Where is the Synology RS1224+ Rackstation?

Synology is arguably one of the most popular brands in the entire private server market, and once you then factor in the large number of small and medium-sized businesses migrating away from cloud services and onto their own private NAS, who have been flocking in their droves towards Synology, you can understand why they are something of a big deal. Almost 25 years, the brand has been producing numerous desktop and rackmount NAS solutions (alongside a bunch of other side hustles like routers, storage media, business surveillance tools, and more), but in particular, their growth in the rackmount market in the last 5 to 7 years has been genuinely impressive. Which brings us to the subject of today’s article, where the hell is the Synology RS1224+ RackStation NAS? There has been an undeniable shift in the home lab and small business community away from desktop NAS devices and towards small-scale rackmount solutions, and Synology’s recent releases have certainly capitalized on this, thanks to improved smaller-scale four and eight-bay rackmount servers appearing in their product portfolio.

This combined with changes in the baseline hardware of several of their more recent releases have led to many users looking for a very specific kind of Synology rackmount! It has to be compact, it has to be powerful, it has to be scalable, and it has to be reasonably priced – currently, Synology only provides one solution that fits the bill in every regard, the 2020/2021 released RS1221+, which, despite its merits, is still a system that is almost 3 years old, leading many to question the benefits of investing in a system that is perhaps not as cutting edge as the rest of Synology’s portfolio currently stands. The answer, of course? A refresh (something Synology tends to do with their portfolio every two to three years), which would be the Synology RS1224+. Today we want to discuss everything we know, confirm this unit is coming, the expectations we have, and whether it’s worth waiting for it.

Is the Synology RS1224+ Rackstation NAS ACTUALLY Coming? YES

Is the Synology RS1224+ NAS coming? Well, yes! As early as autumn 2023, we saw numerous references to the RS1224+ model ID floating around in the backend of firmware updates and accidentally left in product compatibility pages on official Synology sites. Equally, there was even a Synology RS1223+ model ID appearing in summer 2023, perhaps indicating that this system was designed to arrive earlier than it has. In more recent weeks, users have taken to digging into the latest Synology DSM firmware updates and finding further references towards the existence of a Synology RS1221 (along with a couple of powerhouse expandable rack mounts, and a series of expansion boxes).

None of this is unusual, and for those willing to put in the extra time, you can often find model IDs of upcoming devices if you know where to look. The crucial detail is that clearly a half-depth eight-bay rack mount is indeed on the way from Synology and given its formative mentions in summer 2023, and continued references in 2024, it would indicate that this is a system that Synology has already well featured on their roadmap and factored into their product portfolio.

If you want to play devil’s advocate, one might argue that this product is only a placeholder, a spreadsheet template item, or a hypothetical product that Synology just wants to enter in order to maintain its position in their database. Although that’s not impossible, realistically, there are simply too many references available at this point to deny that Synology is clearly rolling out a product of this hardware and model configuration. Equally, off-the-record discussions with Synology representatives further bolster this point. Ultimately, I think it’s undeniable that Synology is going to continue this product series, but that leads us to the next question: why are users so enamored with the release of the RS1224+?

Why Are Users Waiting for the Synology RS1224+ Rackmount NAS?

As I mentioned earlier, there has been a trend shift away from desktop devices for certain kinds of users. Home enthusiasts often find it considerably more convenient to purchase a small or even medium-sized rack cabinet to be kept somewhere on their property, which can be considerably more efficient for applying numerous rackmount servers than the alternative of utilizing desktop space filled with tower chassis devices. Equally, most businesses do not want to run their main backup or operation server in the same offices they work in and either wish to utilize a separate storage area on the premises or even a small area of physical storage off-site for network and remote personal cloud storage. Much like home lab users who do this for fun, business users can often see tremendous benefits in more modular and compact multi-rackmount devices compared with that of desktop.

