The Synology DS923+ NAS – Should You Buy?

Synology DS923+ NAS Drive – Does It Deserve Your Data?

The Synology DS923+ NAS is the follow-up to the DS920+ (released over 2.5 years earlier) and this new Diskstation system has certainly made a number of BIG changes to the arguably rigid formula that the brand has been using in the last few generations of this product series. With changes in network connectivity, internal architecture and even storage capabilities arriving in the new DS923+, it is fair to say that there are ALOT of reasons why the DS923+ might be the very best NAS solution for your needs in 2023, and that is even before you think about the DSM software that is included with every Synology NAS. However, this system might not be for everyone and for all the positives that it can boast, there are still a few small areas that might mean you might want to give it a miss for your home or business data storage. Today I want to cover FIVE reasons why the DS923+ NAS deserves your data and FIVE reasons why you might want to sit on the fence a little longer and/or look elsewhere.

Note – this article covers ten things to consider before buying the Synology DS923+. However, I have already published a HUGE review on the Synology DS923+ NAS HERE on the blog and it goes into much, MUCH more detail on all these points. Check it out if you want a much bigger and broader picture of the suitability of the DS923+ NAS for your storage needs.

Reasons You SHOULD Buy the Synology DS923+ NAS

So, first things first! Here are five reasons why the Synology DS923+ NAS might well be exactly the private desktop server that you have been waiting for.

The 10GbE Upgrade on the DS923+

This was a feature in one form or another that users who have been looking at the expandable 4-Bay diskstation series (DS916+, DS918+ and DS920+) have been requesting for YEARS! The Synology DS923+ NAS arrives with an upgrade slot on the rear of the chassis (PCIe Gen 3 x2) that allows the installation of a 10GbE (10GBASE-T) network upgrade module that allows the system to upgrade towards a 1,000MB/s network connection! With the DS923+ NAS running on a very competent and fast-file-service internal architecture AND supporting upto 4 drives in a RAID environment to increase internal performance, the option to scale up the external connectivity to 10x that of traditional gigabit is fantastic.

The network upgrade option on the DS923+ is delivered via an optional purchase of the Synology E10G22-T1-mini (find the Synology E10G22-T1-MINI here on Amazon), and it is a 1x Port 10G card, with its own onboard controller and heatsink attached. The module is also by far the easiest 10GbE/Network upgrade I have ever installed in a NAS, as it can be installed by popping it in the available slot on the back – as opposed to needing the chassis be partially dismantled in order to access a PCIe slot). The PCIe Gen 3×2 bandwidth that is afforded to it is more than enough for the 10G connection it provides and the 4x SATA drives inside do provide enough throughput to largely saturate the connection (and that is without factoring in the M.2 NVMe SSD bays)

Currently, the E10G22-T1-mini is the only upgrade option that is supported by the network upgrade slot on the DS923+ NAS (as well as the DS723+, RS422+ and DS1522+), but I would not be surprised if Synology roll out an SFP+/Fibre option in due course, though the jury is still out if they were to also add a 2.5G/5GBe option.

The Memory Type and Scalability of the DS923+

Another one of the benchmarks of the expandable 4-Bay diskstation hardware that the DS923+ goes ahead and smashes is in the area of Memory. Previous generations of this series have arrived with 4GB of Memory which can be upgraded to 8GB of memory (in some cases, with the initial 4GB of memory being soldered to the main controller board). The DS923+ NAS mixes things up by providing the same amount of memory at 4GB, BUT it can support upto 32GB of memory across two SODIMM slots! that is FOUR TIMES the maximum of any other system in the series’ history and that is going to allow ALOT of apps to stretch their muscles a bit with that much RAM to share out!

Moreover, this memory in the DS923+ improves further on its predecessors by virtue of being ECC memory (Error Correcting Code), something that you would normally only ever find on a highly enterprise server. ECC memory arrives with an extra memory chip per module on board that (in caveman terms) allows the system to have a blueprint of the data that is passing through the memory on the way to being written/sent to the disks and then, at the end of the memory processes, it is compared against the blueprint and if errors/inconsistencies are observed, the memory repairs the data. ECC has always been proven invaluable at the business level as it ensures data that has been stored on the NAS for warm or cold storage has no silent inconsistencies that down the line could result in invalid/corrupt data (e.g bitrot).

