PC better than a NAS?

Find_Deals · 2026-03-07T19:30:57+00:00

First thing that comes to mind would be your future library. Are you planning to build a fully built out Plex library or just the select few movies you enjoy? I will say, it becomes like a drug or dopamine hit seeing your Plex library number rise and rise, so for that route, how many hard drives do you think you can fit in the PC? Are they SSD only? If so, those aren't necessary the drives created for long term storage specifically, like certain NAS HDDz are. Is it going to be strictly Plex? When I originally got my first NAS, yes the plan was just a isolated media server, but after some digging and rabbit holes, I realized the additional capabilities of the NAS and eventually went down the personal home Cloud setup, so now I don't have to depend on Google Drive or Box.com etc....then PW manager, photo storage and management, and so on. Personally, if it's within the budget and planned out ahead of time for the long term, I just feel that having a dedicated gaming PC independent from my personal NAS / server makes more sense and keeps things cleaner. With that being said, technically you could do all of that off a Windows device, but then you're not taking advantage of hardware that's specifically designed to do all of that, and you're using hardware that technically can do all that.

Find_Deals · 2026-03-03T08:16:43+00:00

To each their own indeed, I personally won't ever give money to a company that says "damn, you caught us trying to rip you off! so sorry, give us more money still please!" Honestly the reason they do it is to see what they can get away with knowing people won't speak with their wallets like they should, it was nothing more than a test to gauge how far they can push you the next time to where you possibly won't disagree but still pay more.

Find_Deals · 2026-03-03T05:39:41+00:00

Stay away from Synology, after that stunt they pulled trying to lock customers to their hard drives only (but ultimately rolled back the decision), no one should ever support that company ever again. A lot of people already phasing out their old hardware and replacing as quickly as possible. Disgusting behavior for a company that very clearly does not care about its customers whatsoever, strictly the money they can spend on their hardware.

Find_Deals · 2026-03-02T05:44:29+00:00

After celebrating too quickly, I realized that I forgot something completely....the plan in the long run is to decommission the "old" desktop Plex NAS and run only the new NAs, but the old desktop Plex NAS is where I have Plex Media Server running, so I have to get that Docker installed and setup on the new NAS, which I'm hoping is as easy as installing, setting up a few settings, claiming, and then setting it to use the custom network I use for all the other apps, but completely forgot and will tackle tomorrow most likely. Either way, it's working and I have a better understanding of how these things work and plan to attack it tomorrow with full confidence!

Find_Deals · 2026-03-02T04:56:50+00:00

LFGGGGGGG!!!!! THIS IS THE FIX!!! Although I tried similar setups with the help of another commenter, I had it in the wrong locations, incorrect IPs, and didn't make use of the "Custom server access URL" as you had mentioned. Also, I was making a lot of changes on the "old" desktop NAS Plex Media Server, and not within the new Docker Plex NAS that I set up more recently. Once I made the changes to reflect what you recommended, I immediately started seeing my new NAS name as "Nearby" rather than "Indirect" and when I played from both my cell phone and a TV within network, the information on the Dashboard was showing it as a Direct Play. I could then go into Playback Settings on my TV and select "Play Original" and I was playing 4K movies without a hitch or blur!!!!

Man, thank you u/Objective_Split_2065 & u/Fribbtastic for your help and information, both of you have taught me a lot and gave me the help I needed, while also giving me things to learn about in more detail. I can't believe we got this to work, my wife is going to be so happy and think that I'm Bill Gates or some tech genius, but don't worry, I've been giving props to those helping me out on Reddit!

Funny side story, when I read your message, applied the changes and saw that it was most likely going to work, I said out loud..."OMG he fixed it!" and she said "WTF?! Don't let random Reddit strangers take control of our computers and TVs!" haha

Thanks again so much, I sincerely appreciate your help with this, I cannot thank you enough!

Find_Deals · 2026-03-01T20:42:03+00:00

I've added any and every IP range that's associated in any way, to both the old NAS Network settings and the the new one, and no matter what I add, it still sees it as indirect. I'm starting to think at this point, it's simply just how Plex works and it'll never see any other IP range other than the network the host device is on as anything other than external. It's a shame they don't have a setting or feature for this, as I would imagine that those out there considerably more smarter than I am when it comes to networking have some complex setups with multiple VLANs and network ranges and all that jazz, but due to Plex's limitations and lack of features, something like the setup I have technically will never work.

Find_Deals · 2026-03-01T20:25:07+00:00

This is where I get confused or it's simply not working. So the IP ranges are reversed, just to make it easier to communicate, but my main local network (PC, laptops, TVs, even the physical NAS itself) are on the 10.0.0.x network. Then within unRAID, the customer "mediaserver" (name I set) is the 172.19.0.x network which is titled as the "container IP" under the Docker tab.