However, this reasoning was also largely born out of the fact that right now devices and their physical scale have changed dramatically over the last few years. If you go back even as little as a decade ago, a rackmount device was considerably bigger in depth, much less power-efficient, considerably noisier, and was just generally a much more enterprise and industrial proposition. Thanks to growing efficiencies in server components, smaller but effective cooling systems being developed, and larger storage media allowing systems to occupy fewer storage bays for higher capacity, rackmount devices no longer need to be the big hulking metal monsters they once were, and these days you can pick up four and eight-bay rackmount servers quite easily and affordably. All of this has added up to why users would not only be positively in favor of the release of a new compact, but powerful rackmount NAS system, and why a system like the RS1224+ would be equally popular.

Synology has released several half-depth 30 cm rackmounts (and 40 cm dual power supply rackmounts) in the last few years, a great example being the Synology RS422+, a small, affordable rackmount that provides a decent base level of hardware but does lack the expandability of other devices in their portfolio. Equally, at the start of 2023, Synology rolled out several new medium and large business rackmount devices that provided tremendous power and scalability – but these systems were considerably larger, much more power-hungry, and several times more expensive than the older RS1221+. The perfect middle ground here is the Synology RS1224+, hence why users are sitting quite comfortably on the fence about every other device until they know whether this system is truly arriving and, when it does, what exactly its hardware caliber will be. Let’s discuss what we predict and what we comfortably know about the Synology RS1224+ hardware.

What Are the Estimated Hardware Specifications of the Synology RS1224+ NAS?

As I mentioned earlier, the Synology RS1224+ would not be a completely new and unique product series by the brand but would be a refresh of the existing compact eight-drive rackmount series that the brand has been working on now for more than 5 years. Alongside maintaining a clearly defined portfolio across the whole range of desktop and rackmount devices that they provide, Synology also takes special care to make sure there is not too much overlap when it comes to all of their solutions. Typically when you look at the Synology portfolio, you find that solutions tend to be between $50 and $100 difference in price, and each solution takes that extra bit of investment and puts it into internal performance, total storage, or network connectivity. That also means that products in the Synology portfolio have a tendency to use a small group of CPU and memory combinations and then spread them across a variety of different storage scale devices. This all adds up to us being fairly confident in predicting the internal hardware that the RS1224+ arrives with.

The previous generation arrived with an AMD V1500B quad-core x86 CPU, but Synology has slowly started refreshing all devices with this CPU from the 2019 and 2020 generation towards the new AMD embedded Ryzen V1780B processor. Alongside a higher base clock speed, this is also a more capable CPU, though it does still arrive in the same V1000 product family from AMD. The Synology RS1224+ will definitely arrive with this CPU, as the company has already started rolling it out in their Plus series rackmount, as well as the system definitely arriving with ECC memory. ECC memory has been provided with every single Plus series rackmount that Synology has rolled out in the last 5 years and the RS1224+ will be no exception to this. However, it is still yet to be seen whether the system will arrive with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB, as Synology has been scaling up the base level of default memory on their systems in the most recent generation refreshes. The rest of the system architecture is fairly easy to predict, with the exception of the network connectivity (more on that in a moment), but below is the expected specifications of the Synology RS1224+ RackStation:

Specification	Detail
Model	Synology RS1224+ NAS
Price	$(TBC)*
Form Factor	Half-depth / 2U RackStation
CPU	AMD Ryzen Embedded V1780B*
CPU Details	4-Core/8-Thread, 3.35GHz
Memory	8-32GB DDR4 UDIMM ECC
Storage Bays	8x SATA 3.5″/2.5″ (Add 4x More drives with the RX Expansion)
Networking	1x 10GbE Copper (10GBASE-T)*
Expansion Slots	1x PCIe Gen 3×8
LAN Ports	2x / 4x RJ45 1GbE LAN*
Expansion Port	1x eSATA
USB Ports	2x USB 3.2 GEN 1 (5Gb/s)
Dimensions	88 mm x 482 mm x 306.6 mm
Dimensions (RP Version)	88 mm x 482 mm x 407.5 mm
Warranty	3-Year Warranty (5yr Opt)
Additional Notes	*massively TBC!!!

There is, however, one area of ambiguity that is still present in the specifications of the Synology RS1224+, the default network connectivity! The system will definitely arrive with at least a couple of 1GbE network ports and will definitely provide a PCIe 3 x8 slot in order to upgrade network connectivity and add combo cards later in the system’s life if needed.