The DS923+ NAS featuring ECC memory DOES mean that official Synology memory upgrades are going to be more expensive, but the RRP of the DS923+ NAS (with the original 4GB of ECC Memory) already arrives at a very, very similar price point to its predecessor’s RRP when they were released, so any extra cost down the line is optional.

The DS923+ NAS is Compact, Quiet and Low Impact

This is a point that will appeal to a very specific % of NAS buyers, but the D923+ NAS arrives in the same 4-Bay Diskstation chassis as the DS920+ and DS918+ before it, which was very low impact in it’s design. What I mean by that is that it is quite a compact casing that is very easy to deploy, very well-ventilated on almost all sides (even the official logos on either side are ventilation panels) and is surprisingly low noise when in operation. The DS923+ has two rear active fans, but these are very small (92mm each) and are clearly low-noise fans by design. The huge amount of ventilation that passes over the internal heatsinks (no internal CPU fans or a PSU fan, as that is external) is assisted by the copious ventilation and the result is a NAS that has had alot of time in R&D to balance between internal system temps in 24×7 operation AND having low ambient noise/space impact to the end user. Below is my noise testing of the Synology DS920+ NAS (same chassis) using different kinds of HDD and SSD media to show the noise levels that were hit.

All that said, do keep in mind that the Hard Drives that you choose to use will make an impact on noise. Any NAS HDDs (WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf) of 8TB or lower capacity will be lovely and quiet (only really making noticeable noise in periods of high access frequency), but larger capacity HDDs or enterprise class/industrial built Hard Disks will make more ambient noise (vibration hum, clicks of the internal arm/actuator and spinning disk platters) and these will be easily noisier than the DS923+ noise when in operation.

FULL DSM 7.1 and DSM 7.2 Support

At Launch, the DS923+ NAS arrives with the latest version of Synology software, DSM 7.1. However, this does not stop evolving as soon as you get your Synology NAS. DSM has been in continues to be the dominant force in the world of NAS software, providing a massive arrangement of services, applications (first and third-party supported) and a huge number of client applications for desktop, mobile, Windows, macOS and Linux (as well as a bunch of other more home-based tools). These allow management and access to the data on the DS923+ in very tailored ways, as well as the web browser-based access that has the appearance, intuitive design and responsiveness of a local operating system. The DSM interface can be accessed by hundreds of users at the same time (with each user having tailored access, rights and privileges). DSM is available with ALL Synology NAS and the depth and abilities of DSM on any NAS are dependent on the hardware architecture of the NAS itself. In the case of the Synology DS923+, it supports EVERYTHING that is offered by Synology’s platform. DSM is currently in version 7.1, but it looks like we will be seeing beta/full release of DSM 7.2 at the end of 2022 or the start of 2023, which will be adding WORM (write Once Read Many) support, Volume scale encryption and numerous improvements to individual applications. If you want to learn about it, you can read the DSM 7 Full Review HERE.

As mentioned, the DS923+ supports pretty much the entirety of the DSM 7.1 applications and services (DSM 7 and DSM 6.2 are still in circulation and still receive regular service and security updates, though the DS923+ will arrive with DSM 7.1 by default and cannot be rolled back). If you are an existing user of SaaS and PaaS (Software as a service and Platform as a service) from the likes of Google Workspace and Office 365, knowing that you can synchronize these systems or choose to export away from them onto the Synology services is going to be very appealing. Then there is the increasing development of their 1st party cloud platform, Synology C2, which is slowly integrating into all the applications that are available on your bare metal NAS (allowing you to add a cloud layer of backup, synchronization and access to your data storage setup). This is a subscription platform, which can only be used with your Synology NAS system (as well as connected with some 3rd party SaaS services, but for those that are moving away from Google/Microsoft/AWS for security reasons, but still want a Cloud+Metal storage network in place, C2 covers pretty much everything. Indeed, although below I have highlighted a number of the key/best applications that are included in your DS923+ Service with DSM, most of them can be immediately integrated with Synology C2  (with even more being added in 2023 with DSM 7.2). Key business and consumer applications that are included with your NAS are:

