Synology DS923+ The disappointment is real! See this before you buy! 

Really helpful video, thanks for your time to produce it. I'm in the market for a NAS storage device and my default was to look at Synology however I feel, and share, your disappointment so this particular customer WILL be looking at other manufactures. Thanks again.

I think I bought my last Synology NAS last summer. The sheer wisdom of Synology to not accept other manufacturer's drives and to not support 2,5 or 5 Gbps is unacceptable. It's a solid OS , I'm using it since my first ds-101. I'm feeling a bit sad to know that I have to switch. I just have to. Thanks for your video. It confirmed my sentiment about Synology.

Thank you ! I was about to buy one but their actions changed my mind.

great video. I love your honesty and clear message. Congratulations !!!

This is the first time I've seen your video, and I understand your frustration. I was about to buy one now now after seeing this clip, I'm going to reconsider.

I really appreciate this video! I've been looking into getting my very first NAS, and everything has been pointing me to Synology, as it comes across as simpler for a novice to use. However, I was discouraged by the Apple-esque philosophy of proprietary adaptors, reduced spec, and higher cost compared to the competition. Now hearing that they're even going to prevent 3rd party drives, has just put me right off them entirely. Thank-you for the warning!

Nice going, I'm more of a Qnap guy only because I like freedom ... but I do look at other brands from time to time.

I've had my 918+ since 2017. It's faultless. The great thing about the 923+ is if you pop a 10G card in it, direct connect that to your PC/Mac and connect the other ethernet port to your network you have a crazy fast storage pool at the end of a bit of Cat6a cable. The free software that comes with the device pays for it'self. It might not be cutting edge, but it's sold, stable and safe. If I'm choosing to put my data on it, that's what I want. It's also easy to use and lots of online video's to guide you if needed. Don't get me wrong, some of the modals could beniffit from some speed / function increases but overall its a great product.

I was about to drop $3k to upgrade to a DS3622sx+ from my DS1817+ & DX517 until I learned about how Synology has become customer-hostile given their changes to DSM related to non-Synology drives. So after a ton of research, I spent my $3k on hardware for TrueNAS instead. #fwiw

From what I've heard in regards to the m.2 storage pools is that Synology were going to release this feature with DSM 7.2, but decided to include an early beta with the release of the DS923+ hence why only Synology drives can create storage pools. It did this because it felt that maybe not many people will upgrade to the DS923+ due to lack of new features

Agree with your comments. I've got an old Synology NAS (214), and need to upgrade. I love their software (DSM), and wanted to stick with Synology. I've had my eye on the DS920+ (transcoding support), but they're now discontinued and am having difficulty finding them in stock in my area. That leaves the 923+ (or 1522+). But, with all of the handicaps that Synology keeps purposely building into their hardware I'm thinking I need to look elsewhere (Asustor, QNAP), or build my own TrueNas device. Hopefully people start talking with their wallets and not buy their product, and maybe they'll change their strategy. I doubt it'll happen, but one can wish.

You can order replacement plastic caddy clips as they tend to fail over time. DS923+ is a huge STEP backwards IMO and the DS920+ is only saved by the Intel QS capable CPU. While DSM is the best off the shelf NAS OS, QNAP offers more powerful units for those not wanting to run a DataCenter in their house.

You made a 10 minute video because the NEW for 923+ Feature of using M.2 NVME drives as another drive “pool” only works with the Synology 400gb or 800gb drives. I think it sucks the capacity is so low on those when an M.2 used for cache can be 4TB. I think you protest too much, all things considered, i was thinking of making one M.2 drive a large SSD cache, and the other to serve as an SSD shared drive pool which is an awesome feature. I wonder whah the 24+ models will offer?

I also bought the 923+ and didn't stick to the compatibility list. Both the four hard drives from WD and the 16GB storage expansion from Kingston are not on this list. And the result: The system works. BUT: Warnings, warnings and more warnings in the info center. I'll probably leave out the NVME's for now. Thank you for the warning.

whats the realiable harddisk to use in NAS, Thanks for sharing these awesome vids, youre doing s excellent job, presenting in a professional way, good studio and video setup! and u have a good sense of humor in your vids.

I have this NAS and never had any issue with it. Synology is a great product.

Thanks for your review! I believe I understood that you can use compatible nvme ssd drive in Synology DS923+, but only for caching and not for storage pools. Is that correct?

It seems like this would be a violation of Anti-trust laws in the United States. I'm not sure about Europe but I recall companies getting sued by the FTC for these types of trade practices. E.G. when Microsoft Forced users to install Internet Explorer by default.