However, what about 10GbE? At the tail end of 2023, Synology saw the release of the Synology RS2423+, a similarly hardware-designed Plus series RackStation solution, that was fully expected to arrive with gigabit networking only. However, when it arrived, Synology provided a 10GBase-T networking port by default (not via a PCIe upgrade, but as standard). Now, this is a 12x HDD system, so there is more than enough media to fully saturate a 10GbE network connection. However, this did not stop Synology in the previous four generations of that RackStation product series from only providing 1GbE by default, so why the change now?

Synology has faced growing criticism from prosumers and small business users for their rather restricted default network connections, limiting the majority of solutions to either 1GbE in their standard class and 10GbE in the power user and enterprise models. Many users have raised questions about Synology perhaps utilizing 2.5 gigabit Ethernet network connections, as used by a majority of their competitors. Others would state that 2.5GbE is something of a technological fad, and 10GbE is the only natural path to go down, so that does bring into question allocating lanes internally to this network bandwidth. The reason I bring the whole thing up is simply that if Synology changed its position on 10GbE on the 12-bay RackStation, it is totally believable to think that they would do so on the Synology RS1224+. Plus, as this is still an eight-bay system and that too could fully saturate a 10GbE even with hard drives, not just SSD. This is still a lingering question on this system and one that we probably won’t know the answer to until launch, but nevertheless, I think there is enough evidence here for us to wonder if Synology will do the right thing and roll this system out the gate with 10G.

When Do I Think the Synology RS1224+ Rackstation Will Be Released?

Given that the model ID of the RS1224+ and RS1224rp+ both arrive with the ’24’ suffix, that typically means that Synology will roll this system out in the first 6 months of 2024. That is still quite a wide and broad remit for a release date, but typically Synology tends to roll out business and enterprise-grade solutions in the first quarter of the year (based on previous experience and other releases we have observed). Nevertheless, at the time of writing in February 2024, we are making our way into the halfway point of the first quarter of 2024, so Synology would be cutting it quite fine, and we have yet to even see provisional leaks of this system via the usual supply chain and compatibility listings to the degree that we normally would prior to a launch. With regards to pricing, that is one area where Synology tends to be thankfully incredibly consistent, and you can fully expect the RS1224+ to match the $999 to $1199 price tag of its predecessor. Stay tuned to NAS Compares as we keep an eye out for this system and discuss whether it deserves your data.

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Synology DS423+ vs DS923+ NAS – Which Should You Buy

Buying your first network-attached storage device can be really intimidating! If you have spent the better part of a decade storing your personal or business data on public cloud services or in a drawer full of USB drives, but have now taken the grown-up decision to go ahead and migrate over to your own private network-attached storage (NAS). You might have done this for reasons of cost, centralization or perhaps for security, whatever the reason for your data migration, there is simply no denying that the world of NAS can be a fraction complex and confusing early doors. Like any kind of modern computer appliance, you want to make sure you buy right the first time and when it comes to choosing between two of the latest generations of Synology NAS devices, these two incredibly similar four-bay devices might be two of the most different solutions I have ever compared. The Synology DS423+ is a home and small business-focused compact NAS designed to leverage an affordable price point between reasonable hardware and reasonable software and abilities. The slightly older Synology DS923+ (by 6+ months), on the other hand, has much of a high and even in some places entry enterprise-level focus about its architecture and is needless to say the more expensive of the two. Nevertheless, both of these Synology NAS devices can be picked up for around $450 to $600 (without drives), the contrast between their pricing, are actually very different beasts. Therefore, for users that don’t quite know their AMD embedded from their Celeron integrated processors, or who aren’t sure of the benefits that ECC can bring, today I want to compare the Synology DS423+ and Synology DS923+ and help you decide which one best deserves your data!

