Mac mini vs. Synology

[ChrisA]

I have an older Synology that I store photos and Plex movie and TV content. I'm looking to upgrade. I have fiber internet with ethernet backbone around the house.

Wondering if instead of buying a new Synology, I should just buy a high-end Mac mini with lots of storage and attach a couple more externals off of it. Does anyone else have that kind of set up?

I like Synology but the processors are not as snappy as I'd like.

Would appreciate anyone spelling out the pluses and minuses of these two setups.

What is the problem you are trying to fix. The Synology NAS is slow to serve files. I think you might find it is the 1 gigabit Ethernet that is the bottleneck.

If you use a Mac Mini to serve files then you still need a multi-bay drive enclosure to hold the external drives and if you want them to be as fast as the Synology that enclosure needs to be Thunderbolt.

An easier solution is to buy a new Synology with higher performance. It will cost a lot less than a Mac Mini. A new NAS with 32 GB RAM, quad-core CPU and 10GE Ethernet will cost under $1K

If you want to build your own NAS look into TrueNAS (was called FreeNAS) but still the cost might be over $1K

 

[adamcarvell]

I’d like to play hdr Dolby vision h265 files but it buffers with h265 msg about network not fast enough I have half a gig broadband through virgin. If my issue is the 1gig network then there’s no use spending on a new nas.

 

[marstan]

What is the problem you are trying to fix. The Synology NAS is slow to serve files. I think you might find it is the 1 gigabit Ethernet that is the bottleneck.

If you use a Mac Mini to serve files then you still need a multi-bay drive enclosure to hold the external drives and if you want them to be as fast as the Synology that enclosure needs to be Thunderbolt.

An easier solution is to buy a new Synology with higher performance. It will cost a lot less than a Mac Mini. A new NAS with 32 GB RAM, quad-core CPU and 10GE Ethernet will cost under $1K

If you want to build your own NAS look into TrueNAS (was called FreeNAS) but still the cost might be over $1K

1 gig ethernet is more than enough for streaming any media content for consumption at least up to 4k. Probably not ideal for real time content creation/editing; that is what locally attached storage or 10Gbe ethernet is for.

I wouldn't buy a new mac mini just as a standalone NAS but I don't see any reason why a mini couldn't be used as a working desktop and a file server. An M series mini is incredibly energy efficient even running 24/7 and is probably more powerful than any NAS you could buy for the price. Just daisy chain a bunch of HDDs in Thunderbolt enclosures and you'll have speed and capacity to rival any home NAS without the administrative hassles and proprietary dependencies of NAS'. NAS' for home use seems to be a fad and marketing phenomenon. I prefer simpler, more economical solutions.

But if you must have a NAS, as an alternative to Synology/QNAP or Truenas, you can convert an old pc to a NAS with Unraid Server. It has minimal hardware requirements; can run dockers/VMs if you have better hardware. I happen to have a 14 year old pc (core 2 duo Intel, 4GB ram) that I run it on as a simple file server/backup box. Works well, easy to setup and administer. It is based on open source code but cost $59 for a (lifetime) license.

 

[adamcarvell]

If I didn’t go down the nas route I bought a thunderbolt enclosure allowing plex to access the files how I get them to play on tv without Ethernet unless there is a more modern way of doing it.
Or do I require a thunderbolt enclosure with Ethernet and storage?.

 

[dimme]

If I didn’t go down the nas route I bought a thunderbolt enclosure allowing plex to access the files how I get them to play on tv without Ethernet unless there is a more modern way of doing it.
Or do I require a thunderbolt enclosure with Ethernet and storage?.

The thunderbolt enclosure would connect to you Mac and you would share the drives via the Mac.

 

[adamcarvell]

Ok I’ve not done that before so an external drive connection to usb on the Mac can be shared over Ethernet for the plex app on the tv to see the files.

 

[dimme]

Ok I’ve not done that before so an external drive connection to usb on the Mac can be shared over Ethernet for the plex app on the tv to see the files.

Yes, a usb 3 or higher or thunderbolt directly connect to a Mac and shared via file sharing is more that enough speed for Plex. IMHO you can only run into problem if you have a poor wifi signal, but that would be the case with a Mac or a nas. I run cat 6 cables to my TV to avoid wifi signal problems. Cat 5e will work just fine also.

 

[adamcarvell]

I’ve run cat 7 around the house and have 500mb broadband. Tv is hard wired to Ethernet. I’m slowly going off a new nas leaning towards a thunderbolt enclosure maybe the OWC’s mini stx put drives into one of those.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I’d like to play hdr Dolby vision h265 files but it buffers with h265 msg about network not fast enough I have half a gig broadband through virgin. If my issue is the 1gig network then there’s no use spending on a new nas.

With your current internet speed, you shouldn't see any buffering messages. Something is amiss with either your service, setup, or the files you are viewing.