Quick story time: A little over a year ago I discovered the wonderful world of plex and being able to stream video to any device in my home. I must say that I absolutely love it. Between my wife, my kids and my videos I ran into a little problem where storage was getting a little tight. I was running plex on an old laptop with a single 250GB hard drive.

At first it was great and the setup met my needs. But as time went on and the fam started adding more videos, I knew it was time to upgrade and get something a little more storage heavy. While doing my research, there were a couple of questions that I needed answered. How much RAM should is going to be sufficient for my needs? What exactly are the differences between the 2 bay vs 4 bay vs 8 bay.

When it comes to choosing a brand, there are basically two big players in this game. We got the Synology NAS, which is extremely popular and well liked in the community. Second, we have the QNAP NAS which I’m sure many of you have heard of.

The differences can vary and are outside the scope of this article, but let’s move on to some details we should consider.

2 Bay vs 4 Bay NAS Devices

Aside from the cost, let’s try and answer some of those questions here in this post.

When looking at the difference between the 2 bay vs 4 bay NAS devices or even the 8 bay devices there are some considerations you should take into place. I’ll reiterate once again that your budget might dictate what you’ll eventually end up with, but let’s highlight a few items.

2 Bay Nas Pros

• Definitely more budget friendly
• Can hold you off until you feel the need to upgrade
• Lower power consumption

4 Bay Nas Pros

• More bays mean they have capacity to hold more much storage
• Most will support RAID6 and RAID 10
• Can “Future Proof” your setup and not need to upgrade for sometime

2GB vs 4GB RAM

The same concept applies here. The more RAM usually would mean the unit is going to a bit pricier. However, when choosing the best NAS For Plex, you could probably get by just fine with a simple 2GB unit. If you plan to use more of its features and use its full capabilities, I would probably go with the 4GB.

Simply put, a NAS device is a computer, and computers need RAM. With that said, you don’t have to go all out if all you’re going to be doing is streaming videos. But what’s the fun in that?

Full Disclosure: We earn a commission if you click on an Amazon link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
 

Overall Best NAS For Plex 2021

So what’s my choice for the overall Best NAS For Plex 2021? It’s the 4 Bay DiskStation DS420+ Synology NAS. For me, this was a perfect balance between price, capacity, capability and features.

Here is why we chose the 4 Bay DiskStation DS420+ Synology NAS as our overall best NAS Device for Plex.

• 4 drive bays for 64TB of max internal storage (16 TB drive x 4)
• A 64bit Intel Celeron J4025 CPU. 2-core 2.0 GHz, burst up to 2.9 GHz
• 2GB DDR4 non-ECC memory that’s expandable up to 6GB
• Transcode H.265/H.264 4K videos to 1080p High Definition
• Two built-in M.2 2280 NVMe SSD slots for cache acceleration
• Hot swappable drives for constant connectivity

Best Runner Up NAS For Plex 2021

For the best runner up NAS device for Plex in 2021 is QNAP TS-451+-8G-US 4-Bay Next Gen Personal Cloud NAS. Let’s go over the reasons why we chose this as a viable option.

• Intel Celeron Quad-core 2.0 GHz processor
• 8GB DDR3L RAM right out of the box
• Transcode full HD videos on-the-fly or offline
• Hot swappable drives for constant connectivity
• Comes with remote for convenience

Best Budget NAS For Plex 2021

The Synology 2 Bay NAS DiskStation DS220+ takes the prize for the best budget NAS for Plex you can use. Here are the reason why I think this is a good choice when you want something to get you in the game.

• Intel Celeron J4025 2-core 2.0 GHz, burst up to 2.9 GHz
• 2 Bays with RAID 1 capabilities to prevent sudden failure
• DiskStation allows you to transcode H.265/H.264 4K videos to 1080p
• 2 drive bays for 32TB of max internal storage (16 TB drive x 2)
• Hot swappable drives for constant connectivity
• 2000+ people gave it a 4.8 out of 5 star ratings on Amazon

NAS For the Home Labber

This might be something for someone who prefers to have a rackmount setup, but I had to throw in an honorable mention. This the QNAP TS-432PXU-RP-2G 4 Bay NAS.

