100% New to Building a NAS

[WiKyD]

Hi All,
So I am completely new to building a NAS but not to building computers.
I currently have a pretty large Plex Media Server running that I have had for years and currently have a QNAP, Iomega/Lenovo and NAS’ plugged in. I have a Gigabyte Brick running the Plex Media Software.

It is time to expand again and I do not want to just buy another mini cube that does not have a lot of expansion ability. Therefore, I am looking at building a NAS that I can future expand when needed.

I am looking at starting with the Fractal Design Node 804 case.
I still need to figure out mb, processor, etc without breaking the bank. In the end I am just running a Plex Media Server with 3-5 total users so I do not think I will need the most powerful NAS ever but need to research a bit more.
Before I start buying pieces I want to be sure about the sw first.

I have read through the document on TrueNAS Core but still have some questions that either I did not see in the. Ores or maybe just did not fully understand.
1) I interpreted that TrueNAS is actually a OS and you do not need Windows or Linux, etc. I just wanted to confirm.
2) Would TrueNAS be able to or does it, take control of my other NAS systems? If it does, does it erase the other NAS systems as that is what I am trying to avoid (Erasing).
3) If TrueNAS does not also control or able to add the other NAS systems into it’s eco system, if I run the Plex PlugIn on the TrueNAS system (I would like to get rid of my Gigabyte Brick), will it be able to include the media on the other NAS systems as part of my Plex library?

appreciate any help or insight anyone has

thanks

 

[mervincm]

Plex requirements are their own concern and you should clarify them separately before you decide if you want one box for both. Ideally you have perfect media, no subtitles, fast Internet, and top end modern plex clients used by technology aware people. This allows you to avoid transcoding and your plex server requirements are very low. In the real world, transcoding is common. Transcoding is always done on the server and it changes media from what you happen to have into what your plex client asks for. This can be a small load or it can be very intensive. 4K, HDR, and fancy video codecs are much harder on your server. You want to have plex transcoding done in hardware as much as possible. This requires a plex pass and a GPU, either a card or a CPU with one built in. Newer models support more transcoding options than old ones do. This is not trivial to do while also meeting the best practices for NAS, like ECC.

 

[Arwen]

Some answers:
1) Yes, TrueNAS is an appliance OS, based on FreeBSD, (while TrueNAS SCALE is based on Linux)
2) No, and it generally won't be mounting other NAS' file systems. Any disks installed in TrueNAS will need to either be over-written with a new file system, ZFS. Or imported as a foreign file system that has to be copied to ZFS.
3) Yes, and no. The Plex app can mount both local storage to TrueNAS and probably mount remote NAS. But, their is a difference between the Plex plugin and an app. I don't know the difference, but have read about others wanting one over the other.

Transcoding adds a whole another depth to the question of Plex. When I setup my media server, (using ZFS but is not TrueNAS), I made the media files into ones that were friendly to my media player. Thus, no transcoding required.


One comment. TrueNAS is not the end all NAS for everyone. At times their are other, better solutions for specific problems. TrueNAS Core & SCALE do have the advantage of good data security, reliability and flexibility, (through ZFS), as well as being free. However, ZFS can add complexity that some users have difficulty learning.

 

[Evertb1]

One comment. TrueNAS is not the end all NAS for everyone....

A warning I don't see often enough to be honest. I truly love my TrueNAS system but throuhg the years I have seen enough visitors on this forum that just should look elsewere because TrueNAS is not the best solution for their needs/wants.