Synology diskstation ds223 review (vs. ds224+): an entry-level nas server that means business

Performance

• Single Gigabit LAN
• 1GB of memory
• SSD use

The bottleneck of this system is the 1GbE LAN port, and Synology does not offer any way around these bandwidth limits, capping the maximum file transfer speeds to around 115MB/s. Multiple simultaneous users will end up with a portion of that speed, and the more users, the less each one gets.

Being the first tier of 2-bay NAS for Synology, those limitations come with this price point.

The DS223j diverges from previous 2-bay models because the four-core SoC and 1GB of RAM combination make for a more resilient system where a single rogue task can’t knee-cap the NAS to the point where it becomes unusable.

Where using tools like Plex or Video Station previously restricted what the other applications could be run alongside, on this machine, it’s possible to have more than one application installed and keep things moving smoothly.

There are limits to what the RAM can achieve, but these issues are often tied to multiple apps trying to use the drive resources concurrently and thrashing the SATA drives. This problem can be negated somewhat by using SATA SSDs, even if Synology disapproves. The ideal solution would have been to have one large hard drive and a single SATA SSD for caching, but Synology doesn’t offer that option on DSM 7.2 in this NAS.

That would have accelerated indexing or post-upload processing tasks on this NAS, but that probably made the DS223j more useful than Synology wanted.

Whatever storage used in this NAS won’t massively impact the file serving performance (unless the drive has an error), but faster drives and SSDs could have a much more significant impact on data processing that happens on the NAS directly to the file system.

Overall, the performance of the DS223j is excellent and substantially better than the DS220j or DS218j that came before it.

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Software

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The setup of this NAS is like any other Synology platform I have tested. We point our browser to find.synology.com, and there is no need for any additional software.

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Once setup is complete, we land on the dashboard, with system info displayed to the right in a widget and desktop icons to navigate the interface.

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The package center is not quite as big for ARM-powered devices, but Synology does offer most of its in-house applications for the DS223j.

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The control panel gives us options for creating users and groups, managing shared folders, and configuring network settings, including services and application privileges.

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File Station allows you to manage files and folders within the NAS interface.

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The Storage Manager allows you to configure any installed hard drives with RAID. Arrays supporting include RAID 0, 1 along with SHR and JBOD.

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To configure any iSCSI services, you must head over to the SAN manager, which Synology has included.

Design & Construct

• No new styling
• No drive trays
• Disassembly required

It wasn’t an enormous shock, however the DS223j presents no new styling and seems similar to the DS220j, with the plain exception of a tiny printed brand on the entrance.

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In my TerraMaster F2-212 evaluate, I solely took that machine aside out of curiosity as a result of it has drive trays. However the Synology DS223j should be disassembled to suit any drives because it comes with no drive trays or bay accessibility from the skin. Inside is a straightforward steel body that you may mount two 3.5-inch SATA drives, and Synology doesn’t present a way to make use of 2.5-inch drives with out a further accent that isn’t included.

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As most homeowners gained’t be altering drives frequently, this train isn’t an enormous annoyance. What’s much less acceptable is that these wanting to make use of 2.5in drives do face an additional outlay for the official Synology 2.5in Disk Holder Kind C, whereas most different 2-bay NAS can take each kind components inherently. Aside from mounting drives, there is no such thing as a different objective for going inside. As a result of the RAM on this machine is soldered to the mainboard, there are not any SODIMM growth choices or different inner upgrades.

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What’s essential to understand is that Synology doesn’t need the DS223j to change into an affordable possibility for small enterprise customers to keep away from spending on greater specification NAS, so it will probably’t supply something too helpful. However, as this evaluate discusses later, it could have been pressured to offer the DS223j extra potential than in all probability supposed.

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Design & Build

• No new styling
• No drive trays
• Disassembly required

It wasn’t a huge surprise, but the DS223j offers no new styling and appears identical to the DS220j, with the obvious exception of a tiny printed logo on the front.

In my TerraMaster F2-212 review, I only took that machine apart out of curiosity because it has drive trays. But the Synology DS223j must be disassembled to fit any drives as it comes with no drive trays or bay accessibility from the outside. Inside is a simple metal frame that you can mount two 3.5-inch SATA drives, and Synology doesn’t provide a means to use 2.5-inch drives without an additional accessory that isn’t included.

