Posted June 6, 2017 As I'm sure you've all seen so many times here, I'm a confident PC builder who is looking to create a NAS to store and stream media to iOS devices and the like. I've got a budget of about $2500 AU which is about $1900 US. From my research and digging through these forums I've come to a couple of questions. Should I build my own system and install FreeNas or buy a prebuilt? Should I use Plex, Infuse or something else? (I want to be able to stream to Apple TV as well as iOS devices) If I do build my own what kind of specs should my build have so that I can readily stream 1080p 60fps and maybe even 4K footage. Its likely the NAS will be located on a property other than my house so I'm also wondering if this would require any specific hardware implementation. Thanks so much for any help in advance, I'll be looking forward to seeing your replies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted June 6, 2017 What I would do is just build some cheap ass Celeron/Pentium system, add a couple gigs of RAM and install freenas. You can handle RAID within freenas. If I were you I would use Plex, it's easy to use. Streaming Data over a Network isn't a hard task cause the decoding is not taking place at the NAS side of things. A Pentium will totally do. i7 6700k - 32GB DDR4-2133 - GTX 980 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted June 6, 2017 9 minutes ago, SupaCupa said: Should I build my own system and install FreeNas or buy a prebuilt? ha ha ha. duh. for me its either build or buy ex-lease professional/enterprise level workstation & server stuff that i cant afford brand new. 10 minutes ago, SupaCupa said: Should I use Plex, Infuse or something else? (I want to be able to stream to Apple TV as well as iOS devices) no harm in trying them all. Plex does the job. I have never used infuse 10 minutes ago, SupaCupa said: If I do build my own what kind of specs should my build have so that I can readily stream 1080p 60fps and maybe even 4K footage. you need to state number of clients. 11 minutes ago, SupaCupa said: Its likely the NAS will be located on a property other than my house so I'm also wondering if this would require any specific hardware implementation. is it going in your chicken coop? If your network is going to be the slowest part then as above you to calculate for the number of clients. ☼ ψ ︿_____︿_ψ_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted June 6, 2017 5 minutes ago, Lolucoca said: What I would do is just build some cheap ass Celeron/Pentium system, add a couple gigs of RAM and install freenas. You can handle RAID within freenas. If I were you I would use Plex, it's easy to use. Streaming Data over a Network isn't a hard task cause the decoding is not taking place at the NAS side of things. A Pentium will totally do. you can handle RAID with < 512mb of ram using linux. A media server for a few clients where there is more reading than writing does not require all the ZFS features that freeNAS provides. If you look at hardware requirements for all ZFS feature you are getting into some expensive server grade stuff. Server grade stuff + ZFS is good for lots of clients with lots of read and write demands. media streaming not so much. Look at the protocols used for media streaming, they dont exactly require every 0 and 1 to be accountable ☼ ψ ︿_____︿_ψ_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted June 6, 2017 @SCHISCHKA Of course you don't need 8GB of RAM for a NAS running freenas. I run mine on 2GB which is totally fine. But I wouldn't go lower than that. i7 6700k - 32GB DDR4-2133 - GTX 980 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted June 6, 2017 13 minutes ago, Lolucoca said: @SCHISCHKA Of course you don't need 8GB of RAM for a NAS running freenas. I run mine on 2GB which is totally fine. But I wouldn't go lower than that. without the advanced features of ZFS what is the advantage over mdadm or BRTFS? I trialled ZFS for personal use and Im sticking with BTRFS for my desktop's built in backup and mdadm for my fileserver. mdadm emails me if a drive fails. does freenas email you if a drive fails? ☼ ψ ︿_____︿_ψ_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted June 6, 2017 1. Personally, building a system yourself is best way unless you could find a cheap server on ebay or gumtree etc. 2. Yes, Plex is quite nice and easy to setup with freenas especially. 3. Your budget could fit a xeon if you want to lower storage to begin with (4x4TB or 2x8TB) and 32GB ram and you should be set to stream at 4k. You should able to stream on relative low powered CPU on plex if it direct stream or direct play. 18 minutes ago, Lolucoca said: @SCHISCHKA Of course you don't need 8GB of RAM for a NAS running freenas. I run mine on 2GB which is totally fine. But I wouldn't go lower than that. Not true if you are planning to run on FREENAS or planning to run ZFS or plugins such as plex. Magical Pineapples