Feedback on the "6-bay Mini-ITX NAS" build before I start my own

Hello!

Interested in doing the " 6-bay Mini-ITX NAS" build, and I was looking for feedback considering JDM_WAAT mentioned he was building one for himself. Basically looking to check on 2 things:

  1. How has the system been? Could it support 3-4 transcodes with subtitles on plex?

  2. Anything you would change now that its been close to half a year later? (my budget for this thing is up to $800 not including drives)

Thanks!

In case anyone wants a refresher, heres the build from the guide.

Type _____________ Part _________________________ Expected Price
Case _____________ Fractal Node 304 1.3k __________ $90.00
Motherboard _______ Intel DQ77KB Mini-ITX 818 ______ $41.00 OBO
CPU ______________ Xeon E3-1260L 372 ___________ $40.00
RAM ______________ 1x8GB DDR3 SODIMM 129 _____ $22.00
MSATA SSD ________ TCSUNBOW 240GB SSD 253 ___ $37.00
CPU Cooler ________ Thermaltake Gravity i2 335 ______ $9.00
Power Supply _______19V 120W DC power supply 249 __ $23.00
SATA Data Cable ____ 6 Pack SATA cable 371 _________ $8.00
SATA Power Cable ___ DQ77KB 4xSATA power 135 _____ $9.00
SATA Power Splitter __ Startech 4xSATA power 118 ______ $7.00
SATA Card _________ 2 Port SATA3 card 203 __________ $14.00
________________________________________ Total ----- $300.00
Hardware specs:

4C / 8T, 3.30GHz Turbo, 6534 passmark
Upgradable up to 4C / 8T, 8892 passmark with i7-3770S
8GB DDR3 RAM
Expandable up to 16GB RAM
6x3.5" bays, 2x2.5" bays native
Dual Intel NIC

A lot of people right now, and for good reason, are splitting plex out from their NAS. Many are using currently popular $100 HP 290’s and the Quicksync guide that can do 15+ transcodes. Then use your NAS purely for storage. It will cost you just slightly more but work much better. With your current build it would be pushing it to do 3 transcodes (2000 passmark per transcode) and you wouldn’t be able to use the NAS for anything else at the time.

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What if the only reason I am getting a NAS is for plex? I have no interest in virtualization or anything else really.

Pure Plex performance is going to be best using quicksync. An 8th gen i3 will get you the 15+ transcodes. How much media do you have and where are you storing it?

about 12tb currently, on my pc as well as external backup. I’m trying to separate the plex from my pc. So I should look into an i3 over the xeon for my build?

Yeah, read through both the forum posts I linked in my first reply and go for an 8th gen to get quicksync. 6th and 7th gen work but not quite as well as 8th. Going prebuilt will be even cheaper than your build. $100 bucks for the HP 290 and $30 for an M.2 NVMe drive. Most around the forums and discord are starting to do a quicksync box for plex and then using thier NAS for storage using unraid and lots of drives.

what if you did the mini-itx nas but used this MB
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ECS-H110M4-C23-V1-0-INTEL-H110-LGA1151-HDMI-SATA-6GB-S-DDR4-MICROATX-MOTHERBOARD/392345568099?hash=item5b599e4363:g:qZcAAOSw0ohdMKyS
and an 7th Gen pentium?