Plex server solution

Robzere31 · 12 Aug 2018 at 14:25

Looking for a Plex server solution to run rather than using my main machine.
Don't need anything special, just something that can sit quietly in the corner & stream to one TV or tablet.
Budget is negotiable, but I would say £300-£400 including a couple of hard drives. 4-6tb would be more than enough.
Mainly be 1080p content, but 4k support would be preferable for future use.

bremen1874 · 12 Aug 2018 at 14:58

A Synology DS218+ and drives of your choice is a popular option. It'd be a bit over your budget, but not too much.

Skynet5 · 12 Aug 2018 at 23:52

Build your own with freenas.

You'll get more power and can transcode faster and more reliably.

£400 could do it, I managed it, although I had some drives already to start populating.

Skynet5 · 12 Aug 2018 at 23:53

Although if that ain't your thing, Synology is defo the right path.

StevieP · 13 Aug 2018 at 09:18

My issue with Synology is that you are dependent upon continued support for Plex!

I had a DS213 which worked a treat.....until it suddenly wasn't supported anymore!

Which is why I picked up a HP Microserver and put unRaid on it and I've never looked back!

Dead simple and in a lot of cases far cheaper than the high-end Synology devices!

However, if you aren't looking to go down the DIY route, check put the QNAP range - a mate of mine has one and he swears by it!

BongoHunter · 13 Aug 2018 at 09:33

I use a FreeNas solution to do this - a 4c8t CPU with 8GB of RAM should be more than enough, I also use the same solution for some backups and running a few other services for the home.

MG42Maniac · 13 Aug 2018 at 09:33

I built my own, far cheaper and had a lot more processing power. My first server had an i5 4670K @ 4.2Ghz, 16GB and a tonne of drives. It could handle about 5 transcodes at a time.

Rannoch · 13 Aug 2018 at 10:05

I built my own and stuck it in the attic.

Robzere31 · 13 Aug 2018 at 14:18

Thanks for the ideas, I'm happy to build my own. Will look into it as a winter project.

Skynet5 · 13 Aug 2018 at 15:10

Supermicro boards are good. Nice cheap pentium work well in them and will do all the transcoding duties you need.

Supposedly need 16gb min of ram for freenas...there is a recommendation somewhere...8Gb per TB?

Skynet5 · 13 Aug 2018 at 15:11

Have fun!

BongoHunter · 13 Aug 2018 at 22:36

lnoton said:
Supposedly need 16gb min of ram for freenas...there is a recommendation somewhere...8Gb per TB?

You don't need that much RAM for a basic setup - 1GB per TB of storage is recommended for ZFS, but unless you are exploiting more ZFS features this in not essential - I have 4 x 4tb drives in my main ZFS storage pool bit only see about 512MB of ram used for each writable TB, though this does vary depending in what's going on a bit

Skynet5 · 13 Aug 2018 at 22:49

Yeah 8GB per TB was me being silly.

I think I concluded 8GB base plus 1GB per TB...so just went to 16GB.

I run a few jails and have a few jobs running. I've currently got 13.3 GB wired.

I have roughly 3TB with 1.8TB full.