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Synology DS1821+ & Plex Server set up. - Printable Version

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Synology DS1821+ & Plex Server set up. - Enquiries - 12-08-2022

Hey team!
Been watching your vids for a while and would really love some advice around my intent to get an 8-bay DS1821+ NAS.
I already have 6 Shuckable 12TB drives I'm going to put in, and got 32gb of RAM on it's way too.
I'm not stuck with the issue with creating a PLEX Server from the machine to be a media centre for all my data.
As I currently have all my data on single storage HDD's on my gaming rig (8+ drives) haha. But that's the intent to get this synology 8 bay array for my storage. I'll be running SHR-2 so I can be a bit more dynamic with my drives, as getting the high capacity drives as back ups will take time over time.

But yeah I'm concerned about Transcoding, due to the CPU being the bottleneck because of the Ryzen CPU, and even the new Xeon model not having a inbuilt GPU.

So here's where I'm at a loss. As I want to get a 10Gbit network card for greater read/write speeds. But also considered a fanless GPU to pop instead as an alternative to help with transcoding. Drawback to that will be the network card being missing, and that also comes with an if transcoding will become a bottleneck.

It'll be all hooked up to my Ubiquiti gear, which is no bottleneck there.

Thought process is to get a network card, and use an external source for transcoding.

What am I streaming to? Mainly my new 2021 QLED 4k TV, and a laptop or two. - Which won't need 4k obviously.
I'd still like to watch movies on my PC, but my PC is directly connected to the network, and it's normally always on away (something I considered to host the plex server). - But I also don't want my PC (gaming) to be depended upon that side of things.

In saying that, the intent to play movies via VLC is still an option which wouldn't cause this problem, but then obvious media centre stuff. - Which I could just have Plex for my TV. - Potentially 2-3 TV's in future.

Let me know your thoughts, and really would love some of your insight.
Also I considered a NUC or a USB NUC to plug into the NAS, if that's an option to help transcode things as an alternative.

Keen to hear back, and thanks again!


RE: Synology DS1821+ & Plex Server set up. - ed - 12-13-2022

By the sound of it, you only plan on streaming locally in your home network. Any NAS will allow that. But 10GbE connection will require plus series NAS such as ds1821+.
SHR2 will give you two drive redundancy and an extra parity check which is good for threats like bitrot.
If you do prefer GPU card upgrade, Qnap 673A is a good choice to do so. Fitting GPU and 10GbE card might require removing the fan from the card or use the PCIe extension cable.
The overall idea is good. NUC PC would require new gen i5 to be able to transcode 4k.

I hope this helps.