As most owners won’t be changing drives regularly, this exercise isn’t a huge annoyance. What is less acceptable is that those wanting to use 2.5in drives do face an extra outlay for the official Synology 2.5in Disk Holder Type C, whereas most other 2-bay NAS can take both form factors inherently. Other than mounting drives, there is no other purpose for going inside. Because the RAM in this machine is soldered to the mainboard, there are no SODIMM expansion options or other internal upgrades.

What’s important to realise is that Synology doesn’t want the DS223j to become an inexpensive option for small business users to avoid spending on higher specification NAS, so it can’t offer anything too useful. But, as this review discusses later, it may have been forced to give the DS223j more potential than probably intended.

How much storage disk do I need for my data?

For home usage

Storage is one of the most critical factors in choosing a NAS. The capacity you need will largely depend on the files you plan to store. If you have a lot of high-resolution video or audio files, you’ll need more storage than someone who just wants to keep photos and documents.

I recommend a Synology with at least 4TB storage. If you intend to store video files for streaming to home devices, go for 8TB at least. It will be more expensive but in the long run worth the extra cost.

For small business needs

Small businesses typically need more storage space than home users. For a small business, you will likely need at least a Synology NAS with a capacity of 8 TB. It will give you enough space to store files, backups, and applications. If the Synology should serve as a backup device to your existing file server, keep in mind to have restore points for several days. A NAS backup repository should have 3-4 times more space than the repository of your live data.

If you need more storage later, adding a Synology drive enclosure provides an easy way to upgrade storage. You connect the drive enclosure with the eSATA port to the Synology. In most cases, you don’t need a drive enclosure; you better buy the Synology NAS with enough drive bays. An expansion is more for offsite backups, serving as redundant backups in an off-site location.

Drive enclosure DX517

Do I want to use Btrfs or EXT4 for the file system?

Another critical decision when choosing a Synology NAS is which file system to use. The two most popular options are Btrfs and EXT4.

EXT4 is the most widely used file system compatible with all Synology NAS models. It offers good performance and data protection but doesn’t have some of the advanced features of Btrfs.

Btrfs is a newer file system that offers many benefits over EXT4,

Why do I recommend BTRFS over EXT4?

In the first place, Btrfs is a self-healing file system. Data can slowly corrupt over time, and you may not even realize it until it’s too late. The silent data corruption can be resolved by scheduling data scrubs and implementing RAID. In addition to being highly beneficial to all data, it is beneficial for those wishing to store media files on their NAS.

Btrfs provides the ability to schedule and take snapshots, which protect data by preserving your information at a particular time. These copies enable you to retrieve your data if it becomes damaged or lost and restore files from varied versions of your stored data as needed, with options for retention.

Snapshot is a benefit for business usage, not recommended for home use. It requires additional space.

The third benefit of BTRFS is to assign a quota to file shares. With quota, you can manage the storage usage of your NAS. It is actually great for home needs. For example, if you use the Synology NAS for MAC Time machine backups, without quota time machine will eat up all space on the NAS, which you certainly don’t want.

Make sure the Synology NAS supports BTRFS!

Lack of the Popular, Modern AAA Features on the DS223j

Although a large percentage of Synology DSM features and services are possible on the Synology DS223J, it has to be said that not all of the most popular Synology services are possible on the DS223J and a number of their big AAA class applications are completely missing from this device. Now, this is understandable given the more modest hardware specifications of the Synology DS223j and some things simply will not run on a Realtek ARM-based NAS with just one gigabyte of memory, but there will be some users who are choosing a Synology NAS because of the great things they’ve heard about what the software can do and then find out that this affordable system can’t actually do some of them. Features such as Synology Active Backup, a fantastic multi-site and multi-tiered single portal backup tool that a lot of business users consider worth the price of admission to many Synology NAS systems.

