The Best PLEX NAS of 2023/2024 – A Buyers Guide

Last updated on 26 Dec 2023 📧 Subscribe
Contents hide
1 A Guide to the Best Plex NAS Drives to Buy Right Now
2 What Have All the Best Plex NAS Drives Have in Common?
2.1 Honourable Mention: The Terramaster F2-424, F4-424 and F4-424 PRO NAS in 2024
2.2 Entry Level 4K Plex NAS – Synology DS224+
2.3 Best All Round Local + Remote Value 4K Plex NAS – The Asustor Lockerstor 4 Gen 2
2.4 8K PLEX READY NAS DRIVE – The QNAP TVS-h874
3 Need More Help Choosing the right NAS?
4 Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

A Guide to the Best Plex NAS Drives to Buy Right Now

In 2024, if you’re considering a Synology or QNAP NAS drive for setting up a Plex Media Server, it’s probably because you’re tired of subscribing to multiple online streaming services, OR you have a vast collection of physical discs at home that you’d like to enjoy conveniently on devices like Amazon FireTV, Roku Box, or a gaming console, without the hassle of discs. Isn’t that a reasonable desire? Remember the days when watching movies and series from your couch was straightforward? You had a collection of DVDs or Blu-rays, chose a disc, and watched. Sure, it was a bit more involved than services like Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and Disney+, BUT you owned your media and decided what to view. The supremacy of subscription-based streaming seemed undisputable, offering easy access to a broad range of content, often viewed only once or twice, all for a modest monthly fee of $5-10 per service. But things got complex. The number of streaming services exploded from a handful to HUNDREDS, with movies and series being exclusively available on certain platforms (sometimes even splitting TV seasons across different services). This led to shorter availability periods for TV shows on streaming platforms as content owners realized the profitability of timed exclusivity and platform hopping. Consequently, streaming services lost their convenience and value, with most homes subscribing to 3-4 different services (typically Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and a cable TV/Sky service) and spending $400-500 annually without owning any media or controlling availability. The biased search features on these platforms, promoting ‘recommended’ content, only add to the longing for the simpler days of choosing a DVD from the shelf. This nostalgia and desire for control are why many are switching to Plex Media Server. To learn more about Plex, a Plex Media Server NAS, and their functions, watch the accompanying video:

Best NAS of the Year

What Have All the Best Plex NAS Drives Have in Common?

It’s essential to note that despite the wide range of Plex NAS drives available, they are not all of equal quality! The market is teeming with ultra-affordable brands, and while they might seem appealing compared to premium NAS brands, often these too-good-to-be-true solutions disappear before your warranty even expires. So, whether you’re considering the three top Plex options I recommend below, or exploring other Plex NAS models found on sale or suggested elsewhere, the best NAS systems consistently include these software and services:

  • Integrated Hardware & Software Package – This means you’re not just buying the hardware; it also comes with a web browser GUI, mobile and desktop client apps (including backup, media, streaming, surveillance, and file management software).
  • Compatibility with Windows, Mac, Android, and Linux operating systems in all NAS systems covered in this guide.
  • Warranty coverage of 2-3 years, with the option to extend to 5 years.
  • Local and secure remote network access, supported by brand services at no extra cost.Support for the latest 20TB NAS hard drives, such as Seagate Ironwolf 20/22TB and WD Red 20/22TB
  • Support for multiple drive configurations (RAID) for drive failure protection and performance improvements.
  • Regular updates for security, features, and services.
  • Connectivity and synchronization with cloud services (Google Drive, DropBox, OneDrive, etc.) and Business/Enterprise services (AWS, Azure, Backblaze, and more).
  • Ability to host a shared drive on your PC/Mobile/Laptop that syncs with the NAS over the network/internet, integrated into your native file manager (e.g., Mac Finder or Windows Explorer).
  • Direct access via an ethernet/network cable from your PC/Mac to the NAS for 100MB/s and higher connectivity.
  • Backup and sync tools for local client computers to regularly backup files and system data.
  • Ensure any NAS solution you’re considering, even if it’s not listed below, encompasses all these features. These are key areas where brands often cut corners to produce cheaper, but ultimately inferior NAS servers for home and business use.

Explore a free/low cost service that lets you stream your personal media collection, complete with polished graphics, an intuitive graphical user interface, detailed descriptions, trailers, thumbnails, reviews, and more. Today, I aim to highlight the top three NAS drives ideally suited for a Plex Media Server. The market is flooded with thousands of NAS options compatible with Plex (which is not overly demanding in its basic setup), yet the way you plan to utilize it, the number of users you intend to share with, the size of your media library, and the quality of your content (like 4K, 1080p, etc.) play a critical role in determining the most suitable NAS for your Plex Media server. Therefore, my five Plex NAS recommendations for 2023 focus on the optimal Budget 1080p Plex NAS, the premier 4K Plex NAS, and ultimately, the Best ALL-AROUND Plex NAS for 2023/2024. Let’s dive in.

Honourable Mention: The Terramaster F2-424, F4-424  and F4-424 PRO NAS in 2024

Arriving in Early 2024 for $379 / $499 / $699

Although this list of Plex NAS systems are all picked for their suitability to power, budget and performance, I wanted to quickly give a nod to three solutions that are arriving in the first quarter of 2024. So, although they are not technically in the ‘top 3’, I think at least two of these are going to be very popular for low price 4K Plex NAS solutions in 2024. TerraMaster, arguably the value/affordable tier of the private NAS market, have revealed three new solutions that form the beginning of their 2024 series of devices – the Terramaster F4-424 Pro, F4-424 and F2-424 NAS. Arriving before their main competitors Synology, QNAP and Asustor, these new solutions are arriving with a more recent Intel N95 and N300 CPU series and will be available in 2-Bay and 4-Bay configurations.

At the core of the F2-424 and F4-424 models is the Intel Celeron N95 processor, a choice that balances power and efficiency. The F4-424 PRO, on the other hand, steps up the performance with the Intel Core i3 N300 processor, catering to more demanding tasks. Memory-wise, the F2-424 and F4-424 are equipped with 8 GB of DDR5 non-ECC SODIMM, while the F4-424 PRO quadruples this capacity to 32 GB, enhancing its multitasking capabilities. Storage options vary across the models, with the F2-424 featuring two disk slots, suitable for personal or small office setups, and the F4-424 and F4-424 PRO offering four disk slots, providing more flexibility and capacity for intensive data storage needs.Here is a comparison table for the TerraMaster F2-424, F4-424, and F4-424 PRO NAS devices with the correct CPU specifications:

Feature/Specification TerraMaster F2-424 TerraMaster F4-424 TerraMaster F4-424 PRO
Processor Model Intel® Celeron N95 Intel® Celeron N95 Intel® Core™ i3 N300
Processor Architecture X.86 64-bit X.86 64-bit X.86 64-bit
Processor Frequency Max burst up to 3.4 GHz Max burst up to 3.4 GHz Max Turbo Frequency 3.80 GHz
Total Cores 4 4 8
Total Threads 4 4 8
System Memory 8 GB DDR5 non-ECC SODIMM 8 GB DDR5 non-ECC SODIMM 32 GB (Max, dependent on memory type)
Memory Slot Number 1 (DDR5 SODIMM) 1 (DDR5 SODIMM) 1
Maximum Supported Memory 32 GB DDR5 non-ECC SODIMM 32 GB DDR5 non-ECC SODIMM 16 GB
Disk Slot Number 2 4 4
Compatible Drive Types 3.5″ SATA HDD, 2.5″ SATA HDD/SSD 3.5″ SATA HDD, 2.5″ SATA HDD/SSD 3.5″ SATA HDD, 2.5″ SATA HDD/SSD
Maximum Internal Raw Storage Capacity 44 TB (22 TB x2) 88 TB (22 TB x4) 88 TB (22 TB x4)
Drive Hot Swap Yes Yes Yes
External Ports 2x RJ-45 2.5GbE, 2x USB3.2 Gen 2 (10Gb/s), HDMI 4K 60FPS 2x RJ-45 2.5GbE, 2x USB3.2 Gen 2 (10Gb/s), HDMI 4K 60FPS 2x RJ-45 2.5GbE, 2x USB3.2 Gen 2 (10Gb/s), HDMI 4K 60FPS
Dimensions (HWD) 222 x 119 x 154 mm 222 x 179 x 154 mm 222 x 179 x 154 mm
Weight 2.2 kg 3.4 kg 3.4 kg
System Fan 80 x 80 x 25 mm 80 x 80 x 25 mm 120 x 120 x 25 mm
Noise Level 19.0 dB(A) 19.0 dB(A) 21.0 dB(A)
Power Supply 40 W 40 W 90 W
Power Consumption 22.0 W (active), 11.0 W (hibernation) 22.0 W (active), 11.0 W (hibernation) 33.0 W (active), 13.0 W (hibernation)
Operating Temperature 0°C to 40°C 0°C to 40°C 0°C to 40°C
Supported OS Windows, Mac, Linux Windows, Mac, Linux Windows, Mac, Linux
Supported Browsers Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge
Supported Mobile OS iOS14.0+, Android 10.0+ iOS14.0+, Android 10.0+ iOS14.0+, Android 10.0+
Networking TCP/IP, IPv4/IPv6, Link Aggregation, DLNA, VPN, DDNS TCP/IP, IPv4/IPv6, Link Aggregation, DLNA, VPN, DDNS TCP/IP, IPv4/IPv6, Link Aggregation, DLNA, VPN, DDNS
Security Features Firewall, AES Encryption, RSA 2048 Firewall, AES Encryption, RSA 2048 Firewall, AES Encryption, RSA 2048
Price (Approximate) $379 $499 $699

This table provides a detailed comparison across key features and specifications for these TerraMaster NAS models. A common thread among these TerraMaster NAS units is their robust build and reliable performance. Each model supports both 3.5″ SATA HDDs and 2.5″ SATA SSDs, ensuring versatility in storage media choices. Networking is a strong suit, with all models featuring 2.5GbE network jacks for faster data transfer speeds, and HDMI ports for direct video output. Compatibility with various operating systems including Windows, Mac, and Linux, alongside comprehensive security features like firewall protection and AES encryption, underscores their flexibility and security focus.

Entry Level 4K Plex NAS – Synology DS224+

0-36TB, Intel J4125 4-Core CPU with 350-750Mhz Int.GFX, 2-6GB DDR4 Memory, 2x 2Gbe Port, 2yr Warranty

Current Price/Availability on Amazon – $299

Hardware Review – LINK

YouTube Video Review – Watch

What I said in my review Aug ’23:

The Synology DS224+ is a NAS that, in the correct context, is actually a really good choice of server for a lot of users. When Synology rearranged their portfolio in the middle of 2022, there was always going to be inconsistencies between releases and issues surrounding the placement of solutions in their ranges that needed addressing. When they upgraded the DS923+ and DS723+ with ECC memory up to 32GB, NVMe SSD pool support, optional 10GBE network upgrades, and a much more powerful business-class CPU, it was clear that they had designated that tier of their portfolio to be far more business than pleasure. From there, it became obvious that the standard mid-range two and four-bay solutions (in this case the DS224+ and DS423+) were going to be more home-user and multimedia-user-designated, and their hardware architecture needed to sit more balanced between the business-class solutions and the value series of real tech NAS devices. However, this has resulted in a new NAS arriving on the scene that has an intentionally low glass ceiling, and the disparity in hardware created between the DS224+ and the DS723+, despite a modest price difference between them, is only further worsened when the hardware similarities between the prosumer previous generation and this SMB generation are massive. It creates a feeling to the end-user who is aware of Synology’s previous releases that this is “paying money for old rope” and not a new-generation hardware solution. The reality, to new users and those that are upgrading away from the value tier into something a bit more established in the+ tier, is actually more nuanced. You are getting a great CPU here that, despite its age, still does extraordinarily well in DSM applications and third-party popular applications like Plex Media Server. Add to that that this is still a refresh of the previous generation that has moved from a dual-core to a quad-core processor, and you can see that upgrades in this refresh have occurred, though modest.

Then there is the fact that this system can still support the full range of applications and services in the Synology DSM 7.2 system software and makes it by far the lowest price you are ever going to have to pay to access everything that DSM can do in the latest generation, also guaranteeing the longest support of that software long after the hardware warranty has expired (security and feature updates). It does make a tremendous difference that the Synology developers and product managers know this hardware architecture so intricately, and that means that you are going to have a system that can run everything in the most efficient way possible, which will certainly pay dividends in the days, weeks, months, and years that you will have the system in operation – especially when factoring rising energy costs globally and how you want your system to do as much as possible while eating up as little electricity as possible! In conclusion, the Synology DS224+ is probably not Synology’s most exciting release, and if you are someone that skipped the 2020 generation of solutions because you wanted to hold out for something greater and more powerful, the DS224+ will probably serve as something of a damp squib to you. But it is a very solid NAS release, and as long as you put it in the right context as a buyer and keep in mind that this system is a refresh of the DS220+, it still does a great job. It just lacks a lot of the scalability and upgradability of other recent Synology NAS releases and looks, at least in the hardware department, a little underwhelming against competitors in 2023. You can definitely do a lot worse, but there is also the potential to do a lot better by spending just a fraction more.

SOFTWARE - 10/10
HARDWARE - 6/10
PERFORMANCE - 7/10
PRICE - 8/10
VALUE - 7/10


7.6
PROS
👍🏻Synology 4-Bay NAS with a 4-Core Intel Integrated Gfx Processor - Lovely stuff!
👍🏻Runs Everything in the Synology DSM Catalogue (Active Backup, Surveillance Station, VMM, Drive, Collab Suite, etc)
👍🏻Great Plex, Emby and Jellyfin Media Server Performance
👍🏻Broad HDD/SSD Compatibility with Synology drives AND Seagate+WD
👍🏻Low Impact chassis, low noise in operation (HDD dependant) and efficient power use
👍🏻Runs exceedingly well on just 2GB of Memory
👍🏻More affordable than the DS923+ and DS723+
👍🏻Long-running DSM Support beyond the Hardware
CONS
👎🏻No means to upgrade network connectivity and 1GbE by default
👎🏻Memory maximum cap at 6GB as original 2GB is fixed (non-upgradable)
👎🏻Small Jump from the 2020 released DS220+
👎🏻Non-Expandable
👎🏻Lack of M.2 NVMe Support



DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now?

