Home NAS

[rene]

The Synology DS918+ for example has 2 M.2 slots, used as cache. With [edit: dual-] Gigabit ethernet connectivity, throughput is limited to some 200+ MiB/s anyway (i.e., does not need SSDs) but as in the case of regular computer systems elimination of seek-times hence reduction of latency is the more important factor: if you have a busy LAN with many machines concurrently accessing (small) files from the NAS, a NAS-sides cache such as that makes sense. A small office where multiple people work immediately or near-immediately off of the NAS, say. It clearly doesn't do a single thing for streaming one or more movies from a home NAS: use-once data such as video does not benefit from caching.

A quick google shows that also fully SSD based units are starting to appear: https://www.qnap.com/en/product/tbs-453a. "Compact, near-silent, power-efficient" would be their point for now, "compact, near-silent, power-efficient and no digging though old-stock to find weird, old-fashioned magnetic-storage bricks" will be their point in the (relatively distant) future.

As in the case of NAS-sides cache, memory size is dependent on what you are going to do with the NAS. If you are going to be using it mainly/only as storage, and certainly in a streaming-video context, you don't need much of anything; slowest CPU and least amount of RAM available today (256M I guess) will be enough. If you are going to use the NAS as a transcoder you need to be more picky. I.e., if you want to be able to concurrently transcode two HEVC (H.265) videos to AVC (H.264) since your TV or media-player cannot directly handle HEVC then you'd preferably be looking at the top of the line (or a new TV or media-player...).

Given your stated purpose I'll still stand by my original recommendations from the first reply in this thread. A DS218j or similar with two WD Red 4TBs in mirroring RAID.

[Petermint]

Brasero saves DVDs as .iso files and VLC plays them with no problems. The actual bandwidth required for reading is about 1.3 MB/s. This is all really low tech for a NAS. What appears to screw up playback is someone searching for a file. A good NAS would have a big RAM cache and look ahead for sequential reads of files.When I tested Qnap and similar devices a few years ago, their memory was too small and there was no look ahead. How do the new models handle a couple of people viewing while a couple of people search titles?

[twd78]

If you just need space to store your ripped DVD/Blurays so that all in your household can access them, data security is not your top concern. To make it as cheap as possible, you can take an outdated PC with standard 4 to 6 SATA ports, install Linux on it and put in as many HDDs as you have SATA ports.
You can serve the files via SAMBA using for instance LVM to create one big volume.
This solution gives you no data protection, but in opposite to RAID0, only files which are on one drive will be lost. The plus side of LVM is, that you can add drives later to the Volumes.

You have to think about a decent network architecture too if you plan to stream Bluray over network - WLAN can be a bottleneck there.
But as I have read correctly, you want to rip those discs which normally means, that they will be compressed too resulting in much lower space requirements. Do not underestimate the time you have to spend in ripping, and if you want to compress them lets say to mkv, it will eat up a lot of time. I have no clue about the copy protection or how the ripping of Blurays work, so I just assume as being the same like DVDs, which can be very time consuming.

If you plan to implement streaming abilities like Plex, then you have to think about the processor power and RAM too. When only using file serving, there is no real demand on CPU and RAM.

I run a NAS server on my old i5-2500k system, with 3 drives totalling 6TB in a LVM, using Samba to serve the files. It runs rockstable using Debian since ages.

[MurphCID]

Ok, now here is the next question: I have settled on the Synology 918+ 4 bay, I think I want to get 8-12 tb drives. Also the Synology has 4gb of RAM, and can be expanded to 8 gb. It can also take an SSD. So for NAS drives are 5400 rpm drives ok or should I go with 7200 rpm drives? Also life expectancy on the drives is a concern. Some possible drive options:

WD RED 5400 rpm
WD GOLD 7200 rpm
Seagate Ironwolf drives?

I have had great luck with Western Digital, less than great luck with Seagate.

Suggestions please.

[MurphCID]

The Synology DS918+ for example has 2 M.2 slots, used as cache. With [edit: dual-] Gigabit ethernet connectivity, throughput is limited to some 200+ MiB/s anyway (i.e., does not need SSDs) but as in the case of regular computer systems elimination of seek-times hence reduction of latency is the more important factor: if you have a busy LAN with many machines concurrently accessing (small) files from the NAS, a NAS-sides cache such as that makes sense. A small office where multiple people work immediately or near-immediately off of the NAS, say. It clearly doesn't do a single thing for streaming one or more movies from a home NAS: use-once data such as video does not benefit from caching.

A quick google shows that also fully SSD based units are starting to appear: https://www.qnap.com/en/product/tbs-453a. "Compact, near-silent, power-efficient" would be their point for now, "compact, near-silent, power-efficient and no digging though old-stock to find weird, old-fashioned magnetic-storage bricks" will be their point in the (relatively distant) future.

As in the case of NAS-sides cache, memory size is dependent on what you are going to do with the NAS. If you are going to be using it mainly/only as storage, and certainly in a streaming-video context, you don't need much of anything; slowest CPU and least amount of RAM available today (256M I guess) will be enough. If you are going to use the NAS as a transcoder you need to be more picky. I.e., if you want to be able to concurrently transcode two HEVC (H.265) videos to AVC (H.264) since your TV or media-player cannot directly handle HEVC then you'd preferably be looking at the top of the line (or a new TV or media-player...).

