Best affordable NAS for Plex (or alternatives)

[Bally12345]

I'm thinking that HP MicroServer looks to be better than the Lenovo ThinkServer. I'm unsure if I should go with the Gen 8 (2013) or with the Gen 10 (2017). From this article (HPE intros new ProLiant Microserver Gen10, steps backwards | Techazine) it looks like that I cannot upgrade the CPU directly myself, which means that the Gen 10 would be quite expensive. Should I

• get a basic Gen 8 and upgrade;
• buy a used one that has already been upgraded;
• or stay away from HP and go for the Lenovo TS?

Honestly, I don't really know if that will be overkill?

Hopefully a plex expert will help out, there is a really nice GEN10 Dual Core for £200+
HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 AMD Opteron X3216 Dual-Core 3.4 GHz 8GB 4 x Non Hotplug on Servers Direct

Lol too many choices

Now that I've looked around on flebay and on ebuyer, this is a bargain for a new HP Microserver!!!

Only has cpu passmark of 2368 which would mean 1 decent 1080p stream of outside of your network when using plex.

The Guideline

Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark score requirements are a good guideline for the following average source file:

4K (60Mbps, HEVC) file: 4000 PassMark score (being transcoded to 10Mbps 1080p)1080p (10Mbps, H.264) file: 2000 PassMark score720p (4Mbps, H.264) file: 1500 PassMark score

The CPU Benchmark website is a good resource to see what sort of PassMark score a particular processor received.

What kind of CPU do I need for my Server? - Plex Support

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[DodgyTech]

Only has cpu passmark of 2368 which would mean 1 decent 1080p stream of outside of your network when using plex.

What kind of CPU do I need for my Server? - Plex Support

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Thanks. I doubt I'll need to run even 1 stream outside of my network. However, do you think it's better I go with the Gen 8 where I can upgrade the CPU to match any changes in my needs in the future?

 

[Bally12345]

Only has cpu passmark of 2368 which would mean 1 decent 1080p stream of outside of your network when using plex.

What kind of CPU do I need for my Server? - Plex Support

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Thanks. I doubt I'll need to run even 1 stream outside of my network. However, do you think it's better I go with the Gen 8 where I can upgrade the CPU to match any changes in my needs in the future?

If your running multiple clients inside your network you might need to transcode especially if your client doesn't like a particular codec to do direct play.

It's always nice to have something you can upgrade later if your outgrow it.

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[Grimeire]

you said previously that you have a ps3 if thats the case most video formats will need to be trans coded for it to play on a PS3.

another option you have is to convert everything you have to a device friendly format like mp4 but depending on how much content you have this can take a long long time and there is also the increase in storage space.

i noticed myself on my own server that most formats that are played on a iOS device needs to be trans coded. Not sure is the default setting on iOS to transcode but that could be the cause of it.

what OS are you going to be putting on the server?

 

[DodgyTech]

you said previously that you have a ps3 if thats the case most video formats will need to be trans coded for it to play on a PS3.

another option you have is to convert everything you have to a device friendly format like mp4 but depending on how much content you have this can take a long long time and there is also the increase in storage space.

i noticed myself on my own server that most formats that are played on a iOS device needs to be trans coded. Not sure is the default setting on iOS to transcode but that could be the cause of it.

what OS are you going to be putting on the server?

I wasn't that impressed with the usability of the PS3, but yes, I do have one. I don't want to go through the pain of converting, at least not yet.

Judging on the replies here, Unraid or FreeNAS are the only two worth considering. Do you have any pearls of wisdom for or against either?

 

[Grimeire]

I wasn't that impressed with the usability of the PS3, but yes, I do have one. I don't want to go through the pain of converting, at least not yet.

Judging on the replies here, Unraid or FreeNAS are the only two worth considering. Do you have any pearls of wisdom for or against either?

the PS3 isnt the best for plex but its not as troublesome as dreamplex.

just bare in mind that if you intend on using Freenas an intel CPU is recommended. I have never used Unraid so cant comment on it.

 

[Bally12345]

I wasn't that impressed with the usability of the PS3, but yes, I do have one. I don't want to go through the pain of converting, at least not yet.

Judging on the replies here, Unraid or FreeNAS are the only two worth considering. Do you have any pearls of wisdom for or against either?

the PS3 isnt the best for plex but its not as troublesome as dreamplex.

just bare in mind that if you intend on using Freenas an intel CPU is recommended. I have never used Unraid so cant comment on it.

Unraid have a free version that support 2 disk I think. Defo worth checking out I think the basic license supports upto 12disks.

I would try unraid and freenas on test machine and see what you get on with.

Personally for me my unraid server has been run for 432 days without reboot. The only reason I restarted was to update to the latest version.

Likewise I have zero freenas experience

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[DodgyTech]

I've been a bit quiet on here due to work and lack of time at home. I've been reading around on this thread (Freenas vs Unraid) and have seen that Unraid isn't that reliable and has a lot of risk while FreeNAS is more accepted by industry and more robust.

As a result, I'm experimenting on a Virtual machine with FreeNAS. I've only managed to get as far as installing it and playing on the web interface. Will be reading through this guide (FreeNAS Guide 9.10.pdf) to familiarse myself with all the need to know info contained within (especially on how to increase storage - which will be important to determine if this is for me). Also, will be looking at guides on how to set up my storage and how to configure the system as a file server first. Then will look at some (video) guides on how to set up plex. I suspect that I will be pointed down the path of installing in a jail (at least that's the first video I've seen), but it makes sense to segment parts of the server to protect against attacks through the network.

It looks like it's very early days for me, and I will not be able to make a decision right away. My only concern is what drive to get to back everything up...especially if I use a Raid 6 or Raid 10 and end up with 20TB+.

Edit: the latest guide linked above can be found at Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC for noobs!

 

[Bally12345]

Iv not used freenas but the beauty of unraid is that you can mix your drives as long as your parity is larger or equal to your largest drive in your array.

Also unraid isn't exposed to the WAN so very secure unless you open a bunch ports instead of using vpn to access your system.

Let us know how you get on with freenas I would be interested to see how it compares.

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[Grimeire]

Edit: the latest guide linked above can be found at Slideshow explaining VDev, zpool, ZIL and L2ARC for noobs!

I wouldn’t waste my time with FreeNAS 9.10 that’s old, the new Freenas 11 has a new GUI and a few things have change like the management of jails. if you use Freenas 9.10 you will not be able to manage the jails from the GUI when you upgrade to Freenas 11 as the new jails are iocage instead of warden.

I did a bit of looking into UnRaid after it was suggested here and it does seem to have a few advantages over Freenas like the use of multiple size drives. What hardware you have will probably sway you.

P.S the slideshow you linked to is very good and i would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about Freenas, it was one of the first things i read.