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Use current plex server, repurpose old gaming rig, or get a NAS?

lagavulin

lagavulin

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I am wanting to get my stuff out of the cloud and keep it local and I'm just trying to figure out which is the best route for me. I've never had a NAS, so no experience in that. I have an old i7-3770k pc sitting here that I could use as a server or I could use my current i5 8400 plex server to store files. I am looking to buy some more storage to keep the cloud stuff on and then some to use for a backup drive. I'm just looking for some input on what might be the best solution.
 
Either proxmox with a vm for plex and another for truenas or unpaid

Or

Just run plex inside truenas or unpaid.

Warning, once you start, you will always want to be upgrading to try new things.
 
The cloud is a good backup though. Host it in the cloud and locally, unless your cloud cost is too pricey.
Why do you want to ditch the cloud?
 
applegrcoug said:
Either proxmox with a vm for plex and another for truenas or unpaid

Or

Just run plex inside truenas or unpaid.

Warning, once you start, you will always want to be upgrading to try new things.
Click to expand...
Nothimg new as i always want to upgrademy gaming rig. Lol
 
Zepher said:
The cloud is a good backup though. Host it in the cloud and locally, unless your cloud cost is too pricey.
Why do you want to ditch the cloud?
Click to expand...
Its made me lazy. lol

I just want my files local. I swear the cloud has made me a digital hoarder.
 
lagavulin said:
I am wanting to get my stuff out of the cloud and keep it local and I'm just trying to figure out which is the best route for me. I've never had a NAS, so no experience in that. I have an old i7-3770k pc sitting here that I could use as a server or I could use my current i5 8400 plex server to store files. I am looking to buy some more storage to keep the cloud stuff on and then some to use for a backup drive. I'm just looking for some input on what might be the best solution.
Click to expand...
for a i7-3770k I would just load Ubuntu Server and install Webmin using their PPA/repository which they give proper directions on their website. Then install Samba. This is a good guide to install webmin + samba: https://webmin.com/samba-howto.html
 
Is there any reason why your Plex server isn't already a TrueNAS or Unraid server running Plex as an "app"/container?

Seriously, I've never heard of anyone running a bare-metal Plex/Emby/Jellyfin server, it's always a service on top of a NAS, which makes sense since one of the best uses of a NAS is to datahoard media and make it accessible on all of your devices.

With that said, turning old desktop PCs into servers is a great way to get into self-hosting your stuff. It can be deceptively expensive, though - it starts with new drives for more storage, then you start craving 10Gb Ethernet so you can move all those terabytes of data faster, and before you know it, you've got a home datacenter.
 
NamelessPFG said:
Is there any reason why your Plex server isn't already a TrueNAS or Unraid server running Plex as an "app"/container?

Seriously, I've never heard of anyone running a bare-metal Plex/Emby/Jellyfin server, it's always a service on top of a NAS, which makes sense since one of the best uses of a NAS is to datahoard media and make it accessible on all of your devices.

With that said, turning old desktop PCs into servers is a great way to get into self-hosting your stuff. It can be deceptively expensive, though - it starts with new drives for more storage, then you start craving 10Gb Ethernet so you can move all those terabytes of data faster, and before you know it, you've got a home datacenter.
Click to expand...
Mine is bare metal. I do need to clear out a bunch of the drives, run a NAS OS, and have 1 or two drive pools.
It ended up like this because I was adding a drive or two every now and then.
1742515275777.png
 
Zepher said:
Mine is bare metal. I do need to clear out a bunch of the drives, run a NAS OS, and have 1 or two drive pools.
It ended up like this because I was adding a drive or two every now and then.
View attachment 718220
Click to expand...

You probably should have done that like 8 drives ago.

I also run my Plex server on physical hardware running Server 2025 with an Intel A770 for hardware transcoding. All my disks are in two NAS's that are sync'd and then the primary one is mapped to the Plex server.
 
Zepher said:
Mine is bare metal. I do need to clear out a bunch of the drives, run a NAS OS, and have 1 or two drive pools.
It ended up like this because I was adding a drive or two every now and then.
View attachment 718220
Click to expand...
Oh, you're adding drives as you go, and very mismatched sizes as well?

That sorta thing definitely doesn't fly with ZFS-based systems like TrueNAS, though Unraid was built for exactly that sort of usage (and if you don't mind getting your hands dirty with Linux, MergerFS + SnapRAID). I can definitely see why you'd start out that way.

They're almost all full, though - since any sort of offsite cloud backup will be excruciatingly slow, I'm guessing you're budgeting for a whole new set of drives to handle all of that for NAS use - and it's a pretty sizeable dataset if almost all of those drives are full and you don't want to delete anything.

I suppose if you're on a tight budget, you could start with a pool of a few new drives, copy one drive's contents over to the pool, verify that the copies are good, then add that drive itself to the pool (almost certainly reformatting and wiping the contents in the process), copy files from another drive, rinse and repeat. (RAIDZ expansion on ZFS allows this now, but it's still a bit janky.)
 
NamelessPFG said:
Oh, you're adding drives as you go, and very mismatched sizes as well?

That sorta thing definitely doesn't fly with ZFS-based systems like TrueNAS, though Unraid was built for exactly that sort of usage (and if you don't mind getting your hands dirty with Linux, MergerFS + SnapRAID). I can definitely see why you'd start out that way.

They're almost all full, though - since any sort of offsite cloud backup will be excruciatingly slow, I'm guessing you're budgeting for a whole new set of drives to handle all of that for NAS use - and it's a pretty sizeable dataset if almost all of those drives are full and you don't want to delete anything.

I suppose if you're on a tight budget, you could start with a pool of a few new drives, copy one drive's contents over to the pool, verify that the copies are good, then add that drive itself to the pool (almost certainly reformatting and wiping the contents in the process), copy files from another drive, rinse and repeat. (RAIDZ expansion on ZFS allows this now, but it's still a bit janky.)
Click to expand...
I was buying Easystore drives when they were on sale for $199 or less, that was my price limit.
The 18TB Red Pro was priced so low that it looked like a scam, but since it was on Amazon, I was like fuck it, I'll order one and see if it arrives.
It arrived and I was like, dang, I should have ordered 2.
I do think it might have been bought with stolen credit cards though since it was a 3rd party seller on Amazon and the drive arrived from Newegg.
 
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