NAS or Microserver, 1 bay or 2 and other Questions

topgazza · 2 Nov 2018 at 17:20

I want to store, and stream, my movies to my TV via my Denon receiver and for the movies to be accessible on the home network. I'm a simple man and really dont have that much in the way of storage requirements. I expect to only use 2TB or at a push 4TB but 2 is plenty.

At the moment my setup works quite well as I have movies on my iMac and stream using Plex to my Firestick and then onto the TV via the Denon. All works well but as I gradually increase my ripping of my movies I can see a need to take them off the iMac. I also have a Dune HD which works well but I expect will have to go if I set this up right. I hardly use it now

My original intention was to go for a microserver, my son had a HP Gen 8, but he does quite a bit on it but given my, relative, low storage requirements its seems overkill. I dont use 4k like him but may in the future of course. So my thoughts turned to a NAS. Had a 2 bay Qnap on Raid 1 before and it worked fine. But my current thoughts were single Bay, prob Syntology, with USB drive as a backup on the basis of cost and simplicity. Most of my files are .mkv and 1080p as is the TV.

But I keep going round in circles on this. Syntology DS-118 keeps popping up with either 2TB or 4TD and matching USB backup drive.

Thank you for you patience and any advice appreciated

topgazza · 2 Nov 2018 at 18:28

Thanks as that clears/confirms my thoughts. Sometimes "we" can over analyse things when perhaps the best option is right in front of us

A NAS looks the best option with a single bay with USB backup being the simplest. Did think about the Nvidia Shield and usb storage but thats very biased towards gaming which I dont do and overcomplicates what I want. A NAS seems to be the more solid solution anyway. Might stretch to a 2 bay and use the 2nd drive as a mirrored backup, in effect.

Thanks again

topgazza · 2 Nov 2018 at 22:43

Thats a good point BigT.

I'll give that a go. The other motivation was clearing stuff off the iMac so that would do that as well.

I suppose the only down side would be having to leave the iMac on and not asleep all the time... but then again I leave it on anyway most of the time so worth a try.

topgazza · 2 Nov 2018 at 23:01

I've seen solutions where there is a 1 bay drive with a usb plugged in that is the data backup drive. Although that works I'm kinda concinced that if I go down the NAS route it would have to be 2 bay with the second disk as the mirror (raid 1) as you suggest, Synology DS281+ is the current preference.

I'm going to play with an external drive on the iMac as an experiment over the weekend before deciding as I'm interested to see the performance. But an always on NAS on the network means others can view films if the iMac is off of course. I think thats two options I have that I can ponder,

topgazza · 2 Nov 2018 at 23:18

I supose so. 2nd disk would be a failover but would contain the folders still and service would continue. But I do see the value as well of using the 2nd disk as a genuine backup as its only going to contain Movies. My photos and music are backed up on a USB drive on my iMac using CarbonCopy as a bit of safety and a second USB drive takes care of TimeMachine so my data is spread across a few discreet devices.

Its pointing towards a 2 bay NAS. And the DS 218+ has the right balance of cost and performance with a decent processor... needs a bit more memory in an ideal world but what it has should be fine.

topgazza · 3 Nov 2018 at 12:34

Although I dont have any 4k or any particular rush to see any more and more movies are in 4k. It could be another 3D of course but its reasonable to say 4k is eventually going to be the new 1080p. Thats my only concern with a NAS solution with the lack of hardware decoding grunt. Hence my initial indecision about what solution as I want to cover current use which is likely to continue for some time IMO but as 4k becomes the norm, I'm giving it 2-3 years, Iwould want something a bit more. Mind you a hardware refresh will be due by then anyway I suppose.

When I bought my Dune HD H1 I ran Plex on it but then Dune also dropped Plex or rather Plex dropped Dune. Very frustrating

topgazza · 3 Nov 2018 at 14:59

My son says the same about his as well. Looking at a Gen 8 with the standard Celeron 2.3 processor and 10Gb mem for around £220 which seems oK to me. Its "only" a 2 core processor of course but I understand you can carefully upgrade to 4 core without needing fans

topgazza · 7 Nov 2018 at 17:21

Love that Avalon.... spoken with some passion...... and good stuff...thank you

I agree about the HP... I've built plenty of PCs in my time so quite happy to build one rather than buy a microserver after doing research so I concur with your comments. Mainly as I dont intend to do anything else with it other than use it as a media server. Note the 2k of CPU mark per 1080p and to cover that would get an Quad or 6 core Intel/AMD processor.