A generic question. Apart from the few apps having more RAM to play with when the DL4100 is expanded from 2Gb to 6Gb, exactly what other benefits are there? What else used the additional RAM? Does read and write caching improve? Etc…
Since the additional RAM costs a fraction of what the DL series cost, I just bought it (approx $25 cost). I installed Plex since it needed additional RAM, but since I decided not to use Plex, (as I have better ways to watch my movies) about all the additional RAM does is likely make a cache larger (and assist Plex, which I have yet to delete.).
Interesting. Plex is working fine with the standard 2Gb of RAM. usage seems to be at about 20%. Am I doing something different? There is a Kingston 4Gb RAM board on it’s way matching WD’s recommendation. As you write, it’s a fraction of the cost of al DL NAS.
My DL2100 only had 1GB natively, so at the low price I just got the recommended Kingston RAM from Amazon. Be sure you get your RAM well seated, or you will need to do it again. Quite a few people had this issue. The only other app I have installed other than Plex is the Anti-virus Essentials, so I have plenty of ram with 5G total.
What’s the highest % RAM use have you observed with 1Gb and then 5Gb? Thanks for the tip to make sire the board is well seated in clicked into the slot.
Do not recall, although just get your reading before RAM upgrade and afterward with Plex running and off. Plex seemed to use enough ram to justify adding the ram card since it was near the mid point before adding ram.
Well, Memory usage has always been at about 20%. Now the extra 4Gb is in the usage is 12.4%, but that’s 12.4% of 6Gb RAM as opposed to 20% of 2Gb.
Then used top and it did show Mem: 3452600K used, 2649040K free at the time.
What is the RAM usage % actually showing?
Heck, I don’t know. I just have the extra memory and it all works fine so far. Why are you asking me – I thought you knew more about this stuff than I do; In fact, I am sure you do! 
Yep. I do. Was just fishing for the thoughts of others. Good news is that at standby the temperature is lower, Fan is turning a bit quicker. The RAM usage graph is not telling the truth.The NAS’s OS does use the additional RAM constantly. You’re happy. I’m happy. 
In case anyone else is interested on how memory seems to be allocated . . . .
root@MyCloud /proc # cat < /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 6101640 kB
MemFree: 872144 kB
Buffers: 1115196 kB
Cached: 3318568 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 976084 kB
Inactive: 3619944 kB
Active(anon): 179104 kB
Inactive(anon): 13668 kB
Active(file): 796980 kB
Inactive(file): 3606276 kB
Unevictable: 11880 kB
Mlocked: 11880 kB
SwapTotal: 2097084 kB
SwapFree: 2097084 kB
Dirty: 0 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 174180 kB
Mapped: 84416 kB
Shmem: 24816 kB
Slab: 537392 kB
SReclaimable: 509608 kB
SUnreclaim: 27784 kB
KernelStack: 2512 kB
PageTables: 8720 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
WritebackTmp: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 5147904 kB
Committed_AS: 1371872 kB
VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB
VmallocUsed: 166548 kB
VmallocChunk: 34359565812 kB
HugePages_Total: 0
HugePages_Free: 0
HugePages_Rsvd: 0
HugePages_Surp: 0
Hugepagesize: 2048 kB
DirectMap4k: 17824 kB
DirectMap2M: 6262784 kB
Myron,
Thanks for passing on your findings. It makes complete sense the NAS uses the additional memory constantly, since the new memory is nothing other than now a part of the whole.
Glad you agree with me that you know more about this stuff than I do! 
I’m continuing to report on here in case this thread is of any interest to anyone else.
So far when the NAS is idling the temperature is now lower, but since the additional RAM has been installed I’ve noticed that the fan speed now sits at 810 RPM and not the usual 510 RPM that was before the RAM upgrade so the lower temperature may be down to that.
I’m wondering if reports of lower temperatures reported when RAM is increased is simply down to the cooling fan running that little bit faster.
Anyone else can add their experience to this?
Regarding my DL2100 w/addl. 4K RAM card:
Temp of both drives is 30C (86F)
Idle fan speed is what it has been since I first got it: 1110 RPM
status of both is Normal/Healthy
Right. Would be a nice thing to add to the WD KB regarding adding more RAM. I’m not an absolute Linux guru, but I know enough to get myself around and then some.
Posting here for all others visiting the thread can take note of. Linux has a nice habit where whatever RAM is not allocated, the Linux OS allocates that as a filesystem cache. Programs that need additional RAM just shrinks the filesystem cache. That will grow in size when an application is unloaded or releases memory it don’t need to use.
So, as I thought all along. Add more RAM and it does all get used. Mostly as a filesystem cache.
Interestingly, the cooling fan usually rested at 510 RPM. Added the RAM and it don’t do that anymore. Lowest fan speed I’ve seen is 710 RPM. Fan speed seems to rest at 810 RPM. I guess with a bit more air bring pushed through the case more heat will be shifted so at idle the NAS will be cooler.
Memory usage as I post this:
Mem: 6036240K used, 65400K free, 0K shrd, 111832K buff, 5268324K cached
That’s my observation folks.
