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+---- Thread: Hard drives' choice for modern Plex oriented NAS? (/showthread.php?tid=922)
Hard drives' choice for modern Plex oriented NAS? - makumazan84 - 03-29-2020
Hi!
I'm going to buy my first NAS aimed to be both a file server and a Media Server.
My question is: what hard drives should I choose if NAS's main purpose is seamless 4K UHD playback (I know this is not widespread at the moment but I'd like to be a bit future-prone).
So, should I go for:
1) A pair of 4TB WD Red's (or Red Pro's?) in a RAID. This is a good option cost-wise but I'm not sure if it will be robust enough given HDD's relatively low random read speed.
2) A pair of 1TB SSDs
3) Even though I plan getting a TS-251D (once it is available in my country), I don't think that getting an add-on card with SSD for caching purposes will help me in 4K playback, but pls correct me if I indeed should consider this option.
Many thanks!
Hard drives' choice for modern Plex oriented NAS? - ed - 03-31-2020
The 4K playback itself would work from any hard drives and RAID configuration. But I have to say, SSD is improving fluidity of Plex interface. Plex app is able to cache things faster which improves overall performance. I have even seen improvement in transcoding process. If you can afford SSD price and you will have sufficient space for storing all your media, then I would recommend SSD. Otherwise it will still work with any HDD (NAS drives recommended). I hope this helps.
Hard drives' choice for modern Plex oriented NAS? - makumazan84 - 04-05-2020
Thanks a lot!I have decided to go with 2xSSDs mainly because getting TS-251D in my country is tough and getting an add-on card sounds even tougher.Buying a pair of SSDs is much easier and while it might cost me a bit more, the premium of ~200USD will be spread evenly over ~4-5 years of service which is not a whole lot.Now, I just have to wait for the covid to go away and I can the NAS once it is available.