Need help getting started on NAS/Plex server

[anFish]

Hello, I am looking to start a server for family and friends. I would like for them to be able to read/write in certain areas while keeping private folders for my own files. I was also hoping to be able to host Plex on the same machine.

 

Would you recommend windows 10 and FreeNAS for what I want to do?

[Ramaddil]

Do you have a system already set up? if not what is your budget?  How many streams do you anticipate will be sharing at the same time and what is your internet connection speeds?:

[sazrocks]

Use FreeNAS and setup a Plex docker container.

 

Are you also looking for hardware? If so tell us how many plex streams you want to be able to handle at once and how much storage you need.

[darkvertigo]

I would recommend trying out FreeNAS on some junk hardware (if you have any) before you invest in that path.  It is meant to be a small/medium business NFS solution so there are lots of pitfalls for the newbies.  There are also many considerations when using ZFS including processor power, RAM quantity, and RAID level choices.  If you are looking for a set it and forget it kind of solution I would either go with Unraid, which is very hardware forgiving, or buy a precanned solution such as Synology (my favorite brand).

 

All of the options I mention above will allow for a Plex server docker image to run on them.

[anFish]

Quote

Do you have a system already set up? if not what is your budget?  How many streams do you anticipate will be sharing at the same time and what is your internet connection speeds?:

I have a couple options, there is an old laptop that i can re-purpose with a raid enclosure or i can Frankenstein my older FX 6300 and HD 7850 build to handle it. I wouldnt expect more than 4 streams happening simultaneously. If those can't handle it, I'm willing to invest a couple hundo into a cpu/mobo. As for speeds i get 230 down/ 25 Mb up

[Electronics Wizardy]

14 minutes ago, anFish said:

I have a couple options, there is an old laptop that i can re-purpose with a raid enclosure or i can Frankenstein my older FX 6300 and HD 7850 build to handle it. I wouldnt expect more than 4 streams happening simultaneously. If those can't handle it, I'm willing to invest a couple hundo into a cpu/mobo. As for speeds i get 230 down/ 25 Mb up

What laptop?

 

Do you need transcoding in  plex?

 

How much do you care about power consumption?

[Ramaddil]

I wouldn't use a laptop unless it is modern.. Old Laptops have slow processors and they are not built for transcoding.  Your FX6300 would be better.  You dont need a Graphics Card like that for a server.  It uses alot of power, get a low power card just to be able to have a GUI.  I used a Zotac GT710 1x pcie for all my server machines just to have video.  Internet speed is great.   

 

FX6300 has a passmark score around 6300 at stock speeds.  That should be able to handle at least 3 1080 transcoding  streams and possibly some direct streams.  If you need more streams you could invest in a 8000 series fx chip on the cheap from ebay.

 

I run Windows 10 with Plex, file storage and other programs.   

[anFish]

Thanks for the help, once i get some storage I'll look into benchmarking my 6300 to see where it stands for streams and move on from there.

[Jarsky]

Have you considered just using Windows? 

For Storage you can use Storage Spaces to setup your disks, and you will no doubt be far more familiar with setting up and configuring Windows shares. 

Plex for Windows also supports descrete graphics cards for hardware acceleration which will be much easier on the streaming meaning you could run something as light as an i3 6300 and you should get a few streams out of that easily. 

[Ramaddil]

2 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

Have you considered just using Windows? 

For Storage you can use Storage Spaces to setup your disks, and you will no doubt be far more familiar with setting up and configuring Windows shares. 

Plex for Windows also supports descrete graphics cards for hardware acceleration which will be much easier on the streaming meaning you could run something as light as an i3 6300 and you should get a few streams out of that easily. 

Honestly using the FX chip he already might be a better option.  Graphics Transcoding is kind of weak on Plex, only allows two stream from hardware accelerated option instead of using a nice cpu and a small/low power GPU.

[Mikensan]

For file sharing look at next cloud, you can install a SMB plugin to share files that way too. Only problem is everybody is going to need a username/password and in my experience friends are often too lazy to deal with a username/password.

[MikeManNZ]

On 7/07/2018 at 5:37 AM, Ramaddil said:

Honestly using the FX chip he already might be a better option.  Graphics Transcoding is kind of weak on Plex, only allows two stream from hardware accelerated option instead of using a nice cpu and a small/low power GPU.

Plex only supports two streams on nVidia consumer hardware, and this is an nVidia limitation

 

If using Quick Sync, AMD Cards or Quadro P2000 or above multi streams are supported.

 

If you want a system that is easy on power unless actually working then an i3 6x00 with an RX460 is not a bad option.