Need advice NAS acquisition advice for ray-l: enthusiast, 1000 USD

[ray-l]

Usage type: enthusiast

Preferred form factor DS (DiskStation)

Number of bays: not sure how many bays

Do you have any existing drives that you plan on using? No

Prefered RAID array setup for this NAS: SHR

This NAS will be used for: backup, multimedia, business (virtual machines, mail, office, etc.), utilities (docker, VPN, reverse proxy, web hosting, etc.), downloads (torrents, USENET, WebDAV, FTP, etc.), other: mythtv

Max budget for this setup: 1000 USD

Number of users that will utilize this NAS: 4

Any preferred network connectivity? 1G

Where will this NAS be used: LAN only

Any special network requirements: /

Special cloud provider connectivity: other: idrive

 

[Rusty]

DS920+ (4bay), 1621+ (6bay), depending if the budget covers the drives or not (and what capacity)

 

[WST16]

The 1621+ sounds amazing with its Ryzen processor. However, It’s worth mentioning that it doesn’t have video transcoding capabilities like the 920+, if this matters to the buyer.

 

[Coop777]

transcoding adds more wear and tear to the lighter weight processor and RAM. Better off using something more robust for that.

If I were buying right now the 1621+ would be my choice

 

[WST16]

I’m under the impression that it's the opposite. A transcoding-capable system will hand over the transcoding to a specialized “coprocessor” and reduce the overall burden on the main processor, thus less "wear and tear".

 

[Coop777]

NAS Compares has a few videos out there that analyze various transcoding settings. NAS transcoding via Plex can handle up to 1080p, but struggles heavily with 4k. You'll also have to pay for the Plex hardware transcoding feature.

 

[WST16]

That‘s exactly my point. So you were comparing them without enabling hardware transcoding (Plex and Emby need a subscription as you said to enable this feature).
If you don't have remote users and your clients can handle the media, you should be ok. But it’s nice to have as I’ve seen the difference it makes with my Emby installation.

 

[Coop777]

saying that the NAS CAN handle it is one thing, is it optimal? IMO it is not. A Firestick, Roku, or an Nvidia Shield (optimal) are better equipped to do so.

 

[Rusty]

I would say it depends on the NAS. Ofc some of presented devices here are stronger then a nas cpu, but with hw transcoding feature there is almost nothing any of my plex nas devices can’t transcode (including 4K).

It also depends on what kind of transcoding is in question. 4K transcode back to 4K will tax heavily even a very powerful cpu and make a run for its money, but then again it pays more to have that task on the client side then on the server side for any resolution let alone 4K.

My 918 with HW transcoding can run multiple 4K transcodes without any problems.

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[Coop777]

Interesting to know - for 4k, what size files are you working with? what is the highest level of transcoding that you achieve with with 3 4k movies streaming simultaneously...?

 

[Rusty]

Interesting to know - for 4k, what size files are you working with? what is the highest level of transcoding that you achieve with with 3 4k movies streaming simultaneously...?

files are 30+GB each

highest level? What do you mean exactly? Those were 4K streams that were transcoded for various reason depending on the client that was streaming them. I tested it on a tv, phone and desktop at the same time.

 

[WST16]

A Firestick, Roku, or an Nvidia Shield (optimal) are better equipped to do so.

If you're on an iPad most of the time (me), the options you mentioned are not optimal
Can I stream to my iPad from a Firestick or a a Shield, is it possible? I’ve never used any of them.

-- post merged: 8. Jul 2021 --

My 918 with HW transcoding can run multiple 4K transcodes without any problems.

Here’s a similar test on a 1019+

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[Coop777]

files are 30+GB each

highest level? What do you mean exactly? Those were 4K streams that were transcoded for various reason depending on the client that was streaming them. I tested it on a tv, phone and desktop at the same time.

I didn't word that right. How compressed are the 4k files and what audio streams were encoded?

 

[Rusty]

I didn't word that right. How compressed are the 4k files and what audio streams were encoded?

For example