Synology DS224+ vs DS423+ NAS Comparison - 2-Bay vs 4-Bay

[@Pabula]

I really hope Synology considers releasing 2024/25 versions with Intel N100 / N200 / N305, such a nice CPUs with integrated GPUs, ideal CPUs for this NAS.

[@DavidM2002]

When I was considering my first NAS, I struggled with the 2 bay VS 4 bay decision. In the end, the additional cost of the 4 bay was easily overcome because it just wasn't that much. It was the best decision by far. Notwithstanding the extra storage capacity that it opened up, but the flexibility in expanding was huge. The cost / benefit is well in favour of the 4 bay. Don't let short term cost over ride the long term benefits.

[@harrycee656]

Great video. I decided on the DS224+. I rather spend the 150 on two used 12TB Ultrastar DC drives from a data center that have only been used for 4-5 years. I replaced a DS214se. Drive size and redundancy was not the issue. HW speed was over the last 5 years. Since it took 10 years for me to upgrade, odds are good that in 5-10 years, I can get better value with a NAS upgrade than continuing to scale the existing system. Additionally, every NAS have an EOL also. So the benefits of getting a new unit and upgrade is something to consider.

[@Hjulben1]

Awesome. Just the video I needed. I will go with the 423+ and start my own media libary

[@yitspaerl7255]

Excellent review and advice! I own a DS1520+, DS220+ and a DS118. Synology is very clever in scaling options and price. It is exactly how you said: The DS224+ is excellent when you have no plans to expand your business/storage. Another application is to use it as a backup device instead of the earlier purchased DS118. Just because of the supported backup software. The DS 423+ is very interestingly priced compared to my DS1520+. But again the price difference has a reason.

[@vidx9]

It's really hard to choose with the dated J4125

[@glennn.3464]

I just think that since even the 4 bay is behind the curve hardware-wise, if you decide to add more drives in a year or so, you’ll likely want to upgrade to a more capable NAS with faster ethernet ports (or at least the ability to add them), updated CPU with better integrated GPU, more memory capacity, etc. So I’m not sure everyone would want to put out the extra money on the 423+ only to eventually change to a better model. I think I’d go with the 2 bay and use the savings later when upgrading to a more capable 4 bay if and when I want to add more drives. That might be a better choice for some thinking ahead.

[@jakebr-y1b]

I ended up going with an external enclosure connected to a cheap micro server instead, worked out cheaper with better specs

[@kilbeam99]

This were my thoughts too. I was really stuck between the DS224+ and DS424+, but then I noticed they had the exact same CPU. If only the 434+ had a better CPU, I would have gone with that one for sure. I have the 224+ fully set up now and I am very happy with it. If and when I have to upgrade to a NAS with more bays in a couple years, I will get one with a (much) stronger CPU and (integrated) GPU

[@gmurtaza]

@@jakebr-y1b care to share what model you went for? kinda struggling with options here

[@jakebr-y1b]

@@gmurtaza Sure, I found a dell optiplex 7040m on ebay for $80ish and a yottamaster 5 bay hdd for I think around $150. Served me just fine for around 9 months running open media vault before I re-purposed it for another project.

[@Format090]

I cannot think of any home use case where we would need nvme caching. Its just some photo storage and a streaming server. We dont game on it. 2 bay seens enough with large ebough desks, when they are full, i just buy a newer more powerful model with larger desks and keep the old one running. 150 is almost half the price.

[@ChUcK2001]

Was struggling between the 2, but just for photos backup, I went up getting the DS224+. In Canada, The 22+ is about 430CAD and the 423+ is 720CAD so about 300 bucks more...no sense for my use. I'll end up putting SATA SSD 4TB instead of HDD later so I don't care about NVME cache or pools for the next 10 years. Next update will probably be RAID 1 NVME in 8-10 years.

[@macattack1481]

Here in Canada the DS224+ is $440 and the DS423+ is $730. The DS923+ is $900, the DS1522+ is $1000, the DS1621 +is $1270, the DS1821+ is $1400.

[@number6990]

If I started with a DS224+ with 2 4TB drives today configured for SHR, and then wanted to upgrade to say 2 8TB drives later, is it as easy as swapping out one 4TB drive, letting it rebuild, then swapping out the other 4TB drive?

[@TheJLMDT]

DS224+ gets my money. Great deal over Black Friday weekend. If/when I need to upgrade from my 4TB drives (unlikely for the next 5 years), I'll give the unit to a family member in Raid 0 with a hyper backup to my new unit.

[@EngineeringDisaster]

How much was it over black Friday? What’s best price I should be looking for?

[@TheJLMDT]

@@EngineeringDisaster DS224+ was $250

[@EuroPC4711]

In my opinion there are only two reasons why to go for two bay: 1. you’re very new and have no idea what a NAS can do for you or 2) you just have enough space for a multi bay NAS. By now I’d start with 4 bays if I must, but I like my 1621+.

[@terryforsythe8083]

I have a different opinion. Although businesses and some prosumers may need a 4 bay NAS, for most consumers it is overkill unless they are storing a lot of movies. Also, in my opinion, a 4 bay NAS is bulky. I have a DS718+ 2 bay in RAID 1, and before that I had a DS211j 2 bay in RAID 1. I have never even come close to running out of storage space. In fact, on my DS211j I had 2TB HDDs. When I upgraded to the DS718+ I switched to 1TB SSDs because I had so much unused storage space on my DS211j and, at that time, 2TB SSDs were a little expensive, which no longer is the case. Stored on my DS718+ I have all of our family's documents and pictures from over the last 20 years, my entire CD collection (over 200) and some videos. Also, I have it hosting Docker with a Logitech Media Server container. Still, I currently have 572GB available on my NAS, which means I am not even using half of my 1 TB of storage space. If I ever do run out of space, I can upgrade to 2 TB SSDs. By that time those SSDs will be dirt cheap.

