Synology DS720+ NAS – Taking it to Pieces

Last updated on 28 Jul 2020 📧 Subscribe
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1 Synology DS720+ NAS Hardware Tear Down
2 Taking the Synology DS720+ NAS apart
3 Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

Synology DS720+ NAS Hardware Tear Down

For those of you that are interested in the newest generation of Synology NAS, you are probably wondering about what exactly goes on under the bonnet. We talk about the CPU and Memory plenty, but what about on the inside? Where does the Synology DSM software get extracted from? Where is the other memory bay? How is the CPU kept cool? There are interesting (if slightly nerdy) questions. Luckily I have a spare DS720+ NAS here and I am an interesting (if slightly nerdy) guy who wants to find out. So, let’s take the Synology DS720+ NAS apart and find out what is inside that small black chassis. Alternatively, if you are looking for the DS720+ NAS Review, please find my DS720+ Hardware Review HERE. Now, I’ll go get my screwdriver.

Disclaimer – Please, Please, PLEASE do not try this yourself. I am doing this so you do not have to! I mainly started this to find out how Synology had locked the device to 6GB maximum memory. Do not do this unless you have the technical knowledge to know what you are doing OR are ok with invalidating your warranty. Also, BACKUP YOUR DATA!

Taking the Synology DS720+ NAS apart

First things first, I made sure to safely power down the DS720+ NAS, then remove the PSU and LAN connection. Then I removed the HDD media from inside.

Once I removed the HDD media and trays I made sure that the SODIMM memory module was empty.

Then I rotated the device in order to gain access to the rear 3x screw that hold the device casing together. First is the top left corner.

Then remove the lower screw on the same side.

After removing these screws, the larger half of the external chassis will slide away.

Then I removed the screw located next to the USB 3.0 Port, as this secures the connector internally to the chassis

Once the larger part of the framework is gone, you will see the main SATA HDD frame.

Next, you need to unscrew each of the fans from the internal framework. Each is secured with a single screw.

Next, you will need to insecure the main internal framework that holds the SATA media cage and its connection to the main base metal panel. These are formed of 8 screws (4 on each side)

There are two groups of different screw types on each side

From there you can remove the white power connectors for the fan and silver cable tape, which should allow you to remove the internal frame cage and main PCBs from the 2nd half of the DS720+ chassis. This should allow you to loosen the main cage from the base of the casing.

Removing those 8 screws and removing the white fan plugs will loosen the physical connection with the rear of the chassis and allow you to access the two screws that are just behind the fan modules, that keep the USB internal connector attached.

Once these screws are removed, along with the single rear screw we removed right at the start, we can remove the USB 3.0 Cable connector that is the final thing holding the internal frame, controller board and remaining chassis casing together.

You need to be careful though, as you will be removing the main internal frame and NVMe connector from their respective PCIe connectors.

This will allow you to remove the main cage and you are left with the main controller board with its metal panel on the top.

The metal panel is held against the internal controller board by 4 screws at each corner and is easily removed, exposing the mainboard.

Once you remove these four screws, you have the main controller board exposed, along with all its key components. Again, BE CAREFUL!

The large black heatsink in the centre is where the Intel J4125 CPU is kept, and this heatsink is several times its size. To the right of the CPU is the small piece of flash ROM memory that keeps the DSM software that is shipped with the device at launch.

Flipping the board over (carefully) shows us the side that many users are the most interested in. The board has the SODIMM DDR4 Memory slow for adding a 4GB Synology DDR4 2666MHz RAM module.

However the memory module is indeed the ONLY available upgrade slot inside and those that hoped to find a 2nd slot inside (which included me too, will recently) are met with a collection of soldered memory chips in the main board inside. These make up the 2GB of DDR4 memory that the device ships with.

These 4 cells are memory models and K4A4G165WE-BCTD in model ID. That is Samsung memory, more information here – https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/dram/ddr4/K4A4G165WE-BCTD. As well as a bank of information on the Samsung datasheets HERE. And there you have it. That is the inside of the Synology DS720+ NAS Drive. Once again, I do not recommend you do this yourself, but I do hope that you found it useful. If so, why not let me know in the comments. Otherwise, thank you for reading.

 

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      25 thoughts on “Synology DS720+ NAS – Taking it to Pieces”

      3. Great stuff!I am seriously considering this one for a dedicated Surveillance system. I have a 9 bay QNAP for work that I love, but, want to keep that dedicated for my work. You do the BST reviews!!!
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      7. The eternal question, this or the 723+, same price where I am. 2 strong cores or 4 weaker cores. I just want to max out a 2.5Gbe Link and run Directory Server/DNS. I am waiting to see if DSM 7.2 will allow me to do storage on the nvme slots. A 4TB NVME would be sweet for current projects backed up to pair of 14TB Red RAID 1 with 1TB NVME cache for finished projects .That’s some serious firepower, but if it can’t do storage on NVME then I don’t want.
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      8. thanks for this video. I’ve had a DS720+ for a couple years which sits under my desk and regularly would start making fan vibration noise until i gently squeezed the case, it would be quiet for a couple days, then start with the fan noise again. Been driving me made since I got it. Followed your video to strip it down, and noticed that the bracket that the fan is mounted to (the backplane) had four small plastic ribs on it, which were touching the side of the fan housing. Used a chisel to cut those ribs down so the fan is now only touching the bracket at the mounting face. Also the little 20mm long plastic bracket that attaches the fan to the metal chassis was a little loose where it clipped to the fan, so used some electrical tape to fill the gap on that. Reassembled, and had a nice quiet diskstation for days now. Kudos to Synology for making such a repairable unit, and you for the video.
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      9. I’m not sure, does YouTube pays more for longer videos? Some of these videos are getting unnecessarily long. It’s not just you, but I’ve been noticing hosts are putting a lot of ‘fluff’ and filler to make their vids longer. There are 63k+ views on this, just imagine how much time you could have help save.
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      16. I am in the process of replacing my Synology DS212 (I think it has a bad port as any hard drive I install in drive bay 2 fails within a year), would the Synology DS720+ still be considered the best Synology two drive option available today?
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      17. Thanks for the video! How good is Synology’s Active Directory program? I’m interested in using this as my AD server instead of using a Windows Server. Would that work well for a small business with 20 endpoints?
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      20. ………..THANK YOU! ….so would you recommend the DS920+ over the DS720+? ….and which 8, 10, or 12TB HDDs would you recommend? (WD Red, WD Red Plus or IronWolf etc) …where can i find the best price this week? …and many people say cacheSSDs are not a good idea, because the nas will soon tell me that they are no longer usable because TBW (Write Count) has reached its maximum. So even if they work, they cant no longer be used.
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