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NAS replacement

3K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  blueroomelectro 
#1 ·
Hi Guys. I am looking for a replacement for my Acer Easystore H340. I have a drive failure and think its time to purchase a 4 disk NAS. I currently have a mixture of 3X1TB and 1X3TB drives in the Acer. It will not read above 1TB of the 3TB drive...long story. Anyways I run plex throughout the house to a Mac Mini and an Apple TV 2 with only 720p content. The Acer has a 1.60 Atom processor and 2Gb of ram. I believe I should not be too worried about the NAS processor and ram since the devices that play my media do the transcoding. Correct me if I am wrong. I am leaning towards the Synology line and would have got the one at newegg last week but it was white (call me crazy). Do you guys have some recommendations of models I should look at? Not looking forward to moving the data off my Acer its over 3.5TB
 
#4 ·
I wouldn't go with a NAS. I have a QNAP 412+, a mac Mini, three Apple TV's, 2 iPads, 3 Windows PC's, and one Roku. Although reliable, this NAS is just too slow and it can't directly run PLEX. A NAS that can run Plex server would be in the $750 range.

Unless your video is mp4, the server running PLEX is likely doing all the transcoding for your Apple TV's and other devices. Any macMini is going to be way more powerful than a NAS and will be able to serve more simultaneous clients.

I run PLEX server on the macMini (new model with USB3), with two miniStack USB3 enclosures ($90@) with a 4TB drive in each. The miniStack's are exactly the same size as the macMini and USB3 is very fast, at least 10X better on reads than my NAS.

Since the macMini is so energy efficient (about the same as a NAS), and the external drives virtually silent, I leave them on 24/7/365. That way they can serve content to any PLEX client day or night.

I'd never buy another NAS, and will only keep mine as backup.
 
#13 ·
Synology has PLEX server as a package for their NAS's. The beta 4.2 firmware has a buggy AirPlay video mode (you start the your movie streams from a web browser), I've yet to get it to work. Looks promising though.

I run my DVD's through Handbrake for ATV3 compatibility, I run iTunes as the media server when we're going to watch a movie or listen to music.

PS the OPs Acer Easystore has more computing power than any of the ARM based NAS's, if it's struggling with content...
 
#5 ·
Thanks. Interesting to hear that the NAS was to slow to serve up the files to your clients. I also run my server on my MacMini and point it to the current shares on the WHS.

Do you have 720 or 1080 files? 90% of my files are 720p h.264 mkv or 720p mp4 and in my current situation things run fine other than I am running out of space on the WHS since the max it can handle is 4X2TB drives.
 
#6 ·
My NAS could serve files to a few clients, but many of my files were DVR-MS so I needed transcoding. I just don't get the value of a NAS when a few USB3 drives or a 4 bay USB3 enclosure (I have one that costs $100) connected to a macMini would be cheaper and faster.

BTW, my video files (about 1,000) are 90% DVR-MS and 10% mp4 (1080). I am in the process of converting all DVR-MS to mp4.
 
#7 ·
I recently bought a DS1512+ from Synology and so far it's been a great experience. I also have a HP MSS EX470 running but like you started to worry about my data (it's getting old).

I've just started using Plex (bought a Roku) and have found that my 1080P files simply wont play if the Synology has to do the transcoding, with my 720P files the CPU will hit into the high 80-95% usage but they do play. For me this is not a show stopper as I have other devices in the house that the Synology servers very well.

If your interested remote access the mobile apps for Synology are great.
 
#14 ·
Thanks for the reply. I did hear about the buggy airplay stuff. I just use the Plex apps for my jailbroken ATV 2 and the retail app for my iPad and iPhone.

I figured my Easystore has more power than the NAS units in my price range since it has an Atom processor and 2gb of RAM. I more want a NAS for the Data protection as I find I am running out of space as the Easystore only support 4X2TB drives. Thats why I was questioning about the transcoding. My Plex server as well as the main client run on the Mac Mini which has more than enough power for the 720p content I have. I probably wouldn't even run the plex server on any NAS and just use it for SMB shares.
 
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