NAS Recommendation Needed

[Clock_Work]

Hello,

So I'm currently wanting to upgrade my storage for my Plex server into something more robust. I'm currently running the Plex server on an older gaming laptop running Linux. It has a i7-4710HQ. As far as processing goes, I think it's good enough for plex. I might build a dedicated server someday idk. But as storage goes I use a 4tb external WD My Passport Ultra that I had lying around. I want to get an affordable low powered NAS. By that I mean I want the NAS to function simply as a storage solution. I still plan on running the server itself on my Linux machine so the NAS won't have to contend with any transcoding.

I see a bunch of options from Synology but they all tout high processing speeds, quad core cpu's, and other power-sucking/heat-generating things. I want something cheap that will read at decent speeds and has 4 - 6 drives (some drive recommendations wouldn't hurt either). Oh and I was thinking something with Raid 5 support. I also plan on storing family pictures and stuff that I don't want to lose so having some redundancy would be awesome.

I'm not very experienced in the prebuilt NAS space. I was considering building a NAS but finding a decent case that has enough old fashion drive bays and is not huge has been a challenge.

Thanks in advance guys. I appreciate any suggestions you might be able to give.

[Windows7ge]

QNAP is another popular manufacturer of pre-built NASs. You could look into them.

 

In terms of building your own someday I've also been on the hunt for a compact chassis with lots of bays. I had discovered the Lian Li PC-Q26 but they appear to have stopped making them so I settled on a NORCO RPC-431.

[Clock_Work]

Ooof 400 dollars for that case. Yeah, that's prebuilt NAS territory haha. I'll check QNAP out. Thank you for the suggestion

[AngryBertsJumperKinks]

I just bought myself a QNAP (473e), and can't fault it apart from having to do the 1st firmware update manually (which really wasn't too much hassle), the services and apps available for it are awesome, does so much more than I was expecting it to do.  It's probably massively overpowered for what you need (it does 4K transcoding), but the OS is easy and covers a lot.

 

As for drives, I'm prob in the wrong category for that too, but can't fault the Ironwolf Pros.

 

Good luck