Synology DS224+ NAS Amazon UK UK £299 (4% Off) HERE [LINK]
Synology 2-Bay DiskStation DS224+ (Diskless) Amazon usa USA 21.93 OFF (WAS 320) [LINK]
Synology DS224+ 2 Bay NAS Desktop: Efficient Storage Solution Amazon UK UK 11.63 OFF (WAS 330) [LINK]
Synology 2-Bay DiskStation DS224+ (without Disk) Amazon UK UK 46.73 OFF (WAS 349) [LINK]
Synology DS224+ 16TB 2 Bay NAS Solution installed with 2 x 8TB HAT3300 Drives Amazon UK UK 45.81 OFF (WAS 889) [LINK]

These Offers are Checked Daily

Best All Round Local + Remote Value 4K Plex NAS – The Asustor Lockerstor 4 Gen 2

0-88TB, Intel N5105 Celeron + 350-800Mhz Int. GFX, 4-16GB Memory, 4x M.2 NVMe 2280 Gen3x1 SSD Slots, 4x SATA Bays, LCD Control, HDMI 4K 60FPS and KVM Support, 2x 2.5GbE, USB 3.2 10G, 3yr Warranty, TrueNAS/UnRAID Support

Current Price/Availability on Amazon – $499+

Hardware Review – LINK

YouTube Video Review – Watch

Asustor TrueNAS Installation Guide HERE

Asustor UnRAID Installation Guide HERE

What I said in my review Nov ’22:

The Lockerstor 4 Gen 2 NAS is a respectable piece of kit! Indeed, the hardware here is almost faultless! Unless you are particularly noise sensitive (and therefore the metal chassis adding a few dBa to the ambient sound), there is almost nothing I can fault here on the devices hardware. The scaling up of practically all hardware over the Gen 1 Lockerstor, such as Better CPU, Better Memory that goes higher, HDMI 2.0b, USB 3.2 Gen 2, a 10GbE upgrade option and THOSE FOUR M. 2 NVMe SSD SLOTS – you simply cannot fault how much is getting included here at the price point vs it’s competitors. The software is a little less compelling, with a smaller range of 1st party applications on offer, more of a reliance on 3rd party services and the absence of a few AAA+ features that are present on other devices in the market (AI services, Cloud Bolt on live synchronization, 1st Party SaaS native sync with Google Workspace/Office365, etc).

That said, ADM does run very well, is clear and still quite user-friendly. The addition of choice of file systems EXT4 or BTRFS, flexibility on the use of those M.2 NVMe SSD bays and the Asustor HDMI portal still bring fantastic flexibility to the Lockerstor 4 Gen 2 NAS too. Ultimately, this is a system that is clearly making big waves on it’s hardware more than it’s software, but as long as you keep your feet on the ground and appreciate that this system is more of a 70/30 purchase of hardware vs software, you will come to respect and rely on this Asustor NAS as the backbone of your data storage setup.

SOFTWARE - 8/10
HARDWARE - 10/10
PERFORMANCE - 8/10
PRICE - 8/10
VALUE - 9/10


8.6
PROS
👍🏻Hard/Impossible to find this level of NAS Hardware elsewhere at this price point
👍🏻Those FOUR M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD slots are great and turn this 4-Bay NAS into an 8-Bay
👍🏻2.5GbE by default, as well as the option to add further 2.5/5Gb connections over USB
👍🏻The option to scale up the network connectivity to 10GbE down the line (4 and 6 Bay only)
👍🏻$60 increase over RRP of Lockstor Gen 1, but upgrades practically everything 1-2 levels (New Celeron CPU, Better/High Memory Max, USB 10G, HDMI 2.0b, PCIe Gen 3 Architecture)
👍🏻Includes support for either EXT4 or BTRFS
👍🏻Includes KVM Support with Parallel GUI over HDMI, Asustor Portal
👍🏻ADM is better tha nit has ever been, responsive, clear and intuitive
👍🏻Several different setup and initialization options
👍🏻One of very few 4-Bay NAS drives that still feature a fully functional and controllable LCD Panel
👍🏻Full Support of the traditional RAID levels for this scale (RAID 0-1-5-6)
👍🏻Storage can be expanded with TWO of the Asustor AS6004U 4-Bay
CONS
👎🏻Lack of a fluid RAID System (such as Synology Hybrid RAID, Drobo BeyondRAID or Terramaster TRAID) to allow mixed drive media and easier scaling of storage over time
👎🏻Metal chassis and trays is going to result in an increase of ambient noise (hum/vibration) than other plastic casing/tray NAS systems
👎🏻Some apps (such as the Surveillance Center apps) are long overdue an update in visuals and services
👎🏻ADM is good, but lacks the killer apps/AAA and AI service tools that are being offered by other brands right now
👎🏻They were targeted by the Deadbolt ransomware attack at the start of 2022 and although the linux vulnerability that was used has been reported to be closed and they worked with affected users, this is still going to be on the minds of some buyers


8K PLEX READY NAS DRIVE – The QNAP TVS-h874

0-176TB, 8-Bays, 2x PCIe 4 M.2 NVMe 2280, PCIe Gen 4×16 Upgrade Slot, Intel Core 12th Gen i5/i7/i9 CPU, 16-64GB DDR4 Memory, 2.5Gbe Port, 10Gb x2 Prots (Intel i9 Version), KVM, ZFS or EXT4 Setup, 3-5yr Warranty , TrueNAS/UnRAID Support

Current Price/Availability on Amazon – $2000-2500-3000

Hardware Review – LINK

YouTube Video Review – Watch

What I said in my review Dec ’22:

QNAP TrueNAS Installation Guide HERE

QNAP UnRAID Installation Guide HERE

The QNAP TVS-h874 NAS is easily one of the most hardware-capable desktop NAS systems that I have ever seen (as you would expect for £2500+) and has clearly been designed with phenomenal future proofing in mind! If you are concerned about the longevity of this NAS, this hardware architecture will still be top tier 5 years from now, with the added support of PCIe 4 meaning that high capacity and performing micro upgrades throughout its life also ensuring it remains relevant long after. It’s price tag clearly moves this purchase out of the home and squarely into the business market (though likely those that take their media seriously will add it to the cart) and the TVS-h874 will function as a solid solution for Video editing (even at 8K), high frequency and performing VMs, large scale AI powered Surveillance setup, hybrid cloud/on-prem alternative to Office 365/Google Workspace services and as the center point for all your data storage operations. Crucially though, it is that the hardware on offer here will be able to do ALL of these at the same time, therefore maximising the investment for most businesses that want to move aware from their cloud dependant ops. In terms of software,t things are a little less absolute, with QTS and QuTS still getting a little busy at times, with a steeper learning curve than its big rival DSM from Synology. That said, die-hard fans of ZFS (Zettabyte File System) will adore the inclusion of benefits in RAID handling, management and recovery that are exclusive to that platform, whilst enjoying the wide range of applications and service benefits in QuTS that are often restricted to Linux platforms.

The slightly conveluded approach to release hardware that does complicate the selection process (different CPUs in the Intel 12th Gen family changing the rest of the system architecture) is something that I hoped this brand would graduate from (for the sake of simplicity), but for many, this level of choice in hardware and budget will be welcome. As is QNAP’s position on the support of 3rd party hardware (drives, PCIe upgrades, etc) and software, something that we have seen a worrying trend in the last few years against elsewhere in the industry but some other brands, to err towards 1st party/proprietary compatibility more and more. There are still lingering doubts by some on the security of NAS, with ransomware attacks on the rise and ALL brands and ALL platforms being targetted (NAS, Cloud ,etc), finding a middle ground between ease of use and depth of security being a tricky tie rope walk indeed. The TVS-h874 arrives with a wide range of Day 1 tools, further rigid defaults in QTS/QuTS in 2022/2023, considerable security settings to configure and multiple system scan tools for recommendations & preventative measures available. The QNAP TVS-h874 is probably the most powerful desktop/tower NAS drive I have ever reviewed and if you are looking for a system that can legitimately do anything server-side, but you are also willing to put in the time to configure it correctly – you will genuinely be hard pushed to find a better system in 2022, 2023 and likely 2024 at this price point and scale.

SOFTWARE - 8/10
HARDWARE - 10/10
PERFORMANCE - 10/10
PRICE - 8/10
VALUE - 9/10


9.0
PROS
👍🏻First Commercial Intel Core 12th Gen i5, i7 and i9 NAS Drive
👍🏻Upto 20 Cores, 24 Threads and High End Integrated Graphics
👍🏻PCIe Gen 4 x16 Upgrade Slot for 10/25/100GbE Cards and 2x PCIe Gen 4 x4 M.2 NVMe Slots for 7GB SSDs
👍🏻No Obstinant 3rd Party Hardware Limitations on Support or Compatibility
👍🏻Much larger support of 3rd Party Software Services than most other NAS Brands
👍🏻10Gb/s USB Connectivity, in Type A and Type C
👍🏻Upto 64GB of Memory and Potential for 128GB
👍🏻ZFS or EXT 4 File System Choice
👍🏻M.2 NVMe SSD Bays can be used for Storage or Caching
👍🏻Volume Encryption, SED SSD Support and WORM
👍🏻Enhanced AI Surveillance Services, with opt to upgrade with $30 Google TPU
👍🏻AI Photo Management Tool (QuMagie) Includes Thing Recognition and works offline
👍🏻ALL the ZFS Benefits, whilst also the GUI and App benefits of a Linux Software Platform in one
CONS
👎🏻Available Versions/Configs of the 4/6/8-Bay are confusing
👎🏻QVR Elite (not QVR Pro) only has 2 Cam Licences
👎🏻HDMI Output is 1.4b
👎🏻10Gbe is ONLY included with the most expensive Intel i9 Model
👎🏻Noisy when in operation when fully populated
👎🏻Too Many licenses on Enterprise Tools (Drive Analyzer, Face Tiger, etc) with too few free licenses

 

DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now?


These Offers are Checked Daily

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      470 thoughts on “The Best PLEX NAS of 2023/2024 – A Buyers Guide”

      3. Hey Guy, I have a question for you I trust your reviews and I do appreciate the time you take to let us know what is better or not on your experience with these items. here goes nothing: I want to purchase a Synology product but due to financial issues it’s very hard for me and I need to make the right choice for what I need it for and I cannot afford to regret my decision. I will be using it to replace my slow-ass Drobo 5C and also for my Plex service and pics, documents, etc… I would appreciate any kind of information you can offer. I was looking into these two Synology 2-Bay DS223J Diskstation or Synology 2-Bay NAS DS223 or the Plus version. please help me out. thank you
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      4. Hey folks!
        Thank you for the amazing work you are doing!
        A question I have:
        I would like to build a media center based on N100 unit (or alternatively N305, r any other low TDP – feel free to recommend if you could ), but what I am afraid of that it would not be capable to play k4 HDR files with over 90-100Mbps transfer. Majority of tests I saw are up to 50Mbps. I did tests with cheapo – Synology 220j and it worked fine until around 70Mbps.. and then started to lose frames, pixelize etc.
        Could you suggest any decent build for this purpose, without breaking the bank, please?

        To clarify – I need a media center for singular 4k HDR Atmos ~100Mbps media (no transcoding) + thousands of photos storage (RAW quality, each file over 25MB) + additional services pihole, potentially VPN, private cloud etc.
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      5. My enterprise helium drives have super loud heads but the platers are basically dead silent. My consumer air filled drives have quiet heads but the platters sound like laptop fans on full blast. I prefer the quiet idle over the quiet load.
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      7. Video Transcoding was the first thing I disabled on my PLEX to force Direct play. Transcoding always degrades video quality. All my devices can direct play 4k HEVC, AV1 will be a bit of an issue for awhile as only my newest TV can direct play 4k AV1. As for my PLEX share, it’s up to them to get a device capable of playing the files I share and not me to transcode it for them (I’m not running a paid streaming service).
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      16. Thank you for the video, I’ve saved it to reference later as I make my journey in setting up my first NAS. I’m just curious, when and how does an nvidia shield pro come into play and how does that impact what components you require/don’t require in a prebuilt NAS system?
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      17. If the users device cannot play original 265, ie 1080p, it can be made to work by the user changing the resolution, ie to 720p. (Tested with multi TV brands). The only troubles, even with 264, is the audio codecs that were used in movie. Not seemed to narrow down those specific codecs yet.

        Also, for me, 4k is dumb to have if you a HUGE movie library of like 10k movies and tv shows (137tb ????)…in terms of space and hardware work load. Just not worth it until a converter can make a 4k movie at around 2gb…lol.

