Running Plex on Synology DS418play NAS server

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Cutting right down to the CPU, independent of how many bays; The J3355 CPU will get the job done (dual core). The J3455 (DS918+) will do it better. (Quad vs Dual at 10% speed diff per core)

J3355: https://ark.intel.com/products/95597/Intel-Celeron-Processor-J3355-2M-Cache-up-to-2_5-GHz
J3455: https://ark.intel.com/products/95594/Intel-Celeron-Processor-J3455-2M-Cache-up-to-2_3-GHz

Matched-pair memory (Dual channel mode enabled) allows the memory bus to run at full speed and overlapped/concurrent operations when the CPU/memory controller can take advantage of it which is about 10-15% of the time in my experience.

Drive speeds:

  1. The media we stream doesn’t need 7200. 5400 RPM drives can read the data fast enough with ease.
  2. The latency of a 5400 is clearly visible when PMS retrieves (or is creating) metadata. 7200 is the clear winner here (track seeks and rotational latency waiting for the needed sector to pass under the heads)
  3. Multiple concurrent transcodes, which will make the heads thrash, benefit from the lower seek time of 7200 RPM drives. (lower latency again here too)
  4. SSD cache, even though SSDs don’t last as long as HDs, help tremendously with the PMS database. They are zero-latency and blistering read/write speeds (typically 500 MB/sec)

All my drives are WD Red Pro 6TB.

Apply my networking to however it best helps you. I’m on a performance extreme because of my support role. The requirement here is that whatever I’m doing, I cannot impact anything else happening in the house. This includes DVR recording / Live TV

  1. HPE-1820-24G managed switch
  2. DS1815+ 8GB matched-pair memory w/ all four adapters (individual IPs) into the switch (400 MB/sec total bandwidth capable as 4x 1GbE)
  3. QNAP TVS-1282-i7-32GB matched-set w/ all four adapters bonded LAG, LACP, into the switch delivering 4GbE as one IP.
  4. A few ATV 4K (two wireless, two wired)
  5. A couple tablets and phones
  6. Two workstation / development systems

This implementation shines best when performing backups because it can sustain ~350 MB/sec from QNAP -> Synology without impacting anything else on the entire LAN. The QNAP is the primary server. LACP is a one->many architecture so streaming and file operations from one IP to many players/clients/computers is ideal. The only concern needed was to make certain the WiFi didn’t get overloaded.

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Synology NAS DS918+ and SSD Cache