Just before we get into the meat and potatoes of this comparison, it is worth highlighting that regardless of whether you buy the Synology DS923+ or DS423+, you are guaranteed to get a system that can perform all of the following:

• Both units feature x86 processors, which allow a wide degree of app/services to run well and are a good price vs hardware balance
• Both the DS923+ and DS423+ are constructed of plastic desktop compact chassis, thereby reducing power consumption, noise and heat generated
• Both can Stream 1080p HD or 4K media, with superior performance natively and mid-range performance in Plex
• Both the Synology DS923+ and DS423+ NAS support AI-supported photo and ‘thing’ recognition supported to a very high degree from the free branded software included
• For Business users who currently enjoy the use of Google Workspace or Office 365, both of these NAS provide excellent means to backup your mass cloud accounts (as well as natively sync, dupe and configure rules on the fly)
• Both the DS423+ NAS and DS923+ NAS support snapshots, for more incremental and version protecting failsafe in efforts to protect you from Malware and Ransomware attacks, by allowing multi-versioning storage history to browse through and restore
• Both units are DLNA certified so can be accessed, browsed and played from by popular DLNA devices, such as Amazon Firestick, Alexa, Google Home Chromecast, Apple TV, Bose, Sonos, iPads, etc, as well as connectivity between these platforms with IFTTT
• Both are multi-bay, RAID enabled devices NAS devices that support JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10 (as well as Synology Hybrid RAID too for their Plus series range), though it is worth highlighting the DS923+ is the only one that supports an expansion and therefore also can support RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10 and SHR-2 over an expansion (more on that later)
• Both devices run on their own proprietary operating system that can be accessed remotely or locally. These include regular updates to the firmware, security patches, applications and more. Ranging from multimedia, home and multi-tiered backup applications, to more business end tools such as Surveillance software, Virtual Machine deployment and business-class backup and synchronization tools.
• Both the DS423+ and DS923+ use and can be accessed equally by a multitude of mobile applications such as DS File, DS Video, DS Photo, DSCam and DS Music that are created by and constantly improved by Synology.
• Both NAS are completely compatible with Windows, Android and Mac systems, as well as acting as a bring between software platforms to share and distribute files for migration and file sync]
• Both units can be used as a mail and/or business servers, providing excellent 3rd party CRM and first-party CMS systems, as well as the fantastic Synology collaboration Suite of applications Chat, Drive, Mail, Calendar, Office and Active Backup Suite
• Both systems will support DSM 7.1 or DSM 7.2 out the box, as well as support software updates (security and feature) for many years moving forward
• Both systems support the Synology Surveillance Station applications, support numerous cameras and arrive with 2 camera licenses with your purchase

But you didn’t come to this comparison page to find out what they had in common, you wanted to know what makes them different and which one best suits your needs, so let’s crack on with this comparison.

Synology DS423+ vs DS923+ NAS – Price and Value

Now, for those of you that are keeping a very close eye on the budget, it will already be clear to you that the Synology DS423+ is the lower-priced NAS of the two, by quite a considerable margin! Arriving, depending on where you are in the world, for around $449 to $499, it will immediately look more appealing to those on a tight budget when compared against the $549 to $599 of the DS923+. And that is before you’ve gone ahead and purchased any storage media too, so that’s saving of $100 to $150 could go a long way to further bolstering your network-attached storage setup. So, if the most important thing to you right now is remaining within a tight budget, then it might be worth seeing to read the rest of this article as when comparing DS423+ and DS923+, we have to look considerably more at the subject of value, not price. Price. Both of these devices arrive with the same software, Synology DSM 7.2, as well as both systems being two drive NAS solutions that support nearly identical ranges of storage media too, but more on that later. In terms of physical size, the range of components, they are pretty darn similar at a casual glance. However, it is in terms of the individual hardware components and scalability where the Synology DS923+ shows its worth, which we will cover shortly in the hardware section. But at least in terms of numerical value, the Synology DS423+ carries the lead. However, the reality isn’t quite that simple:

This is because the Synology DS923+ was released approx than half a year earlier than the DS423+ (Nov 2022 vs April 2023) and because of its wider availability and longer presence in the market, it has been featured in numerous special offers throughout that time. We saw this near $500 NAS on a few considerably impressive special offers throughout Amazon Prime day and other smaller eShop-specific events. So, yes, the DS423+ is the lower-priced NAS of the two, but do make a point of checking your local online retailer to see if the DS923+ is on special offer right now!