[@EuroPC4711]

@@terryforsythe8083 I use a 2 bay NAS too, a 220+ as backup device at a place, where bigger NAS are just too bulky. But I like the use of raid5. But yes, maybe I am a bit a prosumer ;)

[@christerwiberg1]

Just a curious question, I have a DS918, think about 4 years old, with 2x8 TB disks (WD Red), working well, but to the question. To upgrade to more storage, should I change the drives or the complete DS as well, need to upgrade in a year or so, then it’s 5 years. Or does it make more sense to change everything? Maybe having the current as a backup server and maybe get rid of the Amazon glacier backup (although really cheap as a safety measure). What do you think?

[@chrishalle1982]

So i should rather buy a 723+? Because it costs almost the same as the 423+ but i have the possibility to add 5 extra drives later on?

[@rumperdumper]

The expansion units are VERY expensive for what you get. The DX517 that you would use for that expansion costs $470 USD. It does nothing other than add 5 extra drives to the same NAS. The DS723+ retails for $450 USD, so that’s $920 for seven bays. This isn’t getting into a slightly increased risk of failure. Meanwhile, the DS423+ retails for $500 USD and comes with 4 bays plus everything else needed to be a standalone NAS. There are also larger NAS options for more bays if you need them, and those come with more powerful hardware.

[@bernard41235]

Can u make a video DS224+ vs DS723+ ?

[@danilorodriguez4665]

I'm going through the same decision between 2 or 4 bay NAS, but at the same price level DS224+ or DS423 deciding if more features and power are more important than 2 more bays.

[@RAG0407]

I had a 4 bay but it was limited to 2 gb. I am looking to upgrade my synology nas to get at least 4 gb ram for object recognition.

[@AB-wf8ek]

I wish people would spend more time talking about hard drive speed in context of the network. I'm using my ISP's modem/router, which only has 1Gbit ports. My understanding is transfer speeds convert to 125MBytes/s. A 7200rpm SATA HDD hits between 80-120MBytes/s. I can't imagine you'll get that much extra performance with NVME cache drives with the network bottleneck. In my case, I'm assuming SSDs would not improve performance that much.

[@AB-wf8ek]

Also, the current price difference between the 224+ & 423+ is $300 in the US. When you take that into account with the extra drives you will inevitably want to add in order to take advantage of it, the total additional cost can easily hit +$500. Saying there's only a £150 difference between the 2 is not the whole story.

[@ellorek]

that Costa cup!

[@chocosmith2243]

my 5 year old home qnap just died, i haven't looked at NAS since i purchased that. digging into NAS systems today and honestly so disappointed. QNAP security nightmare, synology hardware that's like wtf, and truenas a complex path that is typical for this market. in 5 years, almost nothing has changed

[@terryforsythe8083]

SATA drives are bulky and slow by modern standards. I would rather see a small NAS in a 4"x4" form factor (NUC size) and NVME m.2 storage slots exclusively, completely doing away with SATA drives. Two NVME SSDs in RAID 1 would be more than adequate for most consumers considering how much storage is available on modern m.2 SSDs and how inexpensive they have become. For example, Amazon currently has the Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB for $75.99, and the SAMSUNG 980 PRO 2TB for $119. Moreover, there are m.2 drives available up to 10TB. For prosumers they could offer a model with four m.2 slots. Alternatively, one could use a NUC with TrueNAS if they are not dead set on using Synology DSM.

[@Nebthtet]

In my country it's a 200$ difference :( 224+ is $350 and is 723+ is $545 so 55% more. That is enough for an 8TB drive and 16GB RAM expansion stick

[@azwb]

As a newbie, i think that im going to give true nas a go. I can pick my own hardware and get a better product. I would like to get a synology because of their software but seems like they have a history of not listening to their customers and have created a deep animosity with former users.

[@v1d9uy]

exactly i really dont want to deal with truenas setup but i just cant bring myself to buy these with garbage hardware because good software..

[@benyoung8756]

Why do Synology insist on using an old Intel CPU for this years model when competitors are releasing models with the latest Intel? It doesn’t seem to make sense?

[@tadpolegaming4510]

These models are old lol

[@robinmoret]

Great comparison but please 🙏 find another transition music than this horrible guitar riff ! The previous one was much better

[@nascompares]

Cheers for the feedback chaps. I'm afraid this guitar riff is in one more vid this week, but after 3 people requesting a change, I'll definitely be ditching it and looking for a new one. Thanks for keeping me on the straight and narrow

[@mcury85]

No, not going to buy until they release a 2.5Gbps option.

[@azwb]

The CEO should be fired. All these future customers being turned off for starting or turning away from synology. They are not like Apple in any way. Apple would be scooping up every dollar along the way. Instead the Bill Gates of the NAS world is eating their lunch as we look for alternatives.

[@US_Joe]

👍👍👍

[@htz70]

You should proofread the KZbin subtitles, at the very start, it says “Nazis”, maybe you can edit subtitles?

[@CalBru]

Neither .... no gpu

[@FatherJoeMcCorny]

Yes neither but the older J4125 has integrated graphics and can do transcoding

[@CalBru]

@FatherJoeMcCorny Yes, I surprisingly (to me) scrambled through their products to find something with 6 bays and relatively new, to find no GPUs anywhere - later confirmed I wasn't crazy and Synology in their wisdom thought they weren't necessary? Clearly their audience isn't me.