NAS Plex Server help choose QNAP TS-664 vs Terramaster F6-464

[Enquiries]

Hello,
I have an aging Drobo 5D populated with five 8TB WD Red Plus hard drives connected to a M2 Mac Mini working as a Plex Server mainly for viewing movies at home on a high end Sony 4K OLED TV.

I think it's time to retire the Drobo as it's no longer supported and software driver is aging and might not be supported fter Mac OS updates.

I’m trying to choose between QNAP TS-664 vs Terramaster F6-464.
Terramaster seems more hardware capable at around similar cost but doesn't seem as mature and perhaps questionable support service.
QNAP seems a bit less capable hardware and might struggle with 4K HDR movie content?

I guess I could continue running the Plex Serv er on the Mac Mini and then it might not make a difference, but if the NAS can handle the Plex Server I can sell the Mac Mini as I won't need it any longer.

What are your thoughts?

Thank you.
Guy Fisher.

[ed]

If you plan to keep running Plex Server on the Mac Mini, then either NAS will work fine as just storage. In that scenario, the hardware difference between the QNAP TS-664 and the Terramaster F6-464 doesn’t really matter because the NAS is simply serving files over the network while the Mac handles all the decoding and transcoding.

If you’d rather move the Plex Server onto the NAS and sell the Mac Mini, then you’re right to focus more on the hardware capabilities. Both the TS-664 and the F6-464 have Intel Celeron CPUs with Quick Sync, which can handle one or two 4K transcodes, but both can struggle if you throw several 4K HDR streams at them. Native/direct play is no issue, but transcoding 4K HDR is where NAS hardware hits its limits. So even though the Terramaster is technically a little better spec’d for the money, it won’t magically handle full 4K HDR transcoding much better than the QNAP.

Where QNAP pulls ahead is on the software side and long-term support. QNAP’s QTS is much more polished and stable than Terramaster’s TOS, and their support and documentation are much stronger. Terramaster has improved, but they’re still not on QNAP’s level for OS maturity or security updates.

So my advice:
• If you want to keep things simple and reliable, and possibly stick with the Mac Mini as the Plex host for now, go with the QNAP TS-664.
• If you’re happy tinkering, want slightly more value hardware-wise, and are okay with a more basic OS, the Terramaster F6-464 is fine too.
• If you’re set on dropping the Mac Mini and running everything on the NAS, just know you’ll still run into the same general hardware ceiling on 4K HDR transcoding.

If budget allows and you’re committed to moving everything into one box, you might even consider a slightly higher-end QNAP (like the TVS-h674) which has significantly more headroom for Plex.