Am I approaching this the wrong way?

[Okazar]

A little naive here but I'd like to know if what I'm about to do makes sense and/or is possible

My intention is to be able to stream/transcode files on the fly to Plex clients.

My current setup (Twonky) has a WD My Book Live connected to my Linksys wrt1900ac router (via ethernet) and playing on my wd tv (no problem here).

Because I can’t get the WD MyBook Live to transcode I need a server to do the job. I just ordered a Core i5 8GB rig to install FreeNas on. I’m hoping that FreeNas will still be able to see the WD connected to the router (ethernet) through “Map Network Drive” I’ve read about. Is this correct? And will the FreeNas OS be able to transcode and stream to Plex Clients?

Or am I better off just running a Plex server off the Windows OS that the system will come with.

My logic is that with FreeNas being an OS devoting all its resources to running a server will be more efficient. Am I correct to assume this or OS rarely plays a role here?

Please and Thank you

 

[pirateghost]

Your assumptions are incorrect. Your WD live will not be seen by the freenas.

Just run Plex on the windows box. I don't see any benefit from trying to use freenas in this situation

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I just ordered a Core i5 8GB rig to install FreeNas on.

An i5 is a poor choice for FreeNAS, due to lack of support for ECC memory.