NAS from old hardware

[Vandey]

So I have an old system i7-3770K with 16GB ram and an older video card. I want to setup a PLEX server, as my old QNAP NAS is terrible at being that. Was just curious what kind of RAID and NAS software I should use. I'd like the ability to have a way to sync my PC's folders to the NAS, currently I use QSYNC for that. Also would like the ability to send my phone's photos to it as well each night while it's charging. Is there a good piece of software that works for that? I'm a linux noob, so not sure Linux will be right for me unless someone has some good directions on how to get everything setup. I may have to buy a used cheap video card to help with any transcoding as well. What's a good card that can do that (I have an old GTX 670 and a GT730 and maybe a GT1030)? Currently I do not have any 4K media, but it would be nice to at least get something to transcode maybe 1 or 2 4K streams once I get up to needing that. Otherwise most media will just be directly streamed.

[Needfuldoer]

A 3770K is plenty for a NAS. As long as it doesn't have to transcode video (which you'd want a Plex Pass subscription for so you can use Intel Quick Sync), it just has to shove files over the network. 

 

Unraid is easy to set up, TrueNAS Scale is almost as easy but doesn't cost anything.

 

You'll want a boot SSD that's separate from your data pool. Even better, add a second SSD in its own pool and use it for the Plex database. It will make browsing your libraries on your clients a lot snappier.

[Vandey]

I already plan to use a few SSD's for things like a data cache if i need (I'll probably repurpose one of my older m.2 NVME drives as my OS (with a pci card), and an older SATA SSD which will be much better for transferring files to the NAS (I'd think anyways). I do have a plex pass sub, and currently am doing direct play via my QNAP NAS. But it's old age is not able to do many things very well anymore (CPU is an older Intel Atom 2.1 Dual Core Processor with 3 gigs ram max). Just want to know the in's and out's before I fully make the switch. Mainly asking what kind of video card could handle 1 to 2 4k streams with transcoding.

[Needfuldoer]

37 minutes ago, Vandey said:

(I'll probably repurpose one of my older m.2 NVME drives as my OS (with a pci card)

You might not be able to boot off of that directly; Ivy Bridge was before the age of NVMe SSDs. You'd have to put a UEFI bootloader like Clover onto a USB flash drive and boot from that.

 

37 minutes ago, Vandey said:

Mainly asking what kind of video card could handle 1 to 2 4k streams with transcoding.

I think a Quadro P400 might be able to keep up with that. Try Quick Sync Video on the integrated Intel graphics first.

 

37 minutes ago, Vandey said:

Just want to know the in's and out's before I fully make the switch.

You can read documentation and watch tutorial videos, but the best way to learn is to get your hands dirty. Get a small SATA SSD and a hard drive you don't mind erasing (for storage), disconnect your current drives, and take Unraid and/or TrueNAS Scale for a test drive.

[Vandey]

23 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

I think a Quadro P400 might be able to keep up with that. Try Quick Sync Video on the integrated Intel graphics first.

Hmmm for some reason I didn't think the 3770K had integrated graphics, but apparently it does. I'm not convinced it will be able to do it, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, maybe by then I'll be ready to upgrade from my 1080Ti and just use that for transcoding.

[LIGISTX]

3 hours ago, Vandey said:

Hmmm for some reason I didn't think the 3770K had integrated graphics, but apparently it does. I'm not convinced it will be able to do it, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, maybe by then I'll be ready to upgrade from my 1080Ti and just use that for transcoding.

Ideally, you don’t need to transcode 4k. You said your direct playing now anyways, which is what you want to do… direct play takes basically no horse power and you get no quality loss.

[Vandey]

15 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

Ideally, you don’t need to transcode 4k. You said your direct playing now anyways, which is what you want to do… direct play takes basically no horse power and you get no quality loss.

I get that I won't transcode 4k, but will be transcoding if it's downgrading it to 1080p correct?

[LIGISTX]

1 hour ago, Vandey said:

I get that I won't transcode 4k, but will be transcoding if it's downgrading it to 1080p correct?

Yes, if you have 4k content and you need to play it at 1080p, that would require transcode. But ideally you do this as little as possible. 
 

The traditional rule of thumb is don’t transcode 4k, and save 1080p versions of your media for playback at 1080p or lower (since transcoding 1080p to 720p is more or less a walk in the park). These days, CPU/GPU power is cheeper then harddrive space, so I suppose this traditional mentality could be argued against.

[Vandey]

10 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Yes, if you have 4k content and you need to play it at 1080p, that would require transcode. But ideally you do this as little as possible. 
 

The traditional rule of thumb is don’t transcode 4k, and save 1080p versions of your media for playback at 1080p or lower (since transcoding 1080p to 720p is more or less a walk in the park). These days, CPU/GPU power is cheeper then harddrive space, so I suppose this traditional mentality could be argued against.

Well most of my content will be 1080p or lower and won't require transcode, but I could eventually start getting 4K content and if I'm away from home and want remote access I may need to transcode. So while it's not necessary in most instances for me to transcode, I may eventually need it. But I can always cross that bridge when I get there.