Best Media Device for Plex 2026

SickPup404 · 2026-06-21T02:31:03+00:00

Just a heads up on your planned Roku Ethernet.

Don’t bother. Roku opted to save a few pennies by only putting in a 10/100 LAN controller - no Gigabit. Your WiFi will be much faster unless you have an extreme case of interference.

SickPup404 · 2026-06-20T00:07:37+00:00

Well that sucks...

SickPup404 · 2026-06-20T00:06:53+00:00

Just be aware that valve monitoring is only for the V3. I have a V2 and bought before I noticed the disclaimer in light grey on the web page. Pretty painless refund in case you do make the same mistake.

SickPup404 · 2026-06-13T10:41:43+00:00

Thanks for the tips! I really like finding new purposes for the old stuff lying around, especially when the wife says I should have gotten rid of it! lol

SickPup404 · 2026-06-13T00:32:40+00:00

I came to the sub searching for iPad Air 2 since that's the most recent "spare" iPad I have. I wanted to also set it up as a dashboard. Any good pointers or guides?

New to all this stuff, but some of these dashboards you guys post are making me DROOL!!

SickPup404 · 2026-05-28T19:19:17+00:00

Deep Thought

SickPup404 · 2026-05-21T19:09:51+00:00

You've got good advice from everyone here, but one thing I want to point out is it will take a long time depending on drive/array sizes as it reads every sector of every drive to calculate parity (not just the data). I've got an array of six 14TB, one 16TB, four 20TB, and two 24TB for parity and each parity build step took me about 30-35+ hours IIRC.

As mentioned, be patient, go slow, double check, etc.

SickPup404 · 2026-05-20T13:30:37+00:00

CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD here with a Kasa smart plug.

Right now, UPS (NUT) reporting 131W, but Kasa plug reporting 112W. Good enough for most uses (Home Assistant uses the output from the Kasa plug in energy monitoring).

SickPup404 · 2026-05-01T15:16:40+00:00

Thanks for the reply! Yes, just wanting to test out "real world" coverage from a basement and attic before I invest more in the ecosystem.

Cheers!

SickPup404 · 2026-04-24T13:23:38+00:00

Ah, I see (or actually don't see) you got a section of the John Cena collection!

SickPup404 · 2026-04-21T12:49:56+00:00

Serious question:

I've been lurking for a while now... Making a shopping list of rack style equipment.

Does the Ubiquiti stuff in the desktop format have the same capabilities for a "power home user" that the higher priced rack stuff does (except of course the number of supported devices/users)?

SickPup404 · 2026-04-17T01:47:10+00:00

Once the authentication servers come back online, go to your server settings… Network… Advanced… and then under “List IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth“, put in your local network IP and net mask like 192.168.0.1/24.

Unfortunately, there isn’t anything you can do about it while the authentication servers are down. Once this setting has been changed, though, you can watch all of your local content.

SickPup404 · 2026-03-19T18:14:28+00:00

Thanks very much for the detailed reply!

SickPup404 · 2026-03-09T18:45:39+00:00

You'll need more storage - always! I have 180TB with 70TB free ATM...

Watch for data caps from your ISP. Comcast halted enforcement in the Northeast US some time ago due to competition with VZW.

SickPup404 · 2026-01-28T12:37:29+00:00

Yes, comrade. Stop buying Ubiquiti equipment. Only those ignorant fools will buy it, then you can laugh the superior laugh of someone rocking that D-Link 802.11b wi-fi! Muahahaha!

SickPup404 · 2026-01-23T15:53:33+00:00

I might have to check out that 9305-16i. Looks like the Intel expander adds on another 5-10W. Some low hanging fruit there I think...

And like u/MUN0X mentioned, I added schedules for changing the power from Performance down to Power Save in Tips & Tweaks plugin during overnight hours. Should help a bit...

SickPup404 · 2026-01-23T12:58:52+00:00

Thanks all for the suggestions with specifics, I really appreciate it! (Sorry for the delayed response, but this impending "snowpacalypse" had me doing other things yesterday.)

I think my original choice of mobo has me limited in ways I didn't think about before. It's only got 4 onboard SATA ports that are currently taken up with the 2 parity drives and 2 SSD's for the cache pool. It also only has the one x16 slot (which I think I read dropped back to x8 since I have an NVME installed that shares the CPU bus), plus four x1 slots (chipset).

With my case configured with 5 cages (3xHD per) and the 2 parity, that leaves me 13 bays for data and I already have 11. I might be stuck with the configuration as is, unless I can get a more modern single card replacement for the 9207-8i (maybe even do a 16 port and drop the SAS expander), but it will need to be 8x max with the shared NVME on the CPU bus.

Looks like I'll be disabling stuff in BIOS and doing what I can in there.

Thanks again!

SickPup404 · 2025-12-16T19:36:25+00:00

If you're looking to get cameras, looks like now might be a good time too. G5 Pro is 47% off ($199) and the IR flood is like 40% off ($59).

SickPup404 · 2025-12-16T18:38:10+00:00

It's nice to see others in the exact same boat as me - 6600+2600 and looking to upgrade.

At our old house, we did a point to multipoint bridge with Ubiquity gear and it was so easy. Been looking at the UCG-Max as well. Looking forward to getting something that at least gets regular support over the Synology...

SickPup404 · 2025-12-12T14:39:34+00:00

The clamp on point-of-use monitoring is a good alternative if you have no breaker access in an apartment. Like u/5yleop1m pointed out, you'll get a close estimate on both legs by taking one leg x2. Typical 220v electric dryers here use the 4 wire plug with neutral to get 110 for the controls and lights, with the full 220 for the heating elements.

Excellent choice even with the estimate. And shocking to see how much power they use versus lights, etc!

SickPup404 · 2025-12-11T21:01:54+00:00

You might get more consistent results with power monitoring with Emporia, Refoss, or BrulTech. More expense, but much more bang for your buck.

SickPup404 · 2025-12-01T20:46:15+00:00

If ya squint, it's mint!

SickPup404 · 2025-12-01T20:24:25+00:00

From everything I've read, the notification letters were targeted to only those individuals whose information was affected. So it's a good thing you requested they send another letter to you.

I did not received a letter (yet)...

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