        But anyway, nice tips as I been thinking about a NAS. But my gaming pc is an absolute work horse, very, very quiet and doesn’t even use a 10th of it’s power. 17 HD’s…????
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      19. Looking to buy my first NAS for home/personal use – should I get the DS224+ or DS723+? I know the DS723+ doesn’t transcode but looking to Direct Play using Infuse (Jellyfin will be used for local metadata control only). NAS will be for storage backup for music files, digitised Vinyl, photography pictures and video to stream via Infuse at home.
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      26. Synology is backing out of Print Server functionality,
        especially Apple’s AirPrint (iPhone and iPad printing to wired network printers)

        After 4 great years — Print Server no longer works. Synology does not intend to Fix.
        Looking for other solutions.
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      29. Hello, I just ordered the QNAP TVS-h874X-i9-64G NAS. I’m in need of advice. I’m going to install 3 20tb drives and 2 nvme that are 1tb. My original thought was to use the nvme drives as a pool of the apps to live on like Plex. Should I do that, or use the nvme as cash?
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      31. Hi, so i have a m.2 already installed in my qnap and it’s assigned as a cache drive. Can i still use it regardless? Or should i put a second one in and use it instead?
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      32. Is all this even a problem anymore, wether you are into google or Apple, most people play their media on a chromecast/Shield/AppleTV right into their flatscreen they all support most of the the latest codecs. Plex is just a way of organizing your Media in a nice way instead of using a simple media player that shows your old school dlna service. You just stream your personal media from the NAS or local computer that holds your files. Sure PLEX integrates with your payed streaming services too, but any simple dlna service that runs on your pc or NAS can do the same as PLEX. The devices we use for playing our straming services still interacts with them technically via dlna. My AppleTV don’t really care if my files on the plex server is in one or the other format unless its some obscure format or homebrewed h.264 or x.265 configurations that isn’t standard. It even plays windows WMV files just fine. No need for a Plex Pass unless you really need to encode to a specific format.
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      33. Is there a way I can find a list of all QNAP devices that have an HDMI output? Their site seems to only list the current models but I would be interested in buying a used one off ebay
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      35. So, to cut a long story short. I eventually bought one of these – love(d) it. Yesterday, I went to RAF Cosford for the airshow. I had around 6,500 images to transfer to my NAS via Lightroom ( my images are kept on my NAS along with my music and other documents). I decided to MOVE rather than COPY the images – after all, I’d not had any cause not to. Lightroom finished, reporting almost 3,000 failures to transfer. The NAS had disappeared from the network and locked up- had to reboot from the enclosure. Tried again, same issue. Ended up having to run file recovery on my CFExpress card – I have 4 8TB HDD and 4 NVME sticks in the NAS acting as cache – locking up, the NAS lost the transfer.

        Looking online, it seems to be a known but not acknowledged issue – one commenter mentioned the way the memory is configured to clear data and another BTFRS. This is a significant issue. I don’t know whether it’s an ADM version issue or firmware issue as I have transferred thousands of files on there without any issues, but maybe the speed and continuous nature of this transfer took it over the edge. ASUS are having a bad time of late, especially if you follow their motherboard business.

        Do you have any suggestions – there are reddit posts about this exact issue FYI.
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      36. what a bs about h265, most of my library is h265 and it never needed any transcoding on any of the devices, you just mixing stuff up as plex is not transcoding to 265 due to license but there is no problem with any licensing for direct play of h265 files
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      37. Asustor recommends a USB stick and you recommend an SSD, but, where does ADM run from? Is it possible to install TrueNAS/OMV/unRAID/whatever in *that* location?
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      38. All my clients support x265. My oldest is a TV from 2018. My TV from 2017 also support HEVC. AVC/x264 is totally outdated, terrible efficiency, I wouldn’t recommend it at all!
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      41. I pay total of 10$ a month for shared Disney+ (includes Hulu in my country), Max, SkyShowtime (Paramount+ and Showtime), Prime Video and Apple TV+. Plex+NAS+Usenet will cost me multiple times more. But in the end I’m just sick and tired of switching between all the services and usually not watching anything in the end, so it’s worth it. I will keep all the streamers mainly because of my kids and fairy tales in our language (Czech) but I barely watch anything on those already.
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      42. So you want to have “youtube” server on your home, and watching videos whole day? That is not productive. Instead you could copy few movies that you plan to watch on external SSD and then connect to your tv and keep it for one week or month, or however it taks to watch that movies. But I don’t know why would I watch old movies that I alredy watched, and if it’s new movie that I purcased, then why not watch it when I purcased or near future. People are watching on VHS/DVD.. movies and now you want to complicate things and purchase something expensive that keeps using energy whole day, that produce noise.. I think it all goes down to laziness, if peole didn’t mind to go to store to rent VHS, why it’s hard to take dvd from your home and insert it to watch.
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      46. Plex Media Server (with Plex Pass), running in a TrueNAS CORE jail, streamed from an Apple TV4K with InFuse client… is my solution. Got 4 x ATV4K’s around the house and it’s all flawless
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      48. This video NEEEEEEDS timestamps for the individual models…. I just can’t sit here and watch it all… I just want to know about the DS723+ transcoding… Please add timestamps, I’m not watching the whole video to find it.
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      49. 24:00 based on your comments about running VM’s on the NVME, I installed a single 2Tb NVME and moved my virtual machines over there. From my Windows desktop, I connect to a Windows 11 pro VM using Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Connection app. The Windows VM on the NAS runs as fast as Windows runs on my desktop. With two monitors, they sit side by side and you’d never know that one is a VM ( what was I expecting ??? ) Brilliant.
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      52. I had a built NAS that has recently failed so I decided to buy a QNAP TS-464 and load UNRAID. I loaded a fresh copy of UNRAID on my Patriot USB drive using USB Flash Creator and when I boot from it on the qnap – I get an error ‘waiting for 30 sec for UNRAID to come online. Any idea what is going wrong? I have to admit that configuring the QNAP has been painful
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      55. BIOS Asustor (он же материнская плата Acer) в принципе не предусматривает установку системы на диск. Только на флеш USB.
        Потратил 5 дней разбираясь с этим.
        Можно установить Xpenology но она рандомно перезагружается в неожиданных ситуациях без явных и видимых причин.
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      64. When I tried to do this with a TS-2483U it will only see 8 drive bays in unraid. but a TS-1283U will see all 12 bays just fine. I’m wondering what I can do to get unraid to see all the drive bays. I posted something a log at unraid but nobody really had any suggestions. just said something about like unraid wouldnt support something. which I found odd. because if Qnap can make it work on thier closed Linux then. something open sourced should work to some degree.
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      70. I know this video isn’t new but I have one important question:

        I’am looking for a cheap NAS. My requirements are, affordable price, mainly used for storage, storage needs are 10 TB and should have the capability to handle my DVD and BluRay collection which I complety transcoded and stored in HEVC (H.265).

        What I did not understand is, why Plex do need to convert H.265 media for a playback? Right now I’m using Kodi with an external 5 TB HDD. Kodi has no issue to playback H.265 media so does not VLC. As Plex is a solution I have to pay for I would expect native playback of H.265 as well.

        Thank you for any answer and thank you for this really good and deep review of Asustor NAS!!! It already helped me by a lot!
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      72. In my TVS-672N i had installed 2 Samsung 970 Evo mvme drives as cashe installed. They were supported acording the compatibility list from Qnap for this nas.
        After 2 years both drives did die. Theese drives get VERY!!! HOT. I did know that so i installed big heatsinks on both drives but still they get VERY!!! HOT.
        At the same time the nas did die. After shutting the nas off i could not turn it on anymore. No lights, no nothing. When googling for more info i found out that very many people encountered the same problem.
        Qnap did extend the warenty on this nas from 2 years to 3 years witch i am glad they did because my nas was just over 2 years old. Qnap did replace the motherboard of the nas. Now it does work ok.
        Samsung also did replace my 970 Evo drives. I had 5 years waranty on theese drives.
        I think because the mvme cashe-drives wheere SOOOO HOT i think that could be a reason the motherboard did die after 2 years. Also cashedrives are being written very often constantly. I think that it will shorten the lifespan of theese mvme drives very quick.
        So for me NO mvme cashedrives anymore.
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      77. Hi @NASCompares! Thank you for all your videos. I just bought the DS224+ to have my own media server and for mobile photo/video backup purposes. I have a queston: How many users at the same team would be able to watch movies on my server? Would upgrading the RAM to 6GB allow more users to watch movies at the same time? Thank you in advance!
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      80. I wish you would include subtitles in your transcoding tests….. Downscaling a video while simultaneously including a subtitle usually stresses my Plex server. It’d be nice to see how this Synology NAS system handles it.
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      83. The Intel® UHD Graphics 600 iGPU in this NAS does NOT support AV-1 decoding, which is the future of streaming video (YouTube is supporting and pushing the format).
        If you’re looking for a long term solution, this may not be it.
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      84. Keep in mind that most NAS uses HDD, and the read/write throughput is the real bottle neck rather than the Internet speed. If you use 5400 rpm HDD with <200M/s I/O speed, it won't make sense to put a 10G Ethernet port...
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      85. I have a dead and discontinued DS214Play. What can I replace it with so that my disks still work and data is accessible? I’ve seen loads of videos about replacing failing drives in Synology, but what happens when the hardware fails, and Synology doesn’t support it anymore?
        If I get this one, the DS224+ can I put the drives from the DS214Play, and all is good?
        I would appreciate your guidance.
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      86. Big thanks to all you do in this space! I bought my first NAS after watching a ton of your videos to help me choose. Once I get more comfortable with it, I’ll be back to build one of my own with your help. Thanks again!
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      93. Hi! Great video series !
        Please be so kind and let me know this:
        1. Synology DS224+ with 2pcs Toshiba HDWG21EUZSVA 14TB – which RAID setting use to have continuous mirror copy on bouth of the hdd?
        2. What if one of this hdd fail? – can I remove the secound hdd from NAS and use it in normal PC with SATA, to use/copy the data – and then buy a new hdd in place of the failure one – to put inside the NAS a new one and make RAID mirror copy again.
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      95. Just got mine set up with total 6GB RAM. First NAS I have and can easily say this one is waaaaay over powered for me. ???? Barely hit 800 MB of RAM use, and never been above 12 % CPU usage.

        On the other hand it is wonderful how fast and responsive everything is. Love it so far! And might be hosting a website on it down the line.

        While for me personally not an issue, I agree with people here that it should have come with at least dual 2.5 gbit ports and Cat6 cables. All though dual gigabit wont be saturated even with RAID 0 when using HDD, it will become an issue if using SSDs in the enclosure.

        As this is a refresh of the DS220+, they should have given it that upgrade too.

        But again, for me personally I am very happy with mine.
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      97. thanks for the video… will be buying this, and just sticking in 8gb or 16gb ram stick to help it to be great photo and plex nas. (yes I know officially only 4gb recommended but I’ve read people using more ram and it works as cpu do support bigger sticks 😀
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      98. I’ve got a 7 year old DS. Honestly nothing significant has come out to make me feel like it’s even remotely worth spending money on an upgrade. Give me multi-gig without an expansion card and I’d likely upgrade right away. Heck that’s why I clicked on this video… hoping for multi-gig.
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      100. Thank you so much for the review! It helped me greatly with my purchase decisions. I’ve been considering an upgrade. I’ve been using the DS220+ with 2GB (soldered) + 16GB Kingston RAM module, and it’s been running smoothly. The CPU performance is impressive and there’s a lot of memory to spare, even with Docker containers and additional apps. The only thing that bothers me is the 1Gbit limitation on its ethernet ports. I’m surprised that the new model is a downgrade from the previous one. It’s unbelievable how much of a rip-off Synology can be. I’m currently considering another unofficial “extension” for my DS220+, specifically the USB 2.5 Gbit adapter (like the one you mentioned in the video). There are ways to make it work, so I’ll give it a try.
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      102. Recently set up a NAS and thought it was a great idea to use the plex application on the NAS and immediately regretted that decision. Basically the processor is too weak to do the kind of transcoding that is necessary for my use, and keeps the processor constantly pegged at 100% for watching 1 4K hdr video.

        Switched plex to be installed on a Ubuntu server with an RTX graphics card and mount the NAS shares for the library and its way better. The only reason to use the NAS server to run plex is if you don’t have another capable, stationary computer on your network. Literally any other computer is probably better.
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      103. I’ve found that when I experience weird troubles with PLEX server, I restart the machine, make sure Windows is updated, make sure my video drive is updated, update the server to the latest version, update the client to the latest version. Restart the machine again.
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      105. I am running a DS218+ and was thinking about going forward to a newer model like the DS224+, but seeing your review it made me doubt to make the step. On the DS218+ i am running some Docker images, they are somewhat memory hungry … but to get it running more ‘smooth’ i first going to upgrade the RAM on my DS218+ and see what happens. Who knows the DS225+ will have the latest state of the art processor and connectivity speeds … but then i ask myself … do i need it looking at my current network storage system.
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      106. Great video ????
        I’ve been running a DS216+II for quite some time incl. 8 GB of RAM.
        Would you recommend to upgrade to DS224+ instead?
        If so, can i use the DDR4 RAM modules from the DS216?
        Thx from Munich… ????
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      107. I know that I am late to the party but just in case anyone gets stuck like I did on installing UNRAID using the manual method: if you get an error when right clicking the batch file in the UnRAID zip file, and running that batch file in administrator mode, please make sure you turn off ransomeware protection, and lower your windows user control settings. If you don’t turn off these settings, you will get a error message in the command line that pops up when trying to make the usb bootable using the batch file. The error is usually “access denied” can’t access MBR or something like that.