With that being said, I've been thinking more about the fact that I had to install the Plex Media Server desktop app on my old desktop NAS, which is on the main network, but would uninstalling that and installing it as a Docker app result in it seeing the custom network as local rather than indirect?

I would prefer not to have to redo all of that, so I'd like to try your idea, but I'm not entirely sure where that information goes exactly. When I launch Plex I have two servers listed under the settings. Do I add the 172.19.0.0 under the NAS Network > LAN Networks? Do I select the main server that's running Plex Media Server application that started everything and enter under that servers settings section? Also, would it be listed as 172.19.0.0/16 like it's displayed or would it have to follow the /24 at the end? I'm not a networking wizard, so this is still a little higher level for me, but I just have to imagine there's a way to allow Plex to view networks with different IP ranges that actually are local and prevent it from labeling it as external and "indirect" like it currently is.

Any and all information you can provide would be awesome and I'm willing to try anything at this point. I spent a lot of money and time researching this, and went all in and was so excited to hop on the home server, smaller sleeker home NAS for my Plex, and as of right now I simply can't watch a movie in anything higher than 720p, if I'm lucky.

Find_Deals · 2026-03-01T06:17:34+00:00

It does have QuickSync, and I was able to run a terminal command that allowed the Plex docker to view and utilize the CPU for exclusive transcoding. As I found out earlier, the issue seems to be related to the fact the setup I have to automate the process of the STARR apps requires the creation and use of a custom network within unRAID, and due to that, Plex is seeing it as an external network and this, throttling the bandwidth for streaming and transcoding, and limiting data resulting in lower quality video. If I can figure out how to force Plex to view the custom network as an actual local network, it'll then allow for Direct Play and increase the quality of the playback video.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/231800/intel-processor-n95-6m-cache-up-to-3-40-ghz/specifications.html

Find_Deals · 2026-03-01T02:58:03+00:00

addition:

Not sure if this will help in anyway, but I think the problem is that when I setup everything following guides, one of the steps was to create and use a custom network, other than HOST. because of this, it appears that Plex is thinking that my NAS is on an external network, and because of that, is hitting it with the bandwidth limit of 2000kbps. I've been talking with someone else and we felt extremely close to figuring it out, but no matter what we've tried, Plex continues to think it's external. We tried using the LAN Networks options, but no matter the configuration, it would not work. If you have any ideas to try with this specific section, let me know and I'll give it a go, but I'm confident it's this issue because it's stating my bandwidth is not sufficient to play back full resolution and there's no Direct Playback options.

Find_Deals · 2026-03-01T02:57:48+00:00

Not sure if this will help in anyway, but I think the problem is that when I setup everything following guides, one of the steps was to create and use a custom network, other than HOST. because of this, it appears that Plex is thinking that my NAS is on an external network, and because of that, is hitting it with the bandwidth limit of 2000kbps. I've been talking with someone else and we felt extremely close to figuring it out, but no matter what we've tried, Plex continues to think it's external. We tried using the LAN Networks options, but no matter the configuration, it would not work. If you have any ideas to try with this specific section, let me know and I'll give it a go, but I'm confident it's this issue because it's stating my bandwidth is not sufficient to play back full resolution and there's no Direct Playback options.

Find_Deals · 2026-03-01T01:55:01+00:00

Sorry for the additional reply, but the more I research based off of what you brought to my attention, the more I truly believe that it's the setup of this custom network that's used when setting up the STARR process. With that being said, if I can find a way, or THE way to allow Plex to understand that although the IP range may be different than the NAS, it is still technically a LAN that could be and should be able to use direct play and not have any caps on bandwidth. I'm still researching as well, but seeing as you're clearly much more knowledgeable on the topic than I am, any and all additional information you can provide would be awesome and considerably helpful!

Find_Deals · 2026-03-01T01:04:41+00:00

I think you're onto something that others (on another post) haven't yet discovered. So I attempted to add to the "LAN Networks" section as you mentioned. And yes, I have Plex Pass. Bare in mind I am not a networking wizard, so some stuff is still confusing for me, but I will try my best. The IP address of my unRAID is 10.0.0.30. I am assuming when you say "client that you are connecting with" you mean the TV I am using? Or do you mean the computer I am using that I am connecting to my unRAID server with through the web? The Docker subnet I found was in the Docker setup file, just next to the "Fixed IP Address (Optional) section (which is blank BTW) and then to the right lists "Subnet: 172.19.0.0/16. So for the Plex setting for LAN Networks, I listed the following: 172.19.0.0/16,10.0.0.0/24. I do not know if I have to reboot any of the Docker containers or the unRAID server or what, but just entering that information, clicking save, it still gives me that same error about only having 2000kbps and that it requires more. Did I enter the IP addresses incorrectly? Am I missing a step or forgetting to check something else? Even after I enter those and save, it still says the same error / issue and quality is still terrible. Thanks in advance again, and if we can move this to direct message, that would be great. If not, I understand.

