Synology DiskStation DS223j review: New NAS, same appealing story

Price When Reviewed

$189.99

Best Prices Today: Synology DiskStation DS223j

Synology releases new NAS sometimes lately, leaving over 2.5 years from when the DS220j appeared to the brand new DS223j.

Using an similar enclosure, the brand new DS223j has all of the hallmarks of the painfully incremental nature of Synology NAS. Therefore, this design has a slightly higher CPU than the mannequin earlier than it. And, extra reminiscence however the identical 1GbE LAN port and lots of the acquainted restrictions on drive sizes and utilizing SSDs. Its skill to run the most recent 7.2 DSM working system, together with lots of the high-quality apps from the Synology steady, is barely extra engaging.

Is this sufficient to maintain prospects from getting extra concurrent options from TerraMaster, Asustor, and QNAP, or is the DS223j designed to curiosity solely these already invested within the Synology infrastructure?

Design & Build

• 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.

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

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.

Specs & Features

• Realtek 1619B SoC
• Two 3.0 USB ports
• Only Gigabit LAN
• Lacks official SSD help

The Realtek 1619B within the DS223j is an ARM-based SoC (System on a Chip), the identical one which the TerraMaster F2-212 makes use of, and it was designed particularly for TV packing containers. This is a primary however efficient quad-core chip constructed across the Cortex-A55 microarchitecture, with every core able to 1.3GHz.

On paper, the utmost reminiscence capability on that SoC is 4GB, however it is just provided with 1GB of RAM on this configuration. That stated, the DS220j solely had 512GB and a a lot much less spectacular SoC, making this the primary entry-level dual-bay NAS from Synology with this a lot RAM. While extra reminiscence is mostly a superb factor, and 1GB isn’t an enormous quantity, it is sufficient to run the most recent DSM 7.2 launch and lots of the important apps supported by that platform.

The SoC additionally gives two USB ports, and on this NAS, they’re each USB 3.2 Gen 1 specification, permitting for exterior storage to switch to and from the NAS at as much as 1,000MB/s. Or that might be potential if the inner drives or the LAN port might maintain that stage of efficiency, which typical exhausting drives can’t.

Both ports are on the rear of the NAS, and there’s no button to switch the contents from an exterior drive to the NAS.

Synology is a type of NAS makers that gives permitted drive lists for every NAS, and the DS223j isn’t any exception. Its compatibility lists embody Synology branded mechanisms as much as 12TB, the most important capability they provide, and as much as 16TB drives made by Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba.

While no 18-, 20- or 22TB are listed at the moment, it doesn’t appear unreasonable to anticipate they may or will do as soon as the compatibility lists are up to date. Officially, that limits the full capability to 32TB, assuming a configuration with no resilience or 16TB for individuals who prefer to shrug off drive failures.

Even utilized in striped efficiency mode, the throughput of two 16TB drives will solely quantity to about 340MB/s, however that’s not a problem as a result of the DS223j solely has a single gigabit Ethernet port. That’s a sensible most of round 115MB/s, lower than the efficiency of most 3.5in HDDs. Synology’s quite dogged insistence on not providing 2.5GbE is changing into more and more problematic.

Many cheaper Desktop NASs now include a 2.5GbE LAN port or the flexibility to make use of a USB adapter so as to add it, whereas Synology refuses to offer higher than 1GbE on most consumer-focused merchandise.

A associated truth is that Synology doesn’t help SSDs on this unit for storage or caching. I discovered that SATA SSDs will work on this platform as storage, even when they arrive with loads of compatibility warnings, do you have to want to make this NAS nearly silent.

But then, with solely a 1GbE LAN port, utilizing SATA SSD drives that may obtain 500MB/s, 4 instances the community velocity, might be pointless for file serving. For these jobs the place native processing is necessary, utilizing SSDs might need worth, even when they’re not permitted by Synology.

It is price noting that the TerraMaster F2-212, a competing gadget, additionally comes with a 1GbE LAN port by default, however it’s potential to purchase an official USB 3.2 Gen 1 to 2.5GbE LAN adapter for round $30. Using that gadget and with help for SSD caching, the F2-212 can ship recordsdata at twice one of the best velocity of the DS223j.

Synology has tied the DS223j down successfully to keep away from treading on the toes of its extra feature-rich NAS choices, however the card up Synology’s sleeve is DSM 7.2.

DSM 7.2 OS

• The newest OS
• Opens up new potentialities

For these unfamiliar with Synology DSM, that is simply essentially the most mature Linux-based distribution constructed explicitly for NAS. It has one of the best purposes and, up so far, has a profitable monitor file of providing safety towards malware.

In 2021, Synology launched DSM 7.0, the most recent level launch of its NAS working system, and on the identical level, condemned many older NAS designs to run DSM 6.2 without end. Its launch resulted from a three-year growth undertaking to overtake the DSM buildings and make it higher capable of exploit the ability of newer processor applied sciences that the Synology NAS product traces now use.

