Which Nas

DamoKen

Hi, in the market for a nas and have been coming back again and again to the DS918+ which has been getting pretty good reviews.

Main function will be serving as a media centre and storage/backup. For media want to switch from current nuc installed Kodi to either Plex or Emby running on the Nas (reviews I've read indicate either should run without issue).

Will be getting a 4K tv soonish and possibly a projector in the near future so transcoding would be good. *Note all connections in the house are either powerline or Wifi, old place with 3ft thick walls so cat installation is out without full rewire. I've read Powerline connections should be fine for 4K, is this correct?

For each room I'll use the existing Nuc (NUC6i5SYH), a raspberry pi I have knocking around some drawer, both with Kodi installed and install the Plex or Emby addons, or maybe the the plex/emby clients. Unfamiliar with both so any alternatives/recommendations welcome. Might also get Chromecast to cut out the need for keyboards, again alternative recommendations really appreciated.

Also going to get some security camera's installed over the coming months, probably in and around 6 camera's in all so need to consider support for that as well as space. I'm aware synology has licensing issues with cameras as well which would be a negative, unless there's opensource software that can be installed instead?

So firstly would the DS918+ be able to handle these requirements? Secondly as regards storage, think I've roughly 2 to 3TB of data on various devices around the house that I'll move over so was thinking 2*4TB Iron Wolfs in raid 1 with a view to getting two bigger drives when required (and hopefully prices come down a bit). Although not sure how the camera footage will impact that.

Cheers

ED E

Thats a very small dataset to warrant a full blown NAS, as single disk WD "My Cloud" could do that if you could drop the CPU load. But with CCTV coming that would be out. Just be sure you will expand or its a lot of money to under use it.

Processor Intel Celeron J3455 (2.3GHz).
RAM 4GB DDR3L (8GB max).
Transcoding H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), MPEG-2 and VC-1 at 4K30.

So they can transcode, but they don't have the horses in CPU grunt, your phone is just about as fast as that CPU. That means they're offloading it to hardware chips which is power efficient but I'd wanna be sure it'll work with everything and continue to do so. Intel brand this QuickSync and its cool and all that but its a limited encode designed for speed not quality. No such thing as a free lunch.

With CCTV there are software options that would probably be my go to, iSpy for example. That will not run on a DS. You need windowze and more horses. Blue Iris is another.

https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-server-on-ds918-perfect-hardware-transcode-of-4k-10bit-hdr-with-low-cpu-usage/215820/8

This suggests though on the plex side of things its perfect. What might work overall is the DS as media station, add a switch and NUC on top and let the NUC act as your CCTV box saving to the DS.


Next plex pass lifetime sale - get it. They really keep things updated and patched and its nice and hands off.

I've read Powerline connections should be fine for 4K, is this correct?

You need to test. Powerline can do 150Mb in one room and only 20Mb in the next, or worse.

DamoKen

Sorry Ed, meant to reply sooner. Thanks for that, lot of food for thought. Yeah was wondering if the 918+ was overkill considering my intended usage to begin with. However I will probably expand on that eventually, might in my next gig be working remotely in which case VM's might come in useful so room to expand is good to have.

Interesting option with the CCTV, presume that neatly bypasses the licensing cost on the DS as well? Power consumption shouldn't be too much of an issue either I would think with the lower requirements of the nuc correct?

I'll do some testing on the powerline data rates over the next few days. Still renovating the room where the nuc will reside so not sure what the speed will be there. Closest room to the router so will be testing wifi as well as the only thing separating the nuc from the router is a doorway blocked off with a stud wall.

Thanks for the suggestions re Plex & cctv software, will check them all out once I get the renovation finished and have time to start enjoying it!

Just one question, why would you recommend a switch between the Nuc & Nas? Would the router not be sufficient here if ports are available?

ED E wrote: »

Thats a very small dataset to warrant a full blown NAS, as single disk WD "My Cloud" could do that if you could drop the CPU load. But with CCTV coming that would be out. Just be sure you will expand or its a lot of money to under use it.



So they can transcode, but they don't have the horses in CPU grunt, your phone is just about as fast as that CPU. That means they're offloading it to hardware chips which is power efficient but I'd wanna be sure it'll work with everything and continue to do so. Intel brand this QuickSync and its cool and all that but its a limited encode designed for speed not quality. No such thing as a free lunch.