Synology DS423+ vs DS923+ NAS – Hardware and Connections

The hardware architecture of the DS423+ and DS923+ clearly have two very different target audiences in mind. The DS423+ has more of a home and multimedia feel about it, while the DS923+ feels substantially more like a business solution. This is reflected in numerous areas such as the distinct differences in CPU, memory specifications, and potential for growth. Even if you were to take into account the affordability of the DS423+, it has to be said that in the majority of hardware available, the DS923+ is significantly more powerful and scalable in practically every way. Here is a brief summary of the key hardware highlights of either system, side-by-side:

Synology DS423+ vs DS923+ NAS Hardware Comparison
Synology NAS
Amazon Price:	$479 (Amazon 25/02/24)	$599 (Amazon 25/02/24)
Processor model	Intel Celeron J4125 (2019 Gen)	AMD Ryzen R1600 (2020 Gen)
processor architecture	64-bit	64-bit
processor clock	4-core 2.0 (base frequency) / 2.7 (burst frequency) GHz	2-core 2.6 (base frequency) / 3.1 (max overclock) GHz
Integrated Graphics	Yes (250-750Mhz)	No
Hardware encryption engine (AES-NI)	Yes	Yes
system memory	2 GB DDR4 non-ECC	4 GB DDR4 ECC
Pre-installed memory modules	Yes	4GB (4GB x 1) via SODIMM
Total number of memory slots	1	2
Maximum memory capacity	6 GB (2 GB + 4 GB)	32GB (16GB x 2)
The maximum number of disk slots for an expansion unit	N/A	7 (DX517 x 1)
M.2 drive bay	N/A	2 (NVMe, PCIe 3×1)
Compatible Disk Type	3.5″ SATA HDD 2.5″ SATA SSD	3.5″ SATA HDD 2.5″ SATA SSD M.2 2280 NVMe SSD
Disk hot-plug support*	Yes	Yes

So first and foremost, we need to discuss the main differences between the CPUs available here. The Intel Celeron found inside the DS423+ is a four-core, four-thread processor with a clock speed of 2.0 GHz that can be burst to 2.7 GHz when needed. However, despite the age of this CPU, which was released towards the end of 2019, it is the integrated graphics of this processor that gives it a slight edge for some users in terms of NAS deployment- especially those looking at multimedia use for their system. For users that are looking at the manipulation of graphical data, or more commonly are using the NAS as a multimedia server and wish to convert dense multimedia into something more manageable locally (for example, converting a dense 4K file into a much smaller and portable version to watch on the phone whilst commuting to work, on the fly), integrated graphics allow the NAS to perform this task with much lower overall resource consumption.

Thanks to it having a more specialized tool to get this job done. The embedded Ryzen R1600 processor on the other hand, lacks the integrated graphics and is a dual-core processor instead of a quad-core. However, it substantially makes up for this by being a much more powerful dual-core processor, with four threads that allow the system to assign system resources in a similar way to that of having multiple cores. Equally, the clock speed is noticeably higher here with the DS923+ CPU having a 2.6 GHz base power that can be burst when needed to 3.1 GHz. It is true that in cases of graphical manipulation or multimedia conversion, the AMD CPU here will be far less efficient and capable. However, in practically every other way, it is superior to that of the J4125 inside the DS423+. And if you are more concerned with traditional file transfer speeds internally and externally, the DS923+ will comfortably be the better-performing NAS.

 

The CPU choices in the DS423+ and DS923+ also result in very different memory architectures in each device, which will undoubtedly result in different scalability in the long term. The DS423+ arrives with 2GB of 2666Mhz memory, soldered to the main controller board, which can be further expanded via an available SODIMM memory slot to 6 GB total. This may be a little disheartening when you find out that the CPU here is actually capable of supporting 8 GB maximum memory. However, due to that initial 2GB memory being fixed internally, you cannot officially exceed 6 GB physically. This shortfall is considerably magnified when you bring into comparison the DS723’s memory structure. It arrives with 4GB of DDR4 3200Mhz memory which can be expanded to a whopping 32 GB total across two available SODIMM slots. Additionally, the system arrives with error-correcting code (ECC) memory, which ensures that data that passes through the memory during write operations will have its integrity checked by a separate module on the memory of the system. If any irregularities or inconsistencies are spotted, that data will be repaired. This goes a long way to reassure any doubts around the integrity of long-term archival data and susceptibility to things like bit rot. This is one of the main reasons why the DS923+ is considered much more of a business solution overall.