Likewise, applications such as Synology Virtual Machine Manager, which allows you to deploy VMs, are not possible on this system and although this is quite an ambitious service, it’s simply not possible on this hardware spec. Finally, there are popular third-party services such as Plex Media Server, which are not possible natively on this system on the day of launch and even if they are, they’re not going to be able to convert 4K media as needed. Finally, you have some of the more exciting innovations in DSM 7.2 that have been boasted about that are just not available here due to hardware constraints, such as immutable backups via Write Once Read Many support and Synology’s recent edition of encrypted volumes. Neither of these great add-ons to DSM 7.2 are possible on the DS223J.

Which data storage space should I use? RAID 0, RAID 1 or RAID 5?

Synology has a wide range of NAS servers available on the market. But with so many options, deciding which is best for your specific needs can be tough. This guide will help you understand the different types of Synology NAS servers and decide wisely for your business. RAID 0, 1 or 5?

When it comes to small businesses, there are three main types of storage arrays: RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, so it’s essential to understand the difference before deciding.

RAID 0 (two hard drives) is the most basic array type and offers no redundancy. It means that if one of the drives in the array fails, all of the data on the other drives will be lost as well. However, RAID 0 offers the best performance and is the most cost-effective option for small businesses that don’t need redundancy.

RAID 1 (two hard drives) is more expensive but offers complete data redundancy. It means that if one drive fails, the data on the other drive will still be intact. RAID 1 is a good choice for small businesses that need to protect their data but don’t require the highest performance.

RAID 5 (three or more hard drives) is the most expensive option but offers the best performance and data protection. This type of array uses a technique called “striping” to spread the data across all of the drives in the array. It means that if one drive fails, the data can still be accessed from the other drives. RAID 5 is a good choice for small businesses that need the highest performance and data protection.

I recommend RAID1 for home use and RAID5 for business purposes. RAID5 requires at least a 4-bay Synology NAS.

The DS223j 1GB Memory Cannot Be Expanded

As good as it is that the Synology DS223J arrives with twice the memory of its predecessor, the DS220J, it is still going to be something of a disappointment to hear that you cannot upgrade this memory beyond one gigabyte later on. A lot of Synology NAS systems that arrive with Intel or AMD processors allow you to add further memory to the system later on and improve its performance in handling multiple tasks. However, the ARM-based processor in the DS223J is designed to be as efficient as possible, and one of the ways to improve memory efficiency is by directly soldering the memory to the PCB motherboard of the NAS. Consequently, you are not able to upgrade the memory and the minute you start to grow the number of simultaneous operations and user activities, that one gigabyte of memory is going to feel particularly limiting.

Price & Availability

That’s $20/£20 more than the similarly specified TerraMaster F2-212, a NAS that has both proper drive trays and can upgrade its networking to 2.5GbE speeds. But to balance things somewhat, the DS223j does have better USB ports and a superior operating system with DSM.

The asking price is also $10/£10 more than the Asustor AS1102T 2 Bay Drivestor 2 Desktop NAS, a machine that comes with 2.5GbE as standard but uses the same RTD1296 Quad-Core 1.4GHz SoC that was in the DS220j.

Whatever you choose, you need to budget for drives since all these prices are for a NAS without them. Suppose you don’t need all the flexibility provided by the Synology app selection and are primarily interested in file serving. In that case, the same outlay gets you a WD My Cloud Home with 4TB of space pre-installed and 8TB for another $100/£100 more. The price of the DS223j is the same as the DS220j, which was launched in early 2020, and with inflation factored in, this is a much better deal.

This NAS makes perfect sense for those invested in Synology technology and, like that company, ignoring the attractions of a 2.5GbE LAN, the DS223j makes perfect sense. Conversely, this might not be the best choice if you want to upgrade the network for greater performance.

Check our chart of the best NAS drives for more alternatives.

What is the best Synology NAS for me?

With good reason, Synology is a well-known and respected name in the NAS market. They offer a wide range of models, all with user-friendly software interfaces. Their reliable products provide good performance. Synology should be your first choice if you’re looking for a quality NAS server.

Before you go …

Having explored the various Synology NAS options, you might be curious about the best hard drives to complement your chosen NAS system. I recommend checking out my article on “Best Hard Drives for a NAS”, discussing the ideal hard drives for different NAS setups. This guide will help you select the most reliable and efficient hard drives, ensuring that your NAS operates at its best. It’s an essential read for anyone looking to optimize their data storage solutions.

