NAs questions, obviously?

[Enquiries]

Hello, ran across your page from a YT video. I cannot decide on a Synology NAs & had some questions.

Looking at the DS1019+, DS1618+ and DS1819+.

I plan to use the NAS for a variety of things. Plex, backups, media (music) server, and also dabble with VMWare & run a few VDIs.

The DS1019 only has 5 bays, but has the built in M.2 slots & comes with 8GB of DDR3.

DS1618, 6 bays, can be expanded with the M.2 card but only comes with 4GB DDR4

DS1819, 8 bays, also expandable with a M.2 card & also only 4GB DDR4.

I'm leaning towards the DS1618 or DS1819+ & swapping the DDR4 to 2 16GB sticks or maybe just 2 8GB sticks. I plan to start with 4 4TB Ironwolf drives. (unless there's another option priced right)

Questions:

1. Which DDR4 would be best fit for the DS1618 or DS1819+? I tried narrowing it down looking at Synology's selector but it & matching Amazon parts is a little confusing.

2. If I ran the SHR-2 array, can I start with only 4 drives & add more as I go without having to lose data or starting the array over?

3. Are all 3 options hot swappable? I wasn't able to find that info on Synology's website.

[ed]

DS1618+ and DS1819+ are the same NAS just different bays. It is slightly different to DS1019+ which is a weaker NAS performance-wise. If you do need transcoding option then DS1019+ will do a better job thanks to a GPU built inside the CPU. But for direct streaming, other two NAS should have no problems.I have prepared compatible RAM upgrades list here: https://nascompares.com/ram/ram-upgrade-for-rs820rp-rs820-ds2419-ds1819-ds1618-dva3219/DDR4 does make a difference. Shame that DS1019+ doesn't come with it.You can use SHR2 on a 4-bay. It will mean that two drives are used for redundancy and another two for available storage space.Also, all Synology models mentioned feature how to swap option and will automatically do a rebuilding process if you replace a drive.I hope this helps.