Much like the memory choices by Synology in these two NAS devices, the ports and connections of them both are similar, but one is definitely more scalable than the other. Both systems arrive with standard gigabit ethernet connectivity, with two available ports that each will provide up to a maximum 109 megabytes per second. Both systems also arrive with USB 3 connectivity, but it is only 5GB gen 1 USB. However, it is from here onward that the DS723 massively upscales things:

Model ID	Synology DS423+	Synology DS923+
Synology NAS
RJ-45 1GbE LAN port*	2 (Supports Link Aggregation / Failover)	2 (Supports Link Aggregation / Failover)
USB 3.2 Gen 1 port*	2	2
eSATA port	0	1
USB Copy	Yes (inc. Physical Button)	Yes
PCIe expansion	N/A	1 x Gen3 x2 LAN card slot
system fan	92 mm x 92 mm x 2 pcs	92 mm x 92 mm x 2 pcs
fan mode	full speed mode low temperature mode silent mode	full speed mode low temperature mode silent mode
Front panel LED indicators with adjustable brightness	Yes	Yes
Noise value*	19.8dB(A)	22.9 dB(A)
wake on lan	Yes	Yes
Power Supply / Transformer	90W	100W
AC input voltage	100V to 240V AC	100V to 240V AC
current frequency	50/60 Hz, single frequency	50/60 Hz, single frequency
Power consumption	28.3 W (access) 8.45 W (disk hibernation)	35.51 W (access) 11.52 W (disk hibernation)

For a start, the DS923+ features an eSATA external port that is used to connect the official Synology 5-bay expansion device, the DX517. This means that while the DS423+ has a maximum long-term capacity of four SATA drives, the DS923+ allows you to expand your storage down the line by an additional five SATA bays (so 9 Bays total). This can be done gradually and this storage can either mirror the original NAS or extend the storage pool across both devices.

Scalability and expandability do not stop there though, with the DS923+ also having the option to add a network adapter upgrade module (the E10G22-T1-MINI) to increase your network bandwidth to 10GbE. This is going to be incredibly useful for users who plan on taking advantage of SSDs or plan on having a much busier network environment between the NAS and multiple users and tasks at any given time. And it doesn’t stop there! Though BOTH systems also features two SSD bays on its base for installing M.2 2280 SSD modules (which can be used for caching or as raw storage pools, depending on which drive you use), the DS423+ is a Gen 2 PCIe lane system, whilst the DS923+ is a Gen 3 system – resulting in double the bandwidth per lane (ultimately, the difference between 500MB/s max per SSD on the DS423+ and 1,000MB/s on the DS923+). This is a feature that, although growing more common across Synology’s NAS portfolio, it is still unavailable on many of their lower tier/affordable systems (such as the DS224+) and, alongside the lack of storage expansion support, the gen2 speeds on these bays will place limits the storage potential long term on the more affordable NAS.

Finally, we need to discuss storage media compatibility, as this has grown to be another thing that has changed the way in which a user can populate their NAS quite a lot in recent years. On the list of storage media that they are prepared to verify as compatible with their systems. Although technically, one could say that any SATA media drive would be compatible with a SATA NAS, there are still a few incredibly isolated examples of compatibility, durability and stability. Synology requires that all drives need to be officially checked and verified before they’re prepared to add them to their list in order to truly guarantee that a user will get the promised Synology experience from their hardware with that media. As questionable as this might sound, the result is that the list of compatible storage media for both of these devices, despite their incredible similarities, is actually pretty darn different. Take a closer look at the slideshow below of compatible HDDs from WD and Seagate on these two NAS systems (from 21st July 2023) and see if you can spot an odd inconsistency:

