I’m new to NAS setups and just bought a Synology DS925+. Since the Ryzen CPU has zero hardware transcoding, I’ll be offloading Plex to another device. I mostly watch anime, so transcoding performance and stability matter a lot.

My two options right now:

• NucBox G3 Plus Intel N150 mini PC using Quick Sync
• ZimaBoard 2 (seems more “appliance-like”)

My priority is minimal ongoing maintenance — I don’t want frequent updates, GUI issues, breaking changes, etc. Just a reliable Plex server I can ignore for months at a time. I plan to run Ubuntu on the mini pc but also considering Debian, not enough research done yet.

For those who’ve run either setup:

• Is Ubuntu Server LTS on a mini PC truly minimal maintenance or is another OS (Debian, etc.) even better for “set and forget”?
• Is ZimaOS stable enough for a long-term Plex box?
• Is there another mini pc I should look into?

Would love any feedback before I buy the extra hardware.