G+_Christopher Wieninger Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Hey guys! I love using PLEX as a media server and streaming videos to my gaming console from my desktop PC. I was wondering, however, if anyone had any other personal media streaming ideas besides just using my desktop? I'd like to preserve the integrity of my PC for as long as possible, and I understand that streaming from the PC can be hard on the hardware. Perhaps a compatible external storage device with cloud capability or something similar that I'm unaware of? Or should I add an additional HDD to preserve the health of my main HDD? Even if nobody else has any suggestions, I think this would be a great show topic! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Carlos Bedia Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Synology NAS with plex app running on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Christopher Wieninger Posted October 21, 2013 Author Share Posted October 21, 2013 Carlos Bedia Thanks for the tip! Is there a specific model you'd recommend? I'm not looking for anything ridiculously high end and don't know anything about networking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Carlos Bedia Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 It is pretty easy I use one of the lower end 2 bays. So you could get some wd reds and set them to mirror if your worried about losing data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Carlos Bedia Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 213j plus two 2tb wd reds on Amazon should be 400ish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Christopher Wieninger Posted October 21, 2013 Author Share Posted October 21, 2013 That's actually a lot more than I was looking to spend, but I'll keep it all in mind. What does "reds" mean, exactly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Shaun Snee Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Christopher Wieninger Western Digital uses color codes for their drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Carlos Bedia Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Reds are designed for NAS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Christopher Wieninger Posted October 21, 2013 Author Share Posted October 21, 2013 Carlos Bedia Shaun Snee Ah, I see, thanks for the clarification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Neil McAliece Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 This will be a long post :) NAS is an area that I've been messing with originally as an IT admin, but much more at home lately. Some of the features and capacity in the home units today would have cost $5000 upwards only a few years ago. If you're a bit of a tinkerer, you can create a good NAS that will run Plex from old PC hardware. If you need to buy drives, it might cost a bit anyway, but it's also a way to build a single volume array out of older drives you might have. It's not quite as easy as an off the shelf NAS, but it's not horrible either. There's plenty of guides and blogs around for creating a FreeNAS or NAS4free system (both are a NAS operating system). If your old PC really drops dead, both FreeNAS and NAS for free will allow you to load your existing drives and raid config into another machine. You can use RAID5 or ZFS to cope with a single drive failure (using 3 or more drives). It gives you more usable capacity than a simple mirror. 3 or more drives of the same capacity are needed. If you have 3 1tb drives, you would have 2TB useable and it your data would survive a single drive failure. 4 1tb drives would give you 3tb useable etc.... Both systems can be set to send an email alert if a drive fails (though replacing a drive in a DIY nas can be more of a process than most of the off the shelf machines). Both FreeNAS and NAS4free can boot from a thumbdrive so that you don't waste a SATA port on an OS drive. If you want to build a NAS to create a single volume from a collection of mixed size drives, have a look at un-RAID ( http://lime-technology.com/ ). Unlike the other 2, the free version is fully functional for up to only 3 hard drives. A license supporting up to 7 drives is $69. While it lets you create a single share volume from mismatched drives, it still copes with a single drive failure. I've got a bit of both worlds at home. I've got a 4 bay Netgear readynas with 4tb drives in RAID-X (netgear proprietary roughly equivalent to raid 5, but hard drive upgrades are easier). My netgear has a number of addon media apps installed into it. I've also got an old PC with NAS4free booting from a thumb drive and 4 SATA 2tb drives connected to the motherboard configured RAID 5 (6TB useable, or around 5.3 if you don't use drive manufacturer inflated capacities). The DIY NAS box can give more flexibility over time. Eg I've just ordered an 8 port SATA PCI-e 6gbps card that will allow me to run up to 12 hard drives in that machine. I'm not needing 12 drives yet, but it's only a matter of time. I'll keep the existing 2tb drives and likely add 4x4tb drives as the next step. DIY NAS may also allow more flexibility when bigger drives come out. Sometimes existing off the shelf units are stuck at 2tb or 3tb max drive size until a firmware update comes out (for some older units such an update will never come). Most current models probably support 4tb drives, but quote 4tb as the max. 5+ TB drives might work when they come out, or you might need to wait for a firmware update (the biggest hurdle was drives over 2tb which has been pretty much dealt with by now) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Christopher Wieninger Posted October 21, 2013 Author Share Posted October 21, 2013 Neil McAliece Thank you so much for all of that information! I appreciate it very much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Neil McAliece Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 No problem Christopher Wieninger :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Christopher Wieninger Posted October 22, 2013 Author Share Posted October 22, 2013 Marcelo Henrique Thanks for the tip! Out of curiosity, how does one make sure that the external runs that software? Does it just boot up when the external realizes that it's plugged into a router? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Christopher Wieninger Posted October 22, 2013 Author Share Posted October 22, 2013 Marcelo Henrique I'm using a myriad of devices; I bounce between an Xbox 360 and a PS3, and I use my Android phone when I'm not at home. That's why I've been using Plex, it just works so well across all of those platforms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Christopher Wieninger Posted October 22, 2013 Author Share Posted October 22, 2013 It does, indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Christopher Wieninger Posted October 22, 2013 Author Share Posted October 22, 2013 Marcelo Henrique Thank you for the offer! I just might take you up on it. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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