You cannot really fault the software and services that are included with the Synology DS923+ NAS, as you are going to get the very best experience available on the platform, thanks to the hardware and architecture of this NAS. DSM 7 is an ever-evolving platform, so if you are reading this now at the time of publishing or years later, there is always going to be something in DSM for everyone. That said, Synology in recent years has been increasing its priorities towards first-party software and services. This does make sense, as they want to promote their systems and software as a complete ecosystem for your home or business data storage needs (going on in the last few years to release even more Synology alternatives to popular software AND releasing non-NAS hardware accessories such as Routers, Network Adapters, HDDs, SSDs and now IP Cameras). This can occasionally lead to the compatibility lists of hardware or software that you wish to use in conjunction with the DS923+ NAS being a little smaller/restricted than you might like. A specific 3rd party software/service or physical accessory (HDD, Memory module, Network Upgrade) might not appear on the Synology compatibility pages, but that does not mean it will not function with the DS923+ NAS. It is more a case of Synology choosing not to test/evaluate a particular setup (in their defence, there are ALOT) and therefore until stated otherwise is therefore listed as incompatible and is therefore being used without their full, guaranteed support long term. In short, you can DEFINITELY feel that DSM 7/7.1 is a fantastic NAS platform, but it comes with a certain degree of rigidity by Synology on the DS923+ NAS. A little more relaxed than entries in the Enterprise XS or SA systems, but it is definitely still there.

PCIe Gen 3 M.2 SSD Support and the Future of Synology Storage

Note  – M.2 NVMe SSD Bays as Storage Pools Confirmed (images of use and storage options) are detailed here in a newer post – https://nascompares.com/2022/11/16/synology-nas-and-m-2-nvme-ssd-storage-pools-finally

A long-running feature of many prosumer and business desktop NAS systems from Synology is the inclusion of M.2 NVMe SSD bays. Synology was in fact the first NAS brand to offer this hardware feature on desktop NAS turn-key systems (on the DS918+ back in 2017/18) and over time the utility of super fast M.2 NVMe SSDs to improve the performance of traditionally slower, larger RAID configurations populated with HDDs have got better and better. The new DS923+ NAS, as expected, arrives with these SSD bays BUT there are two very important and VERY interesting changes that this system provides that dwarf their utility in previous releases in this series.

The first detail is that the Synology DS923+ NAS, thanks to it’s newer generation CPU, arrives with PCIe Gen 3 architecture. This means that the M.2 NVMe Bays inside are PCIe Gen 3×4 slots – each with a potential 4,000MB/s of bandwidth (that is bandwidth, i.e space to fill – performance/speed will still be dictated by the SSDs you use and their own benchmarks). The DS920+ and DS918+ before it both had PCIe Gen 2 architecture and these bays were either PCIe Gen 2×2 or Gen 2×4 (Half or even a Quarter of what the DS923+ bays can accommodate. Given the cost of M.2 NVMe SSDs in terms of price per terabyte compared with NAS hard drives (some 4-5x difference in price, depending on the drive), it is going to be much, MUCH more gratifying to know that you will have more opportunity to take advantage of their performance internally on the DS923+NAS.

