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Looking to setup a new NAS, seeking your opinions.

coffeePLZ

Just realized that my 2nd external HD is nearly full so its finally time for me to set up a proper nas.  My ideal nas will take over the following activities.   I'm tech savvy but have never researched what an ideal solution would be so am looking for opinions.

 

  • Plex server with 4k transcode -I have plex pass for the hardware transcode. (currently running on my main gaming pc, which is a gigantic waste of power to have a 5800x3d/4090 rig running constantly)
  • Automatic iphone backup (currently paying for icloud drive)
  • PC backup (once weekly is sufficient)
  • Bulk media storage for previously mentioned plex server (currently sitting at roughly 14tb out of 16tb available)
  • Ability to hold at minimum 4 drives. (plan is to raid 5)
  • Steam Game library backup (my internet is butt cheeks and re downloading anything takes FOREVER)
  • flexible raid (intent is to purchase a pair of larger cap drives(14+), and fill out the remaining bays with the drives out of my 8tb external hd's). Then upgrade the 8tb's at a later date.


    My preliminary research shows me that a Celeron based synology 4 bay nas (DS923+)will do everything I need but maybe not optimally with the Celeron's showing their age.. but i'd like opinions if there is a more optimal solution.   Nuc/intel mac mini/older pc with an attached jbod (what software for nas activities?)  more budget nas with a dedicated separate plex server/transcode box?  

    No dead set budget, but I don't really want to spend over 1k CAD before drives or 2k with a couple/3  big drives (14+tb each). Fine with buying new or used.



    Also first post, woot.

     
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That synology unit will not cut the mustard for 4k transcode at all. 

 

Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark score requirements are a good guideline for the following average source file:
 

  • 4K HDR (50Mbps, 10-bit HEVC) file: 17000 PassMark score (being transcoded to 10Mbps 1080p)
  • 4K SDR (40Mbps, 8-bit HEVC) file: 12000 PassMark score (being transcoded to 10Mbps 1080p)
  • 1080p (10Mbps, H.264) file: 2000 PassMark score
  • 720p (4Mbps, H.264) file: 1500 PassMark score

 

I suggest you take some time to part out a standalone DIY build on whatever NAS OS flavour takes your fancy TrueNAS/unRAID. 

 

Silverstone produce some very good NAS ordinated cases with backplanes making for easy install and swapping of drives, AsROCK Rack and Supermicro do great work in terms of server boards on the likes of AM4 and Intel. 

PC Specs - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D - Geforce RTX 3090 FE 

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6 hours ago, AstroZombie1 said:

That synology unit will not cut the mustard for 4k transcode at all. 

 

Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark score requirements are a good guideline for the following average source file:
 

  • 4K HDR (50Mbps, 10-bit HEVC) file: 17000 PassMark score (being transcoded to 10Mbps 1080p)
  • 4K SDR (40Mbps, 8-bit HEVC) file: 12000 PassMark score (being transcoded to 10Mbps 1080p)
  • 1080p (10Mbps, H.264) file: 2000 PassMark score
  • 720p (4Mbps, H.264) file: 1500 PassMark score

 

I suggest you take some time to part out a standalone DIY build on whatever NAS OS flavour takes your fancy TrueNAS/unRAID. 

 

Silverstone produce some very good NAS ordinated cases with backplanes making for easy install and swapping of drives, AsROCK Rack and Supermicro do great work in terms of server boards on the likes of AM4 and Intel. 

Whoops.. good looking out thats the wrong model number as it is the AMD part not the intel one.  I was looking at the model with the Intel Celeron J4125 processor(model is 920+ I think?) which all the youtubers ive seen seem to think will transcode 4k without problem.  Admittedly I'm not thrilled with how old the intel box is either.    The other thing I had considered was running the same nas box but a nuc/macmini etc just for the transcode/plex server and get it to access the nas. 


Either way though I'm not above putting together my own system, for local storage I'm pretty comfortable using basically any of the file systems. but for a self built system is there a good app or series of apps to auto backup things like phone pics so I can avoid continuing to pay for stupid icloud/google/dropbox etc automatic photo backup and storage.

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Without getting too bogged down in hardware talk.. I might yank this 4090 out of my current itx build, change the case to something with multiple HDD support and use that since the used hardware isn't worth much and change my main system to am5 or something.

I'm sure I could get enough for this 5800x3d to cover the cost of a more appropriate processor and case. (5600g and a jonsbo n1 maybe)




If there are proper software solutions to my needs that might be a lot more simple than screwing around with a nuc etc.

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