Can extra RAM or eSATA SSD improve Plex transcoding on Synology ds218+?

I recently got a synology ds218+ which will mainly be used as a plex server with some minor backup functionalities. I want to use plex to share it with family members who live far away. From what i have read i need to get the premium version of plex to enable hardware transcoding. This is where the advice I find online gets confusing.
I've read about people getting an extra SSD to enable transcoding there (using the USB or the eSATA port?) and some others about using RAM to transcode? Is a ram upgrade even necessary?
Hopefuly you can give me some clarity between all this contradictory advise.

Thanks in advance for your time,

No RAM upgrade will not speed up transcoding. But having one of the bays with SSD or even external esata SSD could speed things up slightly. One you store media on the SSD, it is much quicker for a NAS to find the movies on related metadata as well as temp files. Therefore you get smoother user experience.I hope this helps.