However, the real big difference that the DS923+ NAS brings to the party is that soon these M.2 NVMe SSD bays will be usable as Storage Pools in DSM. Up until now, the M.2 NVMe 2280 bays on Synology NAS hardware has been restricted to ONLY being used for caching. Caching is a process of utilizing the performance benefits of SSD to compensate for the slower HDDs in specific instances. Read caching is when small/background/io data that is more frequently accessed by connected users is copied to the faster SSDs to improve access times (lowering latency and increasing responsiveness) for connected clients/services (does not really benefit large/sequential data). Write Caching is a process whereby, when data is being written/uploaded to the NAS, the data is first written to the M.2 NVMes, to then (later/after) be written internally to the larger capacity but slower HDD RAID array. As good as these sound, most users have wanted to use this area of massively faster and more expensive to populate media for storage pools and volumes for YEARS! Now it appears it is coming and the DS923+ NAS is the first NAS to benefit from this:

UPDATE 16/11/22 – We just received word that the M.2 NVMe SSD Bays on the DS923+ and several other Synology NAS systems are going to be usable for both Storage Pools and SSD caching. Details are emerging on this, but much more information on this can be found here – https://nascompares.com/2022/11/16/synology-nas-and-m-2-nvme-ssd-storage-pools-finally

It is also worth noticing that no other Synology NAS are listed as supporting this feature right now – likely to do with a minimum hardware threshold stipulated by Synology for this (a higher performing CPU for throughput/file-transfers and gen 3×4 architecture on the M.2 slots).

Reasons You SHOULD NOT Buy the Synology DS923+ NAS

Of course though, the Synology DS923+ NAS is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. It is fair to say that there are some elements in this follow-up to the 2.5yr old DS920+ that have rubbed a few users up the wrong way. Let’s discuss the five reasons why the DS923+ NAS (and indeed a Synology system in some cases) might not be the ideal private server solution for you.

The CPU in the DS923+ is a little divisive

The CPU inside the DS923+ is the AMD Embedded Ryzen R1600 processor, an x86 64bit Dual core, four-thread processor with an impressive base level clock speed of 2.6Ghz that can be scaled up to 3.1Ghz when needed. Now, the DS9xx+ series has always arrived with a Quad Core Intel Celeron (or Pentium) processor in the past and when it was revealed that the DS923+ was arriving with a dual-core embedded ryzen, many users were a little unhappy. This was largely down to two factors. The first was that the R1600 is a dual-core, not the four-core that everyone expected. Now the R1600’s four-thread architecture does allow the CPU to spread out quite alot across tasks and services (as well as virtual CPUs in VM deployment), as well as having a higher power in both base and burst mode available, which means it isn’t a bad CPU! But the bigger area of contention from some buyers is that the R1600 lacks integrated graphics. This means that for some tasks and services that are more graphical in nature, the result will be a higher typical CPU Uages % than a processor that has a more specialized graphics management component onboard.

How the Synology DS920+ Intel Celeron J4125 and DS923+ AMD Emb.Ryzen R1600 Compare:

The traditional data handling of the R1600 is very good, as seen in our DS1522+ testing earlier in 2022. As far as DSM (the Synology software) is concerned it will be able to run EVERYTHING! Additionally, the general file handling and throughput internally are going to be great too, so all good news. Then you have the advantage of the newer gen CPU in the DS923+ over the DS920+ supporting PCIe3 lanes, affording greater bandwidth to the rest of the hardware (i.e those M.2 slots being higher bandwidth and enabling that network upgrade slot), all the while with the CPU having the potential to hit 3.1Ghz of power when needed. It is genuinely a good CPU and there are lots of reasons why Synology have opted for this CPU, but it is by no means perfect and some specific user setups and their concerns do have merit.

For a start, the AMD R1600 has a higher typical usage (unsurprising for the spec and generally identified as TDP, as a maximum) compared with the avg Intel Celeron being used in other NAS systems released in 2022 (such as the Intel N5105 or J6412) and in a system that will be in operation 24×7, this is going to a question mark for those affected by erratically rising energy prices right now, The difference might only be pence on the day, but those pence add up! Then there is the dual cores. Although having the four threads IS handy and will be useful, Cores will always beat threads when it comes to capabilities.