        Turn off those settings mentioned on your windows 10/11 machine and you can create the bootable drive.
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      110. Just ordered this with 6gb extra ddr ram and 2x WD red plus 3Gb. Dont need 2,5 Gb ethernet. Is my 1st NAS and need a proven platform. Don’t care how dated the hardware is. It’s not a fashion product for me.
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      111. Thank video was helpful. I now compare DS723+ and DS224+ and i relly comfuse new model DS224+ at my discretion is disapoiting for year 2023. And price not to different for choise this model. The only reason I hesitate buy DS723+ is CPU olny 2core. Whitch model you prefer today for NAS with 2 or 4 slot primary usage for data storage and multimedia center (photo) from synology actual my favorit is DS723+
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      113. 1) NAS – is just storage device, what i7/Xeox are you talking about? If collecting TVs with different resolution is somebody’s hobby – just use $20 Android based TV box instead of purchasing 20x times expensive NAS,
        2) it’s impossible to hear noise from NAS in the farthest closet. Wireless interface inside TV is enough (WiFi5 – for 1080p, WiFi6 – for 2160p and 4320p) in most cases, and for spacious estates there’re WiFi extenders,
        3) don’t tell my NAS about that, because it has 512 MB RAM (Plex utilizes less than 1/4 of it), and doesn’t realize that this can’t be done,
        4) converting/transcoding – is client device’s task. Plex has no issue with direct streaming of supported H.264 & H.265 (30 fps/8 bit). If the device is used only for storing and viewing video, it is obvious that it is more economically profitable to convert all the video ONCE into a single format than to warm the house with Xeons every time during transcoding,
        5) instead of a bunch of words: if you wanna access your Plex library with Plex client from the outside and/or you need to manage clients access – subscribe on Pass,
        6) simply think about NAS’ HDMI as management tool for initial setup,
        7) it is a mistake to think that by purchasing expensive NAS with hardware transcoding acceleration, you will be able to use this acceleration without purchasing Pass subscription,
        8) a very realistic fairy tale, but there is a setting to access local Plex for both uses (listening & managing) when offline called ‘List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth’, and DLNA as backup for AppleTV. It’s clear, that you’ll not get pictures & descriptions update, but everything that was downloaded before the Internet was turned off will remain available in the same form.
        Summing up: don’t mix NAS with media station and video editing workstation. If you just need to watch cinemas on your TVs & mobile device, it will be more comfortable pay for multiple subscriptions of popular streaming services instead of purchasing and configuring some powerfull NAS with drives.
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      116. Hi, I’m considering buying this as my first NAS. But I see that the compatibility list for HDDs at Synology’s website has been reduced to only Synology branded HDDs, would I still be able to use a diffrent drive like the WD Red or SG Ironwolf?
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      118. i’d rephrase this very interesting video as “8 ways brands mislead their users”. People spend their hard earned money on stuff when is marketed a certain way and then companies drops some codecs or some software, false marketing products and then we re really here blaming people in the first place ? Cmon.
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      119. Hello, if you were to run 4K movies on two televisions and 1080P on a phone and a tablet, how much would the CPU be loaded in percentage? I will definitely be purchasing additional RAM. Do you think the DS220+ processor (2 cores and 2 threads) will be sufficient for hassle-free playback on 2 TVs in 4K movies and a tablet with a phone at 1080P?

        Is it worth paying extra for the DS224+ for these tasks?
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      121. NASCompares. Please, I need your help asap. I’m going insane because I can’t figure something out on my TV. I’m using DSM 7.2 > DS1520+ with an andriod 9 TV. How do I repeat a video on my Android TV? I can’t find the option anywhere. On my laptop, when I access my NAS there on the DSM, there is an option to ‘Repeat’. Help! Pleassseee!!!
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      122. Great video!

        Noobie question 1: Can this be run solely using SSD’s? I’m not a fan of noisey hardware.
        Noobie question 2: Heat. Will the ssd’s need individual thermal pads and heatsinks?
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      126. Hi. Worth noting that in order to use plex outside of your network you will need to do some port redirection on your internet router. It may be not allowed by your provider (it’s the case for me).
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      128. Appreciate the effort. But you probably could’ve re-uploaded this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwZ7vemddOI&ab_channel=NASCompares) and replace all mentions of DS720+ with DS224+ and the result wouldn’t be any different.
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      129. Great video! While watching I paralleled these tests on my DS220+ and it played all of these videos at maximum quality with ease, including the jellyfish 400mbps 4K video. However I have 6GB of memory installed. Hardware transcoding is a must, when I tried it without a Plex Pass the J0245 2-core CPU was pegged at 100% with constant buffering during playback of the Dune 16mbps trailer (I didn’t even attempt the jellyfish videos).
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      130. I enjoyed the video but I have to note your memory comments. The DS 224+ supports 6GB using a 4GB DDR4 SO-DIMM. In the USA at the time of this writing Amazon sells a Samsung PC4-3200 4GB stick for $6. While Synology only claims 6GB as max, J4125 is known to support 8GB sticks, which would allow up to 10 GB of single channel memory. That’s enough for pretty much anything running on a DS224.
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      139. how many people are watching fricken videos on their phone and flipping out if it buffers?All Synology NAS work fine, like my old 220+ for my needs, no buffering or stuttering and remote play just as seamless and now my 1522+…. could you seriously get off this topic already? 

        ….there seriously tens of thousands of people using their NAS to share their library and expecting 10 for more simultaneous transcoding streams to all their kids or friends or…. customers? it’s lunacy to see all the complaints about this one feature not being optimized with their choice of a new CPU which frankly is so much faster and efficient on every other task I use my NAS for like video and photo editing on the fly, backing up and accessing Synologydrive, music streaming and everything else. And no problem playing and I guess transcoding a stream when needed. My god y’al seem obsessed with being able to have multiple transcoding streams at once, and who needs that? someone who needs to get a life I imagine
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      144. Hi nice informative video. have anyone got experience in running Moodle on ADM? I am trying to run Moodle for a small school. I got it running ok locally, but how do I make it accessible on the internet?
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      145. Since I find that Qnap doesn’t have a good community, nor enough tutorials to help me do what I want with my NAS (mainly to use docker), would you recommend me to install Unraid instead insted of QTS, and is the support community better at unraid?
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      147. I just bought the DS224+ along with two Toshiba MG09 18TB drives which are not on the support list, I also got the message that I’m using a not supported drive. But it works, it shows up at 16,4TB. So what could happen?!
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      149. I will jump to the 1GbE shame train. Checking their routers available now..
        RT6600ax – LAN: [2.5GbE (RJ-45) x 1, Gigabit (RJ-45) x 3]; WAN: [Gigabit (RJ-45) x 1, 2.5 GbE (RJ-45) x 1 (Dual WAN)] – why only one 2.5GbE LAN?
        WRX560 – LAN: [2.5GbE (RJ-45) x 1, Gigabit (RJ-45) x 3]; WAN: [Gigabit (RJ-45) x 1, 2.5 GbE (RJ-45) x 1 (Dual WAN)] – why only one 2.5GbE LAN?
        RT2600ac – LAN: [Gigabit (RJ-45) x 4, Gigabit (RJ-45) x 3 (Dual WAN)]; WAN: [Gigabit (RJ-45) x 1, Gigabit (RJ-45) x 2 (Dual WAN)] – no 2.5GbE at all
        MR2200ac – LAN: [Gigabit (RJ-45) x 1]; WAN: [Gigabit (RJ-45) x 1] – one port less and it is what, wifi router without switch? hybrid AP with WAN?

        Come on Synology, this is not Networking, this is Notworking. I simply don’t understand the lack of 2.5GbE here. Even the wifi speeds are faster, than over wire. On the other hand, other brands are same in terms of 2,5GbE wifi routers :/ one must buy dedicated switch or just connect NAS to PC directly. 2023.
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      150. I can’t believe that they support such fewer HDDs. Does this mean my MG10ACA20TE will not work? When I bought the HDDs last week I was only looking for max. capacity supported, which is 108TB per drive. I am not even sure if I want to order the 224+ anymore…
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      154. Hello.
        I have a question.
        And I hope you can and will give me an answer to this.
        I can buy the Synology DS412 2nd hand.
        But this one still works.
        Will it still be recognized online in 2023
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      162. Robbie, Robbie, … , Robbie;
        I just don’t know how much longer I can hold-out for the 8bay !DS1824+ or Bust! (my fingers are still crossed Synology & I’m getting clamp in’m ;).
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      163. I just don’t understand why people keep saying that 220+ or the new 224+ only support +4gb RAM when lots of people are using even the 220+ with +16gb Memory ????
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      165. The lack of 2.5GBe or anyway to add faster Ethernet connectivity is a total show stopper for this device. While it may be possible to hack in a 2.5GbE USB adapter why should we have to go to that effort? Totally bonkers in 2023.
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      172. Why does this new NAS seem to be made with unused inventory. I can understand skipping a generation on the CPU the current Celerons are actually very powerful. I can understand the soldered memory because it saves cost during manufacturing, but they could have added a disable jumper to disable the onboard memory and let you add an 8GB modal.
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      175. The biggest problem I have is with subtitles. I have a Nimbus 5304T and I watch a lot of foreign films (French, Japanese, etc..). Even with .srt subtitles – supposedly the smallest – the Asustor struggles with Plex (I’m using the freebie). Asustor have told me that Plex lacks the power to run these things effectively and even given the spec of the Nimbus, I’m inclined to agree. Yep; it’s not a Lockerstor but it still has 4GB of RAM and a quad core Celeron, which puts it in the same category as the equivalent Synology.

        Furthermore, Plex has been the cause of a lot of my troubles and I’m currently trying to find out why I can no longer see the NAS through it and why launching with the IP address results in the webpage failing to load.
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      176. First of all, thank you for your channel. I’ve learned a lot!!! Considering DIY NAS with an SBC to replace a QNAP NAS. SBCs are affordable and customizable. They connect SATA drives and run Kodi. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts. Not sure if you covered this topic much. Thanks!
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      178. I just bought a Asustor gen 2 NAS…. what a piece of garbage!!! will bring it back later this week.
        My cheap asus router can play 4k better via SMB then this device with plex.
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      179. Your channel is pretty neat. I initially took note of your video about migrating away from WD nas, because i have decided to do that for a variety of reasons. Ive been looking at Synology, but also asustor especially the AS6704T. I want to migrate toward solid state, but also incorporate hdd’s i already have. Id like to pull the two WD 4 TB hdds from my wd mycloud ex2 ultra and install in a new NAS, and preserve the data. Is that sensible? Current ex2ultra must be using them in some kind of RAID array. Will asustor or indeed any new nas have the abilty to set up these drives in a suitable RAID configuration and preseve the data?
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      180. I use T-Mobile wireless internet which does not have Port Forwarding. I do not have issues with streaming but, If I use the paid Plex Pass services will I be able to use all the functionality of the service without Port Forwarding?
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      182. Hello,
        I am currently using an older Synology NAS. Can a BTRFS formatted Synology HD be read directly by the Asustor NAS by swapping the HDs? Or do I have to go thru a cumbersome file transfer?
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      185. Add a AMD and Nvidia GPU in there for the heck of it. Perhaps some AV1 testing too even though AV1 is not widely supported yet but would be cool over time to see how things change for that codec.
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      186. I have been looking to upgrade from my Buffalo NAS and after watching several of your videos I made up my mind and went with this Asustor. It just came in today so now I’m rewatching your videos to learn more on setting it up for my needs, but I can already say I’m just blown away by how much more user-friendly the system is when compared to my old system. Thanks for putting out such great and informative videos, it helped me make a solid choice.
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      187. You did not set up your NAS correctly for this test. You need to enable Media Mode via Settings -> General -> Media Mode, which disables S3 sleep. This will then allow transcoding via GPU.

        You also must use Plex Pass to use hardware encoding. After doing both of these you should barely see any CPU usage as the GPU will be doing the work.

        ASUSTOR has a video about this on their YouTube.
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      188. Excellent guide. Especially including the San Disk steps which would otherwise be bonus content. Definitely using your Unraid license link for my purchase.
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      191. I am looking at buying one of these Asustor AS6704T units soon. To replace a Synology 2-Bay to go RAID10. I like the looks and features of the Asustor better than the equivalent Synology.
        I have two brand new WD Black 1TB NVMe that I can use for cache. The btrfs is a nice feature to guard against bit-rot. I use the NAS as one of four backups as its only purpose.
        I have for years been watching the TrueNAS forums and pricing out ITX Server systems, and I just can’t get anywhere near the price of the NAS boxes or the features.
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      192. Watching the CPU work hard (40% usage) during some of those tests and practically 0% CPU usage during other sections leads me to believe that what you’re actually testing is Plex pulling from its transcode cache and that doesn’t seem like a very useful test. Did you clear the transcode cache before each run? Streaming a pre-transcoded file to the web client is just a matter of network bandwidth.
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      195. Capacity is a real issue
        nowadays just pay streaming services and let them worry about all that 4k tv/movie capacity
        i’ve swapped out all my tv/movie to flac music files on my NAS lol
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      196. nowadays these iptv catch up is quite cool
        there is always great stuff in there that you can just click play and burn all your free time away
        they are usually come included with your internet subscription
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      199. Just got this and am curious for editing large video files (mostly), storage and back up, and faster speeds, and access when out of town to edit my files…what else would you recommend me getting to add on to it? From what I researched, more RAM(?), at least one M.2 SSD Nvme card, and also the 10 Gbe NIC card…does this sound right (knowing I can add more on as I go)? I have two 20TB Seagate Ironwolf Pros as well. Thanks for the input…I’m new to using a NAS!
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      202. I’ve had one of these in my Amazon basket for a while – waiting until the right time. Now it’s the right time and all the 4-bay Lockerstor 4 Gen 2 AS6704T models seems to have disappeared from existence – typical! Can’t find them on any of your affiliate sites or more generally ‘out there’. Hope there isn’t an issue as I earmarked this after watching a number of your reviews (thank you!). It is certainly time for me to upgrade my Netgear RND312 (which to be fair has served me well…) – hopefully they will re-appear soon…
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      203. I’m thinking of getting this, but I wanted to know more about the ram upgrades on this and if the round is proprietary like Synology or can you use outside ram and NVME’s?
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      205. Dear Friend, First of all, thanks for the amazing review! I’ve bought a TVS-h874-i9 and i see there are some GPU that i can istall on it. My question is if there are other “new” GPUs that i can install on the TVS-h874. I was interested on the MSI GTX 1650 LP .
        Thanks a lot for your attention 🙂
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      206. I just received my TVS-h874 yesterday! I am coming from synology. I have a 920+ and 1821+. Synology has decided to “design out” multimedia Plex users as the 920+ was the last good Plex NAS from them for that purpose. THIS THING IS A BEAST!!!!!!!!!!!!! Intel UHD 770 FTW!!!! On a semi related note, I have a 920+ and 1821+ for sale.
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      207. I have just purchased an Orange pi5 to be used solely as a Plex Server. It has a Rockchip RK3588S 8 core 64bit Processor and 8GB Ram and says it supports 8K video codec, what i want to know is would this cpu work well with a NAS? Operating system i am using Ubuntu on a NVMe. Thanks
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      216. Great video. Just one note: you don’t have only Unraid pro as a choice 🙂 Unraid basic @ $59 will do everything you need. And the limitation to 6 drives shouldn’t be an issue on such a small NAS 🙂
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      220. Considering the 6-bay as an upgrade for my aging Drobo 5N. I’m a huge fan of these apps, whether 1st- or 3rd-party, because while I’m a programmer, I am NOT a Linux guy. And Docker is even supported here.
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      222. 26:53 And that’s what a lot of people don’t seem to understand these days.That’s literally why i don’t like this digitalization of all these mediums. Especially gaming! I still buy all of my games PHYSICALLY! (Except for those that aren’t available to buy physically of course.) That’s really important to me. Now, we can see a clear trend that this IS GOING AWAY! And like you said: If the platform is gone, your media (whether it is games, movies, music,…) WILL BE GONE TOO!

