Advice for Home Plex / Google Photos / Backup NAS

[Enquiries]

Hello,
First of all, thank you for this amazing website. I would like to get a recommendation from you for NAS (currently biased towards Asustor AS6704T Lockerstor 4 Gen 2 but unsure of software experience). Budget: 1500$ with HDD/SSD
1. Plex Media Server (for 1080p, 4K media with native transcoding capability)
2. Photos / Videos / Documents backup from Google Photos (preferably with a smooth software experience that I can set and forget)
3. Capability to access media content above from anywhere in the world with a router VPN.
4. Relatively fast read/write speeds on NAS, along with redundancy and backups. Not sure if I need SSD write cache?
5. Surveillance / CCTV footage (not yet on Reolink, using "local" baby cameras but plan to switch to reolink soon)
6. Please suggest HDD/SSD and other upgrades (like should I upgrade RAM/NIC right off the bat?) as well to go with the above NAS recommendation. For HDD, I am currently biased towards Seagate Ironclad Pro (2x22TB)

Thanks

[ed]

Glad to hear you're considering the Asustor AS6704T Lockerstor 4 Gen 2! It's a solid choice for your needs. Celeron-based models like this one work perfectly for local streaming, and they handle remote streaming up to 1080p like a breeze. Considering your budget, models like the DS423+ or TS-464 would also be great options, providing the horsepower needed for Plex and other multimedia tasks. All of these NAS devices support VPN for remote access, ensuring your data is accessible from anywhere securely. Adding an SSD cache will definitely speed up operations, especially with multiple users accessing media concurrently. For surveillance, Synology's solution tends to be the most robust compared to other brands. When it comes to HDDs, WD Red Plus or IronWolf drives are top choices. And if you're considering NVMe caching, make sure to check out reliability ratings such as DWPD/MTBF, ensuring optimal performance and longevity. Here's a link to NVMe drives you can explore further: https://nascompares.com/answer/nvme-m-2-...dwpd-mtbf/. Hope this helps!