• (2) 10GB SPF+ Ports for high speed transfers
• (2) 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Ports
• (2) Redundant Power supply for quick and easy failover
• 1U Rack Mount so it won’t take up much space on your rack

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I get a NAS for under $100?
A: While there are options such as the Synology DiskStation 1-Bay it might be worth it to get yourself at least a 2 bay NAS. The reason being is that it can support RAID in the event of disk failure. Another reason is because the extra bay can provide extra storage. More storage = more media!

 
Q: Do these NAS devices come with hard drives?
A: Unfortunately most do not come with hard drives pre-installed. This might actually work in your favor because you can pick and choose exactly what you want to install.

 
Q: What hard drive devices are compatible with these NAS devices?
A: It depends on the NAS device you choose. Both the Synology and QNAP devices (as well as other manufacturers) have compatibility lists that you can Google.

 
Q: What other features can I use besides Plex?
A: This depends on what brand you end up going with. Synology has features to allow you to use file sharing, FTP etc.. which is pretty cool. QNAP offers similar built-in features in their Operating System so it’s worth doing the research to see which is best suited for you.

Conclusion

All in all I hope you found this article informative and it helped you identify the best NAS For Plex 2021 for you. The goal here is to find something that’s reasonable for your budget but still gives you the capacity needed to host your files.

I know these devices are a pretty penny, but the investment is is well worth it.

If you’re looking for similar posts, be sure to check out our Best Homelab Server For 2020. If you’re in the market for a new rack, perhaps to mount the sweet QNAP 10GB noted above, take a look at our cheap server rack for home post.

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Since this is used for learning and general testing of software and things of the sort, we’re going to try and focus our attention on keeping it below a certain price tag. We definitely don’t want to be purchasing brand new, enterprise level systems because frankly, it’s way too expensive.

Enterprise vs Consumer Grade Equipment

I should preface this by saying that the end goal of a homelab is to learn and have fun in the process. So if you can accomplish this with whatever you choose to get, you win!

However, the equipment that you use in your homelab is something you should definitely consider as well. I’m well aware of the cost associated with a homelab but my reason or justification is that I can use these skills that I’ve learned out in the real world. I can essentially get that money back (and then some!) in the form of a really good paying job. Spoiler alert. It worked!

Having something to play with at home has helped me tremendously and has really solidified my understanding of certain concepts. But let’s look at the pros and cons of enterprise vs consumer grade equipment and why I personally recommend enterprise grade equipment. Specifically, used enterprise grade equipment that we can fix it up to our liking. After all, we are in a very technical field and we should know the basic hardware components of building a computer system.

Enterprise Grade Equipment

Pros:

• Biggest Pro is that this is what companies are using so you can get a hands on feel for the ‘real world’
• You’re able to get more bang for you buck. More Ram, Storage and Processor capacity for a lower price
• Enterprise grade servers are built to run 24/7/365
• Hot swappable drives
• Out of band management is a huge plus for remote troubleshooting. i.e HP’s iLO, Dell’s iDRAC etc…
• Built in RAID
• Redundant Power supplies

Cons:

• These things are LOUD!! Like very loud so not recommended to keep inside the house because of the wife factor
• Some replacement parts can be very costly
• Since these are used, the warranty may very well be expired

Consumer Grade Equipment

Pros:

• You can get started right away with what you’re using right now
• The systems are very quiet and can be kept in the house

Cons:

• There can be huge constraints on RAM and hard drive capacity
• No out of band management means you have to physically connect a monitor if its down.
• Lack of redundancies like Power supply, NICs etc..

As I mentioned, when it comes to a homelab I would still prefer enterprise grade over your typical around the house consumer grade equipment. Why? Because companies power their services using this equipment and this will prepare us for sysadmin roles in the real world. Many people, and I’m guilty of this myself, like to get a feel for their day to day work environment so we tend to replicate what we have at work. For example: if we have VMware vCenter 6.5 rolled out in our work environment, it would be greatly beneficial to us to have something similar at home so we can get a better understanding of the features etc…

Overall Best Homelab Server 2020

My choice for the overall Best Homelab Server 2020 actually is a tie. The answer? It sort of depends on what your personal preference is. I’ve been more exposed to HP shops so for me personally, I went with HP but if that’s not your style, my equally ranked Dell choice is great as well.

