dwgknz wrote:251 (dual core) or 251+ (quad core)?

All reviews say the 251+ is capable for Plex transcoding.

So last question is RAMM upgrade. Comes with 2GB, what difference would 8GB make and does it just take any similar ramm ( DDR3L-1600 204Pin RAM Module SODIMM) like crucial or sslt?

there's a big difference between transcoding and being able to decode h.265 in realtime and shove it out the HDMI port to the tv

if you don't believe me here's someone on the qnap forum reporting exactly that issue : https://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?t=128059

for the same $$ - get a 'dumber' 2 bay nas and something suitable as a streamer, h.265 will become essential as 4K content takes off, and the ts-251/251+ is just too old a design to handle it (and like I said you'll also get the benefit of a silent setup cos you can shove the NAS somewhere else int he house)

I guess the single device is a dream without spending a whole lot of money then.

dwgknz wrote:I guess the single device is a dream without spending a whole lot of money then.

well at $600-odd plus dirves the ts-251+ isn't that cheap anyway

best I could think of for an all-in-one box solution would be something like an i5/i7 gigabyte brix (has the hd520 intel graphics which should handle h.265 ok), but that's $800 plus ram plus drives, and only has a single 2.5" bay (and so you're limited to just 2tb of storage using the biggest laptop drives available). Other option would be a shuttle cube (room for 4 3.5" drives internally - just run softRAID)

I'd probably shove a smallish m.2 ssd in instead for the OS, and put a low cpu/low cost 4 bay NAS somewhere else in the house(so you can have a decent slab of storage with redundancy built in and room to grow) - but by the time you've done that and brought drives I can't see you having much change out of $2K!

The NAS is actually for the business with the plex server as an additional perk. Thinking something cheap will suit for most TV and kids stuff and any high def stuff can be streamed through my old laptop (which is a brick but powerful older i7).

That will cut down most of the faffing. Don't mind faffing for a movie, just not TV.