How to choose the right NAS for Plex streaming and family photo backups

I’ve been juggling Plex libraries, dozens of family members’ photo backups, and a rotating cast of devices for years. Choosing the right NAS (Network Attached Storage) to serve both high-quality Plex streaming and reliable family photo backups is one of those deceptively tricky decisions: the wrong pick will leave you re-encoding media, waiting on thumbnails, or desperately reconstructing lost photos. Below I walk through how I choose a NAS for those two priorities and the practical trade-offs I consider so you can pick the right device for your needs.

Start with your real-world use cases

Before specs, I define how I’ll actually use the NAS. Ask yourself:

• How many simultaneous Plex streams do I expect (transcoded vs direct play)?
• What resolution are the media files (1080p, 4K, HDR)?
• How many family members will back up photos, and how big are their libraries?
• Do I want on-device photo organization (faces, albums), or will I use cloud services for that?
• Is remote access necessary, and do I want easy mobile backup for photos?

Answering these will shape whether you need a low-power 2-bay NAS or a beefy 4–8+ bay chassis with a strong CPU and ECC RAM.

Key hardware considerations for Plex streaming

Plex streaming performance depends mostly on two things: whether media can play as-is (direct play/direct stream) and the NAS’s ability to transcode when it can’t. Here’s what I focus on:

• CPU and hardware transcoding: Plex uses CPU (or dedicated silicon) to transcode. Intel CPUs with Quick Sync (e.g., Celeron with integrated GPU, i3/i5) or NAS CPUs that expose hardware transcoding are excellent for on-the-fly transcode. If you expect multiple 1080p transcodes or a few 4K-to-1080p transcodes, aim for a model with hardware transcoding support—Synology’s Celeron models (e.g., DS920+) or many Intel-based QNAP units are proven options.
• RAM: More RAM helps with metadata, caching, and running containers/plugins. For light use, 2–4 GB is fine; for multi-stream or additional apps, 8 GB+ is safer.
• Network: Gigabit Ethernet is the baseline. If you serve multiple simultaneous high-bitrate streams or host multiple devices, consider 2.5GbE/10GbE or link aggregation.
• Drive performance: HDDs are fine for storage; SSDs for cache improve responsiveness for library metadata and small files. For heavy Plex libraries, an SSD cache (or using hybrid bay for a small NVMe) reduces stutter and load times.

Key considerations for family photo backups

Photo backups prioritize capacity, reliability, and easy mobile access. Here’s what I prioritize:

• Capacity and growth: Photos add up fast—especially with multiple family members. Pick drive capacity with a realistic 3–5 year growth projection. It’s easier to buy a larger chassis now than migrate later.
• Redundancy vs backup: RAID is not a backup. RAID (e.g., RAID 1/5/6) protects against drive failure but not accidental deletion or corruption. Plan for offsite or cloud backups (see replication options below).
• Photo management software: Synology Photos, QNAP QuMagie, and even Plex Photos provide different features. Synology and QNAP offer mobile auto-backup, facial recognition, and album tools. If family members want easy upload from phones, verify the NAS vendor’s mobile app quality.
• Snapshots and versioning: Look for Btrfs/extended file system support and snapshot features to recover from accidental deletes or ransomware.

RAID choices and drive types

I always separate the question of drive type from RAID configuration:

• HDD choice: Use NAS-specific drives (Western Digital Red Plus/Red Pro, Seagate IronWolf) for 24/7 reliability. For large archival photo collections, choose 5400–7200 rpm drives depending on performance needs.
• RAID level: For 2-bay setups: RAID 1 or SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) is common. For 3+ bays: RAID 5 is a balance of capacity and protection; RAID 6 is safer for larger arrays (2-drive redundancy). If you're running mission-critical family archives, prefer RAID 6 or ZFS with double parity.
• Consider Hot Spares: For multi-bay NASes, adding a hot spare speeds recovery.

Software ecosystem: Plex vs vendor tools

I use Plex for media because of its cross-device compatibility and polished clients. But for photos I often prefer vendor ecosystems (Synology Photos, QNAP Photos) because they provide:

• Automatic mobile backup and selective sync
• Face recognition and albums optimized for photos
• Snapshots and integrated backup to cloud providers

That said, you can store your photos on the NAS and use Plex for viewing if you prefer a single interface. Just remember, Plex’s photo management features are not as full-featured as dedicated photo suites.

Remote access, security, and ease of use

Remote access should be simple but secure. I enable vendor-provided reverse proxy or QuickConnect-style services, but I also:

• Use strong passwords and 2FA for NAS accounts
• Limit port forwarding; prefer a VPN into the home network for full access
• Keep the NAS firmware and packages up to date
• Use firewall rules and disable unused services

Backup strategy: don’t rely on RAID alone

My personal backup approach for family photos:

• Primary storage: NAS (RAID-protected)
• Local backup: External USB drive rotated offsite (monthly)
• Offsite backup: Cloud sync/backup of the photo share to a service like Backblaze B2, Amazon S3 Glacier, or vendor cloud backup (Synology C2).
• Snapshots: Enable filesystem snapshots (Btrfs or ZFS) for quick recovery from accidental deletes or ransomware.

Automated replication (e.g., Synology Hyper Backup, QNAP Hybrid Backup) makes cloud/remote backups manageable without manual steps.

Budget examples and recommended models

Based on typical budgets and needs, here are the builds I often recommend:

Testing I perform before committing

Whenever I evaluate a NAS for Plex and photos, I run a few quick checks:

• Stream a 4K HDR file to a mobile and a TV simultaneously to see if direct play works and to check transcoding performance.
• Simulate mobile photo uploads from multiple phones to judge indexing speed and thumbnail generation.
• Measure library browsing latency (does listing albums take too long?).
• Test restore from snapshots and restore a deleted photo to validate recovery workflow.

If you make your choices based on the use cases above—CPU and transcoding for Plex, capacity and mobile-friendly photo tools for backups, and a layered backup plan—you’ll end up with a NAS that feels like an invisible but reliable member of the household. Pick for features you’ll use today and headroom for the next few years; that’s the balance that’s saved me from painful migrations more than once.