Considering upgrading my NAS

[Enquiries]

I scan and all paper, ie. contracts, bank statements, receipts, etc., I have a large movie library of 600+ movies in 4k, I backup 2, 3 iPhones, & 1 iPad. I am moving about 1Tb of old pix from HDDs to NAS. I want to backup files from anywhere on any of my devices, I want to access any of my files/scans from anywhere and to share them, and I want to stream my movies from anywhere, currently I use Plex on my iPad and smart TVs, however, I am open to replacing Plex with something else that doesn't require a paid subscription to download movies for offline viewing while traveling. I currently have a QNAP TVS 473e with an AMD RX 421BD QuadCore 2.1GHz CPU with Radeon AMD R7 graphics, 8Gb of memory, 2 8T Seagate NAS drives in Raid 1, and an external 12T HD to backup the NAS data.

I read the review on the QNAP TBS-h574TX-i5-16G-US, I like that it's small sizet, but I don't know the transcoding performance. I am open to recommendations that fit my use case and need. Thank you.

Ramiro

[ed]

Your current TVS 473e is still capable for general storage, but the transcoding side is where it starts to feel old. The AMD chip inside it has no modern hardware video engines, so any remote Plex streaming that requires format conversion puts a big load on the CPU. That is the main reason you are running into limitations.

The TBS h574TX is a very interesting device because of its very small footprint and the Thunderbolt and 10GbE options. For raw speed and quiet operation it is excellent. The issue is that it uses E1 SFF SSDs only, so your storage will be entirely flash based. That is fast but expensive, and for a movie library of more than six hundred 4K titles you would burn through your budget very quickly. As for transcoding, the i5 version can handle Plex much better than your current AMD unit, but the cost per terabyte makes it a poor choice for a mixed media library and long term archive. It is more of a high speed workstation NAS than a home media server.

For your budget of fifteen hundred dollars you have two strong and sensible choices.

A modern QNAP model with Intel hardware video acceleration, such as the QNAP TS 464 or TS 664, gives you a compact system with proper hardware decoding and encoding for Plex. These units can handle remote streaming of H265 and H264 far better than your current NAS. You also get expandable memory, M2 SSD slots for cache or fast storage, and a normal multi bay layout for large hard drives. That keeps costs under control while still giving you very good performance.

If you want something that is a bit more future proof, the QNAP TS h674 or TS h874 series with Intel Core processors gives you a lot more headroom. These units can handle Plex without strain, they have QuTS hero with ZFS for very robust data protection, and they offer enough power to run your document indexing, mobile backups, photo management, and remote access smoothly at the same time. With your fifteen hundred dollar budget, the h674 is right in range if you choose your drive sizes carefully.

You mentioned possibly replacing Plex to avoid subscription fees for offline downloads. Emby and Jellyfin both give you offline sync without paying PlexPass. Both run well on modern QNAP units. For large 4K libraries, Jellyfin on a modern Intel CPU performs surprisingly well.

Given your needs, I would not go with a flash only box like the TBS h574TX. Your storage requirements are simply too high. A six bay or eight bay tower NAS with hardware transcoding support will serve you better and keep your library local, flexible, and easy to expand.