Looking forward to your video about migrating to the new NAS. I'm a home/ enthusiast user and have recently migrated from a 10-year old DS212J (6TB SHR) which has "served" me well, to a DS220+ (8TB SHR). It wasn't difficult but took a long time using HyperBackup due to the change in file system (ext4 to btrfs). It took 4 days to backup ~2.7TB of data via direct gigabit LAN (although transfer rates were only about 10Mb/s I think due to the limited 128MB ram in the DS212j), and about 10hrs to restore the backup to the DS220+. Very happy with the result and the new unit!

I share your concerns. I like my Synology 918+ in many ways and hoped to upgrade it with a 923+ this spring. I came across many of the same problems you did with the 923+. I decided to postpone my update cycle another year to see what happens.

So glad you posted this video (and the comments you've shared below)! I'm in the market for a new NAS and I was looking at Synology as a power efficient upgrade to my 8 year old Lenovo ThinkServer running TrueNAS. I was weary about buying a Synology system because of the lack of 10GbE/25GbE, but the form factor and simplicity was enticing. After seeing these quality issues, I'm going to pass on Synology. I also looked at Asustor and QNAP, but their software has had numerous security issues over the past few years. I guess I'll be doing more research on a DIY build.

Beside the "downgrade" to use only Synology certified own brand DRIVES and RAM there is another flaw compared to the DS920+. The AMD Ryzen processor inside the DS923+ doesn't have an integrated GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) compared to the DS920+. Which means, if you want to use the DS923+ as a media server (Plex Server) the decoding of any media files has to be done entirely by the CPU. For 4k content this can be quite problematic depending on which codec was used for encoding. For business purposes and to use as file server this shouldn't be a big concern. But for Media services this flaw is an absolute NO NO...

Synology not implementing 2.5E and the lackluster nvme support is a major downgrade and why I'm holding off on getting another 8-bay unit Synology unit. I suspect we may have to wait until 2024 to see 2.5E support thought I'm hoping it will maybe surprise us this year. We shall see!

I really like your video. I want to buy sunology just to run virtual machines, I'm beginer and I don't know what is the best action!, thanks.

Synology has always installed the DSM onto one of the hard drives, so it doesn't make sense to build a system with only NVMe drives.

I got the 923+ just recently and didn't experience the problems this guy mentions. Some videos are likely sponsored by competitors and never disclosed. I personally love my 923+ and would definitely buy another Synology NAS.

The workload on the Synology is 550TB instead of 300TB on the WD red pro and Seagate Ironwolf Pro. Also the MTBF is more than 2 times as high as the Seagate and WD. So when using the drives in data pools it needs to be very high performance thus the synology being the better option. That being said i thing for most people this will be overkill, the firewolf pro is the best value for your money.

I'm looking to get a NAS from this line, but was disappointed to hear the DS923+ doesn't have on board transcoding capability for media streaming. Can't buy the DS920+ any more so I'm seemingly stuck. It's disappointing.

In video production world it was like that in the past where external recorder manufacturers wanted you to use only their drives so they locked them, then Atomos came along and let aby drive to be used and stole the market. SSD that cache works but yeah I'd like to use my drives.

You can use non-Synology NVMes for R/W-Caching if you use both slots.

Also only 108TB is supported per volume on my 8bay RS1219+ and RS1221+

On my fourth Synology (running 2, one as a main NAS and the other for onsite backup of that NAS) , yep they have lower performing CPUs than other manufacturers. You can get a cheap 10Gb interface very cheaply like £40 intel X520-DA2 are my normal go to if have a spare PCIe slot, Microtik 10Gb switches are very cheap if you need more than 2 devices connecting to each other. The reason to buy the Synology for me is the Apps, specially for backup of cloud services. Yep there have also been issues with specific CPUs and PSU issues. I've even sold my older Synology's after years of use for around 2/3rd the price I paid for them. In 10 years of ownership not had any issues. I don't use Synology RAM either, I jus keep the original in case I need it after upgrade.

So which one we should buy??????

i am currently using the DS918+ and have installed two M.2 drives as storage pools. However, these can only be installed using manual SSH commands and everytime the Synology firmware is updated i have to run a batch file to make the M.2 drives available again. Although this works, it's still pretty annoying that there is no official support for standard M.2 drives as storage pools.

I don't see lots of other offerings with ECC ram at this price point. Last time I bought a readynas and got burned as netgear has now abandonned that segment completely so this time I went with Synology as I see them as having staying power.

