Why I Use Plex (And a Look at My Plex Setup)

By on at • @mggjim

My Plex Setup

Up until about a year ago, I was running Plex Media Server (PMS) on my primary iMac, which wasn’t ideal as I wanted to ensure an adequate separation of system resources. A benefit of running a technology website is that you end up with lots of spare parts like solid state drives, CPU coolers, and system memory, and I realized that I had just about everything I needed to build a dedicated PMS box. After buying a case and dedicated network card, I ended up with the following configuration.

The above system runs the Plex Media Server software, stores all the metadata, and transcodes outgoing media if necessary. The actual media itself is stored on a Synology DiskStation DS2413+ loaded up with twelve 4TB Western Digital Se hard drives. I elected to use Synology’s Drobo-like “Hybrid RAID” configuration with two-disk redundancy, leaving me with about 37TB of usable space.

synology-ds2413

The DS2413+ has two network connections, so I have one of those ports directly wired to one of the two ports on the server. This lets me point PMS directly to the Synology’s internal IP, ensuring a direct and unobstructed connection between the NAS and server. I therefore know that, regardless of any other congestion on my network, the media files will get from the DS2413+ to the server unobstructed. The Synology’s second port is connected to my broader network, allowing me to access it directly when adding new media or performing updates and maintenance. Similarly, the second network port on the server connects to my local network and the Internet — obviously important so that I can access Plex.

This server runs 24×7, with an APC SMT1500 UPS providing clean and continuous power, ensuring uninterrupted access to my Plex content both at home and on the road.

imac-plex-home-theater
Alex Byrne / Dribbble

As for clients, I have Plex Home Theater installed on just about all of my PCs and Macs. The main TV in our home was until just recently powered by a 2010 Mac mini server. I was hoping to upgrade after waiting so long for a new Mac mini but, well, we all know how that turned out. So instead I’ve moved to a Haswell-based Intel NUC, running Windows 8.1, and it works flawlessly.

I’ve recently started using the new Xbox One client for Plex, and it’s beautiful. The only problem is that efforts to binge on a TV series are stymied by the fact that you have to go back two menus after each episode to start watching the next one. Better TV show navigation would make the Xbox One Plex app the best way ever to enjoy the service.

plex-xbox-one

And, of course, we have a myriad of mobile devices configured to access our home Plex server, including the iPhone, iPad, and Amazon Fire HD. Our setup at times has also relied on the Amazon Fire TV and Roku 2 and 3 for playback on various televisions around the house.

Well, that’s my Plex story. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments or via Twitter, and please share your own Plex setups, too!

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  • Nick Wills

    I don’t understand how you can have a need for 37TB of Plex content unless you have a serious downloading problem. Nice setup though. :)

    • http://www.tekrevue.com/ TekRevue

      Well, I’m not going to lie to you and say I’ve never downloaded anything that I may or may not should have (getting to college in 2002 and going from dial-up to gigabit speeds for the first time may have resulted in some poor choices…cough…), but my current library is relatively legit. I’m a huge movie collector, starting with DVDs, moving on to HD-DVDs (because I know how to pick a loser), and finally settling on Blu-rays. When I found Plex, I started losslessly ripping everything, so I now have about 1000 movies and dozens of complete TV shows, mostly lossless, which quickly eats up a good bit of space. Throw in a few hundred FLAC albums, all our home movies and pictures, and you easily get to, as of today, about 40TB. (Yes, the Synology is now full and I had to deploy a second storage server based on Windows Storage Spaces (I wanted to make FreeNAS work, but it wouldn’t recognize my HBA and I gave up spending time on it).

      I know… I have a problem. :)

  • Eden

    Love your setup thanks for sharing. If you would to do it all over what would you have changed with your setup?

    • http://www.tekrevue.com/ TekRevue

      I do love Synology, and I think it’s the best choice for users looking for the easiest setup with low maintenance, but as my storage needs have grown, it’s become very expensive to continue expanding with Synology products. If I had to start all over again, I’d build my own storage servers based on FreeNAS. As I mentioned in the comment above, I just deployed a second storage server since the Synology was nearly full, but it was built mostly from extra parts and my HBA card that controls the drives wasn’t recognized by FreeNAS. But knowing what I do now, if I were to start over again I’d build custom servers with FreeNAS compatible parts.

      Oh, and when you’re dealing with this much storage, always have at least one, and preferably two, spare drives on hand so that you can quickly swap out any failed drives.