Full Disclosure: We earn a commission if you click on an Amazon link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

Here is why this is our overall best server for home lab in 2020:

• Supports Intel® Xeon® E5-2697 2.7GHz/12-core processors
• Can easily support 128GB given the type of memory. Max capacity 768GB (24 x 32GB HDIMM @1333MHz or LRDIMM @1066MHz)
• Supports VMware vCenter 6.5 and earlier
• Equipped with iLO (Integrated Lights Out) for easy remote connectivity

Here is why this is also our overall best server for home lab in 2020:

• Supports Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 product families
• Max capacity 768GB. 2GB/4GB/8GB/16GB/32GB DDR3 up to 1866MT/s
• Supports VMware vCenter 6.5 and earlier
• Equipped with iDRAC7 for easy remote connectivity

Runner Up Homelab Server For 2020

If the above might be a bit too much for you here are our two top picks for runner up servers.

• Supports Intel® Xeon® E5-2697 2.7GHz/12-core processors
• Can easily support 128GB given the type of memory. Max capacity 768GB (24 x 32GB HDIMM @1333MHz or LRDIMM @1066MHz)
• Supports VMware vCenter 6.5 and earlier
• Equipped with iLO (Integrated Lights Out) for easy remote connectivity

• Supports Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 product families
• Max capacity 768GB. 2GB/4GB/8GB/16GB/32GB DDR3 up to 1866MT/s
• Supports VMware vCenter 6.5 and earlier
• Equipped with iDRAC7 for easy remote connectivity

Best Budget Homelab Server For 2020

If the above choices are not a match we can take a look at the R720 predecessor. The Dell PowerEdge R710

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How much RAM is a good amount to start with?
A: I would say a good starting point would be 48GB if possible. This can allow you to create 6 virtual machines with 8GB of RAM. You can also set 2 Domain Controllers with 4GB each to give you that extra VM.
 

Q: How many cores/processor should I have in my server.
A: 2 Processors are typical however, you can get up to 12 cores with some of the processors mentioned above. For me personally, I went with 6 cores on each processor and I haven’t reached a bottle neck yet.
 

Q: Can I upgrade the NICs to 10GB?
A: Absolutely YES!! These servers have the PCI slots to allow for 10GB NICs. I would recommend going with a 10GB SFP+ card which will need SFP+ cables and a switch that supports that as well. These are still much cheaper than its ethernet counterpart.
 

Q: What VMs should I run in my homelab?
A: This answer can vary widely depending on what your goals are but typically it’s good to know some Active Directory so you’ll want to setup a domain (with 2 Domain Controllers for redundancy). A file server VM with plenty of storage to host whatever apps/documents you want to host locally. It can be useful to practice NTFS permissions too. It can be useful to setup a dedicated backup VM to backup everything. A monitoring server to let you know if any services go down.

It’s really entirely up to you and what you’re interested in learning at that point.

Conclusion

As I mentioned earlier, the goal of a homelab is to learn and have fun in the process. So it doesn’t matter what gear you have, as long as you’re able to accomplish that you’re good. If Amazon is not your style, I would definitely look at eBay for getting excellent priced secondhand servers that have been refurbished. These Items are constantly changing so the links are not always static thus, I didn’t want to link anything knowing that it wouldn’t be there in the upcoming days/months.
 

All in all I’ve been running my homelab for little over 2 years and one of the things I enjoy the most is tinkering around with different setups. Whether I’m running a trial on a certain Enterprise application that I can use in the workplace. Or if I need to figure out some kind of automation for VMware using VMware PowerCLI.
 

I’ve written various automation scripts for SCCM and learned my way around many of its core functions. I’ve tinkered with Exchange and migrated users to Azure Active Directory. I like to document a lot of these setups so feel free to check out our Youtube Channel for many how-to videos I listed above.

Finally, a lot of this would not have been possible If I didn’t have an adequate server to be able to learn and run these services on.

