[SOLVED] Best NAS for Budget

[Jacob_72]

I want a Prebuilt NAS for Plex what is the best option I want to be expandable.

 

[logainofhades]

I would look for some reviews/best for articles such as these.

https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-nas-network-attached-storage-devices

https://www.techradar.com/news/the-10-best-nas-devices-reviewed

 

[mdd1963]

'Expandable' how? Even the Expansion units are quite steep price-wise for what one is getting..)

Best to get enough bays (consider 6-8 bays, as there is little need to fill up a 4 bay unit in 3 months if one is going to need expansion shelves, etc) and big enough drives (consider 10-12 TB units instead of 4-6 TB) up front.

Unfortunately, the most of empty 8 bay units are NOT cheap, with most at Newegg at $1000-$1100. One could assemble a home NAS for half the cost, using the money saved for a couple hard drives. (some of the 5-6 bay units can be had for $450)

QNAP is generally acknowledged to sell 'more modern' /faster units than Synology for the money, but, of course they might be outlying exceptions.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=NAS&N=50011165 50011245 600043542 100158125

 

[USAFRet]

I want a Prebuilt NAS for Plex what is the best option I want to be expandable.

What is your actual budget?
2 bay, 4 bay, more?

I have a 4 bay QNAP TS453a, and an add on TR-004. Effectively an 8 bay NAS.
Rock solid performance, running 24/7 since Jan 2017.

 

[kanewolf]

I want a Prebuilt NAS for Plex what is the best option I want to be expandable.

Both Synology and QNAP (plus Thecus) -- the big three in home NAS have virtual NAS units that you can play with on the web. Test drive the user interface. Synology may not have as new hardware as QNAP, I believe they have the most polished set of software.

 

[punkncat]

I want a Prebuilt NAS for Plex what is the best option I want to be expandable.

IMO the best budget selection for a "NAS" that is going to use Plex...it's probably the old system sitting in your closet.

Plex has it's own requirements so much as CPU strength to have it run smoothly and properly. That can be as low as something like a (modern) Pentium, maybe an older generation Ryzen 3 level. My own experience with the modern Athlon with Plex was less than desirable.

Motherboard with a few SATA ports or an unused PCI slot and a case that can hold drives and a fan or two.

W10/FreeNAS/Linux (supported) and you are in buisness.

The only advantage that I have found in regard to my somewhat limited experience with purpose built 'NAS' units have been power and heat footprint. I currently have a Synology that I am not crazy about in spite of it working fine for it's purpose. I have used a "PC" build on FreeNAS and wasn't too crazy about it. My so far favorite for use is W10 due to my familiarity with it and prefer to use Pro such that I can readily remote into it for administration without having to have a permanent M/M/K.
Most importantly for my use is that when you use FreeNAS or Synology they are using a disk format that cannot be plopped into another PC and read. This obviously has things to do with the format you use (RAID and so on), but utilizing W10 and a variety of formats, the drives can be put into any other Windows PC, initialized, and read.