        I myself have Apple TV+ because there are a couple of good shows there and Netflix. I also have Disney+ but i pay my half with a friend of mine. But the movies i really want (in my case, movies like Harry Potter for example) i will actually buy physically.

        Anyway, it is very convenient for sure. I don’t even think that’s half of the appeal, i think that might be 80% of the appeal. I mean, as long as you have an internet connection of course, you can watch it everywhere. In most situations. On your phone/tablet when you’re in a long car/train/bus,…. drive. When you are laying in the hospital, or whatever the case may be right? The ease of use/convenience is there.

        Still though, you don’t own any of it, and that’s exactly what i have been saying for years already. Now, to each their own of course. Not everyone wants to buy their blu-rays (movies/series/music or games.) That’s absolutely fine. But i do think it is good to have options. We really need that. Once they remove that option and we are only left with streaming services. That becomes bad. Bad for us, the consumer that is. Because if you don’t own it, they can increase the price (and believe me, they will!) They can also take away those movies (for example Netflix has taken away all 7 Harry Potter movies on Netflix. At least here in Belgium.) I’m lucky enough that i own the Blu-rays. But it’s just an example. I really hope that physical media, whatever that media is, (Movies/games,…) will remain for as long as possible.

        I must admit that i did thought that movies and music would come on an SD/USB device in this day & age. But i guess that would up the cost too much. A bit like the Nintendo Switch comes on those smal cartridges. I do like that a lot to be honest.
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      225. I’ve heard there are issues with the fan controller using QNAP devices with Unraid? Im considering converting a TS-464 like you’ve used in this video to Unraid, but im a bit worried about the fans running at full speed. Can you confirm if there was any issues with the automatic fan control with a QNAP TS-464 and using Unraid? Do you need to do anything? Do they spin down when the NAS is not running hot?
        My NAS is right next to my desk, fan noise is annoying
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      229. I tried to install Unraid on my qnap nas ts-453 mini. The installation went well and I was able to run it. But due to my lack of knowledge of Linux and Docker I got really frustrated after installing Jellyfin. I created a shared map in which in copied some media files but Jellyfin couldn’t find the path nor the files. After trying Truenas core AND scale AND unraid I decided to give up and rollback my QNAP to QTS and that’s where it all went wrong. The final result is that my QNAP nas is dead as a doornail. Reset button does not work, no image on HDMI port, no beeps nothing…. So after three days of “getting nowhere” I must now say farewell to my 2015 QNAP nas. I’ll stick with my XPenology pc and maybe one day I’ll buy a new “real” nas. I don’t blame you or anyone else. I only got myself to blame…. ????????????????????????
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      230. I just gave my old QNAP ts-453 mini a second life by installing Truenas with your help. Thanks a lot! I’m eager to try it out. I’m already running a XPenology pc as a “fake” Synology and it works a charm. Luckily I bought the 8 Gb ram modules with the QNAP back in 2015…
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      231. I’ve had Plex for around 5 years now, and in that time, I have yet to find a single device that doesn’t support native h265 support. Almost all my media is in h265 to save space, and the only transcoding I’ve seen is when someone doesn’t change the Plex app’s default to 720p for remote plays. I tell them to adjust the settings to original for remote streams, and no more transcoding. (2Gbps internet upload, so no buffering either)
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      233. You need to have a very particular reason why you would install Unraid. While Qnap has had its problems, Unraid security is not very good. It’s made for repurposing old computer parts into a server. Having played with it, and liking what I have seen, it’s a lot more work than a QNAP or Synology to get set up properly. I used one to do hardware pass through to recreate Win 98 and XP gaming machines, and finding a motherboard to get it going was a nightmare. You cannot install a GPU to a Qnap, so there is no reason for me to do this.
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      235. I am thinking of switching over a TS-h973AX which doesn’t include HDMI output. But my understanding is if you prep a Unraid USB and thing physically remove the internal USB DOM with Qnap OS the unit will boot from the Unraid USB and you find the correct IP address for Unraid and continue setup from there. Yes?
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      236. Hi! I’m in the market for a 2-bay NAS. It would be used as a SMB share with the purpose of direct playing media locally, so no need for transcoding or remote access. At the most two devices would be accessing it at a time:

        – A Zidoo Z9X playing a 4K remux (could be 90Gb+)
        – A Fire TV Stick 4K Max playing a TV episode (12Gb at the most)

        I’m eyeing two options:

        1 – WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra (1Gb RAM, Marvell Armada 385 1.3GHz dual-core CPU) [A little cheaper]

        2 – Asustor Drivestor 2 AS1102T (1Gb RAM, Realtek RTD1296 Quad-Core 1.4 GHz CPU)

        Would any of these two work for me, or do I need something beefier?
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      239. Was watching this video as well as your video on NAS Synology setup Part 1. I’m planning on buying a NAS although I haven’t yet. I’m planning on using it mainly for streaming videos to and from my Zappiti (a video media player device). On the Zappiti website they give instructions on setting up Zappiti with Synology’s Docker program. Do i need to do this or would I want to have it? Why or why not do this? thanks for any insights you may have
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      241. That test at the start to show power needs to go. Two vms sitting completely idle, and two video streams with deciding happening on your pc gpu is basically just a test of sending the same file to the same place twice. A raspberry pi should be able to pass this test.
        Not saying it’s not a capable Nas, just that the test has to go.
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      244. I have heard security is not great, also someone said on Amazon that he has found a public website running on the box as well as the management console ? Can anyone verify ?
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      245. I think i might be getting Asustor LOCKERSTOR 4 Gen2 AS6704 for £619 and 2 x Seagate IronWolf Pro 16TB NAS for £265 each or would i be better getingf the 6 bay for £200 more with 8 gb memory
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      247. The only good QNAP unit is one that is running Truenas core. I sold of my other QNAPs 2 years ago as I was completely fed up with the startup/shutdown, firmware update times. I never had my opened to the internet, but the bugs they had. Some of their apps had crazy memory leaks and I would have to run the feature to reclaim the RAM. I installed two M.2 SSD and installed truenas on them as mirrored and currently have 6 12TB seagate EXOS HDDs with 2 spare bays empty. It has been running very well for about 1.5 years. It is my off-line archive unit that I connect power and network once a month to backup and turn off and disconnect again. I had to mcgyver the case as the TS-873A which had the Radeon chip ran very hot and they had a joke of a fan for cooling it. I cut in to the case and mounted an 80mm fan. It is noisy now, but the CPU SoC only get to 50C max instead of reaching 92C. I also replaced the the two internal fans with better ones as well. Also remove the DOM. Have 32GB of RAM and room to go upto 64GB of RAM. Of course installed a video card and room for a 10GB NIC. Friends don’t let friends use QTS. My main truenas uses a supermicro MB with Xeon Silver, 164GB RAM in a supermicro 3U rack chassis case with 16 bays for 3.5″ HDDs and a cage holding two 2.5″ SSD mirrored for booting. Three pools, with the biggest being 30TB for media.
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      249. so what i got from your notes on noise there wouldn’t be much difference between this and a DS220+?

        using 2 8TB WD Red Plus (5640rpm) in raid 1 and I was kinda shocked (coming from 1 4TB WD Red Pro) at how loud these drives were in the ds220+ was wondering if it was the…imo crappy cage amplifying the vibrations tried almost everything but it really would give my old 300GB WD Velociraptors in raid 0 or my 4TB WD Black a run for there money in the noise department…almost curious just how loud this thing would be if I went with 7200rpm drives >.>
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      250. Why do you assume that people will subscribe to 5 streaming services? Nuts. Paid and Free streaming services killed personal collection. No need to own one locally.
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      253. The question is, if you buy the low end i5, could you just replace the CPU yourself? Still gut my “old” i9 12900k after I upgraded to 13th gen and I´m in the process to invest in a new NAS and the H874 is on my short list.
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      255. Fantastic overview. This looks like one of the best 4 Bay NAS options available today (I know software isn’t as refined as others though).

        The only thing holding me back is the SSD setup. It’s a pain that 10GBE would only be available by removing the SSDs. Would love to know if a combined SSD/Network card is compatible.

        Kevin
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      259. This video is exactly what I needed as I am looking to set up a home media server for my family–which will need multiple 1080p streams and 4k in the near future. Alost every device in my house is Apple based (MacBooks, iPhones, iPads). So I am wondering how Apple compatible this unit is?
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      261. you can shut up, they took my money ;-). Pulled the trigger and ordered the I5 version. It is going to be overkill for my needs now, but will be able to handle anything I need for years to come. Great- long but great – review. I love your channel. Always great info, understandable for the likes of me that have limited understanding of IT and networking.
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      262. Nice one! Never been an owner of QNAP still, as I was always thinking the CPUs were way too weak to power VMs (coming from the Enterprise level with huge NetApp, EMC, Oracle and other powerful SAN-Storage brands), but now it seems the game is changing! That opens the door for smooth inline source-side block base depulication! …and true, indeed logic about the higher fan noise on that new range, as there is obviously never smoke without fire. 🙂
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      263. Well, that was just FN brilliant. Thank you for your very wise words and thoughts about just buying you own media and storing it to a NAS. I think too, that owning your own media in form from DVD’s or Blurays is much better as in 20 years you can still watch the stuf or if you die someone from your familly can enjoy. You are a very nice guy, so keep up the good work you areer doing.
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      264. Hi, I like your videos. I did everything suggested in this video apart I have an AS5304T without nvme so I installed TrueNas on USB SSD Drive (I know it’s not recommended). Installation went fine but I can’t access web interface. I read somewhere that latest version of TrueNAS CORE 13.0-U3.1 may have an issue with 2.5GigE Realtek NIC. Do you think this is the case? Thank you for any advice. Regards
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      265. Stupid question, but is there a noticable speed benefit to installing to nvme over hdd?
        Thanks for the informative video – very helpful in my decision making (deciding between Qnap TS-464 and this, coming from TrueNAS)
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      267. Robbie – any idea who will be selling the i9 version? I can only find the i5 on UK websites. There are two websites in the USA selling so may have to purchase there and ship back to the UK
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      269. It’s great that these days we’re talking about 10Gb speeds. But the reality is, most homes that might use a shared NAS for bulk storage are accessing it over Wi-Fi. Sure, for a few lucky ones, this NAS server could be located right next to a dedicated desktop PC plugged into a dedicated 10Gb Ethernet jack. Still, for all the other devices in the home, in all the other rooms, including the TV/Media area, data transfer will be dropped by more than a factor of 10. As of today, even if folks are lucky enough to own one of the fastest Wi-Fi mesh routers w/ satellites (such as the latest Orbi units) they’re still only running at dual channel 5GHz speeds of 1200 + 2400 Mbps. Far less than 10Gb. So…. I’m not quite sure what the attraction is to these hyper fast network speeds unless you have stuff plugged directly into it, which is not practical for “whole-home” use.
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      270. would be ideal if you would show how to upgrade the RAM inside of the 6704T, the chip that is inside, not the easy access one. I havent found a video showing how to get at the chip on the front of the MB, only the simple easy one on the back.
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      271. I have this 2 bay Nas, admittedly I have 16mb of ram, 500gb of nvme read/write cache and 250gb nvme boot drive. I also have both network ports plugged into a 2.5gbe switch with adaptive load balancing being utilised. The main hdd’s are 2 ironwolf 8tb drives and is where the media is streamed from. I have no issues what so ever playing any type of media file even a h265 file with a bit rate of around 60mb sec. I use jellyfin to stream my media.
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      273. Seems like it had issues with almost all the tests. Sucks that all the NASes use the same crappy Celeron chip (or worse), unless you pay like 3x more. For what these cost I’d want something more futureproof for different 4k formats. What do we do, wait for the next gen of overpriced compromises? Right now there are really no compelling options..
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      274. Great Video but what do you think about the Kickstarter NAS Storaxa for 222€ (Linux OS | Max 142TB Storage | 5xHDD | 4xSSD | TrueNAS | WiFi 6 | 4x 2.5GbE | Intel CPU | SD+MicroSD Card Reader | 4x 10Gbps USB Ports)
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      276. If you’re going to buy a 2-6 bay NAS like this and you know how to use Docker Compose and swag and properly configure a network (thus meaning you don’t really need to care what the UI is like and what applications are available in the package center as you’re going to use something better anyway), I think Asustor is the way to go, as I feel like Synology gets in my way too much on this front and their hardware is garbage now. QNAP has other problems, like refusing to support btrfs (and most of the cheaper models aren’t going to support ZFS, which is better than btrfs but isn’t normally used for such small arrays).
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      282. Has anyone thought about adding a SilverStone Technology FX600 to the TVS-h874 and then installing a powerful video card? Ideally I’m looking at a Plex Media Server and Gaming System All In One for the living room.
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      283. How large is the eMMC storage on a 4TS53D/E, it might not be advisable to doze over it without some backup in place, but let’s say that:
        a) I’m out of warranty
        b) Im not co concerned about potentially perma-bricking the Device

        Could I (At least), in theory install to this eMMC? Or would it be pointless, ’cause QNAP were careful to only bless it with just enough capacity to store its own OS
        (i.e. QTS), on it?
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      287. I’m still very new to the NAS space, but I’ve been slowly upgrading my system for about 2 years now, I built it for cheap and it’s been running excellently.

