Should You Buy the Synology DS920+ NAS in 2021?

Is the Synology DS920+ NAS Still Worth Buying in 2021?

If you have been looking at buying a Synology NAS drive in 2021, then there is a good chance that the DS920+ has appeared on your radar. Originally released in summer 2020 (between May-July depending on where in the world you were) the Synology DS920+ was the follow up to the hugely popular and successful DS918+ NAS and when it was eventually released it met with a mostly positive reaction. As a standalone piece of kit, the DS920+ is a fantastic example of everything Synology is about ā€“ a well-balanced piece of hardware and software that can run the entire library of Synology DSM applications (the collaboration suite, Surveillance Station, Hyper Backup, Active Backup Suite, etc), as well as supporting numerous 3rd party applications for home and business (ranging from Plex Media Server, VMware, Apple Time Machine and more). This combined with the inclusion of BTRFS as the file system of choice and support of Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) meant that this system was, and still in, a fully-featured system. However, the system is now a year since we first revealed the DS920+, as well as numerous other Synology NAS hardware being released since then. So many users are wondering if the DS920+ is still a NAS worth your data and your money in 2021? So, below I want to talk about the main points to consider to see if the DS920+ should still be your next NAS purchase this year.

If you are unaware of the Synology DS920+ NAS and want to learn more about it, use the links in the box below for my hardware review, 5 Highlights and the best place to find it.

If you want to learn more about the Synology DS920+ NAS, click below for the Review, Quick Highlights and Best Price:

Synology DS920+ NAS

Full YouTube Playlist on Synology DSDS920+ Hardware/Software Videos ā€“ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFyP17HoU-vpxhIpGXnXx2g/search?query=DS920%2B

5 Reasons to Buy the Synology DS920+ (and 5 Reasons Not to) ā€“ https://nascompares.com/2020/07/09/synology-ds920-nas-should-you-buy-it

The FULL DS920+ NAS Review Here ā€“ https://nascompares.com/2020/05/21/synology-ds920-nas-drive-hardware-review

Best Price for the Synology DS920+ NAS ā€“Ā  https://nascompares.com/buy/best-ds920-price

Is there a DS921+ or DS922+ NAS Coming Soon?

NAS Technology, much like any other kind of fast-evolving genre of hardware (PCs, Phones, TVs, Consoles, etc) has a certain refresh cycle. A device is first released, it might get a few tweaks and updates in itā€™s lifespan, but then eventually it is superseded by a newer version that promises to be oh-so-much better. We have seen it time and time again, leading to one of the most common reasons that a lot of buyers will remain o nthe fence about buying a new piece of technology, namely ā€“ is this now out of date and/or a new version about to be released? We want our technology to LAST and the Synology DS920+ NAS is no different. Right now, at the time of writing, I would say that this device is a long way from receiving a new version/replacement any time soon ā€“ certainly for most of 2021 at least. This is because Synology and the DS9XX+ series is generally one that arrives and refreshes every 2-2.5years and that means that Synology will still be pushing their software towards this device for that period of time. Even then, a new version of this series would still be quite close in architecture to this device (likely a Celeron, or Pentium AT MOST) and even then still with 4GB memory and lacking 10Gbe. So, if your reason for not buying the DS920+ is because you think waiting on the follow up in a DS921+ or DS922+ would be worth it, I wouldnā€™t worry. It will likely be a year at least and be a small enough increase on what we see in the DS920+ 2020 release, that the saving you would make in price or value would be minuscule in the time you would spend waiting.

 

Is there a DS921+II NAS and/or New Celeron CPU Coming Soon?

This is a much more compelling case to consider whether to buy the DS920+ NAS or not. Like any computer-based system, a NAS server is comprised of a number of key hardware components that are designed by 3rd parties ā€“ the most important of which is the CPU (in this case, made by Intel). These brands and their hardware (just like the NAS brand themselves) produce many different solutions for different needs and these individual components also get new versions as time goes by. The result is that although a NAS like the DS920+ has a specific CPU used (a Celeron J4125), if the CPU manufacturer chooses to move into a new CPU series (knock as a ā€˜refreshā€™) the result can be that a brand will have to switch to this new CPU eventually. This can lead to 2 outcomes in practice. The first is that a new NAS system is released in tandem to the CPU (so, the DS922+ or DS921+ mentioned above) or the existing NAS series will just change to the new CPU and not change anything else. Different brands handle this in different ways. In the past (for example in 2017), when Intel refreshed the Celeron N3150 into the better performing N3160 processor, QNAP just factored the new CPU into new devices, didnā€™t mention it and increased the price a couple of % for the new processor. Synology on the other hand released a ā€˜+IIā€™ version of their range, in this case, the DS216+II and DS716+II NAS.

Why am I telling you all this? Well because there are rumours flying around that the Intel J4125/J4025 CPU is going to be switched out for the N5105 (N Series, formally Braswell) at some point and although the effects and eventual implementation of this CPU (if true) would still not take effect until MUCH later in 2021, it still means that NAS brands will still have to consider whether they will use this as a means to introduce a NEW product version OR add a ā€˜version 2ā€™ label. The latter is arguable more likely than a full new NAS release, but is still something that is less than likely anyway and would be in a much later stage of 2021. Ultimately, I still think this is not a good enough reason to consider buying the Synology DS920+ in the first half of 2021, ut might be a reason to double-check on this in the 2nd half of the year.

 

Is there a DS920+ NAS Still Good Value in 2021?

This is a very interesting point! The Synology DS920+ NAS, when first released in 2020 was popular, however, it did meet with some criticism over the continued use of 1Gbe (2 ports) and no PCIe upgradability. There is an argument that this was a limitation of the CPU featured inside and itā€™s internal PCIe lane support (ultimately the # of functions it can support), but other brands have managed to squeeze in 2.5Gbe, PCIe slots and/or NVMe slots, using the same J4125 CPU. That said, the Price tag of the Synology DS920+ NAS has dipped in price since itā€™s original launch, with it appearing numerous times in Prime Day, Black Friday and numerous annual Sales across multiple websites. So, as a price for the level of Hardware AND software, I think the DS920+ NAS is still good value in 2021. However, this is only really applicable if you factor that the price tag is covering BOTH the hardware inside and the utility of DSM ā€“ If you are only looking at the DS920+ for just itā€™s hardware and will be using mostly 3rd party network software, then there are better NAS hardware on offer in 2021.

Is there a Better Synology NAS Available than the DS920+ in 2021?

The last thing to remember when looking at an older NAS system, such as the 2020 released DS920+, is that lots more products have been released in the meantime (both in 1st party and 3rd party) and what was once the latest thingā€™ is now potentially outdone by more recent solutions. In the case of the Synology DS920+ NAS, Synology has not really released any new 4-Bay solutions since the DS920+ (the DVA3221 is a very specialized exception) and if 4 HDDs of RAID5/SHR storage with an embedded CPU is what you are looking for, then the DS920+ is still the very best thing that Synology have in there range to buy right now. However, business users would do well to look at the latest generation of embedded Ryzen solutions in the Synology DS1621+ (Review HERE) and DS1821+ (Review HERE), as these provide the majority of things the DS920+ offers, but with greater support of network connectivity on day 1 and scaling higher later, as well as larger storage to use at the start and much larger expansion options later.

 

I hope you found this article helpful in deciding whether to buy the Synology DS920+ NAS in 2021. If you still need more help, you can use the DS920+ specific content in the links below OR you can use the NASCompares free advice service below. Just fill in the details for your storage needs and I will get in touch to give you some free, impartial advice. It might take me a day to two to respond (it gets super busy!) but I respond to all the message in the advice section.

Synology DS920+ NAS

Full YouTube Playlist on Synology DSDS920+ Hardware/Software Videos ā€“ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFyP17HoU-vpxhIpGXnXx2g/search?query=DS920%2B

5 Reasons to Buy the Synology DS920+ (and 5 Reasons Not to) ā€“ https://nascompares.com/2020/07/09/synology-ds920-nas-should-you-buy-it

The FULL DS920+ NAS Review Here ā€“ https://nascompares.com/2020/05/21/synology-ds920-nas-drive-hardware-review

Best Price for the Synology DS920+ NAS ā€“Ā  https://nascompares.com/buy/best-ds920-price

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      36 thoughts on “Should You Buy the Synology DS920+ NAS in 2021?

