Hi!
I’m going to buy a NAS for my channels server, currently I’m using my desktop PC.
Would you recommend any specific models? I’m looking at a DS223j and a DS223.
Do you recommend that I use an ssd or is a couple 4TB hdd's good?
This would be solely used for my channels server with 4 tuners. I will be using it remotely at times.
Thank you!
If this is just for channels i wouldnt go with a NAS. Just get yourself a dedicated machine, its more powerful...
If you do go with a NAS get one with an Intel CPU.
One important reason to move to a NAS is to protect your data using RAID. If that is important to you, I would suggest you consider a NAS with at least 4 drives so you can use RAID 5. With only two drives, the only way to protect the data is by duplicating it on both drives in a RAID 1 configuration. So if you were to use two 4 TB drives, you would only be able to store 4 TB of data.
Look at the DS423. It has an Intel processor which can handle transcoding for remote streaming. Also it will allow you to use Synology's hybrid raid, so you can upgrade to larger drives down the line if you need to.
RAID is not protection. RAID is not backup. RAID will not save you when the drives click their last click.
I have been using unRAID for about 14 years now and so far no major issues. I have had a drive die suddenly and was able to just pop in a new drive and let it rebuild from parity and that's it. Just built a new server using a i5-13500 CPU using same drives, case and power supply from my last 10 yr old server.
It does give you a chance to recover in the event of HD Failure. I use Windows Storage Spaces as raid 1 with 2 8TB Drives... Also have one running with 5 4TB drives in Raid 5 using storage spaces.
I prefer using Windows Storage spaces over a NAS .. as I can plug my external drives to any Windows 10/11 and just keep on trucking if a PC Fails.
I went with a DS220+ over a year ago and couldn’t be happier. I put 2x6TB drives in it and added 4GB of ram. Haven’t had to touch it since. I travel a lot for work and it is able to transcode fine when I stream through the hotel WiFi. I never watch more than two TVs at a time in my house so I haven’t had to test the horsepower beyond that. I also run a Plex server alongside the Channels server on this same unit.
+1 on the DS220+ runs channels just fine and the added benefit of a NAS for local/mobile backups