NAS question

jordan12

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I am looking at the Synology DS2419+ with an atom

Intel Atom C3538

Would that be fine for data storage for a plex server? Meaning my desktop is the server, the NAS is only for storage and for whatever Plex needs. Is that a sufficient CPU for the task In your guys opinion?
 
Should be plenty powerful for plex data storage.

The CPU doesn't support QSV, but I assume you are already aware since you plan on using your desktop as the actual server.
 
I have the same question kinda.

Should I buy a prebuilt Synology NAS or build one ?
 
Depends what you need in a NAS. Building is always cheaper but the Synology software is great.

The new 1821+ is pretty powerful for a synology.
 
Synology stuff is good but expensive. If you're already building a Plex rig, consider installing a hypervisor and running multiple VM's on the same server. It's definitely a more complex setup, but has undeniable benefits of being very versatile.
I run a HyperV farm on my HTPC machine, where one of the VM's is a FreeNAS server with ZFS "RAID1" for storage. I have 2 more VM's - a Windows 10 test bench, and a centOS dev rig. The main OS is Windows 10 Pro which I use as a streamer. I could easily spawn another VM and assign a video card to it and have that as a whatever video streamer.
I have Ryzen 3400G, B450 Mobo, 32GB RAM, 3U server rack that will support 12x3.5 HDD. The whole build without the drives cost me a little over $500, and is several times more powerful and versatile than anything close to it that Synology offers. Setup wasn't that bad, either. I'm only using 2 HDDs (don't need that much storage), but could easily add an HBA card and run however many drives I need.
 
Really comes down to the time you want to invest in putting it all together. I liked the idea of building one but was hard pressed to find a good compact case to hold it all in with all of the features I was able to get on my 1815+ when I bought it years ago.

Setup took a bit of time but was very simple to roll through and it was not my first Synology NAS. Lots of great features and options and apps. But you are reliant mostly on the community unless you are a coder or have a way to import some of the linux stuff over.

It was a bit pricey but I have definitely gotten my moneys worth out of the setup and am just now upgrading my original drives for higher capacity doubling my storage so it will be good for a while to come.
I have ripped some of my movies to 4k so it can handle them through its built in video station which is pretty decent. Transcoding is fine for most things as well.

So in short it has a lot of great features and options and support, configuration is fairly simple and its mostly a worry free setup. If you want to configure, tweak, tune and mess with your setup and do it all yourself building is definitely better. Both will get you there in the end but one offers a bit more freedom and the other a bit less hassle.
 
I have the same to say as the post above me. I have a 2020 5 bay Synology NAS. Sure it was pricey, but it’s paid for itself just in the time savings alone. I didn’t spend hours and days setting it up and troubleshooting it all. It just, works. And for most people it has way more features than you will ever use. And a community full of answers, unlike the custom nas hardware/software communities which remind me very much of the Linux community in general. Most “answers” were just more questions and people scoffing at the fact that you don’t know about the complicated software they are using. And if they couldn’t figure it out they blamed it on your hardware config.

many ways I’ve enjoyed my Synology setup. It was pretty easy to learn.
 
I work in IT and fix larger systems all day. When I get off work, I don't wish to tinker and fix things at home. I bought a Synology 918+ and use it for NAS duties, Plex server, Backup server (Software built in the NAS) and Pi-hole (DNS). running great since the day I got it.
 
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