I am looking for help deciding what type of NAS to use to run my PMS

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
4

I agree with everything @gary_parker and @FordGuy61 have recommended. I run a DS918+, and love it. My notes for you:

  1. If you can afford an extra ~$100, splurge for the DS1019+. It is identical to the 918+, you just get an extra drive bay and 8GB of RAM. You would be really close to the cost of a DS1019+ after buying a 918+ with extra RAM anyway, so go ahead and get the extra drive bay for future expansion.

  2. If you are debating 4TB drives or 6TB drives, then go ahead and get the 6TB. (If you like WD drives, take advantage of the regular 20% discounts you get through Plex Pass Perks and save some $$$)

  3. You do not NEED to have matching RAM sticks in terms of brand (yes it is good practice to do so) I purchased a single 4GB stick of Crucial RAM from amazon that was the same spec as the provided stick, and have not had any issues for well over a year. In the off chance you do have problems, just order a second stick later.

  4. If you have the capability to direct play 4K, then it should be fine, but in-addition I recommend ripping the standard blu-ray and use handbrake to compress it down to SD resolution so that your family doesn’t kill your NAS when playing one of those 4K files remotely. This would give you two files for the movie (4K+SD). The SD version will only be around ~1.5GB depending on your handbrake settings.

For the sake of repeating and clarity, Download/Install the Plex Media Server manually from Plex. The Synology package center is always behind on the version number, and running it in Docker will add overhead.

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