        -I used my first gaming PC, AMD a10-5800K. It’s an unimpressive processor but has pretty decent graphics for the age. That’s paired with my 16gb of ram from the same machine.
        -I went with a corsair carbide 100R case (old PC cases are your friend. They’re cheap and have lots of drive bays).
        -I got a 700W bronze power supply (wildly exceeds my power consumption needs, but it’s very efficient and has plenty of power for drives at a low cost)
        -For storage, I bought 3x 3TB WD red drives running in RAIDZ, and an old 2TB for extra storage of non-critical files. I went with Truenas, which is a bit daunting to work with, but once you’re up and running it’s pretty easy to manage.

        Truenas also supports a direct Plex plugin, which took all of 5 minutes to set up. My process now is ripping DVD’s directly to my NAS using an SMB share.

        All in, I think I spent less than $300 for the whole system using my old parts. I couldn’t put it in a closet or attic, so it’s in my dining room. By selecting a case with a lot of fans and good noise dampening, I’ve managed a quiet hum from the system. you can hear it’s there if you listen for it, but it’s quieter than my AC or a house fan.

        If you’re interested in getting a NAS and using plex, my main advice is to view it as a project and a learning experience. It will take time, you will feel out of your depth, and you will have a lot to learn. But, at the end of the day you’re learning a lot of valuable skills, owning your media, and you can venture into other projects like running your own VPN, game servers, and lots of other projects.
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      288. Would you still recommend gen 1 for 2023 purchase? Will the software get updated down the road? I’m finding some at great prices locally.
        Need to emphasize one of the use cases will be Plex Media Server with max 2 streams at any moment.
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      289. 1:14 1:CPU VS Graphics. The right CPU isn’t always powerful. GHZ/Cores
        2:14 2:Ambient noise and distance. The “bigger” the NAS the higher the potential volume
        04:12 3:Future proofing your memory. 2gig min. 4gb recommended. 8gig ideal.
        06:44 4:HVec/H.265 multimedia will very rarely play natively. Needs conversion
        12:18 5:Plex Pass do you really need it? pros and cons before you buy.
        14:56 6:HDMI NAS & plex issues in 2021 Nowhere near as simple/supported anymore
        16:55 7: Transcoding and do you really need it? Are you spending money on a feature you’ll never use/need?
        20:38 8: Plex media server internet connectivity. Plex still needs intermittent internet access.
        ADDED BY ME 9:Using the right NAS HDD. Use a hard drive rated for NAS usage and not just an off the shelf computer hard drive. Spend a little extra now and your plex will last longer.
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      290. Is there a limit of length of cables between the NAS and TV’s or Laptop/computer, where length MAYBE will lower the throughput between the units? And if storing the NAS in an enclosed drawer/cabinet where maybe the heat can’t get away easier, can that temperature be to high for the NAS so you’ll have to install a fan to extract the heat from that cabinet?
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      292. I’m considering the AS6706T at some point in the future if I can justify it. I have a Synology DS918+ in RAID 10 with four WD Red 12 TB drives in RAID 10 at the moment, but one of those drives just died a couple months ago, and while I replaced it, I’m now paranoid about the other three… but I don’t want to mix and match drives. So while I’m not exactly hurting for capacity, I’m kind of using it as one justification for an upgrade, as I could then reinitialize the Synology in RAID 5 and use it as an on-site backup, I guess.

        The AS6706T seems the way to go IMO as it comes with the 8 GB RAM in the internal slot standard – meaning you don’t have to take the whole damn thing apart to upgrade to 16 GB RAM – and it also has an internal power supply, because I absolutely hate power bricks and wall warts in terms of cable management.

        The trouble is, I can’t really justify it at the moment because:
        1. I don’t really have a good place to put it – particularly if it’s going to be louder than the DS918+ (and I’m assuming most of the noise would come from using Seagate 20 TB Iron Wolf Pros, which are 7200 RPM and much denser compared to my four WD Red 12 TB drives, which are 5400 RPM)
        2. My network is only 1 Gbps at the moment. Just as I don’t really have place on my desk for another NAS, I don’t have a place on my desk for a 2.5 Gbps / 10 Gbps switch, and my house is not wired for ethernet.

        Ideally, I’d put a rack in the basement and get the house wired for ethernet with a patch panel, then put in a rack router and use PoE 10 Gbps switch and APs, then I could put the NAS anywhere I damn well wanted and just run a cable to it, but that’s harder to justify than the NAS.
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      294. I wonder why your CPU says up to 4400mhz and mine says up to 3200mhz. I just purchased this model. Same processor. Only thing different is the firmware version I’m on a later one.
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      295. Truly the king of NAS… but at that price point I feel like you could probably get a used Supermicro rack chassis and probably build something more powerful, then put TrueNAS Scale on it and end up with something much better.
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      297. Beyond NAS, do you think I could use this product to spin a small windows vm unfortunatedly some things i need require windows only programs (ms office modules). Having this running in a VM in a nas would make more sense than having a stand alone small machine.
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      298. Really interesting and thoroughly explained. I’m thinking of trying it. I have a question tough: You put a NVME disk and installed TrueNAS on it. I assume the ADM OS is on another storage that you cannot access. That is how you can revert to it if you are not satisfied with TrueNAS. Am I right?
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      299. That the power consumption is neglible highly depends where you live, for Germany that statement is wrong. A device pulling 50Wh straight for the entire year will cost you about 15€/month at current prices.
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      300. I have everything on a network rack in a separate area, so noise is not an issue. I have two servers running Proxmox. I use one of them for both Plex and OMV, but they are VM’s.

        I wanted both the OMV and Plex to be on the same “physical” server instead of trying to read video files from a separate server, but I didn’t consider the transcoding. I was more concerned with having the source files (OMV) and the plex server on the same physical server to avoid network congestion. I also split the libraries onto separate drives, so that multiple user may not even be using the same drive. For example, Moves 1, Movies 2, TV Shows, Kid Movies, all on separate physical hard drives. All of them are backed up too.

        If I put Plex on a dedicated phsycial intel system, and the video libraries are still on the separate OMV server, will it still be better because of the hardware transcoding? Which is worse? Multiple viewers streaming over 1gig or this lack of hardware transcoding?

        I’d love to upgrade to 10gig between the two servers but it’s just not in the budget right now.
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      301. Nice review, thanks!
        I have bought the smaller 4 bays version (TVS-H474). I would love to upgrade the CPU (Pentium Gold G7400) to an Intel Core. Looking at your video, it looks like this is the exact same cooling system you have with your much more powerfull Intel Core i5-12400. Therefore I have the feeling my unit would be able to cool down the same CPU but I might be wrong. How were your CPU temps under heavy load? How fast was the very little fan spinning under these conditions? I am afraid this upgrade would turn my NAS into an airport. Thank you!
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      304. Robbie, you really need to get over your obsession with plastic and foam in packaged products. Most reputable manufacturers are moving to paper/cardboard packing, as it helps prevent plastic waste gushing out into our biosphere. Plastic recycling is a myth. Proper packaging techniques (double-boxing, molded pulp inner frames, etc.) help protect products during shipment. Same goes for metal vs. plastic enclosures. Metal is readily recyclable. If a device is noisy as a result, then the manufacturer needs to take steps to dampen sound. Help your viewers become responsible citizens of the planet.
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      305. it would be great if you dig into the tvs-h474 just because of how different it is. I think a lot of users would be trying to decide between that and the tvs-472xt, especially us creators who want to edit off of it but might be wanting scalability because their creative studios may grow
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      306. Great video! I wanted to know if the 4SSD bay can be used to store parity for raid 6. Let’s say I want to use 4x4TB spin drive and 2x2TB m.2 SSD to achieve 5x4TB raid 6? and use the 2 remaining m.2 for caching?
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      307. A quick question.. with Asustor supporting BRTFS. is it using the brtfs raid or is it the old trusty mdadm with just btrfs as a filesystem on top of it? thinking about the RAID 5/6 issues with the btrfs raid..
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      309. I’ve had a Synology 920+ for over 2 years. Wanted a newer model for my house but looking at Synology’s line up I can’t help but feel they are locking many features out of their lower end models and for what gain? I love DSM 7, it’s rock solid with the occasional SMB service stopping and needs a reboot. The software is mature. However 1 GbE feels extremely dated and to see it on their higher priced models makes me laugh a little. There’s a spare M.2 slot on my 920+ which I can’t even use for storage? While the Lockerstor can, heck the 10 bay model has two 10GbE ports future proofing the thing by alot. Some of Synology’s newer models 923+ don’t havea GPU either, occasional transcode or VM hw acceleration goes along way. Torn at the moment. Asustor looks extremely tempting, when the time comes if their software has mutured I think it’ll be a no brainer. Not to mention the endless possibilities of Gen2 USB like maybe running an external GPU? Amazing stuff from Asustor and I could soon be a customer when the price drops a little more.
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      311. Can I use any type of thunderbolt cards or anything to connect to my with just thunderbolt. I see the 2.5, 5, and 10gbe adapters but I dont want to use them if I dont have to
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      314. Maybe a noob question, but why does the System Ram (Plex Graphs)always show near 100%? I noticed it also on the earlier Plex tests video for this Qnap TVS-h874. Other tests for different units showed the Ram not being maxed out.
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      319. I have recently installed a TVS-h874 with 8 18TB HDDs and 2 2TBNVME, with similar read speeds to your install in the video (Raid 5 or 6 tested) for individual drives, however, the true transfer speed to the shared folders is 25MB/s write and 275MB/s read. The write speed is very slow without SSDs in QTier to help. Thus, this device has all this power to process data, but is very slow at moving it around if using HDDs. I may have to revert to QTS versus QuTS Hero to see if QTier helps improve the transfer speeds.
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      326. I just this year ventured into the universe of having my first NAS. I purchased the QNAP TS32-PX and I am thinking that I cannot switch this unit over to TrueNAS, can someone confirm that for me? I just looked at my manual and I don’t have any sort of port to connect up a monitor, only USB slots and Ethernet. The manual also names an unusual CPU which is Annapurna Labs Alpine AL324 4-core 1.7 GHz ARM 64-bit so I really am leaning to the conclusion that I cannot switch over but still prefer to get some opinions please.
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      328. Thank you for a very comprehensive and albeit a long video, but you covered so much material in that time.

        I watched it as I wondered if it would have been a better choice to my TS-h1290FX.

        Fully agree with you about the open architecture and software on the QNAP NASs, that to me is a huge plus and the reason I went for QNAP 11 years ago, and my old 659 Pro NAS is still running now; I’ve also found their products to be extremely reliable.

        You mention the h874 is noisy. Ironwolf Pro 14TB drives are very very noisy, I’m using 8 x 7.68TB U2 NVMe drives in mine, and it is very very quiet. I agree QNAP were penny-pinching with only providing 2.5Gb NICs, I’m using a dual 10Gb card with PiHole and that gives me 20Gb bandwidth and editing 4k video on the fly is instantaneous.

        My 7.68TB NVMes do not get hot like the stick ones; I checked the SR of one of mine in a RAID 6 and I got 2.8GB! Plenty fast enough for gen 3 NVMes!

        You mentioned Plex, I just use the inbuilt DLNA server and somehow ISO blu-ray and DVD images transcode and play flawlessly on local TVs via the LAN. I really struggled with Plex, so I let local devices including TVs just navigate the folders to play the ISOs or video files. I have no use for HDMI sockets (mine does not have one).

        You didn’t mention QPhoto is not available on QuTS hero so tagging of photos can’t be done locally, but the tags can be analysed by QuMagie; the solution to this is tag on a QTS NAS and copy them over; I’ll be semi-automating this process soon on our system soon.

        QVR Pro is plenty good enough for me, don’t need QVR Elite, but it needs more horse than a TS-873; mine now runs well on a TVS-EC1080+.

        I’ve not sure how you get QNAP Club, I don’t see that on mine.

        Also noticed you use Classic Start Menu too; I do on my 64GB Win 11 Pro machine; I’ve used that ever since Windows 7!

