Is there a way around the problem that plex only feeds from ex fat/nt drives but Linux has permission issues networking such a drive? I wanted to have one computer where I’m doing all the formatting and the other being the standalone plex server with them both connected. Samba is being a pain.

Yeah it barely makes a dip. It is one of the first things I tested when putting in a switch where I just go do the ookla speed test.