Hi.
Been reading basically all the posts about this but still can’t make a decision.
From the start i decided for the 218+. But then i was reading that wasn’t enough and that you need at least a 718+ for handling ONE 1080p stream. And some report that the 218+ can handle 2 1080p streams via transcoding even. Because of the HW accel.
Then I also think about the 918+ because of the extra 2GB ram and the extra 2 HDD-bays.
My question now is what NAS should i get?
My reqs are:
- Support PMS
- Transcode to one 1080p client. Rarely, extremely rare able to transcode to 2 1080p streams.
Hope that will give some kind of guidance.
- Also be able to transcode to clients outside of the network. Like on the phone on the train/Watch movies at friends house when we visit them. But guess that depends more on my internet connection. (250/100mbit).
Thanks. Ferrariddd
I got a DS218+ and it is very powerful with its Hardware acceleration capabilities (can be enabled when being a Plex Pass subscriber).
It can easily handle multiple video transcoding, but then audio transcoding is done by the CPU and basically 1x audio transcoding is using about 40% of CPU power (AC3 -> AAC).
So you should be fine with 2 audio/video streams then with this NAS if audio transcoding is needed, and it will handle many more streams if audio transcoding is not required.
If you need more headroom, the 718+ can be a good choice as it has 2 more CPU cores available. Regarding RAM, there is a second DDR3L slot available on the DS218+, I personally added a 8GB stick to get 10GB RAM available in DSM for PMS and other services/Docker containers.
Thanks for answer. Still very unsure of what I should get… As in topic. I will only stream to my Xbox One S with standard 1080p.
No plans of getting a 4K tv soon either.
So probably the 218+ will be enough for me 
So you recomend wait a month to save up
for the 918+? Instead of go for the 218+/718+ directly?
I would like some safety for the future.(So I don’t need to buy a new one in 2 years due to 4k for example.)
Yes. If you search in the forums for those who have the DS918+, those who have them are very pleased with what it can do. It is capable of 2160P HDR decode and encoding to H.264 in hardware. It does this very well with the 8GB I recommend as well. You will see the reports of this also
One thing to remember about Synology; you can migrate your data from chassis to chassis. Only DSM is reinstalled (in the OS partitions). It’s the cost of that chassis which gets expensive if you grow faster than planned (happens to a lot of us 
)
Then the 918+ it is! Would suck to buy a 218+ and in a year have to buy the 918+ because i run out of bays…
Thanks for your help! Will report back in august or so with results
2 WD Red 4TB will be enough at a start.
UPS is something that will come in the future. Isn’t anything that I value right now. Will probably not store any important files on it.
Not to scare you? 
I was going to get the DS1513 when I started. I opted for the DS1813. I grew out of that (CPU power) in about 3 months.
Last May, about 2 months before the higher end units were available, I bought the QNAP TVS-1282-i7-32GB (i7-6700). I knew I needed the i7-7700 CPU but it wasn’t available.
I now have 112TB of raw spinning metal between the two boxes.
When the warranty on my QNAP expires, I will drop in an i7-7700 or whatever bigger, pin-for-pin compatible and supported, CPU I can get in it. I know the -7xxx (KabyLake) family is enough to decode 2160p in hardware. By the time we see real 8K content, what sane person will want to transcode it? DirectPlay all the way then 
That’s some serious storage 
Well, i think my ds918+ will be enough for now… But when I get a new apartment I will probably go for 4K…
it’s crazy storage. Such that i had to aggregate all 4 ethernet ports into 1 bonded adapter (LACP). When 10 GbE becomes cost effective, I’m going to clean up the mess. Until then, if I need more than a 24 port switch… tough haha.
I’ve also had to drop in two M.2 1TB SSDs for QTS and one 2.5" for storage array cache.
Can you tell I’m single? LOL
Wow, tech paradise and techs nightmare lol
My girlfriend is quite hysterical how I can buy ”a harddrive” for almost $1000?!?
