Advice DIY NAS For Plex and such things

Unraid is an awesome choice.

I have an unraid basic license, running on a dual xeon e5620 with 32gb Ram, LSI megaraid sas controller with a mismash of drives giving me 7.5TB and a separate 1TB drive for my dockers and VMs.

I run Server 2016, Linux and a Windows 7 VM (Pxe server), along with Jackett, Rutorrent, Sonarr, Radarr and Plex.
 
PiKe said:
I run Server 2016, Linux and a Windows 7 VM (Pxe server), along with Jackett, Rutorrent, Sonarr, Radarr and Plex.
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Thanks, can you dumb it down slightly for me?! :( If I were to replicate, could I just: Load Server 2016 as my OS, install Plex and also set my drives up to be visible on my internal network?

Tinders said:
I built a mini ITX system in a fractal node 304, using a I5 3570S, low power-ish but beefy enough for a couple of stream transcodes. It can also take 6 3.5 hdd. To be fair i had some of the bits already, i didnt see the point of spending money on new kit to save a few watts.

But do you really need a beefy machine for serving plex clients on an internal network, i thought the transcoding was for 'transmitting' externally? for an internal network, wouldnt it just be a direct stream?
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How did you have your server setup? What OS etc?

Internal and external clients, my current QNAP is struggling so I just want to upgrade enough to not worry about it for a while!
 
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LackyT said:
Thanks, can you dumb it down slightly for me?! :( If I were to replicate, could I just: Load Server 2016 as my OS, install Plex and also set my drives up to be visible on my internal network?
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You don't need an OS to run Plex in, Unraid is the OS then there are dockers that are basically instances which are set to do one thing.

If you go on YouTube and search for Spaceinvaderone he has some very informative videos on how to set things up.

Unraid does the windows shares directly and they will be visible on your network like any others would be.
 
I used WHS2011, but im planning to try some of the ones mentioned in the thread earlier.
 
Ryzen 3 1200 would give you 4 true cores. 1300X gives you another 400mhz (3.5ghz) per core over the 1200.
 
That case you picked is well minging .. the node 304 is much better designed. Plex may not be compatible with server versions
Unarid is loved by some but if you dont want to run VM's /or are less than tech savvy stick to windows. You can set up a time schedule and set your drives to sleep after xx mins, set machine to power off/on at correct times. A good 4 core Cpu should see you thru. Xpenology works very well.
 
I was responding to LackyT, a 1300X is £124.99. a 1200 is £104.99 at the time of writing.
 
PiKe said:
Ryzen 3 1200 would give you 4 true cores. 1300X gives you another 400mhz (3.5ghz) per core over the 1200.
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Made a little Ryzen build, looks like a better choice :) :

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £347.21
(includes shipping: £12.30)



​

GWANGY said:
That case you picked is well minging .. the node 304 is much better designed. Plex may not be compatible with server versions
Unarid is loved by some but if you dont want to run VM's /or are less than tech savvy stick to windows. You can set up a time schedule and set your drives to sleep after xx mins, set machine to power off/on at correct times. A good 4 core Cpu should see you thru. Xpenology works very well.
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Case choice aside :p My aim is similar to @chroniclard - I just want it sat there 24/7 in a low power state until needed. Xpenology looks sweet, is it bootable like UnRaid or does it need to run via Windows?
 
chroniclard said:
Just used an old i5 2500k and windows 10 in an old Pc case, sits in a cupboard near the router. Unsure of power costs, its on 24/7. :p
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I've done something similar. Although I think the CPU in mine is an i3.

I don't keep mine all the time though. If I want to watch or listen to anything I use my phone to wake the PC and then TeamViewer on my phone to log in to Win10.

What benefits would there be running something like UnRaid (Or anything else) rather than Windows.
 
EddScott said:
I've done something similar. Although I think the CPU in mine is an i3.

I don't keep mine all the time though. If I want to watch or listen to anything I use my phone to wake the PC and then TeamViewer on my phone to log in to Win10.

What benefits would there be running something like UnRaid (Or anything else) rather than Windows.
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Windows will sit there running things you dont need to run, gobbling up power, it can do raid and file sharing but its not very good at it as its a desktop os.
unraid, xpenology, freenas etc are built to be efficient, you only install/configure the extras you need, And their hybrid raid solutions are more configurable/robust than windows.

'Xpenology looks sweet, is it bootable like UnRaid or does it need to run via Windows'
they both boot off usb

I like the look of unraid as well, multiple parity drives and can use multiple ssds for a cache pool to speed up writing, though for a setup like that you'd need the plus version.
 
lude1962 said:
Windows will sit there running things you dont need to run, gobbling up power, it can do raid and file sharing but its not very good at it as its a desktop os.
unraid, xpenology, freenas etc are built to be efficient, you only install/configure the extras you need, And their hybrid raid solutions are more configurable/robust than windows.

'Xpenology looks sweet, is it bootable like UnRaid or does it need to run via Windows'
they both boot off usb

I like the look of unraid as well, multiple parity drives and can use multiple ssds for a cache pool to speed up writing, though for a setup like that you'd need the plus version.
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Thanks, I think I'm pretty much there. I'm thinking of getting a small M.2 drive to install Xpenology to, what size would be best?
 
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