My 918+ just died need advice for a replacement! (Thinking of 1821+)

[zantarous]

So my trustful 918+ today died just shy of 3 years since purchase, there was a slight bang, and a slight smelling of burning and all my electrics in the living room tripped. I was watching TV at the time and first thought my beloved OLED had gone bang.

Contacted Amazon and they were like send it back and we will refund you! I had to question them if they would really do that to a 3 year old device and they said I would offer you a replacement but we don't have any.

So this means a new NAS time, I do have a Synology 5 Bay expansion unit which I only just added a new drive to last week, at least I was able to expand the volume before it went pop.

So any ides would like one with more bays and an additional expansion slot.

I do use it for Plex but have been toying with getting a PC to move handle all that, but that might be some time off. Would be nice to get a 10GBe network card althoug non of my networking equipment supports that but moving 4K files around over 1GB is just paunfully slow now.

 

[bubblegum57]

There is a nas selector at Synology Inc.

Be aware a 10GBE adapter might be an option, costing more.

 

[zantarous]

Yeah seen those was just looking for peoples recommendations, I like the look of the 1821+ but no idea if it can run Plex and how well it can transcode if needed. Anyone have one?

 

[bubblegum57]

Here's a chart

 

[zantarous]

Ok so I am thinking 1520 it gives me an extra bay and an additional expansion output.

Or go 8 bay and buy a PC to run apps.

 

[bubblegum57]

I think pretty much any pc running plex is a better option than running plex via a nas.

Just use a nas for storage.

If money is no object, get an 8 bay & do away with the expansion unit which is taking up space.

& buy a nuc.

 

[zantarous]

Right my refund is being processes (still can't believe they offered that) and am seriously thinking of getting a 1821+. I have been using my Shield as a Plex server this week and that seems to handle the job pretty well so that could probably take over Plex hosting duties and leave me with loads of room for expansion for quite some time.

Anyone have one of these and anything to say before I pull the trigger?

 

[bubblegum57]

Go for it. Just a small point about the shield. I used 2 sandisk ultra disk as adapted storage on my shield, they only lasted a few months each. I am now using an ssd in an external enclosure, this seems to have lasted pretty well.

 

[zantarous]

Go for it. Just a small point about the shield. I used 2 sandisk ultra disk as adapted storage on my shield, they only lasted a few months each. I am now using an ssd in an external enclosure, this seems to have lasted pretty well.

Why are you using the external storage? Can you not put the Plex data on your NAS? That is what I was planning to do, although I guess browsing is faster on the attached SSD?

Going to also need to find if I can grab the meta data from my old install and transfer that to the new server. I don't relish doing all my old collections again.

Do you have one of the 8 bays? if so what is the noise like? I saw a video earlier this week regarding the fact that it is made from metal it is nosier which is worrying me a bit as at the moment it will live in my living room. I will start house hunting soon as things start opening up and one of the things I will be looking for is a under the stairs cupboard type thing that I can turn into a little server room.

 

[bubblegum57]

The Plex server is on the shield, as you know, there is only 16gb (12gb of useable storage) so I added a ssd as adapted/adopted storage. I suppose if you don't have a very large library, the internal storage might be enough. I do have a few other apps including Kodi, & MrMC installed on the shield. It was nothing to do with speed.

You can transfer the meta data from the old server, you need to google.

I have a 4 bay 920+ I bought one Toshiba NAS drive, this is a bit noisy. To help with noise go to redditt Synology. You can place it on some soft material. I bought a roll of velcro tape from ebay. I stuck this, furry side up, on the sides of the hard drive enclosures. Not sure if it made a great deal of difference.

 

[zantarous]

The Plex server is on the shield, as you know, there is only 16gb (12gb of useable storage) so I added a ssd as adapted/adopted storage. I suppose if you don't have a very large library, the internal storage might be enough. I do have a few other apps including Kodi, & MrMC installed on the shield. It was nothing to do with speed.

My library is huge, 27TB of TV, 28TB of movies, I think the Plex folder was over 300GB last time I looked.

I am asking why put the Plex metat data on the SSD and not on the NAS? But I guess on the SSD it caches and allows browsing a lot quicker then having to wake the NAS.

 

[bubblegum57]

Noise

the reason I had the data on the shield, was because that's where it was put, when I installed the plex app on the shield. Mind you, looking at the plex folders on the shield, & the nas, you have got me think. I'm now not sure, where the shield meta data is.

If, you can put the data on the nas, by all means do it. I didn't really think of that.

I also have a plex server on the nas itself. I have about 1500 movies. The plex folder on my nas is 6.34GB.

Don't ask me why I have 2 plex servers, both pointing to the same storage. I don't use anyone in particular over the other.
I sometimes use MrMC sometimes kodi. I also have a jellyfin docker image on the nas.

 

[zantarous]

Noise

the reason I had the data on the shield, was because that's where it was put, when I installed the plex app on the shield. Mind you, looking at the plex folders on the shield, & the nas, you have got me think. I'm now not sure, where the shield meta data is.

If, you can put the data on the nas, by all means do it. I didn't really think of that.

I also have a plex server on the nas itself. I have about 1500 movies. The plex folder on my nas is 6.34GB.

Don't ask me why I have 2 plex servers, both pointing to the same storage. I don't use anyone in particular over the other.
I sometimes use MrMC sometimes kodi. I also have a jellyfin docker image on the nas.

It is the metal chassis that is more the issue, the 920 and 918 have plastic chassis and absorb noise better. I did that trick with the Velcro as well, I had to make sure I ripped that off beofre sending mine back.

When i set the Shield up as a server it asked me where I want to put the meta data so i assume you can mount the NAS and point it there. Right off to go do some reading on this while I rip my new Friends complete collection on Blu-ray (my collection just keeps on growing).