NAS recommendations

[William_Cannon 86]

I’m looking for a NAS to run as a plex media server and to store pictures and a small amount of files.

- Most movies are H.264 1080P MKVs.

- May need HW transcoding capabilities

- Clients are mostly roku ultras and iPhones

- Only need 6 to 8 TB in capacity / RAID 1

- Needs to reliably work and be easy to use

 

Not interested in building my own.

 

Thanks in advance,

WC

[kevwun 16438]

I like synology, but I haven't used it for media storage.  We have a couple at work for file backups and they work well.

[tokamak 6687]

I have a QNAP TS-251. It transcodes OK, especially after I upgraded the RAM from 1 to 4 gb, but it does occasionally buffer. Make sure you get one that specifically says it can do hardware transcoding. I think they make a + version of mine that I should have gotten.

Other than that, very happy with it. They are basically mini Linux computers. You can do all sorts of neat shit with them. AFAIK, QNAP and Synology are the two big brands and I'd be willing to bet that they are pretty similar.

[blacklab 12064]

I have a qnap TVS=471 and have been happy with it. All kinds of great software for it out there. There's a phone app that backs up your pictures to it and a gmail back up that I use.

Occasionally I have to transcode to mp4 to watch something.

 

[texhorn 356]

Another vote for synology.

[bborange 10393]

11 hours ago, texhorn said:

Another vote for synology.

Same here. 

[Baboontyme 2883]

Can't nobody tell you nothin

[atomheartbevo 90650]

On 5/5/2019 at 9:31 AM, texhorn said:

Another vote for synology.

On 5/5/2019 at 8:40 PM, bborange said:

Same here. 

I'm building out a Synology NAS (6 x 6TB) for myself, and doing all of the stress testing of new drives, to try and get them to fail before I install them in the NAS.

And holy fuck when I read the /r/synology and /datahoarders subreddits, and those fuckers are loading them up with 14TB drives.  It's not the amount of storage, it's more like if it's taking 36-40 hours to run a 6TB drive through a shitload of testing, how many hours for one of those 14TB drives, and if a drive goes bad after install, how long does the rebuild take?  Instead of days, does it take a week?

 

[Handcruser 2815]

I'm building out a Synology NAS (6 x 6TB) for myself, and doing all of the stress testing of new drives, to try and get them to fail before I install them in the NAS.
And holy fuck when I read the /r/synology and /datahoarders subreddits, and those fuckers are loading them up with 14TB drives.  It's not the amount of storage, it's more like if it's taking 36-40 hours to run a 6TB drive through a shitload of testing, how many hours for one of those 14TB drives, and if a drive goes bad after install, how long does the rebuild take?  Instead of days, does it take a week?
 

Ask them lol

[atomheartbevo 90650]

1 hour ago, Handcruser said:

Ask them lol

Found somebody mentioning 10-14 days for a single 10-14TB drive rebuild.

And there's a couple of zealots in there that spend a lot of their posting time telling everybody running SHR on 4-drive-and-up NAS machines to switch to SHR2.  They look like they'd be fun to troll.

I could have seen myself needing that much space (40TB and up) 8 or 9 years ago if I had simply converted by DVD/BRD library to watch off of it, but I can't be bothered if most of it is on Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/Disney (and now HBO Max).

 

[Sam Lin 3599]

You need to better define your hardware transcoding needs, specifically how may devices or how many streams you want to simultaneously transcode. That'll dictate the minimum processing power you need, which will narrow down your options. Then it's a matter of number of drives and what level of safety/redundancy you want. If your budget allows, go for a unit that's sized 2 bays above the space you want, so you can keep 2 drives in as hot spares.

Both Synology and Qnap are great choices for turnkey home-pro hardware.