Advice DIY NAS For Plex and such things

linwelin

linwelin

linwelin

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I was originally just going to buy a NAS that could run a plex server and be able to transcode anything that needed it but, the prices are ridiculously expensive for what I need. I have an old AMD Phenom II 955 black edition, ram and i will most likely need a new board for it as i am wanting a case that is the size of a 4 bay NAS i am guessing that would be a micro ATX? not sure what kind of case would be best 4 bay or more would be better. I have everything apart from a case and depending on the size of the case a motherboard.

Is there a NAS Operating system ? or would i have to run Linux/Windows?
 
FreeNAS?

Also keep in mine the power consumption of your Phenom, may well work out cheaper long term to build something more dedicated or or an HP Microserver.
 
It may be worth building a new system , you obviously have parts you can reuse

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £205.65
(includes shipping: £11.70)



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from plex
Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark scores are a good guideline for a requirement:


AMD Athlon X4 845 passmark 5423
 
lude1962 said:
It may be worth building a new system , you obviously have parts you can reuse

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £205.65
(includes shipping: £11.70)



​
from plex
Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark scores are a good guideline for a requirement:


AMD Athlon X4 845 passmark 5423
Click to expand...

I like the look of that, would it fit in this case though? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/kolink-satellite-micro-atx-cube-case-black-ca-005-kk.html
 
kolink, Support for Micro-ATX Motherboards (Up to 22.6cm x 18cm)
board above
Form Factor:
Micro ATX Form Factor; 22.6cm x 17.4cm

so should fit, but the case only supports 3x3.5 drives, how many drives size etc are you thinking of using?
 
lude1962 said:
kolink, Support for Micro-ATX Motherboards (Up to 22.6cm x 18cm)
board above
Form Factor:
Micro ATX Form Factor; 22.6cm x 17.4cm

so should fit, but the case only supports 3x3.5 drives, how many drives size etc are you thinking of using?
Click to expand...

At the moment i have 2 3TB driver, plan on getting a 3rd at some point.
 
unRAID isn't free but very good at what it does. I use it myself.

Regarding your hardware, if you need to buy a new mobo then I agree with the advice above to start from scratch. The hardware that Lude specced up looks good.
 
Bluecube said:
unRAID isn't free but very good at what it does. I use it myself.

Regarding your hardware, if you need to buy a new mobo then I agree with the advice above to start from scratch. The hardware that Lude specced up looks good.
Click to expand...

Think i am going to go for that, don't need the memory or the gpu have some spares here, instead, i swapped them out with 4TB X300 Toshiba.
 
I built my storage server using my old phenom II x4 955. I dropped the clock speed down to about 2.6GHz and undervolted it to reduce the power consumption as it is on 24/7. It's been running with opensuse on it now for a few years. It's primary purpose has been serving plex dlna to the entire house and samba fileshares for storing secondary backups.

I've never measured the power consumption of it, but expect it to be quite high as I run an LSI megaraid HBA with an intel sas expander along with 7 2TB WD Se disks in raid 5. The gpu is a dinky little nvidia quadro nvs410 which uses very little.
 
The power used by the amd balck edition is way too high if you are going to leave your NAS/box on 24/7 .. there are many better, newer procs that will use way less power , maybe look at an intel T or S CUP that maxs at 35,55w. I have a "NAS" that runs at 30w , I think even that is too high.
More power eequals more heat = more cooling = more noise .. so start with lowest power CPU you can get away with maybe a J1900 integrated onto mobo
?
 
GWANGY said:
The power used by the amd balck edition is way too high if you are going to leave your NAS/box on 24/7 .. there are many better, newer procs that will use way less power , maybe look at an intel T or S CUP that maxs at 35,55w. I have a "NAS" that runs at 30w , I think even that is too high.
More power eequals more heat = more cooling = more noise .. so start with lowest power CPU you can get away with maybe a J1900 integrated onto mobo
?
Click to expand...

I ordered the X4 845 CPU, not just for storage it is mainly for plex and it has to be able to transcode a few streams as the whole house will be using it so, it will be a lot of transcoding + my CCTV. The X4 845 is 65W so not so bad, it will be better leaving that on than my main rig 24/7
 
Hope you don't mind me piggy backing onto your thread, but I have a very similar question / dilemma. I currently have a QNAP TS-253A, which I use for storage and Plex. It's been great, but is really starting to struggle with multiple 1080p transcodes. So I'm looking to build something very similar to OP.

Could some kind person recommend a slightly more power Intel based CPU, with the target being multiple Plex users. Edit: Intel Pentium G4600? @lude1962 does your 1080p/10Mbps: 2000 PassMark guideline, mean that say 3 streams would require a 6000 PassMark?

Second question, I like the simplicity of the QNAP software - ease of access from my desktop or MacBook etc. I see quite a few different options listed above, for simple Plex and storage needs, what is the most user friendly option?

Thanks in advance for any help :)
 
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LackyT HOW DARE YOU USE THE BACK OF A PIG ...:D LOL
You would obviously be better off with a medium to hi powered QNAP but $$$ ..
LackyT said:
oes your 1080p/10Mbps: 2000 PassMark guideline, mean that say 3 streams would require a 6000 PassMark?
Click to expand...
Not exactly true, as your disks may not be up to it, along with home network speed, especially if using wi-fi . You might say 1200 cpu req for runnimg the system, plus 800 for each stream?.
ANy CPU which has hardware decoding of (h264,265,vp9 etc) streams built-in will be MUCH more capable than without.
 
GWANGY said:
You would obviously be better off with a medium to hi powered QNAP but $$$ ..

Not exactly true, as your disks may not be up to it, along with home network speed, especially if using wi-fi . You might say 1200 cpu req for runnimg the system, plus 800 for each stream?.
Click to expand...

The one I looked at was ~1k with an i3.....nope

I'm just not sure what the best software/OS is....

Drives are WD Reds, home network is CAT6 all round with 100Mbps up/down FTTP.

What about something like this:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £390.21
(includes shipping: £12.30)



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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?
 
transcoding is to match the hw capabilities of the plex clients hw, (eg no sound decoders dts, no upscaling available on device eg only 720p)

ANy CPU which has hardware decoding of (h264,265,vp9 etc)
I think only affects playback direct to a tv etc via hdmi etc
 
My samsung's and LG have no issue with direct stream, to be fair my vids are normally no more than 1080. and thats just served from atom based asustor.
 
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