Hey, c/Plex!
This is the first of a weekly series of Plex Advice threads for novices and pros alike to ask questions, give advice, troubleshoot, and share knowledge and resources! Please be polite and helpful to beginners just getting started out, and we want to be as welcoming as we can to newcomers to this community.
Anyone who posts good starter guides, FAQs, and/or wikis may get their links added to the sidebar so the rest of the community can benefit!
Cheers!
edit: apologies for the late post!
Personally, i always prefer local storage to network or remote storage due to the low response times, but that’s up to you. they’re all about as easy as another to set up with plex. Whether you simply plug in another external drive to your server or attach a NAS drive to your router, it’s all the same to Plex. You simply map the drive in Plex’s settings and the contents get added to your library.
As for mass storage, larger-scale consumer storage solutions are available in the form of RAID boxes, 2-6-bay external drive boxes in various RAID configurations which attach via USB 3.x or Thunderbolt 3 or 4. These can be expensive (ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars), but allow you to add, possibly, up to 144TB (or more, soon) with one device.
so, whether it’s a new external drive, a NAS drive, or a mass storage device (local or NAS), it comes down to what you can afford and what you realistically need.