drchrisdvm

Hi all! I am looking to build my first rack mounted server. This would be to predominantly host and stream 4K 7.1 movies over Plex to 3-4 simultaneous locations (local network and over the internet). My previous set-up was to connect my Mac mini with 4 external hard drives connected via thunderbolt straight through a receiver and watch movies that way. My local IT company set up our Mac mini as a Plex media server connected to the 4 18tb hard drives and then stream media via two Apple TVs to the two AV receivers, one for the theater and one for the pool. I now have a rack that has 2U space still available and would love to use a dedicated server so I can access things away from home as well as stream to multiple locations in the house at the same time. I have never used a true NAS/UnRAID and would love some recommendations. I'm looking mainly for something with a good processing speed that can handle multiple streams concurrently, large storage space (100TB or higher), hot swappable drives would be ideal and the ability to transcode 4K 7.1 UHD movies across multiple streams. I would also love to be able to access PDFs, Word documents, and powerpoint, and all other documents/photos from off-site. I don't know how to make that happen. Cost is not the biggest factor when deciding on a set-up, more about if it will work appropriately. The computer systems we use are Mac based, and we are iPhone users, in case that makes a difference. Thanks in advance for any help that can be given. I have been looking for weeks now and just keep getting more and more confused. Intel Xeon vs AMD Epyc, using a dedicated P2200 GPU vs relying on the CPUs, how to set up for transcoding, recommended hard drives (WD Red vs Seagate Ironwolf vs ironwood pro, it's like a new language to me. I initially looked at a Synology SA3600, RS2421+, QNAP TS-h1277XU-RP, but of course would be open to building my own, as long as I could get guidance on how to make it all work. 🙂 I greatly appreciate any help and guidance that can be given. Chris