NAS Recommendatons

Mr_Moose

Mr_Moose

Mr_Moose

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Joined
20 Oct 2009
Posts
492
Location
Grangemouth, Scotland
Hi All,

Looking for a little help deciding on a NAS to purchase.
The main usage will be storage and using it as a plex media server to stream mainly to a Sony TV.

I think I've narrowed it down to either the Qnap TS-453 mini or the TS-451+.
Both can be had for the same price (~£360), which I think will be my upper limit as I've still to get the drives, and seem to be almost the same spec. I am leaning a little more towards the mini as it has slightly lower power consumption and physical foot print.

I had thought about the synology DS415play but from what I've read, on the plex forums, they can struggle with transcoding when streaming. They also seems to be of a lower spec for the same price as the Qnap boxes and I can upgrade the Qnap boxes to 8Gb for £40.

Does anyone have any experience with these and could maybe offer their opinion and\or maybe recommend something I may be over looking.

Cheers!
 
Normally my knee-jerk response to a "which NAS" thread is Synology \thread

However in this case I'm inclined to agree with your original post to be honest - while I love the Synology UI, my DS213 isn't powerful enough to transcode for Plex and I know even the one's that are supposed to cope, don't do it particularly well!

A friend has a 214Play and while it works, it's hit and miss at best - while another mate has a Qnap TS-470 Pro and it handles everything he throws at it seamlessly!

Also I'm sure I read somewhere that Synology have removed (or are going to remove) support for Plex full stop!?!?! (not sure if this is right tho!)
 
thanks for the reply Stevie.

I've still got a couple of weeks before payday but the more I look into it the more I'm moving towards the 453 mini with, initially, a couple of WD Red 4Tb drives in Raid 1.
 
TheVoice said:
Why will you need to transcode?
Click to expand...

I'd imagine so the content can be played via Plex on various devices.

Personally I like to stream to my tablet and phone but because my NAS isn't powerful enough to transcode on the fly (and I don't like the idea of having to transcode from the original source and storing a 2nd "local" copy) I've had to employ a bit of a workaround by enabling Plex to use an external "direct" player in order for it to play!
 
None of what you've mentioned... get a HP Gen 8 microserver or Dell... more powerful CPU than what you've mentioned that can easily handle transcoding and they're noticeably faster to use.
 
I've reviewed many nas enclosures. My favourite, and still my day to day nas is a QNAP 453 Mini. It's superb. The mini is smaller and the drives drop in to the top. Can also run vm's and a hybrid desktop. Not to mention Kodi if thats your thing

Edit: QNAP have really come on this last year or two
 
Anybody seen the new Qnap 1 or 2 bay that does android with HDMI i was looking its fairly cheap without drives im tempted to take the plunge and have it plugged into me H6400
 
Mr_Moose said:
I had thought about the synology DS415play but from what I've read, on the plex forums, they can struggle with transcoding when streaming. They also seems to be of a lower spec for the same price as the Qnap boxes and I can upgrade the Qnap boxes to 8Gb for £40.
Click to expand...

The DS716+ is available now, featuring a quadcore Celeron N3150.

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I'm sure there're threads about it on the PLEX forums, I'd read there first for any compatibility concerns.
 
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