Never Stop Learning!!

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When ever you’re looking to buy something it’s always important to know the use case and see which particular item suits you best. In order to compare items effectively, you’ll need to have an idea of the overall features, amount of equipment you’re looking to rack mount and how much weight your rack can withstand.

Cheap Server Rack For Home – Features To Look For

When it comes to a server rack there are few things you’ll want to keep in mind. Simple items that will save you some heart-ache in the future and won’t necessarily break the bank either. I’m going to list those items barney style so you have a clear idea of things to add to your check list. And since this article is geared around a cheap server rack for home I’ll note the must haves, but also add the “I think I’ll pay little more for that too” options.

Must Have Items For A Server Rack

In my experience I would have to say the must have items for any server rack are as followed, in no particular order. This shouldn’t matter if it’s a 6U or a 42U (We’ll get into what that means in a bit)

• 4 Post Rack
• A 4 post rack is definitely a must have to able to support the weight and have it equally distributed
• Deep Server Rack
• I don’t specify the depth here because different servers have different depths so I would measure your deepest rackmount item and start there
• Rack with square holes
• Square holes with cage nuts are best suited for servers. Most servers now come equipped with rapid rails to quickly mount it
• Avoid round holes as those are designated for audio equipment. PLEASE!
• At least 12U height
• I say this because anything shorter than 12U you’ll probably end up having to upgrade later (and spend more money)
• A “U” or rack unit is approx 1.75in in height so 12U would be 21in tall.

Nice To Have Items For A Server Rack

These are the nice to have items either for your server rack along with some accessories to go with it as well. Again in no particular order.

• Wheels/ Casters
• Trying to move 100+ pound rack full of equipment from one corner of the room to another is not fun. Casters can easily solve that problem.
• Cage Nut Removal Tool
• I call this the knuckle saver tool. If you don’t have one and try to remove cage nuts, you’ll understand why
• Rack Studs
• A rack stud is the evolution of a cage nut. It is a bit more expensive but it will make your life a lot easier when racking and unracking servers

Best Overall Cheap Server Rack For Home

So let’s get to it. In my opinion the StarTech 12U Open Frame Adjustable 4-Post Rack takes the cake for the best overall low cost server rack for your homelab.

Here is why this is our overall top pick:

• This 12U server rack is just shy of $205 USD
• It has an adjustable depth to fit your full size server. Fits Dell, HP and other big name brands
• It has 4 posts for the extra support and stability
• It has casters/wheels so you can easily move around as needed
• 12U has space for your most common items such as two servers, UPS, rack mount switch, patch panels and cable management
• Rated 4.8 out of 5 value for the money on Amazon

Runner Up for Best Overall Home Server Rack

Our runner up pick is the Raising Electronics 15U Open Frame 31″ Depth 4-Post Rack

Here is why this is our overall runner up choice:

• This 15U server rack is just shy of $190 USD
• It has an 31″ depth to fit your full size server. Fits Dell, HP and other big name brands
• It has 4 posts for the extra support and stability
• 15U has even more space to fit common rack mount items
• Rated 4.5 out of 5 value for the money on Amazon

Best Budget Server Rack For Home

For the best budget server rack, I thought the Raising Electronics 15U Open Frame Adjustable 4-Post Rack was a good fit.

Here is why this is our overall budget pick:

• This 15U server rack is just shy of $155 USD
• It has an adjustable depth to fit your full size server. Fits Dell, HP and other big name brands
• It has 4 posts for the extra support and stability
• 15U has even more space to fit common rack mount items
• Rated 4.6 out of 5 value for the money on Amazon

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Should I get an enclosed rack for my homelab?
A: Enclosed server racks usually cost way more so if you want to shell out the money. By all means go for it.

Q: I just got my new server rack. Now what.
A: It’s time to play :). Rack’em and stack’em. Visit https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab for more ideas on what to do with your homelab.

Q: Do I need extra cooling or is open air cooling ok?
A: Google runs some datacenters at 95 °F (35 °C) so it’s OK to keep the servers warm as long as it’s consistent. Just make sure there isn’t a constant change in temperature.

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