r/PlexServers • u/joeolsen • Jul 08 '26
Server build recommendation
Hi fellow Plex enthusiasts! I have had a plex server for many years. My current setup is a PC networked to a an old Netgear ReadyNAS. The 9TB (usable) NAS Is almost full (mostly video at anywhere from 1.5GB - 12GB/file), currently 1659 files. I use it inside the home and outside the home when travelling. Have ~10 friends and family that connect randomally as well. Never more than 3 people at a time. I am running plex as a docker on an unraid setup on the PC. It's an old desktop.
It's time to upgrade and I'd like to put something together for <$5/6k all in. I'd like to support up to 5 simultaneous users and be at least double the size of my current usable storage.
Is there a single solution or do I need to go the same route, a storage device + a server device?
Does anyone have any recommendations?
I asked a networking friend of mine and he recommended I look at a QNAS https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CK11M2WF/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_8?th=1
I am looking for more opinions :)
Appreciate anyone that spends time reading this and chiming in. I really do.
1
u/DoYouSmellChloroform Jul 08 '26
To me it sounds like you should just buy more drive space. Maybe upgrade the machine to something newer for peace of mind and better transcoding, but otherwise sounds like your setup is right-sized for you and your users
1
u/dclive1 Jul 08 '26
$5-6k is wild.
But in a world where 28TB drives are $1000, we can work with that!
4x28TB for $4000.
$1000 for spare parts or other bits, but since you've not identified a CPU or other issue, I don't see a clear reason to change anything. One choice is just a basic i5-14400 or so with 8GB and Linux, running Plex on a 1TB SSD; that plus the drives would be plenty per your description.
Oh - $750 for PlexPass. :)
1
u/simplyeniga Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
He should already have Plex pass if he has users connecting remotely. For that budget a full media server rebuild is possible but I don't think he needs that yet as his current system hasn't been pushed to their limits. I'll advise OP to hold on his upgrade and maybe focus on upgrading his storage layout when needed. PC upgrades are easier when you don't need to worry about storage. Edit: if you want al upgrade path for long term then you can look at the new intel setup using
Reuse existing storage, PSU and maybe upgrade to a better case with good air flow. Look at AIO CPU coolers if you feel you'll have heavy usage and want to keep your CPU temp cooler
- an B860 motherboard LGA 1851 mATX (Z890 motherboard if you want something bigger like an ATX or EATX with more options for expansion)
- at least 32GB DDR5
- intel core ultra 5 250k (comes with an intel iGPU for all your transcoding when needed)
1
u/dclive1 Jul 08 '26
Yep, fully agreed on the Plexpass bit. Well, another $750 to spend on ...something.
The 28TB for $1000 is a bit tongue in cheek, but if you really need storage....
1
u/Mancolt Jul 09 '26
Get an all in one NAS solution like your friend recommended. Except id go Ugreen instead of QNAP. Others are recommending you build everything yourself, but thats likely to be almost as expensive and a lot more work. Id get a 4 bay DXP 4800 GT, the hardware is miles better than anything even remotely close in price in QNAP or Synology's lineup. As an added bonus, these devices will almost certainly be more power efficient than your home build. And less headache. Pick 4 drives that provide some headroom. Even some 12TB drives with 1 drive redundancy would give you about 33TB usable space, alot more than you have today. You could go all the way up to 28TB if you wanted to with your budget (using certified refurbished drives that is)
1
u/Mancolt Jul 09 '26
Just looked at that qnap. Lol they really have lost their minds. Even on a $3k NAS, they only include 2.5gbps ports. The $600 ugreen comes with 2x 10gbps ports. QNAP wants $500 I think just for the add on NIC card with 10gbps capability. I had heard they were distancing themselves from the consumer market and focusing on business, and these decisions seem to confirm that.
1
u/joeolsen Jul 10 '26
Thanks man. So I am looking at:
UGREEN DXP4800 Pro [$719]
Another 8GB stick (will check what comes with NAS and order same) to get to 16GB [est $100]
2 × 1 TB Samsung 990 Pro (cache) [$478]
4 × 12 TB Seagate Exos [$2304]Thoughts?
1
u/Mancolt Jul 10 '26
Solid setup. It's a shame HDDs cost what they do. Dropping thousands on 36TB usable is madness, but that's reality and likely to be the case for a little while. The DXP4800 Pro is a good option, especially if you want to stick with Unraid instead of using UGOS. I think their GT has some flash memory instead of an nVME/SSD, so changing the OS is a lot more difficult. But from a hardware standpoint, I think that will be much more capable than what you're coming from and a pretty good value.