        Thanks again for a very complete, informative and comprehensive video, much appreciated. I made the right decision for our needs.
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      330. @NASCompares What is the source of most of the noise? Drives or fans? Without giving much away how less noisy is the QNAP TVS-h674? Also, sorry you didn’t demonstrate or go more into add in cards. For example is an add-in GTX 1650 better than the onboard CPU or GPU re Plex?
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      331. A top review! And the device is actually top-notch. If it weren’t for QNAP’s unspeakable licensing policy with QTS Hero. Here there is only QVR Elite for camera monitoring, which you have to buy through expensive monthly additional subscriptions. A NOGO for me. Overall, QNAP is going completely in the wrong direction with its camera monitoring solution and licensing. This should be included in the price of such an expensive product. I look forward to the next tests of the device.
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      332. awesome, i knew you would like it, i love it, i bought the 6 bay i5 [8 including SSDs] been waiting for this review, think I would cry if you didn’t rate it, think this range will have some following maybe reaching cult status, it is a paradigm shift, have you seen the guy who modded/cut in a Quadro P2000 GPU, search YT, upgrading my network now, really interested in any future content, it is expensive and like a comment on here already there is always an argument to build your own, I could have done that but it just works no faffing about and you get a 3 year warranty now, plus optional 2 year extension……
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      333. I was going to bin my little old TS-453D because I couldn’t run Proxmox without using a USB drive. After a year of utter frustration, I just discovered that I can indeed boot from the two drives on the RHS nearest the power switch. I wish someone had posted this info somewhere that google search could find (ie; not here).
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      334. Great video!! I like very much how thorough it is. One thing that I would love is if you mentioned how to attach the unit directly to a PC ( I know you have a previous video about that) and how to configure the static IP addresses on both.
        One question. Do you have any information about price and availability of the i7 and i9 chips models? They are mentioned on QNAP’s website briefly, but there are impossible to find anywhere else on the internet.
        Also it would be fantastic if you can actually test performance transfer rates with different configurations.
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      336. Any idea why, if we decide to use Google pay to say thanks, they charge tax ? And thank you very much for the non-stop education. And just to prove that I haven’t missed a single lesson… ROOTER, ROOTER, ROOTER…
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      338. Thank you! I was looking forward for a Qnap TVS hx74 review for a while. ????
        Just strange, at Qnap Germany you can find currenty no i7 nor i9 variant of it.
        Only h674 i3, h674 i5 and the h874 i5 are shown on Qnap Germany…
        Hope the other variants will be available in Germany too ????
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      343. Very nice array indeed. But a bit too overpriced. I decided to check quickly for prices of components to build DIY SAN/NAS appliance. Without disks we can build solutions for nearly 50% of qnap price, and it’s all built using brand new components. I don’t think qnap software is worth additional 2000€. There’s no doubt it’s very convenient package to just plug and play, but if someone was to put a bit of effort (assuming necessary hardware/software skills) into building it themselves, they can save bucks.

        Intel Core i5-12400 – 200€
        Motherboard ASRock Z790 STEEL LEGEND – 340€ (3 * PCIe4.0 x16)
        Kingston Fury Beast Black 32GB DDR5 RAM = 150 * 2 = 300€ (for 64GB RAM)
        Lenovo ISG TS Intel X550-T2 Dual Port 10GBase-T Adapter = 700€ (could pick up used card from ebay for less than 200€)
        Phantek enthoo pro eATX case (6 internal 3.5 disk bays) = 150€
        ToughArmor MB608SP-B Rugged 6 x 2.5″ SAS/SATA HDD/SSD Mobile Rack Enclosure for 5.25″ Bay = 170€
        LSI 9300-16i SATA/SAS HBA (used from ebay, PCIe 3.0) = 300€
        SAS cabling = 100€

        Hardware total cost (without disks): 2260€

        Hardware total cost without disks (with used dual 10Gb NIC): 1760€

        Disks:

        Seagate IronWolf Pro ST14000NE0008 14TB = 370€ x 6 = 2220€
        SSD 2TB disk (consumer-grade) = 200€ x 6 = 1200€

        Total cost with disks: 5680€

        Total cost with disks (used 10Gb NIC): 5180€
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      344. Very nice array indeed. But a bit too overpriced. I decided to check quickly for prices of components to build DIY SAN/NAS appliance. Without disks we can build solutions for nearly 50% of qnap price, and it’s all built using brand new components. I don’t think qnap software is worth additional 2000€. There’s no doubt it’s very convenient package to just plug and play, but if someone was to put a bit of effort (assuming necessary hardware/software skills) into building it themselves, they can save bucks.

        Intel Core i5-12400 – 200€
        Motherboard ASRock Z790 STEEL LEGEND – 340€ (3 * PCIe4.0 x16)
        Kingston Fury Beast Black 32GB DDR5 RAM = 150 * 2 = 300€ (for 64GB RAM)
        Lenovo ISG TS Intel X550-T2 Dual Port 10GBase-T Adapter = 700€ (could pick up used card from ebay for less than 200€)
        Phantek enthoo pro eATX case (6 internal 3.5 disk bays) = 150€
        ToughArmor MB608SP-B Rugged 6 x 2.5″ SAS/SATA HDD/SSD Mobile Rack Enclosure for 5.25″ Bay = 170€
        LSI 9300-16i SATA/SAS HBA (used from ebay, PCIe 3.0) = 300€
        SAS cabling = 100€

        Hardware total cost (without disks): 2260€

        Hardware total cost without disks (with used dual 10Gb NIC): 1760€

        Disks:

        Seagate IronWolf Pro ST14000NE0008 14TB = 370€ x 6 = 2220€
        SSD 2TB disk (consumer-grade) = 200€ x 6 = 1200€

        Total cost with disks: 5680€

        Total cost with disks (used 10Gb NIC): 5180€
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      345. Amazing review Robbie!! Many thanks for all your efforts in covering everything. If only Synology pumped out a NAS with these specs… ????

        I’ve been on the fence from switching to this exact NAS, (from a DS1621+) but I also have concerns about the UHD graphics not being UHD770. There are several retailers in the US that still show it having the 770. The jump to the i9 version is a lot of $$$.
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      346. Good to see that some brands still know what’s what, and know what to focus on, while others have become a proprietary circus act, defecating all over their customers.
        Btw. the audio/video sync is really out of whack on this one ????
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      351. Just bought the 674 with the i5-12400, but might send it back. When it was announced there the graphics Even for the i5 was the uhd770 but now ist just the uhd730. You can still find pdf with the old Info.
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      352. *Note* Regarding Length and Sound – Yep, this is a *LOOOOOOOONG* Review. However, for many users working in the Video Production and SMB market, this is likely to be their FIRST NAS after relying on cloud for years and years, so I have to cover *EVERYTHING*, as well as why PCIe4 in NAS is such a big deal! There will be a much, much shorter ‘Before you Buy’ 15min video on the QNAP TVS-874 NAS Soon. Additionally, this is my 2nd attempt at uploading this video and both times, the YT processing seems to dislike the recording (with audio syncing in/out at times). I am in discussion with YouTube over this, as these sync issues are not present in the original production before it was uploaded! Apologies for this and hopefully it will get straightened out soon.
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      353. was undecided between the 6604 and the 6704 to replace my Netgear RN214. went with the 6704 as i thought it was the best option. should receive it next week. a big plus for me was future option to use 10gbe, but now it seems i have to choose either NVME or 10GBe?
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      356. I came across your amazing channel today, Thank you for the good information! I am looking for a 4-6 bay hardware RAID 5 or 6 external enclosure for storage and backup. I was looking at DAS, but I like this Asustor NAS system. Is this Asustor NAS use a hardware level raid controller or does it use internal software to address the drives? As a comparison I was looking at the QNAP TR-004 the Yottamaster FS5RU3, or the Syba SY-ENC50118. Price concern but I rather have better reliability if i can keep the price reasonable. Thanks for any advice in advance
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      357. Thank you for a thoroughly informative review. I own this NAS with 4 Seagate 8TB ea. RAID 5, and upgraded the RAM to 16GB. However there are 3 as of yet unsolved issues for which any advice would be appreciated:
        1. Using Chromebook OS on Asus CX5400, EZsync does not work, it’s for Windows pcs. What’s a good alternative?
        2. Backup App, no option to backup Chromebook to the NAS or even external USB drive. Is there an alternate app?
        3. WOL works using AiData on Android phone. But using the Chromebook WOL using AiData doesn’t work. Other two functions, sleep and power off do work. Asustor Tech Support is trying to resolve this issue.
        Thanks for any advice and for all the informative videos.
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      358. Question for you guys. Say I wanted to give my friends/family access to my Plex and I’m using a run of the mill Synology or QNAP. How many people could stream from it simultaneously before my NAS can’t handle it anymore?
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      362. Hello Robbie! Really enjoy all of your informative videos and product reviews! You keep it interesting as I enjoy the conversation. Grateful how you guys encourage others to participate in the forum – which gives back to the community.
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      364. Went to look at this and noticed something which you would need to correct in your review. If you upgrade to the 10gb nic then you have to remove the M.2 card. You have to go into the settings and switch from M.2 to PCI 10gb card so the NVME drives can’t saturate the 10gb nic since they can not exist together. Unless you can find a card that does both and maybe get it to work. Love your reviews keep up the excellent work
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      367. Solid information, thank you. I’ve been looking for months and still haven’t made up my mind; but every video you drop fills my head with the information I need to think through my purchase well.
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      368. I went with a 4-bay Asustor NAS based on best value and it works very well for my needs. After owning it 6 months, I learned I did not follow best practices when i set it up to guard against ransomware attacks so I went through the trouble of starting over. Glad I did because those best practices I implemented during setup prevented me from surfing the pain others did when the ransomware attack Deadbolt hit. I was away from town at that time but slept soundly knowing I shored up every vulnerability the attack targeted. I can’t thank NASCompares enough for these type of videos that helped organize my digital life with a NAS.
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      374. What if you only us a Synology NAS for Plex and you want to sleep without hearing HDD noises all night? Is a scheduled power on/off the only option. The fans don’t bother me, but the drive activity does. I’m forced to have the NAS in my bedroom until I rewire the house for networking.
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      377. I’m looking to update/upgrade my NAS. I use it solely for Plex. I have purchased Plex Pass. What I’m looking for in a NAS is
        The ability to build on the storage, to be able to play 4K content and torecommend,
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      379. Just finished a CompTIA Net+, Sec+, and CCNA courses through the VA at an IT school for Veterans. Have applied to over 115 jobs in the past 2 months. Can’t get a job anywhere. Everyone wants you to have a PHD for an entry level IT job. It’s depressing and discouraging out here! So desperate for someone in IT somewhere to give me a chance to get started. Can’t get a job without experience, can’t get experience without a job. Yay.
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      387. NAS costs lot more upfront but, after that you get what you own or download torrents… Also make up email accounts and get those free or cheap trials for streaming services etc.
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      390. Excellent video as always. I’ve recently stopped my service to hifi music streaming and am allocating that money to buying physical media that I own and store on my nas. I do retain one movie streaming service for reasons you mentioned, but ones that aren’t often available and I enjoy watching often I’m buying the box sets and ripping them to my nas so I always have them available to watch and I know I have them now forever. It’s almost hard justifying buying when we can just stream so much but I like the idea I own it now and it won’t just disappear once my subscription ends. When I originally bought my nas it was for a simple file server and backup until I found out how much these Synology devices are capable of. Now I can’t get enough of using it to its fullest potential. Many thanks to you for that!
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      391. What I’m doing: Netflix for convenience if the movie or show not on there I’ll buy it on apple tv if it’s a good price and they have it if not then it’s Plex time baby.
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      393. You mentioned average prices of media you can own… the thing that gets me is that if you DO buy something from Google play, you still don’t really own it… you can only view it through their services… talk about misleading. The only way I can see that you truly own that media is buying a physical copy of it
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      395. I think these services are amongst the cheapest in India… $8 per month for Netflix, $12 for Amazon prime for a year and about $20 per year for Disney (includes live Sports) ???? .. I still use a NAS (on raspberry pi) for the shows which are no more available in any streaming services..
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      397. Great info as usual … just one quick question … I’m quite a tech guy and over the years I have built up lots and lots of family photos / videos and films on lots of usb hard drives … I think it’s time to get a “NAS” … do I need a special type of “NAS” for all of my media ??? As it’s mainly photos / videos ???
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      398. Great video. I think you missed a good chunk of streaming by not including music streaming in this calculation. Could be another almost 20 bucks a month for streaming service.
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      399. While owning physical media is great, and having those movies as part of a collection, There is the issue of disc rot, If you had discs laying around for a number of years, There’s always the possibility that the material that’s on that disc would start to deteriorate, and become unreadable, So I highly recommend you rip those discs and store them on your media server of choice as a backup, That way you have a perfectly good digital copy of your physical media. Software such as MakeMKV will allow you to rip all your DVDs and Blu-rays.
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      402. We us our NAS/Plex server more as a giant DVR. We will subscribe to a premium service for a month and download everything we want from the service to Plex and then watch it at our leisure. The next month, we will pick a different service. Rinse and repeat every month. If it’s a show we like, we keep it. If not it’s deleted. I also had a huge DVD collection that I wanted to preserve.
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      404. Another thing to consider is FTA (Free to air) on home theatre PC (HTPC). Our household has been using a HTPC with TV tuner card(s) since they arrived Win7 currently we can schedule recording on up to four channels in parallel. The main use is to avoid being forced into the schedule of the TV company, you can watch recordings in your own time plus occasionally archiving the interesting stuff . Another service we use it Kodi its worthwhile checking that out. How many people actually use HTPC with TV tuner cards these days? Streaming services seem to have killed them off.

        I don’t recommend using enterprise grade SATA HDDs in a media storage device because they are very noisy and run at higher temps than consumer grade HDDs. They are designed for data centres not lounge rooms.
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      406. For those looking for free video content, here’s what I do. My local public library has a huge DVD movie, TV series, and documentary collection. Their collection is easy to search online and then simply click to reserve and have delivered to my local branch. I then use MakeMKV to rip the DVD to my hard drive in MKV format which is pretty much original quality. A bit redundant, but I then use Handbrake to make an MP4 copy which is far smaller and therefore a bit more portable when the need arises. Sure, the movies aren’t new releases, but there are thousands to choose from and everything is free, including MakeMKV and Handbrake. It’s all on my NAS for home viewing throughout the house. Alternatively, my local thrift stores sell movie DVD’s for around $2. I buy those occasionally, rip, and then donate to the library.
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      407. In the UK and some other European countries there is potentially also the cost of a TV licence ~£159. In the UK you can not watch live programming without a TV licence. Streaming of non-live content avoids this problem but one has to be careful. If you can be 100% sure you will not watch live TV then no problem.
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      408. For me, it’s convenience. I briefly thought about running a media server, and quickly decided I just don’t want to bother.

        I can browse Netflix or Prime, choose what I want, and it’s streaming.

