The processor and other parts of the internals are what really ramp up the price of a NAS. Price comes into it and is vital when you’re looking at enclosures for Plex and multimedia. It’s when you come to 4K content that you’ll need to consider carefully. Music is an easy one since the files are small and it doesn’t require much effort on the part of the NAS.
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It means you can play content directly to your TV without needing to use the network and this would negate any requirement for transcoding.įor a Plex NAS, you need to consider what media you’ll be streaming and what devices you’ll use to enjoy it. The icing on the cake is the available HDMI 2.0 port on the rear of this NAS. Then there’s the 10Gb LAN connection to allow for simultaneous file transfer or streaming of 4K content. Other handy features that help make this a worthwhile investment for the future are the two Thunderbolt 3 ports for hooking up accessories. The six drive bays allow for a storage pool of up to 96TB before taking into account RAID configurations for data redundancy. This is more than enough for 4K transcoding of media thanks to the integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 graphics.Īs well as the processor, there’s 8GB of DDR4 RAM, which can be boosted to 32GB should you need additional capacity. Most NAS servers come with ARM or Intel Celeron processors, but the QNAP TVS-672XT-i3 comes rocking a powerful 8th Gen Intel Core i3-8100t with four cores and a clock speed of 3.1GHz. It has an Intel Core i3 processor, upgradeable RAM, six drive bays, and even Thunderbolt support.ĬPU: Intel Core i3-8100t | Drive bays: 6 | RAM: 8GB DDR4 (max 32GB) | Features: 1x 10Gb LAN, 2x USB-C 3.1, upgradable RAM Brand My thoughts: The QNAP TVS-672XT-i3 has everything you need for a very powerful Plex media server. The Synology DiskStation DS220j only has an ARM processor and two drive bays, but it will work just fine for some tunes and photos. The Synology DiskStation DS920+ is more affordable but still comes packing a punch with an Intel Celeron processor, M.2 cache support, and upgradeable RAM.īut if you don’t have much budget to spare on a media server, it may be worthwhile to start off with something small and budget-friendly. It may be a little too much for most people, but my other recommendations are also some fine picks. My favourite NAS for Plex is the QNAP TVS-672XT-i3 thanks to the impressive Intel Core i3 processor. Leading NAS enclosure brands like Synology, QNAP, and ASUSTOR all make servers that are more than good enough for Plex.
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You only really require more than four bays if you’re going into 4K territory since these files can really take up free space. If all you plan to do is stream music, you can get away with a NAS rocking an ARM processor with a few drive bays.
I recommend the excellent QNAP TVS-672XT-i3 as the best NAS for running Plex Media Server. While you can use an affordable enclosure for Plex to stream music and some older content, you’ll have a hard time transcoding any files if they aren’t supported by the recipient device. Most of the factors used to purchase the best NAS enclosure are still valid for picking the best NAS for Plex. Best entry-level: Synology DiskStation DS220j - ARM CPU, 2 bays, 512MB RAM, 1Gb LAN.Best capacity: QNAP TVS-H1688X - Intel Xeon CPU, 16 bays, 2GB RAM, 1Gb LAN.
I’ve rounded up the best NAS for Plex to help you create a smart home media server. Streaming services for media have taken the world by storm but did you know you can run your own streaming platform right from your home? All you need is a network-attached storage (NAS) server and purchased movies, TVs, and music.