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Assistance with selection of new NAS


vaise

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My old readynas 314 is not able to run Emby as we do it currently and I would like to consolidate.  

There are so many NAS's that support Emby now - and they all have different models.

I wish to run emby, and for performance, I would like to have 2 transcode's happening, and another 1 direct play (for example).

I have 3 x HDHOMERUN tuners that I would like to get on there recording live TV also (say 5 concurrently max)

I would also have plex on there (as a backup for emby - hardly ever used)

I would also have sickrage and utorrent installed.

 

I have 4 x 4 TB drives in the readynas, and I would like to re-use them - so a 4+ bay NAS.  

 

There are 6 x Roku's in the house for the media delivery - 3 or sometimes 4 are all that are used concurrently.

 

Can anyone categorically say their NAS does all the above fine, and advise me of make/models/Ram etc.

 

Price is a consideration of course.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

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PenkethBoy

Ha you dont want it to do much then :)

 

any of the cheaper end NAS from say QNAP or Synology will not have enough horsepower for what you want - they use low power cpu's - my QNAP 853A cannot transcode a single 1080p video on the fly

 

remember a NAS is supposed to be a low power file server not a media server - although a lot of people use them for that

 

your options are pay a premium for a powerful NAS - QNAP have a large range to choose from these days i3 to i7 and ryzen is close to being released - with lots of added bells and whistles

 

or build your own using Xpenology which is essentially Synology with a few tweaks so you can run it on almost any hardware - so you can re use an old pc or build a new one to your spec with a decent modern ish CPU

 

or Build a HTPC with Windows or Linux depending on your preference

 

If you can afford it buy new NAS HDD as normal drives are not rated for the 24/7 and will bite you when put in a NAS.

 

If not you can use the drives but then you will have to wipe the drives anyway as any NAS software will do that at install - so you need a backup of your data which you will need anyway as RAID is NOT a backup.

 

 

Can you give us an indication of your budget as that will dictate what you can and cannot do more than your requirements.

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Thanks for the info.

My 4TB drives in readynas are NAS drives, The nas is currently backed up to a windows server's 3 x 3 TB drives as a windows storage space.  I understand about the wipe and reset for the new model.

I guess based on your comments my $1000 is not going to do it for a dedicated off the shelf NAS machine then.

As I want to install plex/emby- i did not think I could go down the dedicated unix/linux based 'built your own' NAS machine route - i.e need stable and regular 'Emby written' packages/updates.

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PenkethBoy

an alternative as you have a windows server - install Emby/plex there (or a VM) and use the NAS as the media storage - or upgrade the server if necessary

 

windows storage spaces - shudder!  :P

 

i think the move to .netcore will have beneficial effects for updating etc for linux as well (don't use emby on linux myself)

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the .net core version of the server will be making it's way to all of the nas devices. from what i've seen from users, i think qnap and synology are the best choices.

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@@PenkethBoy -

I already run emby on my windows PC - have since media browser days.  This also runs nextPVR for recording, duckieTV etc, the NAS just stores the media.  Im attempting to have it all offloaded so my PC can be turned off when not in use (to save power) - it is a fast I7 and the disks for storage space are only used to backup the nas media - nothing else.  It also have a 500GB SSD boot, a 1TB SSD for my VM's (work related lab - not used much)  and a 4TB D data drive - plus 32GB RAM.  My goal is to save power here rather than this all be on.

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PenkethBoy

Well if you want a low power NAS then you have a problem as transcoding is going to be difficult to manage for one video and almost impossible for two videos at the same time

 

A NAS capable of doing two+ transcodes is not going to be cheap and essentially has the spec of a PC so you are not going to save much on power either

 

Another alternative is invest the time in transcoding your video's into stream friendly formats that your clients can use directly - so you dont need to transcode on the fly - then a low power NAS like my 853A or its smaller alternatives become viable - the x53A series are QNAP's best selling version apparently

 

streaming media should be no problem even my old Ts-412 single core ARM NAS can do that.

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mastrmind11

This questions gets asked pretty frequently.  Perhaps they should all be compiled and pinned for easier browsing/support.

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