QNAP NAS for plex / transcoding

[Trexx]

Hello
I have the same hesitation as michelk, originally formulated between tvs-471 and 473. I find that most of the comments on that issue in this forum are missing one element : 471 comes with three different options for processor, when 473 just one option. If I look at the passmark for 471 and i5 it's 6950 whereas the passmark for the amd 473 processor is 4857. So I would expect the transcoding capabilities with Plex much better with 471 i5. Am I right to think that way or am I missing something. Thanks for your help.

I think the answer is... it depends. Yes the x71 (a 2+ year old platform btw) comes with 3 CPU options, that also significantly changes the price tags depending on model.

TVS-673 w/8GB $1,109 (Amazon US)
TVS-671 (i3) w/8GB $1,227 (Amazon US)
TVS-671(i5) w/8GB $1,599 (Amazon US)

Another thing to keep in mind is that the x71 family is using the older/slower DDR3 memory vs. DDR4 in the x73. x71 maxes as 16GB vs. 64GB for x73. No m.2 SSD slots on x71, etc.

So while some x71's do have the option for higher CPU performance (and higher price tag), some of that gain will be offset by slower memory performance. Combine that with for example m.2 SSD caching, etc. and in some use cases the x73 could perform better than an i5 x71.

At a certain point on the x71 family, you are probably getting into the price tag range as well of the upcoming x77 line which will definitely outperform the x71's for the $.

[Filou01]

Great. Thx for your answer. Helps a lot.

[minglett]

Filou01: Just a correction , the 4-bay TVS-471 NAS is only available with the i3-4150 cpu. The 6-bay and 8-bay units have different cpu options as OEM.

Since michelk mentioned the TVS-471 in her options list I would like to talk about my experience with it. I have a TVS-471 that I ran for a while with 16gb of RAM. I just upgraded it to an i7-4790s cpu and it is sooooo much quicker now. I use it for a Plex server mainly; with the original i3 cpu it was a little glitchy steaming the beginning of transcoded x264 videos with 5 or more clients. It eventually smooths out after a few seconds. I probably could have fixed some of that by having Plex optimize my 1080p high bitrate mkv files. But since I didn't care about the warranty and the i7 cpu only cost $300, I figured, what the heck. After the cpu upgraged there have been no complaints from any of my family members that stream from my NAS. Also, if I understand correctly, Intel cpu's are faster at transcoding than AMD's. BTW, the upgrade is not very difficult. The cpu temps did creep up some but customizing the fan temp cut-in points within the control panel hardware settings took care of that. I set the two points to 43C and 45C. Even with near 100% load on the cpu the fan speed never goes above medium speed. The only thing that's a Con is that the 471 does not have the IR remote nor the capability to add it.

[aarbee]

If I can add my 2 cents...
I have learned a bit on my track. I have bought the 673 and are not unsatisfied.
However, if I had known in januari, that the CPU in the 673 was a notebook-related cpu I would probably not have bought it.
I was leaning towards the 673, after a youtube movie from Qnap about the x73 series, and that it was as fast as an i5 maybe i7.
And when I looked at the passmark tables it appeared that the AMD was right in between. I was happy.
After I had bought the device I went over the figures again, and it appeared that i5 and i7 where notebook cpu's.
Never the less is the AMD RX-412BD about equal to the i3. of the 471.
According to the papers you can do 2 transcoding streams with it at 1080.

Qnap device CPU Mem Passmark
TVS-471-i3-4150 i3-4150 4GB 4897
TVS-671-i5-4590 i5-4590 8GB 7008
TVS-682-i3-6100 i3-6100 8GB 5508
TVS-882-i5-6500 i5-6500 8GB 7214
TVS-1282-i7-6700 i7-6700 8GB 10038
TVS-473 AMD RX-421BD 8GB 4739

Below here I have some info about the ryzen cpu's.
For your information I have been gathering these figures the last half year, not only for plex, but also for a new pc build.
I need the tables to fiddle out what is the best option for my flightsim hobby as a replacement. With FSX, Prepar3d or X-Plane it is import that you have a cpu with the highest possible Single Core performance.

Knowing what I know now, I am not unsatisfied. But if I had these figures before, I would probably have bought the x82 series.
Yet that series comes in a different pricerange.
Energy wise is the intel equivalent always a better option for lessor electricity.
I expect the Ryzen to use more then the x82 series i5/i7.
I also expect that if hardware encoding will be introduced that you will find it sooner in an Intel based NAS then an AMD based one.

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

..

Any ideas when they said Plex H/W acceleration would be made available for non plex pass users ?
https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/ ... preview_4/

[Trexx]

..

Any ideas when they said Plex H/W acceleration would be made available for non plex pass users ?
https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/ ... preview_4/

Probably if/when it comes out of experimental phase... which means.. who knows.

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

..

Any ideas when they said Plex H/W acceleration would be made available for non plex pass users ?
https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/ ... preview_4/

Probably if/when it comes out of experimental phase... which means.. who knows.

i heard they finally got HEVC to work. but 10bit is still buggy

Bit of a problem for me since HEVC 10bit is what i want to transcode