Given your stated purpose I'll still stand by my original recommendations from the first reply in this thread. A DS218j or similar with two WD Red 4TBs in mirroring RAID.

Good points, in the extreme, I will have my wife and two daughters looking at different movies at the same time. I like the DS918+ since it seems to give me a little future proofing and I will go with 8-12 tb drives.

[AndyMH]

I thought I had 5400rpm drives in my 216j, but just checked and 7200rpm, bought on price, gigabit ethernet. Suspect speed will be limited by the ethernet connection. I've got these inside:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01 ... UTF8&psc=1

Been running 24/7 since Mar 17 and I've got CCTV writing to them continuously. No problems.

[Poohstyx]

My 2p worth.

I've got an LG NAS box with 2*2TB drives (the box was £45 off evilbay, the drives were ex-server 5400rpm again off evilbay).

Don't bother with RAID, HDDs have been dependable enough for over 10 years. Plus, to be a true raid it must mirror so that's 1/2 your storage gone, plus the cpu overhead maintaining the thing.

Windows machines can sometimes have an issue seeing the nas box especially if wireless is involved.

Assuming your countrys copyright laws allow it, don't rip the dvds, just download a 'backup' copy (700MB to 1GB each for 720p).

Once things start to get full you can archive to Bluray data discs (22GB or 45GB, I'll let you do the math).

[AndyMH]

All my DVDs sat on the NAS are 'backup copies'

[Poohstyx]

Precisely, and UK law states that the source of the backups & their format is irrelevant.
Don't know about other countries tho'.

[rene]

I like the DS918+ since it seems to give me a little future proofing and I will go with 8-12 tb drives.

If money's no object then there's relatively little point to asking for advise. With the clear exemption for Apple hardware, more expensive does in fact generally mean better and certainly within one brand's line-up. As to 5400 RPM versus 7200: a NAS is limited at the network- rather than disk interface both throughput- and latency-wise which means that 7200 doesn't bring anything. What 5400 on the other hand brings is less noise, less heat and less wear.

(do note that a fast hence more actively cooled NAS and 4 in-use bays means more noise and heat than a more specifically home oriented model.)

[htdavidht]

Hi, I did consider some NAS for my movies collection as well.

About storage capacity, this is as far as I went... if you want your DVD to no loose anything in regards to quality of image, subtitles, diferent audio regions, fancy menus... and so on... a normal DVD disc is around 3GB and that is what you should budget per movie... I don't ahve any BlueRay, but I imagine it is even higher.

Now, if you want to convert the movie into a MP4 with only 1 language audio and the so... you can certainly cut this number down, by a lot, depending how far are you willing to go with the compression.

I don't have that many DVDs but I certainly have enough to have this NAS over my budget for it... So i have not implemented it, so far, and that is why I can't talk about that part of this project.

My advice is that you run the numbers figure out how much storage you need for it, and then calculate how much extra storage you want, on top of it... and then go for the option that give you affordable price with reliable quality.

[rene]

a normal DVD disc is around 3GB and that is what you should budget per movie...

Went into above as well, but no, a standard commercial movie DVD (i.e., dual layer) is between 6 and 7 GB.

[AndyMH]

I would say that most of my DVDs average around 1GB in m4v format. Generated using a combination of handbrake and makeMKV.

[rene]

That's not "your DVDs" but lossy compressed versions of the movies from your DVDs (also as per above, viewtopic.php?f=18&t=280545&start=20#p1547418A).

[AndyMH]

lossy compressed

With my eyes and TV doesn't make a difference

[rene]

Hey, I even still have a VHS hooked up, but archival is archival. And certainly given any chance of OP in a few years time being even half as sick of having done all that work for storing his DVD collection lossy as I myself currently am of having stored my 1500 CD collection lossy. Mindnumbingly boring reripping to FLAC...

[AndyMH]

Likewise with my CDs, fortunately not as many, and some point I'll redo them with flac.

[MurphCID]

I like the DS918+ since it seems to give me a little future proofing and I will go with 8-12 tb drives.

If money's no object then there's relatively little point to asking for advise. With the clear exemption for Apple hardware, more expensive does in fact generally mean better and certainly within one brand's line-up. As to 5400 RPM versus 7200: a NAS is limited at the network- rather than disk interface both throughput- and latency-wise which means that 7200 doesn't bring anything. What 5400 on the other hand brings is less noise, less heat and less wear.

(do note that a fast hence more actively cooled NAS and 4 in-use bays means more noise and heat than a more specifically home oriented model.)

I am trying to Min-Max my money with performance. I figure I will have the money saved up by mid-summer.

[MurphCID]

A buddy suggested Red or Purple drives for best results.

[Petermint]

If you are not running a server, they are all the same. Some of the branding is just to charge more. Some of the more expensive ones have an SSD cache but you are better off spending the extra dollars on a NAS with more memory.