Also I already have about 3TB of movies and Im probably 2/3 done with digitalizing my library, Its just unreasonable to upload all that data and would take way to long, and the cloud services that are supported would be extremely expensive to support my library. I do use Plex Cloud for certain tv shows, but its not viable for movies.
