NAS for Plex

[Enquiries]

Hello,

I would like some help purchasing the best NAS for my home network mainly to be used for PLEX movies and TV shows and for a few family and friends to watch possibly at the same time.

Movies are mostly 1080p to 4k and I am currently looking at the Synology and Q-Nap.

I am also seeing a fair few people on forums advising against purchasing these two brands due to restrictions, not sure how true this is.

Thank you, Gavin.

[ed]

For Plex streaming the brand restrictions you are reading about usually relate to things like Synology locking NVMe to cache only or QNAP having more complex security settings, but neither of those stop Plex from working properly. The real deciding factor for Plex is the CPU and whether you need hardware transcoding. If everyone watches direct play in your home at 1080p and 4K then almost any mid range NAS will do, but the moment you want remote users or multiple streams that need transcoding you need something with a proper Intel or Ryzen chip.

For Synology the best Plex options right now are the DS725 Plus or the DS1525 Plus. They have strong Ryzen CPUs which can push direct play 4K easily, but they do not have Intel QuickSync, so transcoding is limited. Great for a household that plays files natively, less ideal for heavy remote users.

For QNAP the best value Plex machines are the TVS h674 and h874 with Intel chips. These include integrated graphics so remote 4K transcoding works smoothly, plus they support GPU upgrades later if you want even more power. They are the strongest all round Plex boxes under a reasonable budget and they avoid the brand restrictions you are worried about because QNAP does not block third party drives or memory.

If your main goal is a pure Plex powerhouse with future proofing then the QNAP models will give you the best long term experience. If you want something quieter and simpler with a cleaner OS and you mostly avoid transcoding then Synology works great.

Here are the Amazon links for the models mentioned:

Synology DS725 Plus
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Synology+DS72...=ncmail-20

Synology DS1525 Plus
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Synology+DS15...=ncmail-20

QNAP TVS h674
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=QNAP+TVS+h674...=ncmail-20

QNAP TVS h874
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=QNAP+TVS+h874...=ncmail-20