Amateur NAS/HTPC Build or Prebuilt Plex Server?

[OuterMarker]

I want to streamline my homemade and clunky media server. Right now, I have a 40TB FreeNAS system with a 1.4GHz i5 that runs so hot it requires a small army of fans and the side panel to be removed. My large DVD collection has been saved as ISO images that I manually transfer to a mac mini connected to a 70” LED TV when I want to watch a movie.

 

I want to add 4k ultra Blu-rays files and plan on converting them to a more storage friendly format. I plan on using Plex as I travel a lot and my wife wants to be able to stream our media on devices other than our large TV.

 

I am a novice at best when it comes to servers, streaming, and Plex, but I see 2 possible routes. I can either use some leftover hardware and build another (and better) home server/HTPC that is capable of transcoding 4k content, or I can buy a prebuilt server.

 

The home-built server/HTPC would be built around an Intel i7-5820k and 32GB DDR4 I have lying around. I would then buy a GeForce GTX 1080 (I am assuming I will need a good GPU to display 4k content on a 70” screen).

 

If I buy the prebuilt route, I was looking at the Synology DS1817+ (Intel Atom C2538 quad-core 2.4GHz), but some forums indicate it cannot transcode 4k. The other option the QNAP TVS-87 (i7), but it is twice as much as the Synology.

 

I’m leaning towards the prebuilt servers because they seem like the simplest solution. I won’t have to worry about port forwarding and keeping up with changes to FreeNAS every 6 months.

[themctipers]

streaming should be nothing more hard than transmitting the data, which a low end 2008 i3 handles (because i have a freenas server that handles that with that hardware!)

do the transcoding on your current machine, then move it over to your NAS. 

 

you do not need a good GPU to display 4k. I have a 760 and it can display 4k over DP. 

[FakeNSA]

18 minutes ago, OuterMarker said:

I want to streamline my homemade and clunky media server. Right now, I have a 40TB FreeNAS system with a 1.4GHz i5 that runs so hot it requires a small army of fans and the side panel to be removed. My large DVD collection has been saved as ISO images that I manually transfer to a mac mini connected to a 70” LED TV when I want to watch a movie.

 

I want to add 4k ultra Blu-rays files and plan on converting them to a more storage friendly format. I plan on using Plex as I travel a lot and my wife wants to be able to stream our media on devices other than our large TV.

 

I am a novice at best when it comes to servers, streaming, and Plex, but I see 2 possible routes. I can either use some leftover hardware and build another (and better) home server/HTPC that is capable of transcoding 4k content, or I can buy a prebuilt server.

 

The home-built server/HTPC would be built around an Intel i7-5820k and 32GB DDR4 I have lying around. I would then buy a GeForce GTX 1080 (I am assuming I will need a good GPU to display 4k content on a 70” screen).

 

If I buy the prebuilt route, I was looking at the Synology DS1817+ (Intel Atom C2538 quad-core 2.4GHz), but some forums indicate it cannot transcode 4k. The other option the QNAP TVS-87 (i7), but it is twice as much as the Synology.

 

I’m leaning towards the prebuilt servers because they seem like the simplest solution. I won’t have to worry about port forwarding and keeping up with changes to FreeNAS every 6 months.

As @themctipers said, you do not need a beefy gpu to run video at 4k, but rather just to game on it. Any device with hdmi 2.0 or displayport 1.3 will probably do fine.

[OuterMarker]

I'd like to have the simplest solution possible. The QNAP TVS-871 seems like it has enough CPU power to transcode and it has an HDMI output. Would buying the QNAP TVS-871 allow me to ditch the HTPC setup by just connecting it to the TV via HDMI or would I be better off saving the money and filling the HTPC with a bunch of hard drives running windows 10 24/7 to also act as a server?

[DragonTamer1]

If all you are doing is watching videos then a 1080 wouldn't be necesarry. Simething as low as an RX 460 can do 4k playback. Your processor is iverkill for local streaming in original quality that doesn't use much CPU power at all. For internet streaming though, you may need to transcode the video on the fly so it streams better over other slower networks (and to keep from hitting your ISPs data cap). It would also be good for something like handbrake to convert your videos.

[JusticeBeaver]

I run a Gigabye Brix A8 for my Plex Server, Drobo5n for storage and it runs great no issues. Then I use Roku on each of my TV's. My wife watches shows while, I watch a show while traveling. Never had an issue with that setup. 

[Dlog]

offtopic but why do you use ISO rips for playback, I personally cant stand most DVDs post processing. Killing the grain and interlace in handbrake is my step one for all my home DVDs. Using X264 for my home DVD collection drops most to below 1.2G with no noticeable loss in quality at standard viewing distance. 

[OuterMarker]

23 hours ago, Dlog said:

offtopic but why do you use ISO rips for playback, I personally cant stand most DVDs post processing. Killing the grain and interlace in handbrake is my step one for all my home DVDs. Using X264 for my home DVD collection drops most to below 1.2G with no noticeable loss in quality at standard viewing distance. 

When I first started ripping my DVDs in 2005, it was during the big HD DVD/Blu-Ray format battle and stuff like 1080p was hitting the market. I wasn't sure what file formats would be supported in the future and didn't want to pick a file format that would look terrible in the future. I figured keeping everything in the original format would be the best in terms of future proofing. 

 

Now I see that physical media is out and plenty of devices will play compressed video files, so I have started converting them to MKV files. Now I just need to figure out what file format I like. I am still doing research to see if H.264 or H.265 will be best for 4K.

[flibberdipper]

On 8/20/2017 at 5:06 PM, OuterMarker said:

I'd like to have the simplest solution possible. The QNAP TVS-871 seems like it has enough CPU power to transcode and it has an HDMI output. Would buying the QNAP TVS-871 allow me to ditch the HTPC setup by just connecting it to the TV via HDMI or would I be better off saving the money and filling the HTPC with a bunch of hard drives running windows 10 24/7 to also act as a server?

From what I've been able to gather off a single YouTube video at 1:30 in the morning, it does look like you'd be able to just make it your "HTPC." I'm not sure if it supports Plex or not, but even if it doesn't you could just make it visible on the network and mount it as a network drive or whatever on the other PC's on the network if you really have to.

 

Here's a seemingly good video on it (though this guy generally makes good videos in the first place).