      1. Ughhhh I’ve been needing and procrastinating buying a nas for years. Now I really need 1. I’m kinda at a dilemma. I need the power of a 420/920. But at the same time I don’t want to break the bank, and a 920 is a bit expensive. So a 420 sounds good… But it’s cheaper to get a 920 now then a 420 with expansion later…. But if imma spend that type of money, shouldnt I just wait for them to release a new version with better lan ports?
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      2. I just bought one in the summer of 2022, and I don’t regret it. My whole network is 1000 base-T anyway, and for what I’m doing, it’s a significant upgrade from what I was using before. I don’t have a NAS for performance, I just need a basic media server and a file server for my home.
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      3. Im a Mac using and thinking about this unit, still trying to decide on what unit to get, couple of questions I cant really find the answer, I think perhaps you will know. Lets say I set this up with 3 drives, say 4TB down the road if I add a 4th drive another 4TB will it just add to the amount available? Likewise in the same way if I pull a 4TB or 2 x 4TB out and replace it with a 8TB or 2x 8TB will it dynamically rebuild/add to the storage space available. Finally can the USB port on the back be used for an external drive that I can somehow set the Synology to copy the complete NAS onto at regular intervals, so like backing up the NAS to an external (of course the external drive will need to have enough space to do this) does it have software built in that could achieve this task?
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      4. Just got one myself in December 2021. Upgraded from the DS713+ which I bought in 2013. The difference is very noticeable.
        Despite having the exact CPU power draw (with double the cores and higher clock speed max) then the DS713+, It has over a 100% improvement in architectural, Real performance, and efficiency, 4K integrated Graphics as well as built-in virtual machine support. As far as the RAM goes, it comes with the maximum capacity of the DS713+ soldered on with the option to expand to 8gb which is 8Ɨ the workspace bringing me from 50 to over 60% utilization to 15% and that is without memory compression on top of the fact that it’s dual channel DDR4 while the DS713+ is single channel DDR3. As far as storage is concerned, I now have double the bays that accommodate larger hard drive capacities. Unlike the DS713+, It supports DSM-7 which is way more responsive by itself. All of these improvements have reflected in its performance such as significantly faster load times in remote login (both local and remote), significantly faster indexing, significantly faster HD video load times, processing multipe torrent downloads, significantly faster file server management. I am very satisfied with my purchase.
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      5. Bought this sucker in May. Have 4x10TB WD Gold drives in it in RAID-10, 8GB of RAM and haven’t touched the SSD stuff (as this is a single user device).

        I just need a giant, dependable drive. And this just does it.
        If I wind up needing more for some reason, I can just drop the coin on a DX517 and go to town.
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      6. I expect DS920+ to stay unchallenged in it’s class for at least until Q3 2022 (unchallenged with respect to Synology lineup, competition put aside).
        Succeeding unit is less likely to introduce 5k series of Celeron SoC, I could bet they’re after 6412 or 6413. Those retain favorable CPU core performance per watt, still being polite to thermals and more important, provide 2.5GbE right out from SoC. As most HW vendors are currently struggling to secure future components orders in quite disastrous supply chain situation, I’d also guess that Synology will kill significant part of units with slim sales (5-unit bay comes 1st in mind).
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      7. Hah! I just watched this very late August, so pretty much September. I’ve been looking to get my first NAS for Plex, but I think I’ll persevere with running PMC on the PC and wait until the next version.
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      8. should you buy a NAS?
        Well if your type of a person who uses a external hdd and move it a lot from 1 device to another, you probably need one.

        still I have my NAS built from scratch, and only cost me like 250bucks with all parts brand new and a NAS ITX case/chasis from China. NIC’s 1GigE problem? no problem, let me install a 10GigE card for yah.
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      9. looking for something that’s 4 bay and able to edit 4k for a single user. any low budget to mid range systems you recommend? sorry im not not super techy and i just need a solution
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      10. just purchased this to upgrade a SUPER slow ds214se. Amazon lightning deal had it for 417.99. I only really use it for external storage for a plex server though…do you think I made an unnecessary purchase?
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      11. If my pc lan port is 2.5gbit and say the synology nic is 2.5gbit, it means lan speed can go to 2.5 correct? What if laptop is 1gbit, nas nic is 2.5gbps? Can it still achieve 2.5? Also if the nic is 10gbit, can lan achieve 10gbps?
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