Yes, please make a video about migrating from one NAS to another. I have an older 2 bay Synology NAS and I will be buying the DS720+ and hopefully just migrating from one NAS to the other

I thought you did a great job presenting the disappointment in the new model. I presume you didn’t do a deep dive into the new model as it would seem to be a no-brainer upgrade. While I too don’t understand the reasoning for exclusive drive brand support, they aren’t the only ones. Dell servers have this “feature” as well. I wish the OEM would articulate what sets their brand apart - greater performance? reliability? integrated diagnostics? (and does that equate to greater value). Just WHAT is it that is pissing us all off? If this persists, a new manufacturer may start catering to the growing slice of dissatisfied users.

I hope you can help me! I have sooo many files on my pc and external SSDs lying around on my desk. About 6 TB with videos, pictures and documents. Now that I've started a RU-vid channel, there is going to be alot of video files! All I want is a box with 4 bays (maybe go with two 12TB to start with), to store aaall of my files. I want to connect with a USB to my pc and have a decent speed when tranferring files from my computer and I want it all to be mirrored. The networking part is not so important to me. Is this Synology DS923+ for me? And what do I look for in a suitable harddrive? Thank so much and cheers from Norway!

Ya got that bro ... Except for the storage pool for nvme there is no issue at all ... Recently got mine and really had a hassle-free setup

I would very like if you make a detail video on Synology NAS migration.

I just read it online in a December 6th post that Synology quietly added support for M.2 SSD volumes.

Yep, I had the same issue.

They have really knee capped their crummy hardware. I recently replaced a failing 918 with a 920 even tho I knew the 923 was about to launch. If it wasn't for DSM and the apps I would've bailed on Synology. I understand there's a balance between security and flexibility but synology seems to want to turn a Linux based system in an Apple proprietary device with no flexibility for end users. Especially when it comes to supported external hardware like the old days. Good luck finding a hard drive with the exact model # and firmware they approved. 2 USB ports really? And then they won't even support a hard drive caddy with a couple of drives. A UPS takes one USB so you actually only have a single one. One back up drive and your done. Seems they are focused on larger business customers these days.

Good News as I understand it … 1. You can get a new drive tray for about $20 at Newegg. 2. It’s been stated by several other Synology RU-vidrs that the upcoming soon version of DSM 7.2 will allow NVMe drives to be used as storage pools. 3. You can just put your drives from old NAS “in order” directly into your new NAS and boot it up. If you were running DSM 6.2, you cold the upgrade to 7.1. 4. Synology DS plus NAS’s should be able to use non Synology drives. Synology RS NAS’s require Synology branded Toshiba drives.

I've a 920+ while I love the ease of DSM I think it's time I look at Asustor. Synology removing USB support from DSM to hinder you from 2.5 GbE, the absurd cost of expansion bays and their newer line up still featuring 1 GbE Ethnet takes the biscuit. Time I upgraded to a competitor next and while I'm at it I think I'll try and get my company to switch too as I've heard their Enterprise stuff is also not that competitive anymore.

You are honest 😂

hi, 7.2 is out. have you tested if other than synology's own nvme's are now supported for storage pool creation?

Is there a change so far on this issue accepting only Synology‘s own NVMe‘s? Can I now use ones I already have to install the OS on it?

I have the same problem with my Synology NAS. On the other hand, good experience with Synology durability.

idk why i died of laughter when it kept coming back out!

just for understanding you wanted to use ram as storage?

It's all about money. Everyone is using the split system to make more money at the end.

Maybe my question is not correct: can i setup Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM) to ds923+ ssd m.2? I mean like in standart pc we have fast system drive with operating system (in this case i think it is m.2 ssd) and we have slow HDD for multimedia and other data.

Thank you for the video. I am an old school tech. I have been working with RAID for over 20 years. I tend to shy away from NAS units for the home because of how big a pain they were in the field (once they are set up they are not bad) I prefer a DAS as they are far faster than a NAS. But I have to ask.... why would anyone put an NVMe drive in a NAS? NVMe is super super fast and seems to be a total waste even on a 10Gb network Even SSDD would seem to be a waste as well. Anyway good video! Cheers

Lol , great start

My NAS is an old Fujitsu computer with Windows Pro on it. With an used Mellanox Connectx-3 for 10 Gbit. 180 bucks and you are good to go. Well ...

Have you heared back from Synology on your email? Very informative video, thank you.

This is one of the first NAS they made with a Ryzen CPU. I wanted to know about its performance, pros/cons, yet all thats talked about is NVMe as storage pools, and that knowledge isnt even new...

Perfect video showing Synology is selling cheaply made hardware with old hardware inside, while charging a premium for their product because of DSM.