In the case of the DS423+, we see a smaller pool of supported storage media, as well as a lower list of larger capacity drives being featured also. The DS923+, on the other hand, seemingly has a larger pool of more high capacity drives added and available to it, as well as a larger range of Synology’s own drives available for use with that system that includes the higher end options in the HAT5300 range. Synology has clearly prioritized higher-end drives for more advanced Synology systems, but for those that like to use their system clearly and rigidly within the defined parameters of a brand to maintain their warranty/guarantee, this is going to be a little disheartening to see the smaller pool of verified compatible storage media on the more affordable NAS solution. This is something that may well change over time as more drives are added to verified compatibility lists, but Synology has not exactly been putting their foot on the gas here. Given how close these two systems have been released side by side and the large disparity between their compatibility lists, I can’t see a huge amount of change happening anytime soon. It is absolutely no surprise that the more expensive Synology NAS has a better degree of hardware options in the long term. Though, it should be highlighted that a lot of the real benefits available in the DS723 are optional extras, long-term scalability and upgrades that are not necessarily available in the default model. It could be very easily argued that you are paying for entry to then pay extra for delivering upgrades, SSD upgrades, storage scalability, and increasing your memory years from now. Nevertheless, the fact that the baseline memory is ECC and the AMD CPU is indeed more powerful in most ways, does make up some of that additional cost and ultimately mean that in terms of hardware and connectivity, the DS923+ is the better of the two.

Synology DS423+ vs DS923+ NAS – Software and Services

At the risk of being incredibly repetitious, both of these devices are remarkably similar in what they can do in Synology’s premium DSM software platform, but the scalability and scope provided by the DS923+ inevitably leads to that more expensive system, ultimately giving you just more resources with which DSM can utilize. In terms of the actual range of applications, services supported on either system and scope for use right out of the box, both the DS423+ and DS923+ have got more than enough to run every single available app and tool available in DSM 7.2. Despite their rather modest scale, both systems can run multiple virtual machines, host a fantastically capable surveillance solution with numerous cameras, both can provide an excellent Plex media server experience (with a slight edge to the DS423+ in terms of conversions and transcoding when needed), and in terms of backups, both systems support the full range of services from Hyper Backup and Active Backup Suite. If you are a small business or just a small group of users who are going to be interacting with either of these NAS units fairly regularly, you’re going to have a largely identical experience in either one of these two systems using the baseline default hardware. However, things will change as soon as you start moving into larger simultaneous access, more high-volume application exchanges between the system and client hardware, and the scope of each one of those individual processes growing over time. In terms of the escalation of accessing the services of DSM and long-term future-proofing of a system running at top speed, despite growing requirements and demands of the system, the DS923+ comfortably wins.

Synology NAS	Synology DS423+	Synology DS923+
Maximum single volume capacity*	108TB	108TB
Maximum number of storage spaces	64	64
M.2 SSD volume support*	Yes	Yes
SSD Read/Write Cache (White Paper)	Yes	Yes
SSD TRIM	Yes	Yes
Support RAID disk array type	Synology Hybrid RAID Basic JBOD RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 6 RAID 10	Synology Hybrid RAID Basic JBOD RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 6 RAID 10
file agreement	SMB/AFP/NFS/FTP/WebDAV	SMB/AFP/NFS/FTP/WebDAV
Maximum simultaneous SMB/AFP/FTP connections	500	1000
Maximum number of simultaneous SMB/AFP/FTP connections (with extended memory)	1500	2000
Windows Access Control List (ACL) Integration	Yes	Yes
NFS Kerberos authentication	Yes	Yes
Maximum number of local user accounts	2048	2048
Maximum number of local groups	256	256
Maximum number of shared folders	256	512
Maximum Shared Folder Sync Tasks	8	16
VMware vSphere with VAAI	N/A	Yes
Windows Server 2022	N/A	Yes
Citrix Ready	N/A	Yes
OpenStack	N/A	Yes
Media Server	Yes	Yes
DLNA compatible	Yes	Yes
Synology Photos	Yes	Yes
face recognition	Yes	Yes
Snapshot Replication	Yes	Yes
The maximum number of snapshots supported by a single shared folder	1024	1024
Maximum number of system snapshots	65536	65536
Surveillance Station	Yes	Yes
The maximum number of cameras supported (camera authorization is required)	40 (including 2 sets of free licenses	40 (including 2 sets of free licenses
Frames per second (FPS) (H.264)	1200 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 800 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 350 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 280 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) 170 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160)	1200 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 1050 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 600 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 360 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) 200 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160)
Frames per second (FPS) (H.265)	1200 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 1200 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 600 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 480 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) 200 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160)	1200 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 1200 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 1000 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 600 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) 300 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160)
Synology Drive	Yes	Yes
Recommended number of clients that can sync simultaneously	350 (the number of devices that can be connected at the same time when the recommended number of stored files is reached)	350 (the number of devices that can be connected at the same time when the recommended number of stored files is reached)
Recommended number of files to store	5,000,000 (Applicable to files indexed or belonging to Synology Drive , files accessed through other protocols, please refer to the file service in the above field)	5,000,000 (Applicable to files indexed or belonging to Synology Drive , files accessed through other protocols, please refer to the file service in the above field)
Synology Office	Yes	Yes
Maximum number of users	1200	1200
Video Station	Yes	Yes
Virtual Machine Manager	Yes	Yes
Recommended number of virtual machines	2 (see more)	4 (see more)
Recommended number of Virtual DSMs (licensing required)	2 (including 1 set of free licenses)	4 (including 1 set of free licenses)
VPN Server	Yes	Yes
Maximum number of connections	40	40
Synology High Availability	Yes	Yes
log center	Yes	Yes
Number of logs received per second	800	800
Backup folders and packages	Yes	Yes
backup the whole system	Yes	Yes
Remark	Full system backup requires DSM 7.2 or later.	Full system backup requires DSM 7.2 or later.
Maximum number of Hybrid Share folders	10	10