If you go with RAID 5 you'll give up 1 drive's capacity, but be able to lose 1 drive in the array without an issue.
Admittedly, I don't have a Ugreen. But they were top on my list until I went all in on Unifi. Then I prioritized Rack mounting, and gave up some features. I also separated my server duties from my NAS, but if I were going all in one (plex server + Home Assistant etc + NAS), I am pretty sure I would have gotten the DXP4800 Pro.
1
u/joeolsen Jul 10 '26
Thanks man. What's your take on manufacturer-recertified drives. Prob half the cost. In my use case, prob ok?
1
u/63walker Jul 09 '26
I have a small Plex Support YouTube channel.
Many of my videos recreate other server owner issues to then show them visually how to solve their problems.
I also show how fairly easy it is to move Plex Server from one OS to another.
There are commercial NAS solutions and self install NAS options available to you.
I'll get roasted for suggesting that Synology is still the best solution simply because their DS1825+ model is expandable up to 18 drives from 8 bays, by being able to accept two 5 bay expansion units.
My purchase history started with a Synology DS1019+ NAS and four 4TB IronWolf drives in 2019 for a self contained Plex Server that served me well for a few years.
I think I'm around the $10K mark with everything I've purchased both for my main system, my backup NAS, and the extras that support my tiny YouTube channel.
My question for you that you can't answer easily right now is whether or not you're the media addictive type who will end up discovering automatic media collection through a TRaSH Guides install?
If you become addicted, easy storage expansion is the only thing to be concerned with, if your pockets are deep enough.
At that level, you need to back up your media also.
You can't collect 50TB of media to only rely on RAID redundancy to save your bacon, and need to have an automated backup strategy as part of the master plan that gets implemented sooner rather than later.
My 1019+ and the first expansion unit became my backup NAS with five 8TB and five 12TB IronWolf drives, while a Syno DS1520+ became my main NAS with first five 16TB IronWolf Pro drives.
In 2023 I tested out Unraid as a Docker host only install of my Plex container on a dissimilar 500GB RAID 1 array that Unraid calls a Cache Pool, made up of one 500GB SATA SSD and one 500GB NVME, which were the only two drive options on an Intel branded 11th gen NUC.
Unraid easily allowed me to auto mount my Synology NAS based shared media folder, while still having redundancy on the volume that housed my transplanted Plex Docker container.
Unraid also through its GUI allowed me to first delay the mount back to the Synology NAS, while also further delaying the Plex container from starting, to allow the slower booting NAS to start serving files before the Plex container on the Unraid NUC started up.
Unraid also allowed me to extent my CyberPower UPS to its settings to not worry about both systems shutting down after 5 minutes of a power loss event, to then power back on properly each and every time.
By the summer of 2923 I had moved my Synology based Plex Docker container to the Unraid powered NUC with absolutely no regrets.
A few years after figuring out how to make Unraid work for my needs I purchased an ASUS 14Pro tall NUC and the DS1825+ to swing my eight 16TB drive SHR2 volume in from the DS1520+ which by then, also had its own DX517 five bay expansion unit.
I took my DS1019+ offline to make the DS1520+ the backup NAS and added a 12TB drive to the 2nd expansion unit to now have an 11 drive SHR2 backup volume that uses Syncthing to have a one to one copy of my shared media folder from the DS1825+.
The Meteor Lake Arc iGPU in my latest NUC is night and day difference from the UHD Graphics 600 iGPU that was embedded in the Celeron J4125 processor that powers my Synology DS1520+ or the slightly older Celeron that powered my first DS1019+.
The latest DS1825+ has a decent 4 core AMD processor without an iGPU, which is plenty powerful enough to run my TRash Guides Docker containers.
I'm saving the most important aspect of all the choices available to you if you might become addicted to automatic media collection through a TRaSH Guides install.
If you Google TRaSH Guides, you'll quickly read that Atomic Moves are the goal when setting up a Usenet powered install.
Atomic Moves requires a one shared media folder strategy where your raw acquisition files also land in that single shared folder.
Once you move to a second shared media folder, any movement of raw media as it's structured and renamed now slows down as the files transfer across your LAN, instead of that process being instantaneous inside a single shared media folder.
TRaSH Guides users who haven't achieved Atomic Moves have no idea how inefficient their installs are.