How to say this yes and no. Yes: 1. NAS is 7/24 security tools, which is if something failure or some uncompability or something else happens because WD drive synology try protecting their good name barnd. 2. If something goes wrong, all you can do just call one synology engineer, no need to call WD engineer to secure your data and synology engineer to repair NAS No: 1. They try making dirty money by selling expensive drives

You can use 2.5" SSD in the normal drive slots, right? Then the system is also performant. I had a DS220+ with 2x 2.5" SSD (normal consumer SSD WD Blue) running until I decided on a DS1522+, which I equipped with 5 HDDs and 2x 1TB NVME SSD (WD RED NAS SSD) as cache. The performance and especially the response time are great. I had decided against the DS923+ because it only has 2 RJ45 ports. And yes, I would never buy RAM, SSD's or HDD's from Synology. The prices are completely overpriced!

Wasnt this fixed already and now it allow to use popular m.2?

Can the DS923+ address more than 12 external USB drives? My DS918+ can't do that. My data grave is slowly filling up, and I would like to add a 5Bay to my existing 10Bay enclosure, but only 12 devices are displayed :-( I also know that this is a bit unusual. But before I get the DS 923+ I would like to know this. Do you have any idea who can confirm this? Support doesn't know anything, of course. Greetings

Interesting and honest video, thanks. I was so close to getting Synology but opted for TrueNAS in the end, because it just seemed more hardware flexible. I've got a G4560 CPU on a SuperMicro board connected to my drives (30W), backblaze runs in the background. I also have an i3-9100 on another SuperMicro board (60W) that receives snapshots (replications) over a 10G link. Going a little over the top I have a re-purposed Xeon E5-1650 machine that also receives snapshots (replication) every week or so, as a third on-site backup. I believe dual or quad NVMe drive support is there, but TrueNAS Scale isn't quite up to speed (literally).

I went for the DS1522+ which, after installing DSM 7.2 can also accept SSD for storage. But the same as your problem. However I do not use the SSD slots just jet. Completely offtopic for a moment. An British friend of mine said he could not hear a difference between Danish (like you) people speaking English and Dutch (like me). And hearing you speak, I cannot too. I first thought you where Dutch, so I looked it up in your profile. But that is a offtopci (for me) fun fact.

that is a disappointment that you can't use your own NVMe drives. I wouldn't buy the 923+ until I know they've fixed the software to allow that. I was originally thinking of putting 2x 2TB or 4TB NVMe drives and setup a faster storage pool and then use the regular drives for larger data sets and archiving. I'd definitely like to see a Synology migration video. I currently have a DS 214+ and was wondering what the migration would entail if I went to a newer unit and if its even worth attempting or should I just migrate shares over to the new NAS manually and then decom the old DS 214+ when I'm done.

What a darn shame, I was really hyped when out of a whim I decided to check their newest products and finally saw M.2 support. I'm very happy with my 6 year old DiskStation but having HDD's only shows its age when files get bigger over time, I specially notice it since I use my NAS as a working directory for my dev work, so I compile directly into it, pretty slow, I could do it local and have it sync instead, but rather want a plug & play environment since I'm the only user anyways with multiple clients. The fact that they use a first generation embedded ryzen processor also had me raise eyebrows, since it does not have an igpu, which results in worse performance for video playback over the network (PLEX), that tiny thing is going to get mutilated as it tries to serve those video sources while also doing whatever other tasks like running a VM. It is possible now to use M.2 drives as storage pool, at least their product sheet says so, you can't however use off brand ones like it is the case with HDD's and SSD's, 1GbE is horrible for such an expensive product as well, new one at that, forcing us to buy their 10GbE Network Upgrade Module. Honestly doesn't feel like an upgrade at all if I were to buy this, good thing I found your video, after seeing the spec sheet I was at first excited but then very skeptical after I saw how much was missing there to be considered a "premium product", was pretty upset when searching RU-vid for DS923+ all I saw were Soyfaced positive clickbait reviews with barely any criticism, yours on the other hand put the finger right where it stung for whoever wouldn't want this.

I'd have thought you'd hv read the instruction before buying it..... The SSD is for cache only.

The Reason synology NVME Drive are only supported for storage pools is because of the Type of NAND Flash used and full compatibility for longer life span and less people complaining about Dead SSD Drive as a safe guard the have to be enterprise grade that's why

I like the DSM system but because of the proprietary hardware move my next system will be something else. No need to pay double to get a sticker put on someone else's drives and a software unlock.

