I have a 2012 Mac Mini operating as a Plex server, with the video files currently stored on a directly attached USB3 drive. It works fine. I use it for a few other server things such as distributed Xcode builds.
I"m looking to drastically increase the space available, mostly for Plex but also to support Time Machine over the network. Being able to cope with a drive failure is also attractive. The options I see are
1) Drobo 5C, directly attached to the Mac Mini. This basically replicates what I have now but with a significantly bigger and expandable drive. The addition of MacOS server will allow for network time machine backup from my other computers.
2) NAS, probably a 4 bay Synology, but I'm not wedded to the brand. I'm not intending to run plex on the NAS - it looks like the Mac Mini is a better plex server than any NAS I'm prepared to buy.
The Drobo solution seems to be simpler, and cheaper. Is there anything compelling in the NAS solution that I'm missing?
//Andrew