Which Synology NAS Diskstation models support SSD cache and memory for better performance?

Most Synology NAS models offer support for SSD cache, which can be established by adding either M.2 SSD or 2.5-inch drives. For reading and writing caching, you should install two drives.

The plus + models of the Diskstation support SSD caching. I recommend SSD cache with the M.2 interface. Such an interface is available even for two-bay NAS, which is a great way to speed up caching. It is an adapter card and purchased separately.

Synology M.2 2280 NVMe SSD SNV3410 400GB (SNV3410-400G)

Boost the I/O performance of your Synology NAS – Up to 70,000 4K random write IOPS; Endurance – Designed to handle tough caching workloads in a 24/7 multi-user environment

Synology M.2 Adapter Card (M2D18)

Elevate your storage performance to the next level; Two SSDs must be both NVMe or SATA at the same time

Synology M.2 2280 NVMe SSD SNV3410 800GB

Up to 400,000/70,000 sustained 4K random read/write IOPS for demanding I/O; Suitable for intensive caching workloads at up to 1,022 TBW

16GB DDR4-2666 PC4-21300 ECC SODIMM Compatible with Synology D4ECSO-2666-16G Memory Upgrade Module by NEMIX RAM

Synology SODIMM ECC RAM DDR4-2666 16GB (D4ECSO-2666-16G)

Synology RAM DDR4-2666 ECC SO-DIMM 16GB

Synology RAM DDR4 ECC SO-DIMM 8GB (D4ES01-8G)

DDR4 ECC Unbuffered SODIMM; System ram type: ddr4_sdram; Memory storage capacity: 8.0

Synology SODIMM ECC RAM DDR4 4GB (D4ES01-4G)

synology ram ddr4 ecc so-dimm 4gb (d4es01-4g); System ram type: ddr4_sdram; item package weight: 0.08 pounds

Какие диски использовать

Производители хранилищ без дисков рекомендуют устанавливать определённые модели или семейства, которые тестировали на совместимость. Иногда это модели их собственного производства, иногда нет. Посмотрите на эти списки совместимости перед покупкой хранилища. Если у вас уже есть жёсткие диски, желательно проверить совместимость с хранилищем.

Некоторые диски от HGST, Seagate, Toshiba, WD помечаются как специально созданные для использования в сетевом хранилище. Обычно их проверяют на круглосуточную работу 365 дней в году, тогда как потребительские жёсткие диски в персональных компьютерах не работают в таком жёстком режиме.

Если вы хотите купить диски Seagate, для хранилищ предназначаются серии IronWolf и IronWolf Pro. Первые нужны для домашних хранилищ и объём у них от 1 Тб до 14 Тб. Диски серии Pro предназначается для предприятий и коммерческих организаций. Есть серия HGST Deskstar NAS и Toshiba N. Western Digital выпускает линейку Red объёмом от 1 Тб до 10 Тб и Red Pro для предприятий.

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My recommendation

I recommend a two-bay Synology Diskstation Plus Series for home usage, and for small-business two- or four-bay, if you have the budget, go for a Four-Bay NAS.

Support My Work with Your Purchase

If you’re considering buying a Synology NAS, I’d be grateful if you could use my affiliate link. This won’t add any extra cost to you but will immensely help me. Each purchase through this link contributes to maintaining this website and enables me to keep bringing you more insightful articles and guides. Plus, it’s a great way to show support without additional expense. Thank you in advance for your support – it truly makes a difference!

Design & Build

• No new styling
• No drive trays
• Disassembly required

As most house owners gained’t be altering drives usually, this train isn’t an enormous annoyance. What is much less acceptable is that these wanting to make use of 2.5in drives do face an additional outlay for the official Synology 2.5in Disk Holder Type C, whereas most different 2-bay NAS can take each kind components inherently. Other than mounting drives, there isn’t any different objective for going inside. Because the RAM on this machine is soldered to the mainboard, there are not any SODIMM growth choices or different inside upgrades.

What’s necessary to grasp is that Synology doesn’t need the DS223j to develop into an affordable choice for small enterprise customers to keep away from spending on increased specification NAS, so it could’t provide something too helpful. But, as this overview discusses later, it could have been pressured to offer the DS223j extra potential than most likely supposed.