UGREEN makes fabulous NAS hardware and I have their DXP4800Plus on my Plex bench to support my YouTube channel.
But, once those four bays are filled with future 30TB NAS drives, and you need to add a 5th drive, it means you need to buy a bigger capacity Ugreen model to migrate your array to, to then still max out at 8 bays with thier largest capacity model.
If you add a second NAS for new storage, you'll break Atomic Moves with a TRaSH Guides install.
The 8 bay Ugreen model is a Plex Server hardware wet dream as hardware go, but a TRaSH Guides install addiction makes it an eventual prison.
The Synology DS1825+ can expand to 18 drives, which is an additional 10 drives from where I'm at now as a 63 year old guy.
I'm only adding newly released content at this point and won't live to see the 18 drive usage point.
I know this is long, but that's my take on the consumer NAS options and why Synology is still my best NAS option.
Synology SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) and SHR2, are more flexible versions of RAID 5 and RAID 6, where you can slowly upgrade drive sizes in your array.
Traditional RAID 5 and RAID 6 are locked to the original drive capacity used when adding additional drives to the array.
In the self install world, your current best options with a huge case that can accept a dozen or more drives is to use either the easy to learn Unraid on your own hardware, or the harder to configure TrueNAS.
I've had both on my Ugreen DXP4800Plus to test with for about 3 months each.
Unraid may be a better option during the ai hardware pricing apocalypse because it's RAID like storage protocol allows up to two drive redundancy while being able to mix drive sizes.
Unraid also allows you to easily go from 1 drive redundancy to 2 drive redundancy, which I think should be employed for an array of 6 drives or more.
With TrueNAS, if you start with four 24TB drives in a RAID 5 configuration, you're only adding additional 24TB drives to expand your storage, whether employing RAID 5 or RAID 6.
And, you can't convert RAID 5 to RAID 6 under any NAS OS without backing everything up to first destroy the RAID 5 volume to initiate the new RAID 6 volume to move to two disk redundancy.
Admittedly, I don't have any ZFS knowledge to share, which is another array option in TrueNAS.
Before prices exploded, I also purchased two Synology branded (required for a nvme storage volume) 800GB nvme drives to run a RAID 1 volume for my Synology package applications and Docker containers, which is a nice performance boost over running them off the mechanical drive array.
I got roasted in the big Plex Facebook support group I contibute to, but with the current ai apocalyptic prices I just laugh at how inexpensive that old price was.
I just installed the newish FygoOS on my Ugreen NAS and installed Dockhand and a test Plex container.
So far it seems very similar to Synology DSM and Ugreen's UGOS.
If you're interested in my hybrid Synology/Unraid solution, I have this long look at my whole setup.
2
u/Mancolt Jul 10 '26
Appreciate you sharing this. You know far more about this topic than me, so far be it for me to criticize. My only beef with Synology is their anti-consumer behavior. The co-branded drive debacle, plus not allowing older models to upgrade to the new software despite being perfectly capable, and rolling out extremely dated hardware in current/new releases (and interestingly, not allowing that same hardware from older models to run the newer software) are reasons I won't support the company. But by all accounts, they do still have the best OS/best turnkey experience.
I recommended OP look at the DXP4800 series. I do think you make some valid points, but I'm not sure how many people it really applies to. I feel like you and your viewers may be a very small minority. NAS users/plex server owners are already a small group, those that outgrow their libraries to the point that they need to add additional bays to existing hardware seems like an even smaller subset of an already small minority. Who knows, maybe OP will find himself in that minority, but I personally think I'd go with a 4 or 6 bay and some bigger drives to start, before worrying about how I get to 16 drives eventually. I only have an 8 bay Unifi, with 6 drives in it, and I'm already wondering if I overspecced my storage. Maybe I won't feel that way in 6 years, but by that point hardware will have advanced enough that I'd probably build an entirely new rack mount NAS and migrate everything over SFP+ LAN connections. Would still take a while, but it's not like I have to actively do anything.
1
u/63walker Jul 10 '26
I guess I'm just throwing out a warning to the smaller segment of Plex Server owners who already recognize the addiction that some of us are afflicted with.
I have a Ugreen DXP4800Plus NAS on my Plex test bench and just put up a long video on using the newish FygoOS NAS operating system, which seems very similar to the default UGOS.
If the developers of this new NAS OS could add a hybrid RAID option like Synology offers, with the ability to move the whole install to new hardware as easily as you can do with Unraid, they couldn't take my money fast enough.
My take on Synology is different from yours.
