If you have a h.264 movie with AC3 track and your player only supports stereo then this transcoding can taking a heavier toll on the CPU, even though it's only audio changing. If you have audio that's in FLAC/ALAC and you want to use lower bandwidth on mobile data then you have to transcode this, but audio shouldn't be a too heavy task. mp3, aac, h.264) then most player apps/devices will play these without need to transcode. If your audio and video is all common formats (e.g. For me it also provides Plex users of my Apple TV to have their own PIN protected account and it: provides age classification controls personal usage as well as access to hardware transcoding. I purchased a lifetime Pass recently when they did a 50% discount. You might find Plex Pass discounts online. Video Station supports hardware transcoding if you want this without paying extra, but it's a different solution to using Plex. it's a favourite subject around these parts Docker: Synology provides a lot of packages but you can add even more services with Docker.should really have bought a bigger NAS in the first place! Expansion unit: won't expand the internal RAID but can add a 5 drive 2nd volume.Intel CPU/Transcoding: forgot to have the stereo audio track for your player? This is adapted for in real time.Officially you can increase the 218+ to 6GB.

RAM: chances are you will hit the limit of soldered on RAM.

If you know exactly what you are going to use your NAS for over its lifetime then get the one that meets this, otherwise the DS218+ provides scope for supporting extra services that you may not know you want to have. Why the DS218+ vs other DS2xx alternatives? It's the cheapest model that has: Though not comparing apples to apples here.

Hardware transcoding supported without extra licences by DSM's Video Station.

Plex server on synology