DaveBetTech

@Jarsky Thanks for your comprehensive response. I only mentioned Nvidia because they and Quicksync were the initial supported transcoding offerings by PLEX, plus if it uses the hardware for transcoding on the GPU, Nvidia's quality is better. Also, I hate troubleshooting one-more-thing, since it eats up so much time, so figured I'd just go with the most compatible. Yeah, I know bitrot protection is overhyped, and have looked at the white papers, but it's just one more layer of protection I'd like. There will be some non media info on my NAS that I'm a little paranoid about corruption even with redundancy. I've dealt with it before, so just making sure it's all infallible. Looks like the separate PLEX server separate but connected directly to a NAS is the best way to go. I guess it'll make it easy to upgrade either, plus for support, Synology should be around for awhile. Thanks again.

RE: The iGPUs should be able to handle a few streams at the same time, so I don't see this being an issue here. DS423+ & DS1520+ is all they have. I've investigated this before. Unless something has changed, this won't cut it for what I'm wanting to do. I have multiple >30GB x265 files in 4k 10bit HDR. I often have 2-3 people streaming simultaneously. The streams are on 4k TVs and some might be remote or on site. I want the highest quality stream too. I can do this great in Windows w/a GPU currently, but I dislike ReFS a lot. A discrete GPU just seemed like the easiest setup. If I wanted addnl capability in the future, I could upgrade it. If I choose a meteor lake iGPU, it could probably mostly handle it gracefully, but it'd be a pain to upgrade. RE: I wouldn't worry about checksumming for media here. Your drives, sata, and basically every other part of the system is checksummed anyways, and filesystems like ZFS very rartly show checksum errors in files when there aren't other issues. Regarding checksumming, I mean, I'd be spending a lot of cash specifically because I want this feature. If I don't get it, I'd just keep it setup with existing ReFS with bitrot protection. This is one of my hard requirements I was looking for. RE: Most RAID 5/6 systems Ive seen allow adding an additional drive of the same size later on. Unless I'm mistaken, traditional RAID 5/6 cannot drives added, unless you're replacing a failed one. RAID-like configurations that mimic RAID 5/6 can of course, like SHR, BeyondRaid, etc, if that's what you're referring to. I stayed away from using RAID 5/6 language & used the generic term of 1 drive parity to try and not mix that up. I just want 1 drive parity, bitrot protection, self healing and periodic scrubbing, from the storage perspective.

@Electronics Wizardy Thank you for replying. I'm aware of the units with an integrated GPU. Unfortunately they won't meet my needs since some of the files that would need transcoding on the fly are over 20 GB, and sometimes transcoding is needed for 2-3 external clients. Regarding Unraid, all of the information I found was that any kind of checking was done manually. There was no periodic scrubbing. It used an addon Dynamix file integrity plugin to do this. I would assume ZFS does this, but then ZFS doesn't have the flexibility for storage that SHR does, which is what I'm looking for. I can't do RAID 4 & 6 because they are static and inflexible. You can't just YOLO and add another drive. I do like how Unraid allows for some of the files to be safe if a drive fails above the parity level, because of the individual file systems means (there was an old Windows Home Media server product that had very similar functionality & it was awesome, just very limited capability & discontinued). That's great, but the bitrot protection using Unraid (not ZFS) is manual and doesn't seem very robust from what I could dig up on it. It seems like my Synology SHR-1 on BTRFS connected via 10 Gbe using iSCSI to a PLEX server hosting meta data & the transcoding GPU seems like the best option. Was just really hoping there'd be a all-in-one option that meets those five bulleted requirements.

Is there a NAS solution that supports the following requirements: 1. Redundancy: 1 drive parity. Could start off w/five 10 TB drives with 40 TB effective, then add a 40 TB drive which brings effective capacity to 50 TB (40TB is now baseline), then adding a second 40 TB drive changes effective capacity to 90TB. Over the last couple of decades, drives get bigger and it's been a super pain to add storage. I want something flexible and easy. NOTE: Yes, I know, 40 TB isn't available now or in the near future. 2. Changing Parity: Allows for future capability to change parity from 1 to 2 drives. It's fine if the array goes offline, just as long as no data is lost. 3. Bit Rot Protection: Need checksums and periodic scrubbing. 4. PLEX APP SUPPORT: Plex works on this NAS (could be out of the box or just an OS dedicated to NAS) 5. PLEX GPU SUPPORT: Would want to add a GPU and the OS and PLEX needs to support. Will stick to probably an Nvidia 3060 or 4060, or whatever is a reasonable price. Windows mostly satisfies the above, if you use MS Storage Spaces w/ReFS and integrity streams, but super burned after they took away ReFS from Pro/Workstation and only allow it for Enterprise. That's too fickle and long term support is a big concern. Also, I've had MS Storage Spaces act really finicky, like requiring a reboot for drives to be removed or added, or just not explaining why a drive can't be added. If I understand ZFS properly, it can't really add mixed storage sizes and use them effectively. Unraid would work, but I don't believe they handle bitrot self healing, so it's manual. Integrity streams was manual w/MS Storage Spaces (& poorly supported), so wanted to shy away from anything like that. My reseach thus far shows there isn't a single-device-solution. The configuration would be a dedicated PLEX server where the metadata is local to the PLEX server, but all the media is on a Synology NAS. They would be connected via a 10 Gbe connection using iSCSI. I'd just use SHR w/1 drive parity initially & BTRFS along with periodic scrubbing setup in DSM. I'd probably also use an NVMe read-cache + pin BTRFS metadata to it. Having the PLEX metadata local + 10 Gbe iSCSI + NVMe array cache should alleviate concerns about latency, since PLEX likes it's storage local. I'd prefer to use a single system for both storage and PLEX w/GPU transcoding, but not seeing any good solutions. I dislike Storage Spaces w/ReFS because of how much of a PITA it's been to use. Does anyone know about a NAS system that might be able to satisfy my requirements? I have done a lot of research, and I don't think it's possible, so this is my 'hail mary'.

I have parents in their late 60s and 70s. They visited recently and had them try out beat saber (seated). They loved the experience so much they asked how they could buy one of their own. They are going to wait for the Quest 3 to come out in a couple months after I nerded out on the improvements. They're going to buy one for each of them. So here's the kicker: My father had a quintuple bypass 22 yrs ago and gotta be careful about games that rev him up. Beat saber was a bad idea. I kind of knew this and put it on the default beat saber song using easy + practice mode @ 90% speed, but it still got him going a little too much. >>> I'm looking for more experiential or maybe puzzle games that would be okay to play seated. I think Google Earth would be absolutely perfect, but it requires a computer connection. It doesn't matter if it costs $$$ or is free, just as long as there isn't subscription based like some of those fitness apps. I'm going to check out the games too, but figured I could crowdsource. I'm sure some of you guys will have ideas that I may have skipped over, or maybe have experience with your parents or other seniors. Crossing my fingers! Thanks in advance .

The computer is what we use to control 12 different screens for a network operations center. All of the 65" screens are mounted vertically and HDMI plumbed to a room where the PC was. Some other guy built the thing back in 2015 and I was asked to replace it because it shit the bed. We combine 10 of the screens into five different 'monitors' using the old eyefinity software (within AMD drivers). We can't realistically use ancient drivers because even installing the older AMD eyefinity software from 2 yrs ago caused periodic exception errors. For security concerns, a PC on the network has to be up to date on patches. I was hoping that there was a software solution for this. I can't find one. I was hoping that someone here knew of some way to do this. I partly refuse to believe there's no software for this, since I seen display configurations like this before, outside of AMD's kind of no-bueno support for Eyefinity it seems.

Because this computer was setup maybe around 2015. I don't remember what drivers were used. The two guys who were using the system said that it stopped working at one point. My guess is that that a major Windows update botched everything. I found some apps that allow a window to expand/span all of the monitors, but no ability to fine tune this and allow specific monitor groups. I also tried installing two different older AMD drivers, to test it out, but kept getting periodic exception errors (old 7750 video cards). I also bought a couple 6600s to try the same, but Eyefinity isn't even an option. I just assumed and desperately hope there is a 3rd party software solution for this. If you have an idea, pretty please share!

I need to put them into groups of 2 each. When you maximize a window in that group, it expands to both, treating them as if they were a single monitor. The PC & 12 vertical monitors have been collecting dust for over a year. Used eyefinity before, but now it's broke. I wiped / reinstalled Windows, but the option still isn't there. Seems like AMD disabled the feature and put it on the backburner for development. Is there a software solution for this? I have spent hours searching. I hope this is the right forum for this.

NOTE: I found this monitor that looks like a solid choice for a budget accurate display: https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-ProArt-Display-PA248QV-WUXGA/dp/B088BC5HKF It's a "ASUS ProArt Display" with a resolution of 1900x1200, which is pretty nice. I'm leaning towards that for a recommendation.

@adarw Thank you for your response. I went to that subforum first, but figured that a question would be best suited here. Wasn't a 100% sure.

Thanks @Action_Johnson for the reply. I've told her that she eventually needs to buy a good color calibrator, but she's broke. She makes ~10-11/hr and works 2-3 days per week. She's getting most of the money from her fiance (my nephew) to buy it I know Hardware Unboxed Tim does a good job covering Out of the Box color calibration for the monitors he tests. I looked at a lot of his reviews, but most were for gaming monitors. I remember a select few that were 'good' out of the box, but don't remember which ones those were or the price. I appreciate the reply sir.

Budget (including currency): $250 USD Country: US Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Illustrator & other color accurate design work (she's an artist) Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 1080p is fine. They have a PC already. They don't have the budget for a good spyder or other color calibration tool. During a recent move, her monitor broke and they're looking for a color accurate monitor "out of the box". That's a tough ask and was having a hard time finding reviews to this end. Any thoughts or suggestions are supremely appreciated. Even a few models would punt me in the right direction. Thanks! (( note: looked over first 4 pages and didn't see a similar topic, sorry if this is a bad place for this ))

Thank you @AccurateLamer. I sent him a private message a bit ago.

Thank you Oliver. Appreciate the advice.

Good Sunday morning. My daughter worked on a video for the ROG Rig Reboot 2020 competition and uploaded it to YouTube Friday evening (9/25). She should've adhered to the requirements shown, except she didn't know how LTT staff were going to find her video, guessed that it was just by the hashtag. She looked at the Gleam.IO page on Saturday & noticed it said something about entries. She started to flip out and asked me if she really got entered into the competition. I asked in a different post on this forum and turns out there was a form on that page she needed to fill out. She's crushed now because she doesn't have a chance. She knew the odds were heavily against her, just thought she had a shot. The purpose of this post is in the very small chance it could make it in the competition. If not, if someone from LTT who is bored enough to message here, or private message, maybe saying it was a decent video and sorry she didn't get a chance, that would be great (for validation of her efforts). She did the video using a mouse because her huion pen broke. To be clear, I don't expect anything. This was just a shot in the dark and figured it wouldn't hurt to post. I also hope I didn't break any rules by posting this here (sorry if I did).

Thanks again. I think she was prepared for not winning (I also tried to prepare her for that), but not getting her entry in the competition to be considered is going to be bad. I'll just tell her the news tomorrow. I used the competition to get her revved up about creating animations again, but screwed the pooch on this one. I should've caught that detail for her. Well, sh*t. I absolutely don't expect this, but if a bored LTT person wanted to say "Nice job, but we're going with another contestant. Thanks for the video!", that would be super helpful. I 100% don't expect it (nor would they likely even read this), but figured it wouldn't hurt to post. Don't want to appear entitled or begging, especially when it was a misunderstanding on my/our part.

Oh shit, she's going to be crushed. Thanks for replying.