Hmm, I have one question for you, my disappointed friend, why you need the SSD volume to create? The maximum speed from built in network is 1Gb per second - with expanded connector 10 Gb per second. The SATA read has 6Gb per second max and with RAID about 4Gb per second. Based on this if you have no expansion network card you don't need any SSD cache or SSD volume as you have a bottle neck of network card. In case you have found required expansion for 10Gb per second and put it, and you have some clients with 10Gb per second network card, transfer speed up could be done using SSD cache as the network has condition to start from lower speed based on data package size used and will do speed up during first several seconds - up to 60s. Till this time by sequential reading the SATA will fill SSD read cache and you will speed up your connection also with 10Gb slot. Summarizing this you are disappointed only because you don't know your requirements, don't read basic Syno's information and have some fiction about good SSD volume :)

I think any company which takes out newer models every 3 years doesn’t really make a solid lasting product.

This is why proper research should be conducted before purchasing a product. Especially for products that house data. I don't like the idea of using a product that isn't supported for important data. The idea of using a workaround, or bypassing a warning is not something I'd ever consider. It is a machine. It is going to have problems at so one point. I'm not going to increase the chances. I have no problem with what Synology has done. In fact they have recently released a value line of their HDDs that are supposed to be on par with red plus/iron wolf pro drives vs their enterprise line that is more business oriented. It's possible they will release budget minded M.2 drives as well. My secondary NAS needs to be replaced, and I'm looking at the DS923+ with their Synology plus series HDDs and M.2. It's the right choice for small business use, or serious home office use. I'd love to get a DS1823XS+ with Synology enterprise drives, but that's overkill and over priced for my use case. If you really want/need the functionality, pay the price to do it right. However, you shouldn't complain that they've made a decision to create an ecosystem that provides better reliability and integrity. Your demo of the faulty drive bay proves the point. Even vendor purpose built parts are not perfect. Why slap a 3rd party part in there and expect it to never be an issue? Don't get me wrong, I did that with my PS5. Had a spare M.2 that was not on the approved list. I'm using it with no issues, but it's just a gaming system. My data there isn't critical. It can be gone tomorrow, and I won't consider it a major loss. The data on my NAS is a different story. That data lives on more than one NAS in more than one location. That data matters, a lot. I'm going to follow the best practices in ensuring it is secure, intact, and available.

What if you lock it with the key?

I used to own a qnap ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x3KPuzYC-7E.html but it crashed along with a drive and I was refused access and I guess OS is installed on the storage drives itself. Why not use whatever drives you want in a pc cabinet witrh truenas?

you can whitelist those drives yourself...it's a hack but it works

Shame that Synology has essentially dumped prosumer/smb. 1gbe from 1999,usb gen 1 from 2018, forcing you to purchase their stuff, and removing usb options are just a few items that cause pause. You can saturate 1gbe with one drive, like many have said here the competition is going to make pickup customers, don't think they care really. They are making a total fortune with this stuff. The 923- requires you dump another 150 dollars just to get decent nic speed, if you want to pool you have to buy their stuff, enough is enough already! I went with a 453E recently using Q-Tier and 2 nvme drives and I could be happier, upgraded the network to all 2.5 gbe for just a few hundred in switches and nics and noticed a nice difference, all the drives are WD, backing up to the front usb is Gen 2 so it is extremely fast, and qts has tons of options especially if you add qnap club.

Asustor FTW...! :)

👍

I've had a DS916+ for a while in home use. Very useful indeed! However, I can't understand having a close hardware approach. Looks like they wanna look like Apple. When your compatability list only supports synology products that are source from other vendors and then relabeled Synology. The mark up greed sets in. Too greedy for me, next NAS is not Synology.

Sir, is QNAP better?

Having to pay extra for a 10Gb card it's no cool. To me, synology just wants to get more money out of the customer pockets by any means necessary.

Hi, any reply from synology yet ?

The 2 synology's that I have will be replacement by some other brand because of this nonsense when the time comes. Poor specs and proprietary hardware will cost them a lot of customers.

Make your own cloud then. Of course Synology wants to get more from users. Aiyoooo.

I swear migrating the NAS is extremely simple. Just stick the old drives into the new NAS and it'll read them.

Just toss it and build your own rig running something e.g. Unraid, much more flexibility and quality is whatever you buy.

Are you Dutch?

They kinda like Apple move.

Looks like I can sleep better with my DS920+

Fuck and I just bought the 923+ ， what should I do!?

I mean it really just sounds like you didn’t do your research.

Get an asustor flashtor. Period.

if that were me i'd have sent the synology back, fk em. who are synology to tell you what drives you can use.

Very lame review and opinion TBH

Thx some comments here already saved me from buying Synology outright...