Best NAS under $600 for Use with Nvidia Shield

cacique on 27/07/2020 - 20:12
Last edited 27/07/2020 - 20:13

Hey all,

Ive missed so many deals but as Tax time has come…for a while have been wanting to use a NAS to store Media, a few TB's of Photos, 4k Drone footage and Gopro footage.
Having recently bought a Shield thought it could be the front end for all this.

  • I would be storing some 4k Movies + mainly 1080 TV to watch through the Shield.
  • Shield is connected via Ethernet to the Router, as the NAS would also be.
  • I have a Raspberry Pi 3b that runs Kodi in another room via Wifi that would need to be able to access the NAS media also(Plex /Kodi).

Also planning to shuck the 12TB drive form this deal which is meant to be on the way! Also wouldnt mind running some Docker containers for Sonarr etc.

Ive shortlisted the usual suspects, but unsure what benefit a Synology 918+ would be over a 418play.
At the moment reading up everyone mentions Synology software is quick and easier to use than Qnap, although im not fully commited, and the equivalent QNAP TS-453B looks quite expensive? Is there any other models that would fit this use case?

im not going to build anything or use FreeNas, so please dont suggest that :)
A 4 bay that would hold up decently for the next 4-5 years would be great!

Electrical & Electronics

Comments

  • Sergeant Salami on 27/07/2020 - 20:32
    +2

    If you have an old pc, install proxmox, unraid or omv and setup your own nas.

    • cacique on 27/07/2020 - 20:34
      +1

      no, ive only got the one PC. I wrote that i wasnt going to build or do my own, hence me asking for Off the shelf solutions :)

    • thonk on 27/07/2020 - 21:38

      OMV is great! +1 FreeNAS is also a good option too. Careful though, its a deep rabbit hole with your wallet at risk.

  • Spaldo on 27/07/2020 - 20:55
    +2

    My vote is for Synology. I’ve had a few over the years and only ever upgraded to get either faster or more bays. Easy to use and reliable. I would go the best option you can; 1) to make it last as long as you can 2) to help with processor speed if you plan on hosting a few things in docker etc

    • cacique on 28/07/2020 - 09:45

      Cheers for the reply. How would a 418play go, was it able to stream to a shield and wifi to a Pi (or any wireless client) at the same time no issues?

      • slick7 on 28/07/2020 - 10:25

        418play and transcoding not going to be great - might want to look into something with more CPU grunt for high rez content

        I have an old Drobo NAS at the moment with plex server on it and I can direct play most movies (not 4k) via Chromecast ultra and also an old PC running in another room. The NAS CPU is horribly underpowered so if I want to watch something on an iPad I have to prepare in advance and optimise a plex version of the content overnight for the right resolution and quality… Having the ability to transcode would be awesome so I'm looking at a Synology 920+ personally. I want to be at my brother's house and play some of my kid's movies directly on his TV. This would mean plex would have to transcode the movie to the right resolution that's capable to be streamed via our internet connections.

        • Caped Baldy on 28/07/2020 - 10:34
          +1

          I think OP is going to use the nvidia shield for the transcoding and media playing.

          • cacique on 28/07/2020 - 10:43
            +1

            @Caped Baldy: yep the Shield will be doing the bulk of it, but i would also like to be able to stream to a Raspberry Pi 3b running Kodi in another room on wifi, ideally at the same time as something might be playing on the shield?

            • Caped Baldy on 28/07/2020 - 11:00

              @cacique: There is an option in the shield that let's it find and connect to NAS's. You should be able to run the plex software off the shield. askme69 seems to have gotten it working.

              I looked into it for my shield but haven't implemented anything yet. The shield is plenty powerful. You could also connect an external HDD to the shield but I wouldn't for extended periods due to high temps.

  • sloppyjoe34 on 27/07/2020 - 20:57

    Hi,
    I bought a qnap ts-228A 6 months ago.
    Use it with my nvidia shield daily.
    No problems thru Kodi.

  • askme69 on 27/07/2020 - 20:59
    +1

    I've had a Synology 413j for maybe 10 years. Never turned it off.

    Runs like a dream.

    Hosts all my movies, pics etc for use via Home Network and also for family and friends to access remotely via Synology Apps.

    Often has 4 users at a time streaming from it with no issues.

    • jace88 on 28/07/2020 - 10:59

      I previously had a DS215j (well, technically I still have it but it's now at my parents) and their value series is rock solid. Given it'll be on 24x7, even if you don't care that much about the data on there, having it in SHR is still helpful since eventually the hard drive will die, and you can easily substitute in (and/or install bigger drives in the future).

      In the past I would've said just go higher spec to get the best specs within the consumer range (eg 918+/920+/etc) as the marginal price increase wasn't that significant between value, play and plus lines…

      But now that prices are more spread out, it's worth considering whether you just want a basic file host and you'll let the clients do the work in which case even a 420j would be a great choice, or if you want to have more grunt (and ability to run Docker) and potential to grow in the future in which case something like a 918+ or 920+ would presumably provide more longevitiy.

      • cacique on 29/07/2020 - 12:22

        thanks for the feedback. the prices are exactly whats got me thinking what the main difference was!

  • Hybroid on 27/07/2020 - 22:08

    I've been thinking about this for a while but struggling to find the value proposition for a Synology over my old HP Microservers. Still tempted though and wouldn't consider any other brand.

    Here's a comparison between the 2 units. They're very similar but one has a dual core processor and slower performance.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/NAScompares/comments/74g2n2/ds418pl…

    I think there's 2020 new models coming soon which may drop the price on the older 2018 ones.

    • jace88 on 28/07/2020 - 11:08

      Surprisingly the 2018 models retained value well because they stopped distributing them , and the performance improvement for end users wasn't that significant in some cases.

      At the end of the day you're paying a premium with a Synology box for an all in one box, optimised/efficient for the purpose, with the proven software/ease of use, etc…

      In some ways, it's like the Apple Mac of NAS boxes.

  • Zorlin on 27/07/2020 - 23:29
    +1

    Synology or QNAP is the way to go. Both provide excellent support.

  • [Deactivated] on 28/07/2020 - 06:40

    Any Synology is going to be fine, if you're not running docker / plex on the NAS itself then they should all be pretty competent. Synology's software is rock solid and pretty easy. If you want to consolidate a little look for one with a good amount of RAM / a + model (can run docker - so the 918+ is better than the 418 play for official support) / SSD cache.

  • boomramada on 28/07/2020 - 08:29

    Best? I use raspberry pi 4 with WD drive. No issues.

  • OZB Al on 28/07/2020 - 08:32

    For docker containers an i386 based processor would be easier, so focus on processor and ram. People go on about Synology having better software than Qnap, but you're running docker containers, not Synology software. if you're using Kodi you don't need to waste resources transcoding. You don't need HDMI or any funky media output.

    I got a cheap TS-431P2 for serving media to my shield and vf tv, works fine but if I had known that the arm based processor would restrict my choice of docker containers I would have chosen differently.

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