Should you buy the Synology DiskStation DS223j?

For those already using Synology NAS, the DS223j is a perfect small addition that gets the user onboard with DSM 7.2 and many of the OS’s excellent features.

However, its choice might be more problematic for users who want a NAS to dump large video files and have computers that support 2.5GbE or better network protocols. For those needs, Asustor and TerraMaster have similarly priced machines that can more than double the speed of a file transfer, and most of them also support SSDs for both storage and cache.

As a reviewer of NAS boxes, I hope this is the last 2-bay NAS from Synology that arrives with a 1GbE LAN port and no means to upgrade it. But given the stubbornness exhibited on this point so far, I wouldn’t take any bets on that.

Despite that omission and the extra expenditure needed to use 2.5in drives, the DS223j has everything else that a home or small business user might want from a NAS, and this specification makes for a significantly better user experience running multiple apps.

Price & Availability

The official price of the DS223j is just $189.99 in the USA and £189.99 in the UK, making it better value in America than in Europe. However, it can be found for less on Amazon in the UK, making for a closer parity in price.

That’s $20/£20 more than the similarly specified TerraMaster F2-212, a NAS that has both proper drive trays and can upgrade its networking to 2.5GbE speeds. But to balance things somewhat, the DS223j does have better USB ports and a superior operating system with DSM.

The asking price is also $10/£10 more than the Asustor AS1102T 2 Bay Drivestor 2 Desktop NAS, a machine that comes with 2.5GbE as standard but uses the same RTD1296 Quad-Core 1.4GHz SoC that was in the DS220j.

This NAS makes perfect sense for those invested in Synology technology and, like that company, ignoring the attractions of a 2.5GbE LAN, the DS223j makes perfect sense. Conversely, this might not be the best choice if you want to upgrade the network for greater performance.

Specs

• CPU: Realtek 1619B
• GPU: ARM Mali-G51 MP3
• RAM: 1GB DDR4 (not upgradable)
• Drive Bays: 2x 3.5/2.5 SATA
• M.2 Drive Slots: N/A
• Maximum Drives with Expansion: 2
• USB: 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1
• Video Outputs: N/A
• Raid Types: Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR), Basic.RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD
• Weight: 0.88 Kg
• Dimensions: 165 x 100 x 225.5 mm
• Networking: 1x 1GbE Ethernet (100/1000)
• OS: DSM 7.2
• Internal File Systems: Btrfs, ext4
• External File Systems: Btrfs, ext4, ext3, FAT32, NTFS, HFS+, exFAT
• OS Languages: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese Brazil, Portuguese European, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Thai

Дизайн и материал

Дизайн Synology DiskStation DS223j выполнен в том же стиле, что и DS220j и другие доступные фирменные корпуса. Вместо полностью черного металлического и пластикового корпуса DS223j отличается простотой (и дешевизной) благодаря полностью пластиковому белому корпусу. Съемных лотков для дисков нет, поскольку все операции выполняются путем открытия NAS. Synology даже не фиксирует две части корпуса вместе во время транспортировки, поэтому его легче снять и установить некоторые диски.

Кстати, для установки накопителей потребуется отвертка, так как на один 3,5-дюймовый диск потребуется четыре винта. Однако они поставляются в комплекте с DS223j. Просто совместите диск с салазками и портами SATA и медленно вдвиньте его назад, пока он не зафиксируется в порте SATA. Затем закрутите четыре винта и сделайте то же самое для второго диска, если он установлен. Затем вы снова прикрепите внешний корпус к основной раме и закрепите его с помощью двух прилагаемых винтов.

На передней панели находится пара светодиодов состояния и одна кнопка питания. На боковых сторонах нанесен логотип Synology, который одновременно служит вентиляцией для одного 92-мм вентилятора на задней панели корпуса. На задней панели DS223j расположен один разъем 1GbE RJ45, вход постоянного тока от внешнего источника питания и два порта USB-A. Внутри Synology DiskStation DS223j находится процессор Realtek RTD1619B, который имеет четыре физических ядра и может работать на частоте до 1,7 ГГц. К этому добавляется 1 ГБ оперативной памяти DDR4, чего более чем достаточно для работы DSM.