The DS923+ arrives with 1GbE By Default

Those ethernet ports. The default model of the DS923+ NAS arrives with two-gigabit ethernet ports (the same as the DS920+, DS918+ and DS916+ before it), despite almost other commercial NAS brand producing solutions at this consumer-tier/scale arriving with at least 2.5GbE. Now, the adoption of greater than gigabit connectivity in client hardware (laptops, PCs, routers, switches, docking stations, etc) is by no means as ubiquitous as 1GbE (which has been around for decades at this point), BUT it is growing. ISPs are providing fiber internet connections globally that exceed gigabit speeds, along with 2.5GbE and WiFi 6 routers. We are seeing more prosumer switches, routers and PCs with default 2.5Gb network ports (at the same/similar cost as 1GbE), $20 USB-to-2.5G adapters and even the affordability of 10GbE on some client devices has allowed users to gradually scale up their hardware environment. The fact the DS923+ arrives at the tail end of 2023 and does not feature greater than 1GbE ports by default is quite damning. Even if you have no plans for 2.5G right now in your setup and think it something of a fad (favouring 10GbE), in terms of future-proofing and the general standard or networking hardware right now, gigabit ethernet is a surprising weakness here.

USB Support on the DS923+ is a little Underwhelming

The DS923+ arrives with two USB Ports (one on the front and one the rear) and it is here that we should touch on another thing about the device that I am a little less blown away by. The USB ports here are USB 3.2 Gen 1, so 5Gb/s (500-500MB/s max bandwidth). Much like the 2.5G vs 1Gb complaints I made earlier, most other NAS brands at this hardware tier have rolled in USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10G / 1,000+ MB)  ports, as well as USB-C in some cases. With the ease with which a user can add a USB tier to their 3-2-1 backup strategy (allowing them to be a little more financially creative with a network/remote/cloud backup tier as well), the slightly old skool USB ports here are a little underwhelming. With significantly more affordable RAID-enabled USB solutions in the market and/or M.2 NVMe external USB drives arriving affordable to comfortably provide faster external storage for backups, this seems like a bit of a misstep by Synology to ignore.

Also, DSM 7 and DSM 7.1 (with DSM 7.2 coming soon enough) have reduced the range of use of the USB ports of Synology NAS systems (removing many network adapters, DTV tuners, wireless dongles, office accessories such as printers, scanners and optical drives), and limiting them largely to storage, UPS’ and assigning them to VMs. I am sure Synology has done the market research and observed reduced utilization of USB on their systems to dictate this decision, but it seems to be another move by the brand to prioritize network/remote access only with their systems.

Synology Continues to be Increasingly ‘1st Party’

Now, I have listed this as a ‘con’ and/or ‘reason to not buy the DS923+ NAS’, but really this could well be a positive for many business NAS buyers or those that want a much easier system to manage, upgrade – especially those who do not have much technical knowledge and/or an in-house IT admin. Over the last 4-5 years we have seen Synology become increasingly focused on it’s own first-party hardware and services. This is not uncommon (it would be weird if they didn’t invest heavily in developing their platform!), but many have highlighted that this has been to the detriment of it’s support of popular/common 3rd party hardware and software. Synology is increasingly becoming a ‘one-ecosystem’ platform (again, not necessarily a bad thing) that wants to provide a COMPLETE solution for a users network and data storage needs. DSM still supports a large number of 3rd party business services and platforms (SaaS and PaaS once, such as Office 365, Google Workspace, Hyper-V + VMware to name just a few) AND home/homelab ones like Plex, Docker, Emby etc. However, as new innovations arrive from the brand, they seem to arrive with their own services/hardware being first in line and (in some cases) no 3rdd party integration/connectivity at all. The biggest move on this came at the start of 2022 when DSM 7 introducing a stricter HDD/SSD compatibility list that resulted in most non-synology HDD/SSDs if used, ending in DSM displaying a critical warning. This has since been rolled back a little in DSM 7.1 (no longer a critical warning, but not exactly wrinkly-free), see below the installation of WD Red Pro drives in the DS2422+ NAS:

Now, you CAN go ahead and use these drives, but it is a little jarring. As mentioned, the presentation and messaging for this have been SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED in the recent DSM 7.1 updates, but this was the straw that broke the camels back for some users. With the fantastic cloud synchronization tools and services being introduced (Hybrid Share, