Looking for NAS advice

[Squirrel724]

I'm looking at building myself some form of NAS. I would like to be able to use it as a file server as well as a server to store and stream video off of. For my use though I don't know if i want to build a dedicated server or possibly use a raspberry pi with an external usb hard drive. I don't have any old pcs lying around so I would have to buy components to build from. Would a raspberry pi be a capable storage server and video server or will it be too slow? 

[79wjd]

If you plan on streaming with something like Plex, then you'll have to build something. If you're just talking about streaming directly from a video file, then a Rasberry Pi would probably be enough (I would imagine).

[KirbyTech]

Depends on how many users might be accessing it at any one point in time. More than 1 pulling video might be a decent load on it. I would imagine 2 video streams from it though. I have not tested though so I will say go with an i3 as that is your best bet. 

[Squirrel724]

7 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

If you plan on streaming with something like Plex, then you'll have to build something. If you're just talking about streaming directly from a video file, then a Rasberry Pi would probably be enough (I would imagine).

Question about plex: Will I be able to use a plex server for file storage as well?

I imagine that only one person at a time would be streaming though multiple people will havev acces to the server.

[79wjd]

3 minutes ago, Squirrel724 said:

Question about plex: Will I be able to use a plex server for file storage as well?

I imagine that only one person at a time would be streaming though multiple people will havev acces to the server.

Plex is a plugin that you can run ontop of your file server. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

8 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

If you plan on streaming with something like Plex, then you'll have to build something. If you're just talking about streaming directly from a video file, then a Rasberry Pi would probably be enough (I would imagine).

Well, plenty of the pre-built NAS solutions (WD MyCloud, Synology etc.) actually have apps for running a Plex server. While they're obviously not the most powerful things like the world with their < 1GHz dual cores, they cope okay with direct streaming. Really, I would recommend building a NAS for Plex, but just saying that it's still an option on the pre-made systems. 

@OP, A Raspberry Pi could run a very basic NAS, but it's really not much use for more than storing files. Something like a WD MyCloud, Synology Box, or one of the countless other pre-mades may be a good option for you. If you wanted something that you actually have control over and can easily be upgraded, then building one is the best option, then using something like unRAID or FreeNAS as the OS. It will end up being more expensive in most cases, though. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

4 minutes ago, Squirrel724 said:

Question about plex: Will I be able to use a plex server for file storage as well?

I imagine that only one person at a time would be streaming though multiple people will havev acces to the server.

Plex is an application that can run on many NAS operating systems. It is not a file storage application in itself, but provides a convenient way to stream and organise the media you have on said NAS to many different devices. Many smart TVs, mobile devices and TV boxes like the Apple TV have Plex client apps that allow you to stream from the NAS. 

EDIT: If you have a gigabit connection to your NAS, you can have multiple 1080p streams going on at once without issue. That's if the files are in a compatible format for direct streaming, where Plex doesn't have to transcode the video on the fly. When it does have to transcode, it can take up a lot of CPU power, which is where the pre-made NAS boxes struggle. 

[79wjd]

5 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Well, plenty of the pre-built NAS solutions (WD MyCloud, Synology etc.) actually have apps for running a Plex server. While they're obviously not the most powerful things like the world with their < 1GHz dual cores, they cope okay with direct streaming. Really, I would recommend building a NAS for Plex, but just saying that it's still an option on the pre-made systems. 

@OP, A Raspberry Pi could run a very basic NAS, but it's really not much use for more than storing files. Something like a WD MyCloud, Synology Box, or one of the countless other pre-mades may be a good option for you. If you wanted something that you actually have control over and can easily be upgraded, then building one is the best option, then using something like unRAID or FreeNAS as the OS. It will end up being more expensive in most cases, though. 

Prebuilt NAS's really aren't all that much cheaper than a custom built PC -- the 1-2 bay solutions MAY be a bit cheaper, but once you factor in the cost of drives that cost difference is usually rendered largely irrelevant. So other than a rare few occasions, I would never really recommend a prebuilt NAS as you lose too much functionality/expandability and don't save all that much (if at all) by the time you're done. 

[Necrodead]

I have a dual core AM2+ cpu running in a mobo with 8x 6gbs sata3 ports for my NAS system. I have it on wireless currently, so I can't really stream anything more than a 720 file atm. Am also using windows 10n (10N has no media center so its cheaper) for my OS. You can buy it for $25USD from reddit. System cost me $120 not including case or harddrives. I had a stick of dd3 lying around.

[Squirrel724]

So if I were to build a solution should I be looking at an ITX i3 or should I consider something like an embeded celeron or atom?

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Prebuilt NAS's really aren't all that much cheaper than a custom built PC -- the 1-2 bay solutions MAY be a bit cheaper, but once you factor in the cost of drives that cost difference is usually rendered largely irrelevant. So other than a rare few occasions, I would never really recommend a prebuilt NAS as you lose too much functionality/expandability and don't save all that much (if at all) by the time you're done. 

It depends on what you want, really. Things like the single bay WD MyCloud is quite a fair bit cheaper than a built NAS, mainly because it includes the drive, rather than having to buy one separately.

 

I tend to find that good built NAS boxes tend to be significantly more expensive than the pre-made boxes, purely because I go for good hardware that allows for Plex transcoding, ZFS (ECC compatible components knocks up the cost a lot) and other features. They're not really comparable in terms of performance, so the pricing is very different. For someone who literally just wants file storage, the pre-builts can often be cheaper and less hassle than building one yourself. 

For anyone wanting a more serious solution that's more than just storage, built is definitely the way to go. 

[79wjd]

5 minutes ago, Squirrel724 said:

So if I were to build a solution should I be looking at an ITX i3 or should I consider something like an embeded celeron or atom?

I'd be aiming for something in an NZXT Source 210 to allow you plenty of expandability for more drives in the future while still remaining budget friendly (Note: there are compact mATX/mITX NAS choices that offer a lot of expandability but they're expensive). Something like a Pentium can handle 1-2 1080p Plex streams, so I would likely go with a Pentium and run FreeNAS. Although you can certainly go cheaper by going with an AM2 cpu/board. 

[79wjd]

4 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

It depends on what you want, really. Things like the single bay WD MyCloud is quite a fair bit cheaper than a built NAS, mainly because it includes the drive, rather than having to buy one separately.

 

I tend to find that good built NAS boxes tend to be significantly more expensive than the pre-made boxes, purely because I go for good hardware that allows for Plex transcoding, ZFS (ECC compatible components knocks up the cost a lot) and other features. They're not really comparable in terms of performance, so the pricing is very different. For someone who literally just wants file storage, the pre-builts can often be cheaper and less hassle than building one yourself. 

For anyone wanting a more serious solution that's more than just storage, built is definitely the way to go. 

ECC is a fair point, but you can go with an AM2 board/cpu and get ECC support on the cheap (although I'm not sure if it's true ECC support, or like what some of the H87WS boards have). Also, the problem with considering ECC (or something powerful enough for Plex -- although even a Pentium is enough for 1-2 streams) is that prebuilt solutions aren't using ECC either (nor can they handle multiple Plex transcoded streams), so it's not really a fair comparison. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

6 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

ECC is a fair point, but you can go with an AM2 board/cpu and get ECC support on the cheap (although I'm not sure if it's true ECC support, or like what some of the H87WS boards have). Also, the problem with considering ECC (or something powerful enough for Plex -- although even a Pentium is enough for 1-2 streams) is that prebuilt solutions aren't using ECC either (nor can they handle multiple Plex transcoded streams), so it's not really a fair comparison. 

Yep, they can't be compared in terms of performance. But it's more a difference in usage that I'm looking at. You can get close to the pre-builts in terms of price if you go down the FM2 route, but you also increase the power draw and generally, the cheap cases are either ugly or big, which isn't really what you want from a NAS. 

For builds designed for Plex and ZFS, I tend to recommend something like an i3 4170, pretty much the cheapest ECC compatible board (normally some ASRock server board) and 8/16GB of ECC RAM (depending on storage size) for a base, then however many WD Red or similar drives you want. 

[79wjd]

7 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Yep, they can't be compared in terms of performance. But it's more a difference in usage that I'm looking at. You can get close to the pre-builts in terms of price if you go down the FM2 route, but you also increase the power draw and generally, the cheap cases are either ugly or big, which isn't really what you want from a NAS. 

For builds designed for Plex and ZFS, I tend to recommend something like an i3 4170, pretty much the cheapest ECC compatible board (normally some ASRock server board) and 8/16GB of ECC RAM (depending on storage size) for a base, then however many WD Red or similar drives you want. 

Just to clarify one thing as a general statement in case anyone else reads this/your comment. Asrock's (and presumably all other) workstation boards that are on the consumer chipset that happen to support ECC don't actually use any ECC features, they're just compatible with ECC memory. 

 

 

I can agree to that -- I don't think going ECC makes sense with something like a Pentium rather than an i3 due to the total system cost, but I would still consider a Pentium based system without ECC to be a valid stepping stone between a prebuilt and an ECC based system. Not everyone needs the added security of ECC memory (bit rot isn't much of an issue with video streams for example).

[Squirrel724]

I think I am going to go ahead and try the raspberry pi for now. The new raspberry pi 2 seems to be capable of doing at least 1 device pretty well. For $35 I doesn't seem like a bad idea and if it doesn't work I then have a raspberry pi lying around for other things (I have wanted to build a mobile arduino programming device for a while now). I think that trying it with a device that I know I have a use for is a better idea than diving down the rabbit hole of building a dedicated box.