How powerful does a NAS actually need to be to stream 4k with no transcoding to my TV?

Richdog · 22 Jan 2017 at 09:30

I have been umming and aching over NAS solutions for months now to the point where it is driving me crazy, and I please need some final guidance to help me to make a decision. Basically my problem is working out how much power I actually need to do what I want to do.

Basically, what I want to do with a NAS is:

4 bays
Stream up to and including high bit-rate 4k media (moves mainly) over Gigabit LAN using Cats cable to my Samsung UE65JS8500, without any transcoding.
Host all my files and photos with enough power to use the web interface smoothly while away from home to download (not stream) files.
Allow family and friends to remotely view my photo library smoothly and upload/download files from shared folder.

So no VM's or anything like that, just Plex or similar (also an interface on my Samsung TV). I am leaning towards Synology as the software does seem very well polished and despite the lower hardware specs than Qnap I think that is the key factor in buying a NAS.

So, what do I really need as a minimum (taking into account processor and RAM) to do the above smoothly and painlessly? Will my TV take a lot of that processing load on its shoulders for the files that it supports?

Cheers,

Rich.

pepp77 · 22 Jan 2017 at 09:33

The power of the machine is basically irrelevant if you do not want any transcoding, as it is the transcoding that requires the power. If the formats are all compatible and thus allow direct play then CPU usage will be about 3% and an old Athlon X2 would do the job just fine.

As an example I have an i3-4150 in my home server which is also my plex server and I havent had a single issue playing anything to my Samsung TVs, my roku units or my ipad.

Richdog · 22 Jan 2017 at 10:11

pepp77 said:
The power of the machine is basically irrelevant if you do not want any transcoding, as it is the transcoding that requires the power. If the formats are all compatible and thus allow direct play then CPU usage will be about 3% and an old Athlon X2 would do the job just fine.

As an example I have an i3-4150 in my home server which is also my plex server and I havent had a single issue playing anything to my Samsung TVs, my roku units or my ipad.

Ok thanks, good to know. What about the remote online side of things, is there a big impact on CPU or memory when multiple people are accessing things remotely?

Richdog · 23 Jan 2017 at 11:23

Any more tips please guys and recommendations on models that would suit?

Richdog · 24 Jan 2017 at 12:09

Ok, well I just ordered a Synology DS916 along with 3x 4TB HGST NAS drives. It will be worth the investment, I think.

Skiddley · 25 Jan 2017 at 15:33

My focus would be on I/O (disk and network performance), storage extendability as well as environmental spec (power consumption\noise) if there is no transcoding in play.

You'll burn through the TBs quickly with 4K content.