I told my daughter about the ROG Rig Reboot 2020 earlier in the week. She was complaining about her PC and not being able to game competitively recently, plus she does digital art stuff, so figured she might care. Her Huion pen was broken, so she did the animation with just a mouse. She created a video which should've satisfied the video requirements here --> https://gleam.io/cbeo9/asus-rog-rig-reboot-2020, 30-60 sec max, show the rig, tell why she deserves to win, hashtag in description & be creative. She's now freaking out because she didn't think it was submitted correctly. She sees on the gleam.io site that there are 3413 entries, but neither myself or she remembers something to 'click' and participate. I also just figured someone was going to comb through YouTube via #ROGRigReboot20 and review them individually. Seemed insane, but didn't see another way. QUESTION: Was there some link on Gleam.IO where you officially were supposed to submit your entry? Or was posting it on YouTube with the hashtag sufficient enough?

PROBLEM: I have a few monitors and TVs that have gotten dirty over time. Some have gross stuff on them from grubby 7 yr old hands. I'm also about to buy a pretty expensive awesome monitor (LG 34GN850-B) of which I'm more worried about damaging over time. CONFLICTING INFO ON WEB: I'd like to buy a cleaner, but none of them are brands I recognize. I read the reviews, and some are complaining about PH level being a factor stating you want it to be neutral or the antiglare coating will come off eventually or degrade. Some sources state never to use soap, some say to use half vinegar / half water. There's a fair bit of conflicting information. QUESTION: Does anyone know of a trustworthy product or brand ? or perhaps a source that would tell me? I have been reading up for the past +1hr and I don't feel I'm any closer to a good answer. Thanks in advance.

BTW: I used StableBit Scanner to determine that most of my drives were well beyond designed limits, so I just got rid of all my 2tb old drives. It also significantly lowered wattage too, as my UPS shows a much higher uptime after those five drives were replaced with a single 10tb. Oh, and, it also told me that my NVMe 240gb game drive is hosed. I am in the process of RMA'ing it. Also, note that StableBit Scanner doesn't recognize individual drives once you put them into a Storage Spaces array.

Great video, as usual. I think it would be pretty interesting to augment this with VR. I think doing racing games in VR or flight simulator would be really sick. I saw this one guy on YT with a pretty cool @ home setup (see picture). It's from some random video I found while searching for VR reviews on Pimax 8KX (guy's channel is Joseph Marland-Brown). Also, would be pretty cool to do a review of the HP Reverb G2 and Pixmax 8KX *WITH* this awesome new setup. Just thoughts

Well, with full scans from chkdsk and Western Digital tools, it found zero problems with all 2 tb drives and the two 10 tb drives. I ordered a 10 tb extra drive and decommissioned two of the 2 tb drives. I setup another storage space w/ReFs file system, enabled integrity streams and disabled enforcement. After doing a full scan of the extra 10 tb IronWolf, I'll move the ~8 tb of data to the storage space. I should have about 16.3 Tbytes of effective storage, which should last a super long time. Since I live in an area with periodic brownouts due to frequent storms, I am finally buying a UPS. I'm also grabbing a 200mm fan to help push more air near the HDDs to keep them all below 30°C. Figured this will really help with overall stability because it'll never experience another power outage or brown out, not to mention with line interactive AVR, cleaner power. Well, that's the idea anyways. Thanks for the advice.

I found an article where someone ran a full chkdsk & found no problems but WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics Extended Test DID find errors. I'm going to use this and test all five of my 2 tb drives. I might feel better after that, we'll see.

@Electronics Wizardy Damn, that's a good idea that I never contemplated. I'm going to strongly consider this.

@Electronics Wizardy Thank you for replying. I don't know what caused the file issues beforehand and just assumed it was the old-ass hard drives. I haven't done a full chkdsk scan on the two 10tb drives I have, but the 2tb came out clean and no SMART issues. I don't have a backup solution either, just these drives. I do backup all my personal data on Google Drive (photos, important personal docs, etc) and this is stored on the Storage Space as well. I use Google's Backup And Sync app to keep it constantly backed up. I've already paid $270 to replace the five x 2tb drives with a single 10tb Seagate Ironwolf, just waiting on the shipment. I'm just considering if I should trust these drives for the next two years or just three 10 tb drives.