Notwithstanding that the system has a much higher clock speed CPU that, despite only being a dual-core processor, features a four thread architecture with DSM, allowing a lot of the spreading of resources normally associated with cores to be made available with vCPU allocation (containers, virtual machines and just natively). Then there is the scope for the larger overall capacity available to be upgraded towards in terms of memory, with the rather modest 6GB of memory on the DS423+ looking quite underwhelming when compared against the whopping 32 GB maximum memory that is scalable on the DS923+. That ultimately adds up to the more expensive NAS system having a better opportunity to grow alongside a more demanding data storage network of connected devices and users over time. And we haven’t even touched on the performance benefit in DSM and all of the first and third party applications when we factor in support of Gen3 SSDs for caching or storage pools in the DS923+, both of which are going to allow much better, long-term utilization and overall, a much smoother experience for a considerably longer amount of time than that of the DS423+. Ultimately, if you think your utilization of the NAS is going to grow steadily and increasingly over time, the DS923+ is the better choice here in terms of software, in and out of DSM.

Synology DS423+ vs DS923+ NAS – Conclusion and Verdict

Unsurprisingly, what we have here is an old-fashioned case of getting what you pay for. The DS423+ is a very solid, and reliable NAS solution and is definitely more than capable of running the bulk of modern NAS hardware needs, also, remaining pretty flexible in the resources available to it on day one to get the job done. Equally, for home users and particularly those seeking a more flexible approach to multimedia, the DS423+ does bring a decent amount of bang for buck when you compare it against the bulk of other Synology solutions in the brand’s portfolio. But it just pales in comparison to the sheer scope of scalability, upgrade options and flexibility long-term that the DS923+ provides. And regardless of whether you’re a business user or a home user that may perhaps be looking to do something more aggressive with their storage down the line, the DS923+ justifies a lot of the extra expense, simply by the weight of it having that ECC memory, twice the default memory on day 1, Gen3 SSD NVMe storage options, expandability, 10G as an optional extra and the scale of how far you can upgrade the memory. As mentioned earlier, we have to at least acknowledge that a lot of these advantages that the DS923+ presents compared with the DS423+ are ones that you will only really take advantage of if you spend a little bit more money, but having the option for that scalability down the line for many users is going to be worth the investment on day one. Side by side, in most cases, the DS923+ will comfortably outperform the DS423+ even in the default model, so you still aren’t losing out just because you’re paying extra for upgrade options you may not use later down the line.

Synology NAS
Amazon Price:	Synology DS423+ NAS $479 (Amazon 25/02/24)	Synology DS923+ NAS $599 (Amazon 25/02/24)

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