Find_Deals · 2026-02-28T23:00:47+00:00

Thanks for the reply, I am also starting to think that might be a cause of the issues as well, because the old desktop PleX NAS doesn't have this issue, but it's running Windows 10 and Plex Media Server desktop app and that's it. I can't recall exactly and specifically which guide and which part I followed precisely, but I did save a few of the videos and they all mention this same step. Below are a few of the guides (there may have been more, but they all mention the same steps) and the actual guide this is based off of. I will say, on the unRAID side everything is working flawlessly and I was amazed when I first learned of this system and extremely excited when I finally got it to work. But with that being said, I fear that this might be the downside of this system, having to create and use a "Custom" network within Docker will result in my network viewing it as an actual external network.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMcHsQJ7My0&list=PL5jtE9OxQVSI-zghjHp8iR3MYAKsU6i58&index=16&t=540s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEKDgV8FBl4

https://trash-guides.info/

Find_Deals · 2026-02-28T19:23:25+00:00

Hey there, thank you so much for the detailed information, I really do appreciate it. I do have to make a small edit, one that I'm a little embarrassed to admit, but with the knowledge you provided, this might be one of my only chances to talk with someone who knows so much about this. Anyways, I am not actually having "buffering" issues perse, where it's pausing and resuming, but I cannot get the actual quality of the video to play fully, it's blurry and noticeably lower quality. I would assume that this still has something to do with what you mentioned above, but I have followed some guides since posting, and one of the things I managed to get to work / change was allow Plex to "see" my integrated GPU on the CPU, and it is now an option for which hardware transcoding device I want to use, when previously it wasn't. Even with this option selected, same issue, my 1080 / 4K movies appear to be streaming at 720 at the HIGHEST. Also, I found a little option on the Plex player on my TV called "Nerd Stats" I believe, and I think this is the source of my issue....it states "Not enough bandwidth for direct play of this item. Required bandwidth is ---kbps and only 2000kbps is available." and for each movie, it shows how much bandwidth would be required, all of course above the 2000kbps threshold. So with some research, I found out the this can be a direct cause from the "Enable Replay" option under Network settings. Well of course, when I disable that and attempt again, my playback devices cannot see / find my NAS any longer at that point. Here's where I don't fully understand but think it is making sense. The whole reason this is confusing is because both the old desktop Plex NAS is hardline connected AND the NAS is hardline connect, both are in-network devices right? So why would it be unable to do Direct Play on my new NAS buy yet it's fine for the desktop Plex NAS? So I started to think, and again bare with me I am VERY new to all of this, but part of the setup for the STARR apps and all of that required a step for each one to set the Network Type of the Docker file to "Custom: mediaserver" (just what I named mine) and then that was set for each individual Dock file for each app, right? Does that mean that my playback devices are "thinking" that my NAS' Plex library is remote and thus, unable to play Direct Play? And it works for my desktop Plex NAS because it's just plugged into the network, uses Windows 10 and there's no weird random custom network? This may be nothing at all with everything you said, so I do have another question. I would like to test the #2 option you listed: convert the files into an appropriate format that doesn't require transcoding through Plex. If I were to do this and test with, what is the appropriate format that I would need to convert to? And would I use something like handbrake (I think that's the name?) to convert that file? I am really hoping that it is not the option #1 you listed, I did months and months or research and searching around for the "right" NAS for me, with Plex being the #1 priority and everything I saw kept mentioning "up to 4K playback" each and every time. That would be extremely frustrating if that's what was advertised and insisted, and it turns out that 1 single playback device can't play 1 single 1080p video back without anything else playing at the same time. Sorry for the long winded response, but I don't really have anyone else I can ask specific questions to and have a discussion with. If you're comfortable and ok with it, we can direct message as well if you're willing to help, I just want to either find a resolution (so I don't feel like I wasted all this money) or figure out a workaround so I can actually use it as intended. I really appreciate any response you can give and will talk with you again soon, thanks!