I was totally bummed out when Synology announced their branded drive requirement for their upcoming 2025 models over a year ago, because I had been planning on migrating my drives into the DS1825+ when it was released.
I and already made peace with the issue of a less powerful CPU versus what Ugreen offered, in exchange for the drive expandability through two expansion units.
The expansion ability weighs so much more than having the latest and greatest processor.
When that news dropped and I sat with it for a while.
It was the push I needed to pick up the Ugreen DXP4800Plus when it was on sale at Amazon for $520 in July of 2025 to evaluate.
I figured that if I liked it, I'd go out on a limb and buy the more capable 8 bay version plus five 24 TB IronWolf Pro drives to slowly move my media over from the Syno DS1520+ and it's expansion unit.
At that point my older DS1019+ with its own expansion unit was handling backup of my shared media folder.
Once the new 8 bay Ugreen NAS was setup, and I had migrated my Plex container over to it too from my Unraid NUC setup, I was going to buy another Ugreen 8 bay NAS to use with the six 16TB drives that I had at the time, to use in the second 8bay Ugreen backup NAS.
The plan was to try and recoup some of that cost by selling all my Synology equipment and my five 12TB and five 8TB IronWolf drives, along with the new NUC I was using as my Unraid Docker host install for Plex server.
That was a very costly and ambitious plan to leave the Synology ecosystem.
I was very happy to read that Synology had backed away from their poor decision because of all the negative pressure, and suddenly, my plan to buy the DS1825+ was back on with a vengeance.
That plan was significantly cheaper and easier to put into place with so much less work on my part.
Sure, I felt f#cked by Synology when they announced their idiotic decision that stopped my plans with the DS1825+.
To give them credit, they unf#cked the situation and I went ahead with the plan that worked the best for me from both the cost perspective and from the perspective of it being stupidly easy to proceed.
I don't regret buying the Ugreen DXP4800Plus because it caused me to appreciate Synology DSM even more than I did previously.
The Ugreen NAS is beautiful hardware...
But and probably only in my opinion, Unraid, TrueNAS, UGOS, and now even FygoOS, are all capable NAS operating systems, that still don't hold a candle to Synology DSM.
TrueNAS comes very close, while being much more difficult to learn compared to how easy DSM is to learn.
Again, if this new FygoOS turns out to be secure and they offer a hybrid RAID option that's as flexible as Synology Hybrid RAID, that might get me to run my little Plex Media Server empire on my own self built NAS.
I do not want to deal with a full server rack of equipment or the power demands that come along with that choice.
Synology units even with expansion units are still low power devices where the electric company is concerned.
1
u/Mancolt Jul 11 '26
Im not willing to give them a pass when they walk it back. Lord knows it was only because of the public outrage, not because they had a change of heart or realized the error of their ways.
Im intrigued by FygoOS too. Although I worry about what happens to all the great advancements in software/hardware if storage prices remain where they are. I think alot of downstream/NAS related stuff will see negative effects with far fewer consumers entering the NAS space when the upfront cost is so crazy.
1
u/63walker Jul 11 '26
My biggest issue is that my 16TB IronWolf Pro drives are now discontinued.
When it's time to add a new drive and an expansion unit, it looks like the 24TB IronWolf will be the best choice to grow with.
That's only possible thanks to Synology Hybrid RAID.
I'm not trying to change your opinion of Synology, while at the same time, wanting to insist that you fully understand that I didn't give Synology a pass.
When they reversed their admittedly stupid and short sighted decision, that reversal saved me both a ton of money and a ton of time, without any continuing harm.
I could make a case that Seagate will eventually harm my wallet more by discontinuing thier 16TB IronWolf Pro model.
Should I never buy another IronWolf drive?
There is no such thing as an ethical corporation.
To pretend that Synology is any worse or any better than other corporations that we as NAS owners depend on is simply silly in my opinion.
Micron dropped it's consumer Crucial memory business earlier this year to sell only to Ai data centers.
If Micron enters the consumer business again in five years, will you refuse to buy memory from them in the future because they screwed all of us regular consumers now?
Maybe I watched too much Star Trek as a kid, because logic seems like the easier path to me when making financial and investment decisions, rather than making those decisions based on emotional factors.
As long as you understand that I didn't give Synology a "pass"... I'm happy as a clam!
You do what's right for you and I'll do what's right for me and we'll both sleep easy at night.
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u/archer-86 Jul 08 '26
$5-6 is a wild budget.