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Forum Discussion
How important is HDD Cache Speed for a PLEX Server?
Hello guys,
First post here so please go easy on me.
Been running a (family) Plex server on my gaming tower for the last couple of years, just got my hands on a diskless ReadyNAS 214 and planning to use that as the new Plex server.
The one I have is diskless so I'm shopping for Hard disks but on a fairly tight budget. I'm looking at the 3TB WD RED mainly, keeping my eye out for a good deal, but I do already have access to a number of used server drives from work that are on the approved list, although they're only 2TB.
My question is, if I used 4 x 2TB WD2003FYPS 7200RPM 64MB (of which I have about 12 lying around and they're on the approved readynas list) would these be good enough for the Plex server being as they only have 64MB Cache? I'm not sure how important the disk cache speed is when dealing with the readynas. The cache speed isn't something I normally pay huge amounts of attention to.
Is it recommended to use 128MB cache HDDs for Media streaming such as Plex, particularly where 1-3 users might be accesing media at any one time?
I odn't want to spend a fortune on new drives if I can use these spares I already have lying around, but I don't want to build my PLEX server on old disks and transfer all my stuff across only to find that it's buffering loads because the disk cache isn't enough..
Any advice would be great guys!
Thanks in advance
4 Replies
Hi WW
I can't answer your technical questions but I can say that I have two RN Duo V2 computers and the first one has 2 x 4TB WD Reds and the second one has 2 x 3TB WD Reds, all 4 WD Red HDs have 64MB cache and they work very well when streaming videos. My first NAS runs my Plex Media Server and providing the file I'm playing is not corrupted then I have no problems.
However, I must admit that I am the only one streaming entertainment media from both my NASes.
That said, you asked, "Is it recommended to use 128MB cache HDDs for Media streaming such as Plex, particularly where 1-3 users might be accessing media at any one time?". I would strongly suggest that you ask that tech question over at the Plex forum, in the ReadyNAS section, at the following URL:-
https://forums.plex.tv/categories/netgear-readynas
Hope this helps.
UK Bob
Thanks Bob!
Really appriciate your helpful reply :)
I'll ask over at Plex as well :smileyvery-happy:
Note that the NAS is doing it's own caching in RAM, so the on-disk cache is only part of the story.
The streaming itself looks like a large sequential file read to the NAS, so I don't think the caching will matter much there (even if there are multiple users). Speed of browsing the database might improve a bit, but I don't think it's a big consideration (odds of browsing the database at the same time are relatively low anyway).
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