I had no idea that 8GB is the sweet spot for hardware transcoding! The current QNAP model (TS-453Be) only offers options of 2GB and 4GB, which is a real shame. But a quick browse of the forums shows most people upgrading to 8GB using Crucial memory. QNAP technically says 8GB is the max, but it seems fairly common to upgrade to 2x8GB modules and multiple people report that it works fine. Hmm, decisions.
Also, just to be clear: I’m incredibly jealous of your NAS setup.
Let me go look up the info. BRB
That didn’t take long at all
The J3455 maxes out at 8GB. That being the case; get the 2GB and also get the correct spec memory as a 8GB Kit (which makes it a matched pair) as aftermarket. Don’t fall into the Mhz game. Get what the spec is for the bus and then the lowest CL (CAS latency) you can find and afford.
You want memory on the correct clock spec because the bus doesn’t clock any faster just because the memory can but if the memory is high latency, the CPU will be wait-stated while it gets the data.
A 2x4GB kit from Crucial will almost definitely be the winner, in that case. It costs only a little more than the difference between a 2GB and 4GB model, so that saves some money. I’ll make sure to nail the specs, and will focus on the lowest reasonable CL possible. Thanks for doing the footwork on this one and making sure I got it right.
So it’s clear what Intel calls for memory spec: (Always consult the Intel spec)
Memory Specifications
Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type): 8 GB
Memory Types: DDR3L/LPDDR3 up to 1866 MT/s; LPDDR4 up to 2400 MT/s
Max # of Memory Channels: 2
ECC Memory Supported: No
I’ve built a few over the years. I’ve only had a few flops and they were a loooooooooooooong time ago 
I just realized, we’ve totally hijacked the OP’s post.
I profoundly apologize. If you’d like me to move, split out, or make any change, I will gladly do so. This is your topic.
<#slapself>
No worries!
Can I do this same thing with the TS-253be. One ssd and one spinning hard drive as two separate drives with Plex on the ssd?
You can create a single-drive Volume on the SSD (CACHEDEVx_DATA) and, in App Center, Migrate to that Volume.
Plex will shutdown, copy the data, delete the old, and restart.
All handled by QTS
You do realize this is a Synology thread? 
lol
Thanks for answering. I really like the 718+ but from reading the previous posts I guess it won’t do what I was asking?
Unfortunately, no. Synology doesn’t permit single-drive SSD volumes. They only support SSD cache.
The x53Be series QNAP boxes are very nice. They have the same CPU (J3455) and are much more flexible. I equate the TS-453Be to the DS918+