        With physical media, I have to find and acquire the media (harder and harder to do), bring it home or wait for shipping, take the time to rip the disc, store it, worry about naming conventions and organization, back it up, figure out how to actually stream that media on the device I want to use. Yeah, I am so done with that.
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      409. Apples and oranges really, considering the content is often different, streaming always being the newest (except cinema ofc in some cases) and what most people are looking for. Bought media stored on a server will always play catch-up in that regard. Unless ofc we’re talking pi**cy, plus automation etc., which is entirely different, and naturally beating everything else. Illegal ofc ????
        You rightly mention retention of your media. With streaming you have zero control, and your favorite movie/show can (and does) get yanked overnight. With a server you control it’s the opposite. Bottom line IMHO, the stuff you want to keep, get a copy you control, for everything else streaming is fine.
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      411. I think the trick is to use and manage all the above so that you get the most bang for your buck. I purchase the hard to find (and seldom streamed) titles, as well as my all time favorites for my NAS. I stream Prime and HULU, but I don’t really consider Prime because I would have it even if all I did was get free two day delivery. Add the free music and videos and it’s a no brainer. HULU is getting a bit pricey but they allow you to suspend your subscription which works out great when you’ve caught up with everything. All others like Paramount+ or Britbox and Acorn I usually wait till they have a trial of a dollar a month for 2 or 3 months. A very easy and cheap way to catch up on your favorites. Bottom line is, these are tough times and you have to make the dollar (or pound) stretch especially on discretionary spending.
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      413. You forgot one important consideration. Is your cable or DSL company. Sending all of that data across the internet, and if your provider has limits set on your data usage. You could get a huge surprise from them at the end of the month. Depending on your contract with them.

        No.2 Back up, Back up, Back up. Granted a NAS will run you $400.00 and up. Consider two. Why ?
        Should your power spike, local Tornado, Hurricane, system failure on one system. It’s electronics …It’s meant to fail at some point or another .
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      414. Good video; thanks! What I do (not possible everywhere): Movie pass for the local cinema; €240/year for watching unlimited new films + buy blu-rays for things I love and plan watching more than once; €200/year + occasional streaming services for binge watching series during holidays only; €40/year = €480/year (approx.) or €40/month. Next to this, for older content, I receive DVDs for free from friends or €1/each at the local thrift store.
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      415. Many thanks for another really useful topic. You mention the fiddly bit of transferring physical media to a NAS and this is one I’ve found difficult. Would welcome your thoughts on how best to do it for those of us with large physical media libraries.
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      416. I think that there is a point being overlooked in many of these cost calculations, and that is backups. Because when you buy physical media, not only does that give you legal access to the content, but if you are ripping it, then it is also a backup of all your content. I.e. if your NAS craps out/gets cryptoed etc, you can still re-rip from the physical media. Yes it’s a time-consuming process, but it is certainly better than just having one copy on a single NAS that you could lose. So if you do consider backups (and not everyone would otherwise have a backup, but I would, so this applies to my calculation) then you have to basically double at a minimum the cost of storage, which depending on how much media and what quality, is often the majority cost of a NAS setup.
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      419. Important information for anyone who is buying the newer ASUSTOR models. I bought the new AS6702T and it appears ASUSTOR started to block BIOS access. Mashing the ESC key game me a BIOS screen for a split second, I had to record a video to even see what it displayed, because after that it just stayed on the flashing cursor and nothing would happen. It said system BIOS and system VIDEO shadowed. No idea what it means exactly but I couldnt get to “normal” BIOS with any key. After about two hours I finally found that F11 would get me to UEFI shell, where it displayed all drives and a startup script (from ASUSTOR). Bit of Googling and typing bootx64.efi managed to boot the USB with TrueNAS install and finally managed to get it installed. Now, after restart, the NAS goes to the TrueNAS automatically. I installed it on new NVMe drive so hopefully it didnt screw the original OS, however Im not sure if I will be able to boot into original OS even after I take out the NVMe with TrueNAS install.. Ill probably test it later on. Just be warned.
        @NASCompares it would be great if you could get some info from ASUSTOR regarding this. If they really did hardened the way you can get another OS on their NAS. I mean I get it they want you to use their software but still, shitty move imho
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      420. If my goal is to have a NAS running TrueNAS in a small enclosure like a QNAP, is buying a QNAP or TerraMaster the best price-performance (and low-noise) option or is buying all the pieces separately better? (Time and effort to buy and assemble are not an issue). Thank you.
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      421. Couldn’t you just do the installation on a PC and then move the SSD with the TrueNAS system to the Qnap? Could be a way to install TrueNAS on Qnaps without HDMI out like the TS-h973AX.
        Someone installed Unraid on a TS-973AX by simply plugging an USB thumbdrive into the USB port and booted without changing the boot order in bios. Seems USB drives have higher boot order than the builtin flash.
        Another possibility could be to blindly enter the bios and change the boot order.
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      422. I use a 208 Mac Pro 8 core with 32 gigs of ram and 3 8tb hard drives. the old Mac Pro has 2 Xeon processors in them. i bought it used for pretty cheap. its also alot more quite than a Dell server / NAS. i installed Proxmox virtulization host as the baremetal hypervisor, and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS server for the NAS / Plex OS. in the VM i have 4 cores alotted and 16 gigs of ram from the computer to manage the Plex server.
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      425. Great video.
        Polite request – can you sort out the audible thumps from banging the desk please? Either put a blanket over the desk and/or run the audio through a high pass filter set to around 100Hz to remove the low end noise pollution. I’m on ear buds and it drives me nuts…????
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      428. I have an extra ts-453be with 4gb and thinking of trying TrueNas. I know you said 16 gb is recommended but will 4 work for Testing/playing and then I can spend the $$ if I think it works ok.
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      433. Thank you for the information. I have a couple of questions regarding this procedure: 1) What are the startup time difference between the original QTS (on eMMC/internal USB) to the TrueNAS on NVMe ?; 2) Will it be possible to install the QTS on the NVMe to compare startup times and loading of applications?
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      440. Buy an old enterprise server from ebay or an auction. That’s what I did.

        I got a Dell PowerEdge T430 with dual 8-core Xeon E5-2620v4 2.10GHz, 96GB DDR4, PERC h730 raid controller, 7×1.8TB 10K 2.5″ SAS drives, iDrac8 express, dual PSUs, 2 built in NICs and additional 4 NICs on a PCI board. I added a 10Gb SFP+ card, 256GB SSD for OS and boot and 6x 2tb 2.5″ SATA drives from my old server (+2 new for a total of 8). Both raid volumes are configured as raid6. This thing is a monster and it was cheaper than my Synology 1819+ without drives.
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      442. While HEVC requires more transcoding, HEVC reduced the size of my library by ~2TB which on the backup side (Backblaze B2) saves me over 10$ every month. Compared to those savings the extra power consumption of transcoding with Intel QuickSync is a rounding error.
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      445. I am new to all of this, hopefully you can help me out & inform me if I am understanding all this correctly for the reasons why I am wanting to have a NAS in the first place….
        First, I have a massive music video collection (over 15 tb). Spread throughout multiple external hard drives. I am wanting to have all of my music & future digital media all in one location that way I can access it anywhere without any problems streaming it. (I’m basically wanting my own Spotify streaming service with my own music).
        I am thinking on purchasing the Synology
        NAS Diskstation DS1520+ (Diskless), 5 – Bay, 8gb DDR4 from Amazon that is currently priced at 699.99, along with 5 16tb iron wolf SSD’s, (unless there’s another brand that’s better, and I am only mentioning this brand specifically because thats what popped up on Amazon in relation to this NAS)….
        Now from my understanding, this already comes with the memory of 8gb, however I have to purchase my own SSD. From what it looks like in the specs there can be 5× 16tb SSD’s that I can have that totaling 80tb of storage within just this one unit. However I can expand later on down the road if I need up to 15 more bays, which will allow for me to have grand total of 108 tb of total storage space with additional storage bays (ie Synology DX517), later on down the road.

        Is what I have said correct & accurate or am I missing something?
        ….if I missed something on the specs above I found this item on Amazon if you wouldn’t mind checking it out and informing with any inadditional info that I may have misunderstood please!
        Oh and one last thing I also play to purchase the Plex Lifetime Subscription, for the simple fact that it just seems to be the most popular amongst the videos I’ve watched.
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      446. Touching on Plex running native vs Plex in Docker would have been very helpful. Getting the Transcoding working with Plex in a Docker is an arcane art, with the only advantage being that it restarts automatically if it hangs.
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      447. When reading about the requirements to run Plex, and the hassle to make it work as it should, Plex should pay people to want to use it instead of making them pay to get the full shebang.I’ve been using Kodi for many years now, it’s totally free and has also a learning curve, but once configured it simply works, and keeps running, on many platforms, even on 10 year old Nasses. ( btw , very interesting your dual conversation, but take care to level out the audio, the speaker in the right window sounds louder than the other one….I have constantly to adapt my volume on my laptop.
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      448. LOL… You reminded me that I bought a Lifetime Plex Pass subscription way way way back when nobody even knew who Plex was yet. I bought it for nearly nothing back then and I figured that I was jumping on a sinking ship. Funny how that works out, huh? ????
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      450. Its a pity that your channel always begins with techno-speak! Have a listen – please simplify the language so fist time or average users can actually understand most of it…..
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      451. I know this is an old video now, but I’ll ask anyway ????

        I already have a really powerful server which I bought a couple of years ago when I was contracting, mainly to serve at that time as a development environment of virtual machines. It has 2 Xeon processors and 128GB RAM.

        I have a VM that I am using as a “media” server and was looking to get some more storage, as I want to start replacing things like Google Drive and backups on to here. Also, I want to start using it to store all of our pictures and DVD and Blu Ray collection. I have purchased Plex Media Server and that is installed.

        But….what I don’t really know a lot about is networking, particularly NAS and I keep seeing these pop up in my recommended items.

        If I already have this kit, should I really just be buying additional disks (obviously specific to NAS storage), or is there something special about a NAS that would still make that better?

        To my basic brain, I just see it as a way to have the storage available on the network with some additional processing power to run things like conversions, but if I am leaving my server on all of the time, will a NAS actually be more beneficial?

        I don’t want to spend the money (not saved up yet!) if everything I would have in a NAS is already sitting on my desk in a server.

        Hope that makes sense.
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      453. Guys, do you know how to make “diasble bitrate limiting” to a default? On my Tv i have to keep ticking that option. certain movies must have that option off to play properly. Regards
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      455. The guy on the left is hard to hear. Problem with YT is everyone has a different camera/mic setup. Easy to tell when someone uses quality equipment to post YT videos. Short of that, viewers don’t stay around long.
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      456. The last point is why I gave up Plex and moved to Emby. I had no idea this was the cause of the repeated headaches and infuriating reinstalls! Thanks for solving the mystery. Great video!
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      460. I have the TS-653D as Plex media server only with around 2500 movie and 260 TV shows alot in 4k HDR and have no issue with transcoding-. Usually not more than 2-3 people watch so transcoding from 4k to 1080p is no issue and the CPU is at around 60-70% of usage with 3 users and I have the J4125.
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      461. I run mine on a Hewlett Packard Proliant gen8 server. It has bays for 4 4tb drives. I run esxi and run virtual computers, I still run plex using a virtual windows 7. Now I normally use windows 10 but windows 7 takes less memory than windows 10. Now a proliant gen8 is very quiet, and is designed to stay on all the time. It is not too noisy, and I keep it in a separate room
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      465. Thanks for the info. I heard that my ISP could throttle me if I was seen to be streaming. Is this true? If so is there any way I could run plex through my ipvanish?
        I only plan to share between a couple of family members and use it myself whilst on holiday.
        Many thanks ????????????
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      466. Thanks for the tips! Tbh I was going to get a high end NAS (the Synology DS920+) for Plex even though I am only really going to use Plex locally. But I thought I may decide to use a NAS partition for my own Cloud backup as well and just know that that would be able to handle everything I COULD want to do. Last thing I would want is to buy a NAS and discover I bought one that was not powerful or efficient enough. So any drives up to 8TB are fairly quiet? That is really good to know. I thought the NAS had to be plugged into the router via Ethernet so did not realise there was an option to have it in a different room (i haven’t bought one yet so haven’t been able to play about with it). If you have a NAS with 2 bays, can you have Bay 2 be a backup of Bay 1, as opposed to a RAID1 setup? Please can you expand on a NAS that would very capable of Plex, and possible simultaneous cloud backup facilities (i am just talking phone backups, not PC) so I do not make the mistake of paying too much for a NAS I won’t fully utilise? I would much rather spend the money on the storage instead, of course. Thank you.
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      467. Man oh man…You’ve been around long enough here and you still have terrible audio on your videos!
        Your buddy next to you have loud clear audio. Your’s is suck and weak on your other videos too.
        Can’t you notice it man?! Fix that them thing do something about it I have to turn my volume up
        to max to hear you than the ad comes in blasting and blowing my speakers out! How could you
        do this kind of thing for so long and I’m not the only one to complain about it either!
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      468. My LG c9 has the plex player and I’m streaming 1080p blu-ray ripped, with srt subtitles x264 and x265 no problem and has direct play/stream. Buuut, if I try with the same files on ps4 pro or even my ps5 then its crazy transcoding going on.

        Qnap ts-251 4gb ram
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      470. For a weeks I’ve felt like a kid in toy shop with my finger on the buy button for new a DS1621+ along with 6 iron wolf drives to store all my 5.1 movies probably in MKV format ( been told it’s the format) that will be viewed by 2 OLED TVs on a fully cat7 network 16 port 1 gigabyte switcher I’m not into watching on table or phone so do I need still need to think about transcoding ? Or will the ds1621 be a good purchase and I’d be happy to install the maximum size of both MVES the only other think I’d use the nas for would be for hosting basic website while I’m teaching myself to build to save hosting cost
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