With CCTV there are software options that would probably be my go to, iSpy for example. That will not run on a DS. You need windowze and more horses. Blue Iris is another.

https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-server-on-ds918-perfect-hardware-transcode-of-4k-10bit-hdr-with-low-cpu-usage/215820/8

This suggests though on the plex side of things its perfect. What might work overall is the DS as media station, add a switch and NUC on top and let the NUC act as your CCTV box saving to the DS.


Next plex pass lifetime sale - get it. They really keep things updated and patched and its nice and hands off.




You need to test. Powerline can do 150Mb in one room and only 20Mb in the next, or worse.

ED E

DamoKen wrote: »

Just one question, why would you recommend a switch between the Nuc & Nas? Would the router not be sufficient here if ports are available?

Either is identical, whatever is convenient.

Tinder Surprise

Found this video good...https://youtu.be/E99J9ikhF3k

DS918+ gets a good shout out but for the few €uro more the QNAP TS453b (not the 'be') gives more options imo


as for the NAS in 3rd place... who spends that sort of money on a NAS for multimedia playback?!?! :0

DamoKen

Thanks Tinder, did a price check between the 2. Cheapest I found for the QNap in online stores I use was on Amazon funnily enough (https://www.amazon.co.uk/QNAP-TS-453B-4G-Bay-Desktop-SATA/dp/B06XH3R3N8) but still nearly €100 more than the DS which retails at 589 on Komplett (https://www.komplett.ie/storage/network-storage-nas/).

I hadn't really looked at QNaps to be honest. Had one before and had a few problems with it. Not sure what it's like now but support was pretty poor at the time hence wasn't my first port of call.

What additional options would they offer that would justify the extra cost?

Tinder Surprise

DamoKen wrote: »

Thanks Tinder, did a price check between the 2. Cheapest I found for the QNap in online stores I use was on Amazon funnily enough (https://www.amazon.co.uk/QNAP-TS-453B-4G-Bay-Desktop-SATA/dp/B06XH3R3N8) but still nearly €100 more than the DS which retails at 589 on Komplett (https://www.komplett.ie/storage/network-storage-nas/).

I hadn't really looked at QNaps to be honest. Had one before and had a few problems with it. Not sure what it's like now but support was pretty poor at the time hence wasn't my first port of call.

What additional options would they offer that would justify the extra cost?

He addresses a couple of differences in the vid, but its really swings and roundabouts and personal opinion.

I like the PCIe port on the QNAP for optional expansion and also the NVR features/software appeal to me more.

but the PLEX transcoding options are better on the DS918+

edit: have you tried span.com for prices? (eg) https://www.span.com/product/Synology-DiskStation-NAS-DS918+-8GB-4-Bay-4GB-+-4GB-non-Synology-RAM-~62833

Also another comparison vid: https://youtu.be/76yW1sUwpag

DamoKen

Sorry in work so haven't watched the vid

I noticed the expansion alright in another review. And the additional NVR support sounds good. I'll take a look at the vid tonight.

Cheers!

the_syco

DamoKen wrote: »

I'll do some testing on the powerline data rates over the next few days.

Check what version powerline plug you have. Cheap n cheerful are often version1. If you can, get a Passthrough Homeplug which is generally at least version AV. Have found the Passthough Homeplugs to work better if you're using it nearby multiple electrical devices (such as TV's, Sky box, BluRay players, etc).

Also, if you know how your house is wired, to put the Homeplug at the first plug, if there are multiples of plugs daisy-chained together.

DamoKen

the_syco wrote: »

Check what version powerline plug you have. Cheap n cheerful are often version1. If you can, get a Passthrough Homeplug which is generally at least version AV. Have found the Passthough Homeplugs to work better if you're using it nearby multiple electrical devices (such as TV's, Sky box, BluRay players, etc).

Also, if you know how your house is wired, to put the Homeplug at the first plug, if there are multiples of plugs daisy-chained together.

Sorry Syco, meant to reply sooner. Should be good on the powerline versions, bought a couple of new TP-Links last year that have performed pretty well to date considering the thickness of walls and amount of cabling they pass through. Main inconsistency on speed seems to either be the router itself provided by Eir or the Eir connection itself. On a good day can get speeds in the 60-80Mb range. Can drop to around 20Mb but restarting the router seems to fix that. Been thinking of updating the router itself at some point, will see how the Nas works with the existing one before that though.

Never noticed that with the powerlines and other devices, possibly because I always have them beside whatever they're connecting. Must check that out sometime.

Cheers