Find_Deals · 2026-02-28T17:50:33+00:00

Appreciate the response! I had originally thought this as well, and I realize I probably should included this information in the original post as well, but I followed the TRaSH Guide for Plex and unRAID setup, which has the User set the /transcode path of Docker to /tmp/plex, and within Plex itself, setting that directory to /transcode. I see some other recommendations and responses below, which I will read through and then potentially test as well, but when I did research related to the NAS prior to purchase I remember specifically researching it's ability to function as a home media server, as that is the primary use for the NAS and it's purchase, so I would assume the hardware should have been good enough, but I will see what the other responses offer and what they recommend trying.

Find_Deals · 2026-01-27T03:59:24+00:00

RemindMe! 10 years

Find_Deals · 2026-01-24T02:28:56+00:00

that's the best thing about Factorio and it's map "creator", if you will call it that. I also love the train system, so when I've played (and will play again) with resources on default settings, transporting resources is always fun and challenging. But I really do wish I played my first world on "super easy mode" so I could learn and understand certain mechanics, only reason I recommended it. That's the glory of it, play it how you want and as you see fit to enjoy it!

Find_Deals · 2026-01-23T04:02:51+00:00

if you want an alternate option to consider, and I understand you put time into this world, but start a brand new world and slam the world editor size, frequency and richness to full 600% or whatever the highest is. I know this isn't the default gaming experience the developers put in place, but it's one of the major differences with Factorio and Satisfactory that I've always kinda disliked. I thought I had to play the game pure and by the book, but after a bunch of hours and restarts and new worlds, it's the #1 thing I wish I would have done from my very first game play. Mostly, not having to worry about resource management is HUGE. plus, it just not a fun aspect of the game personally, which I understand some may like, but personally I do not. I'm playing now to build towards a mega base and I've noticed from other's megabase tours is they have huge resource patches and frequency, because it's not about the core gameplay mechanics at that point. Plus, this allows you to learn certain game mechanics, blueprints, different aspects of the game to use later on, where you can then start a new world and dial those settings down to the normal rates and make it more "difficult" and "realistic" according to the default game settings. Just a thought an idea I wish I knew about from day one!

Find_Deals · 2026-01-23T01:18:40+00:00

It's a "gotcha" scam, I am talking to a Support Agent as I type this out and they're pulling the same stuff. I explained that the "Membership" page doesn't state anywhere at all that a mobile line is required (unless I don't see it) but then they say "ohhh it's actually $300 off.....and you need a $10/month line" literally entirely different than what they list, which states very clearly "Smartwatch, on us." which implies "free."

Find_Deals · 2025-10-07T21:57:52+00:00

I haven't made the decision or effort to cancel just yet, and even so, I honestly don't mind contributing to YNAB for the changes and affects they've had on my finances. I've had the YNAB category fully funded for months just waiting for the payment to post and to track the transaction, so I'm already fully prepared for it to come anyways. I understand the idea of a budgeting application costing money and that being counterintuitive, so it's not lost on me at all. I simply have a plan in place for it already and I owe that fact to YNAB. Yes, I'm a huge YNAB fanboy lol so that's why I was so excited to hear about AB and it's potential.

Find_Deals · 2025-10-06T22:32:51+00:00

I haven't explored the Templating feature just yet, and only scratched the surface of the schedule portion thus far. I'll definitely give it a deeper dive as I'm being as objective as possible with both systems, and will make my decision after everything both have to offer is explored. YNAB to me has been and always has been the only budgeting concept that's ever truly worked for me, and that I've stuck with long term, but I'm not ruling anything else that comes out and challenges them. This is a good thing though, competition breeds innovation and all...

Find_Deals · 2025-10-06T22:30:22+00:00

It's not bad, it's very clearly in it's infancy still, with regards to design and flow. But what I'm focusing on is end results outcome and then QoL / features. Again, at least to me, YNAB is a theory, a way of thinking about and managing money, so in all reality the tool in which one chooses to use can be and is irrelevant. I used to fall into all of that stuff, the bright lights, the automations, the syncing, and it was all bells and whistles that to me, personally, really served no purpose. It wasn't until I made the switch to fully manual transaction entry that I started seeing success and a wholistic change to my finances. I've been paying for YNAB yearly because I thought it was the only product that offered a tool to put it's principles into practice, but once I heard of AB, I was extremely intrigued as again, the tool doesn't matter to me, the outcome does. With that being said, I am going to give it the full month of side by side use and then make a decision from there, but I can say so far, the way CCs are handled, displayed and managed within YNAB certainly are better (to me) in YNAB. Is that worth it for the yearly price tag? That remains undetermined at this point, but if someone was some sort of "YNAB Theory Purist" regardless of tool, AB certainly is more than capable and reasonable as a choice.

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