11-08-2023, 06:01 AM
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for this community and anyone here helping newbies figure out their NAS setups. It's super appreciated. I've been watching hours and hours of videos about NAS set ups and all related equipment and all I've learnt is that I am woefully out of my depth with this stuff.
I've got a few things I think I've honed in on but I'm still fumbling in the dark with this stuff.
A big part of what I need help with are questions I have not been able to find answers to on any of the many many beginner videos I've watched.
1 - What other devices do I need to make my set up work and how do I wire it all up? What gets plugged into what? I think I need to plug my modem into a router and then router AND NAS both into a switch which goes out to all my devices. What kind of switch do I need for? Is there something specific for putting a router and NAS input together. Is there an all in one version or do I need all these different devices.
2 - Compatibility - Related to the first question. I have tried to look up these different devices but there are sooooo many technical details I get overwhelmed with how to keep track of what works what. What is the simplest combo of devices that all just work together without me needing a computer science degree?
3 - NAS Expandability - Regarding future NAS storage upgrades: How do I upgrade drives when I need to expand for more storage. IF I start with 4 - 8gb drives and want add space can I just change one drive to a 16gb or do they all have to be the same size. And if they need to be the same size how do I upgrade? do I switch one drive at a time and rebuild each one as I go? That whole process is very fuzzy to me. Also if I just start with 2 drives (in a 4bay nas) and add to them later how do I redistribute the info in the raid? Does the data all need to be rebuilt?
OK. So here's what I have and what I am trying to achieve.
I am trying to build a NAS set up solely for a media server system. Just to watch my movies and photos. NO backups, gaming, editing or anything processing intensive like that. I have 6 rooms with ethernet lines and the rest would be wi-fi. My house has crazy thick walls so the wi-fi needs to have a strong signal. I have about 500-ish movies I want to store. A mix of regular dvd and bluray. I'm not crazy over 4k so that's not a major factor for me. I figure at an average of 25gb per MKV file I would need about 16tb just for what I have. I'd like to have storage to get to about 1000 movies before I need to upgrade. My photos and videos are only about 500gb combined so that's not a huge factor. I get a fair amount of "traffic/streaming" between the kids and guests on ipads and what not so the ability to handle up to 3 NAS streams and a some heavy youtube action or Netflix streaming would be ideal. Remote access so the kids can watch their cartoons while we're traveling would be awesome too, but not an absolute must.
I'm "aiming" for a budget of $1000 usd. But that would include the NAS, drives, router, switch and any other other devices I might need. From what I've watched so far I was thinking of a Qnap TS-464 using Jellyfin. I was thinking about just starting with 2 - 8tb drives for redundancy and adding on as I need it, to stay in the budget but the whole drive/raid thing and how to change it all as I grow into it is super confusing to me.
So I that's it. I'm sorry if this is too long of a post. I wanted to be as detailed as I could.
Could you guys PLEASE help me with a basic setup that all works together and gives me some room to grow but doesn't kill my wallet. And a little help with some of the questions about how to handle the number of drives and how to expand as I go. (As General Sarris from Galaxy Quest once said, "Explain it, as if to a child")
Thank you all so much for any help you can offer. Any links to videos that address any of these specific questions would also be appreciated.
Thanks for this community and anyone here helping newbies figure out their NAS setups. It's super appreciated. I've been watching hours and hours of videos about NAS set ups and all related equipment and all I've learnt is that I am woefully out of my depth with this stuff.
I've got a few things I think I've honed in on but I'm still fumbling in the dark with this stuff.
A big part of what I need help with are questions I have not been able to find answers to on any of the many many beginner videos I've watched.
1 - What other devices do I need to make my set up work and how do I wire it all up? What gets plugged into what? I think I need to plug my modem into a router and then router AND NAS both into a switch which goes out to all my devices. What kind of switch do I need for? Is there something specific for putting a router and NAS input together. Is there an all in one version or do I need all these different devices.
2 - Compatibility - Related to the first question. I have tried to look up these different devices but there are sooooo many technical details I get overwhelmed with how to keep track of what works what. What is the simplest combo of devices that all just work together without me needing a computer science degree?
3 - NAS Expandability - Regarding future NAS storage upgrades: How do I upgrade drives when I need to expand for more storage. IF I start with 4 - 8gb drives and want add space can I just change one drive to a 16gb or do they all have to be the same size. And if they need to be the same size how do I upgrade? do I switch one drive at a time and rebuild each one as I go? That whole process is very fuzzy to me. Also if I just start with 2 drives (in a 4bay nas) and add to them later how do I redistribute the info in the raid? Does the data all need to be rebuilt?
OK. So here's what I have and what I am trying to achieve.
I am trying to build a NAS set up solely for a media server system. Just to watch my movies and photos. NO backups, gaming, editing or anything processing intensive like that. I have 6 rooms with ethernet lines and the rest would be wi-fi. My house has crazy thick walls so the wi-fi needs to have a strong signal. I have about 500-ish movies I want to store. A mix of regular dvd and bluray. I'm not crazy over 4k so that's not a major factor for me. I figure at an average of 25gb per MKV file I would need about 16tb just for what I have. I'd like to have storage to get to about 1000 movies before I need to upgrade. My photos and videos are only about 500gb combined so that's not a huge factor. I get a fair amount of "traffic/streaming" between the kids and guests on ipads and what not so the ability to handle up to 3 NAS streams and a some heavy youtube action or Netflix streaming would be ideal. Remote access so the kids can watch their cartoons while we're traveling would be awesome too, but not an absolute must.
I'm "aiming" for a budget of $1000 usd. But that would include the NAS, drives, router, switch and any other other devices I might need. From what I've watched so far I was thinking of a Qnap TS-464 using Jellyfin. I was thinking about just starting with 2 - 8tb drives for redundancy and adding on as I need it, to stay in the budget but the whole drive/raid thing and how to change it all as I grow into it is super confusing to me.
So I that's it. I'm sorry if this is too long of a post. I wanted to be as detailed as I could.
Could you guys PLEASE help me with a basic setup that all works together and gives me some room to grow but doesn't kill my wallet. And a little help with some of the questions about how to handle the number of drives and how to expand as I go. (As General Sarris from Galaxy Quest once said, "Explain it, as if to a child")
Thank you all so much for any help you can offer. Any links to videos that address any of these specific questions would also be appreciated.