NAS Virgin

facade

B0bbyEwing said:

facade said:

I run the plex server on my pc.

1) The pc is on 24/7 anyway so I just put the media storage drives into the pc.

I also  have a synology NAS that could run a plex server, but there is no point for me, so it is just used for backups and kept switched off.

2) The TV has a built in plex client.

1) How much does that cost you vs if you only turned it on when you needed it?

No idea, one day I'll get one of those energy monitoring plugs, but looking at the data from HWINFO it looks like the ancient CPU idles at 13W and the GPU at 11W, so probably around 40W for the whole thing with the discs spun down.

Call it 8 hours a day that it draws 40W when it could be off (which of course helps keep the house warm in Winter, so saves a little on the gas bill)  so around 9p extra a day, which is small compared to the 41p a day I'm wasting on a TV licence that I'm not even using for 23hours a day !

Plus less stress on components by keeping them at operating temperature so it lasts longer, and the convenience of it being always on.

It won't suit everybody I agree, but the pc is on anyway, so putting the storage inside it and running the server on it costs very little extra as the extra drives spool down anyway.

Doshwaster

I have a 2-bay Synology NAS which does everything I need.

If one drive fails then the other is a mirror
Don't use Plex as the built-in Synology media server is fine.
Really important stuff (photos, documents) get backed up to both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive
External HDD attached for backing up videos and music.
Also use it to store recordings of two surveillance cameras

stinky_daddy

Which model?

Is it the DS223J2, DS223 or something else?

TIA

s_d

alanwsg

I have a Synology DS218 - two 1Tb drives configured with their own 'Hybrid' RAID.
Works like a dream, I find it very easy and intuitive to configure.

Before that I had a Netgear duo, same sort of thing but the interface was getting very clunky and it really wasn't obvious how to do some things.
That said, it only cost £89 plus disks and ran continuously (barring power cuts) for over 10 years, so - can't complain.

Please remember RAID is NOT a backup solution - I have a 1Tb 2.5" HDD in a USB3 case as my "off-site backup" (it lives in the shed). The Synology "USB Copy" App makes doing the backups a breeze

Doshwaster

stinky_daddy said:

Which model?

Is it the DS223J2, DS223 or something else?

TIA

s_d

I have the DS220+ with 2 x 4TB drives plus the RAM upgrade which helps running Docker images. Will eventually upgrade to 2 x 8TB (or alternatively delete some junk!)

Chickereeeee

B0bbyEwing said:

facade said:

I run the plex server on my pc.

1) The pc is on 24/7 anyway so I just put the media storage drives into the pc.

I also  have a synology NAS that could run a plex server, but there is no point for me, so it is just used for backups and kept switched off.

2) The TV has a built in plex client.

1) How much does that cost you vs if you only turned it on when you needed it?

2) Mine too but I always found that it buffers like mad, especially in the last 20% of a film. Kodi was much better, almost great. The only thing I've found to work without any buffering whatsoever is the Nvidia Shield, of which I have a SSD connected to it & any movie I want to watch I just drag from my PC & slap it on the SSD of the Shield & then delete when I'm done. I'll load a number of movies I may feel like watching soon & then also leave a bit of space too. 

I use the Plex app on my LG television to my Qnap NAS, and it is perfect for movies etc, right up to UHD. (I have not tried it higher). The one time I had buffering issues, I realised I had it set to transpose to a lower bit rate, causing extreme NAS processor utilisation. Removing that setting fixed it.