Best OS or NAS OS to run Plex, Emby, or Jellyfin off of ?

ng4ever

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Right now I use Windows 10 but curious if there is a better OS or NAS OS to use or a better way ?

Thanks.
 
Are you looking to buy a NAS? I run a Synology ds920+ and i run the native plex docker app for my plex server. Works excellent. It’s a easy setup, but can be costly depending on your budget and use needs.
 
Are you looking to buy a NAS? I run a Synology ds920+ and i run the native plex docker app for my plex server. Works excellent. It’s a easy setup, but can be costly depending on your budget and use needs.

Maybe.

I already have 2 old laptops running Windows 10 with the Plex server installed of them for 2 different plex servers.
 
You can run multiple instances on a Synology NAS. It all depends on how much you value your money and what you want to achieve.

my setup with 4 x 12tb WD reds cost me about $1400 before tax etc. of course you can go with less storage if needed. I believe the NAS is around 400. You could get a 2 bay if you didn’t need the additional raid options or storage.
 
You can run multiple instances on a Synology NAS. It all depends on how much you value your money and what you want to achieve.

my setup with 4 x 12tb WD reds cost me about $1400 before tax etc. of course you can go with less storage if needed. I believe the NAS is around 400. You could get a 2 bay if you didn’t need the additional raid options or storage.

Try again sorry. The Synology ds920+ is $549.99 but it is ok.

What is some of the biggest advantages of a prebuilt NAS like Synology compared to just using a old laptop or pc ?

How long do NAS normally last too ? If they never die which is highly unlikely.
 
Try again sorry. The Synology ds920+ is $549.99 but it is ok.

What is some of the biggest advantages of a prebuilt NAS like Synology compared to just using a old laptop or pc ?

How long do NAS normally last too ? If they never die which is highly unlikely.
It was on sale multiple times not too long ago for $440 with free shipping. At least 3 times in the 6 months. So I wasn’t too far off.

As far as advantages, there are hours long YouTube videos dedicated to that subject as it’s a complicated hot topic. I can’t sum it up in one post, I’d suggest you do some research on that.
I like to often updated and very easy to use software and custom apps. I like many people use my NAS for many things. Synology offers a ton of free software and flexibility. It will easily perform many many more tasks than a old laptop could ever dream of doing, if you wanted to do them. Again too much to list, that’s something you’d need to look in to.
My Synology came with a 5 year warranty. There are people on the Synology forum and subreddit who have NAS boxes that are 10+ years old and still used 24/7. The only potential weak area of the power supply, which can be replaced usually but not always, depends on the model.
 
It was on sale multiple times not too long ago for $440 with free shipping. At least 3 times in the 6 months. So I wasn’t too far off.

As far as advantages, there are hours long YouTube videos dedicated to that subject as it’s a complicated hot topic. I can’t sum it up in one post, I’d suggest you do some research on that.
I like to often updated and very easy to use software and custom apps. I like many people use my NAS for many things. Synology offers a ton of free software and flexibility. It will easily perform many many more tasks than a old laptop could ever dream of doing, if you wanted to do them. Again too much to list, that’s something you’d need to look in to.
My Synology came with a 5 year warranty. There are people on the Synology forum and subreddit who have NAS boxes that are 10+ years old and still used 24/7. The only potential weak area of the power supply, which can be replaced usually but not always, depends on the model.

Thank you.

I read when wanting to upgrade the memory you need their own provided ram they sell is this true ?
 
Thank you.

I read when wanting to upgrade the memory you need their own provided ram they sell is this true ?
So I have 20 gb of ram. You do not need their brand ram. The machines can be picky. I bought my specific 16gb stick using a model number I found on Reddit where someone confirmed it worked in the NAS. Worked like a charm in mine. Although I have never used more than 12 so far. And my uptime is around 6 months so far. I use it for alotnof stuff. It’s been rock solid stable.
 
So I have 20 gb of ram. You do not need their brand ram. The machines can be picky. I bought my specific 16gb stick using a model number I found on Reddit where someone confirmed it worked in the NAS. Worked like a charm in mine. Although I have never used more than 12 so far. And my uptime is around 6 months so far. I use it for alotnof stuff. It’s been rock solid stable.

Thank you.

Sense there is no many advantages I need to read up on.

Is there any disadvantages? Thanks.
 
I've been running PMS on an old Optiplex 990 for almost 5 years now, using Linux (from 5 years ago). Running near latest Plex Pass version.

Very stable.

With that said, the HD HW transcoding isn't a nice as what you'd get with a newer gen Intel QSV, but ok if you use SW transcoding. My CPU is the i7-2600. I paid less than $100 for the SFF computer. My storage all comes from USB bus powered HDDs (about 15TB or so).
 
Thank you.

Sense there is no many advantages I need to read up on.

Is there any disadvantages? Thanks.
Price is the obvious one. And probably the only one that drives people away.
Also raw cpu power. People don’t realize tho, you don’t need much cpu to do NAS tasks. And that leads to power efficiency. NAS boxes are up 24/7 and sip electricity compared to even a 65w cpu computer setup.
 
My home server is running Windows 8.1. It runs Plex and a bunch of other stuff. Why limit yourself to a NAS operating system? My older Haswell CPU doesn't take much energy at idle. The HDD's power consumption will be the same regardless.

It's like those people who want to run a Plex server on a Raspberry Pi just so they can say they do it. Well congrats on saving some pennies, but now your experience will suck 24/7/365.
 
The lowest profile option is docker container on linux if you're not doing anything fancy like nvenc transcoding or otherwise.
None of the other OS's run it better persay you just may have lower resource overhead with a linux flavor.
 
Right now I use Windows 10 but curious if there is a better OS or NAS OS to use or a better way ?

Thanks.
What type of better are you looking for? Features, stability, ease of use, performance, etc. I read through but wasn't clear.
This list helped me realize that I didn't want to have plex on a Nas.
This article helped me choose a sff pc to serve plex.
I don't have multiple users or streams though.

I should mention that my total investment is $200 plus storage (spinning disks for me).
 
What type of better are you looking for? Features, stability, ease of use, performance, etc. I read through but wasn't clear.
This list helped me realize that I didn't want to have plex on a Nas.
This article helped me choose a sff pc to serve plex.
I don't have multiple users or streams though.

Once setup no user interaction mostly.

Thanks.
 
If price and performance are no barrier, then look at a high end nas. They will contain your service and data all in one.

Ok but how high end are we talking and price ? Not sure if I want to spend a lot. May first start with a small high end NAS if that is possible.
 
Ok but how high end are we talking and price ? Not sure if I want to spend a lot. May first start with a small high end NAS if that is possible.
Check out the compatibility chart in the first link I posted. That will give you an idea of which nas will handle what. Get an idea of what performance you need, then how many hard drives bays you need, then check prices.
 
What type of better are you looking for? Features, stability, ease of use, performance, etc. I read through but wasn't clear.
This list helped me realize that I didn't want to have plex on a Nas.
This article helped me choose a sff pc to serve plex.
I don't have multiple users or streams though.

I should mention that my total investment is $200 plus storage (spinning disks for me).

This x100.

Now for the pet peeve of mine. A NAS is not a Server. Once it does more than simply move files, it's a full-blown Server. A NAS doesn't really require much CPU. An application Server potentially does.

I admit some of those "NAS" boxes are pretty powerful these days, but for their high end offerings, you can build a regular server running Windows (or whatever) for a lot less, with more speed, and more options. Obviously it depends on your comfort level managing an OS, but this is [H]ardForum. I don't assume anyone here is a novice.

With Windows, can you run some other programs that interact with Plex that a NAS may lock you out of. You won't be upset by the limitation until you hit it.
 
I've been running FreeNAS now TrueNAS for years with Plexpass in a jail (and Unificontroller in a jail too) .. I was using old cheaper server grade hardware but wanted to go a bit greener and run a 3700x on an ASRock Rack X470D4U mobo with 64GB of DDR4 ECC UDIMM's .. but lot's of people run TrueNAS on older desktop hardware without issue..

If you are looking to by used older stuff .. my previous Chinese knock-off X79t with 64GB of cheap DDR3 ECC RDIMM's and LGA2011 cpu was rock solid ..
 
This x100.

Now for the pet peeve of mine. A NAS is not a Server. Once it does more than simply move files, it's a full-blown Server. A NAS doesn't really require much CPU. An application Server potentially does.

I admit some of those "NAS" boxes are pretty powerful these days, but for their high end offerings, you can build a regular server running Windows (or whatever) for a lot less, with more speed, and more options. Obviously it depends on your comfort level managing an OS, but this is [H]ardForum. I don't assume anyone here is a novice.

With Windows, can you run some other programs that interact with Plex that a NAS may lock you out of. You won't be upset by the limitation until you hit it.

Totally agree with this.

About a year and a half ago I rebuilt my Plex server. It was simpler and far cheaper to build a system. I think grand total was about $300 for a Ryzen 5 3400G based system. Runs my Plex beautifully on Ubuntu 20.04. I did a slightly different route though that many won't do in terms of my disc array. I use mergerfs and snapraid on my enclosure of 4 discs. I did it this way because it enables me to replace single discs without have the system completely down. While the discs are all mounted as /storage each disc has it's own data. There is no cross pollination of data across the discs. Mergerfs puts data on the least populated drive. So if I drop a new TV series on the Plex that entire series goes to the drive with the most free space. The entire series will reside on that disc and not across 3 drives.
The last disc is the parity disc used for rebuilds and recovery. I can literally pull a drive and media will still play as long as it wasn't something on that disc. So while I always keep a couple of spare drives handy I never have to worry about my Plex going completely down if a drive dies while I'm on vacation or something. I can still stream most of the library until I get home and can recover the impacted drive.

Granted this takes far more user interaction than say a Synology bay but I quite like it.
 
Same here. I run SnapRAID under Windows. The C: drive with the OS and all my applications gets a proper image backup once in a while, but the other drives store mostly static data where SnapRAID really shines. The benefit there is a normal file system, so I can move things around or massage files without worry.
 
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