Could you maybe explain the M.2 SSD. Know what it is but what purpose does it serve in a NAS as a cache?
$1000 WD Red? She’s right to be upset IF you bought only one drive . WD Red Pro (7200 RPM) 4TB at Amazon (already higher than newegg or other online retailers) are $200 each .
I have 8x 6TB and 8x 8TB (my 112 TB).
Speaking to the M.2 SSD runs on the memory PCI bus. NVME SSDs M.2 form factor deliver an insane 2.6 GB/sec typical (most are faster than that)
I put in two M.2 1TB, formed a mirror RAID. This has two benefits:
- If i wear out one / have a problem before expected EOL, the other is there.
- In my QNAP, my M.2 are only SATA-3 interface so provide 480 MB/sec each. Running in mirror RAID, they work in parallel and I get that 900+ MB sec read but write back at 480 MB/sec.
- With the NAS apps on the SSD, the OS (already in isolated flash itself) starts totally solid state. I can pull the main array out and it boots just fine. The performance difference for PMS is very visible. The database is resident on SSD (it’s the first accessible Volume in the system). No need for cache when the app itself already lives there.
- The 2.5" SSD is solely for the 8x 8TB drive main array. It keeps the two works (OS & data) well isolated and performing at max.
Making sense?
Think I was a bit unclear. the NAS (918+) + HDD will be roughly 900-1000$ but for my girlfriend I’m just buying a big HDD haha…
I understand how the M.2 SSD is working. My question is more about the 918+ where they say it will be used as cache. I don’t see why cache will be useful when playing video for in example Plex. You use your M.2 disks for the OS etc. And there I understand that there is difference in load times etc.
I’m maybe a bit slow and not getting what you’re saying. But yeah haha
Ok… that makes sense. The DS1815+ was $900 empty and the QNAP was $3000.
Now add the HDs for that and a girlfriend/wife would have only one thing to say " I’m going SHOPPING!" lol
I’m close if not over the $10,000 total investment at this point. I’ve been doing it for 5 years now too and have pretty much reached my plateau. Going to 10 GbE will not be expensive later this year after the prices drop. At that point. Given I’m only using 50% of my storage and have 100% backup, I’ve room to spare for a long time.
So you could say you have more space than space itself? 
But I guess you do all kinds of stuff on you NASes etc. VMs I guess?
Careful… I am a moderator 
LOL
… but there’s probably more space than space between my ears 
Yes. I use it for all Customer Support and Development work. Each of the Linux distributions I support exist in a VM on it. When needed, both systems serve as limited pre-production testing. I only alpha-test on the testbed systems. When things work on them and my work is QA-ready do I make one final verification / unit-test using a live production environment .
Hahhaha, no ban plz
Ah, so you develop Plex for synology?
Btw, looking for 4GB ram for the 918+ but can’t find anymore than 1600MHz. Except the Synology at 1866MHz but that’s overpriced af… $100 for a 4GB unit. But a 1600MHz from Crucial costs $40 for a 4GB unit…
Don’t go crazy on just the Mhz as that will get you in trouble.
CAS-RAS-CL are also important as a set. The higher the CL value, the more memory clocks are needed before the next memory access and it will slow down because the CPU clock is fixed. Therefore, On-Spec bus clock rate and lowest CL (latency) is always the fastest and best you can hope for.
Take the 15 minutes, look up the CPU memory bus specs or go to the vendors and look for memory specifically listed for that CPU. That never fails and you won’t buy more than you need
Yes, I do the Synology development here at Plex. I work primarily in CS/QA but have development responsibilities on NAS systems.
The preinstalled memory is a 1866MHz CL13 and the only one available for a single 4GB is a 1600MHz CL11.
I saw that I can replace both modules on the 918+ so I will probably buy 2 of the 4GB CL11. Feels better to run them in pairs. Unless I want to buy synology own 4GB module but that’s pure robbery.