But one of many points that got here with DSM 7.0 was that it wanted extra reminiscence to ship its full expertise, and even when a number of the Entry-level fashions might technically run this launch, with 512GB of RAM, the collection of apps accessible to them have been curtailed from what Synology NAS with 1- or 2GB might use.

Since then, Synology has labored tirelessly to repair a number of points that DSM 7.0 arrived with and not too long ago introduced the present launch as much as 7.2. That’s the model that the DS223j can run, and mixed with the 1GB of RAM, it abruptly opens an entire new world of performance that wasn’t accessible to the DS220j or any of its prior 2-bay NAS incarnations.

There are loads of instruments that both aren’t accessible to Synology NAS with lower than 1GB of RAM or don’t run effectively that the DS223j can entry with its expanded reminiscence. One of a very powerful for builders is the Container Manager app by Docker Inc.

Being capable of run containers massively extends the capabilities of this NAS, changing a primary file server into the sharp finish of a software program growth system. And, for these wanting to make use of this NAS as a workable system, you can even run Beta variations of Synology Drive Server, Synology Office and Universal Viewer.

Compared with earlier Synology entry-level NASs, that one facet is a revelation. It elevates the person expertise to be nearer to increased specification choices and gives a logical pathway for patrons to see what benefits costlier machines may provide them.

Performance

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

The bottleneck of this technique is the 1GbE LAN port, and Synology doesn’t provide any method round these bandwidth limits, capping the utmost file switch speeds to round 115MB/s. Multiple simultaneous customers will find yourself with a portion of that velocity, and the extra customers, the much less each will get.

Being the primary tier of 2-bay NAS for Synology, these limitations include this value level.

The DS223j diverges from earlier 2-bay fashions as a result of the four-core SoC and 1GB of RAM mixture make for a extra resilient system the place a single rogue job can’t knee-cap the NAS to the purpose the place it turns into unusable.

Where utilizing instruments like Plex or Video Station beforehand restricted what the opposite purposes could possibly be run alongside, on this machine, it’s potential to have a couple of software put in and preserve issues shifting easily.

There are limits to what the RAM can obtain, however these points are sometimes tied to a number of apps making an attempt to make use of the drive assets concurrently and thrashing the SATA drives. This drawback could be negated considerably through the use of SATA SSDs, even when Synology disapproves. The preferrred resolution would have been to have one giant exhausting drive and a single SATA SSD for caching, however Synology doesn’t provide that choice on DSM 7.2 on this NAS.

That would have accelerated indexing or post-upload processing duties on this NAS, however that most likely made the DS223j extra helpful than Synology wished.

Whatever storage used on this NAS gained’t massively affect the file serving efficiency (except the drive has an error), however sooner drives and SSDs might have a way more vital affect on knowledge processing that occurs on the NAS on to the file system.

Overall, the efficiency of the DS223j is superb and considerably higher than the DS220j or DS218j that got here earlier than it.

Price & Availability

The official value of the DS223j is simply $189.99 in the USA and £189.99 in the UK, making it higher worth in America than in Europe. However, it may be discovered for much less on Amazon within the UK, making for a more in-depth parity in value.

That’s $20/£20 greater than the equally specified TerraMaster F2-212, a NAS that has each correct drive trays and may improve its networking to 2.5GbE speeds. But to steadiness issues considerably, the DS223j does have higher USB ports and a superior working system with DSM.

The asking value can be $10/£10 greater than the Asustor AS1102T 2 Bay Drivestor 2 Desktop NAS, a machine that comes with 2.5GbE as customary however makes use of the identical RTD1296 Quad-Core 1.4GHz SoC that was within the DS220j.

This NAS makes good sense for these invested in Synology expertise and, like that firm, ignoring the points of interest of a 2.5GbE LAN, the DS223j makes good sense. Conversely, this may not be your best option if you wish to improve the community for larger efficiency.

Should you purchase the Synology DiskStation DS223j?

For these already utilizing Synology NAS, the DS223j is an ideal small addition that will get the person onboard with DSM 7.2 and lots of the OS’s glorious options.

However, its alternative could be extra problematic for customers who desire a NAS to dump giant video recordsdata and have computer systems that help 2.5GbE or higher community protocols. For these wants, Asustor and TerraMaster have equally priced machines that may greater than double the velocity of a file switch, and most of them additionally help SSDs for each storage and cache.

As a reviewer of NAS packing containers, I hope that is the final 2-bay NAS from Synology that arrives with a 1GbE LAN port and no means to improve it. But given the stubbornness exhibited on this level thus far, I wouldn’t take any bets on that.

Despite that omission and the additional expenditure wanted to make use of 2.5in drives, the DS223j has every thing else {that a} dwelling or small enterprise person may need from a NAS, and this specification makes for a considerably higher person expertise working a number of apps.

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

This overview was initially printed on techadvisor.com.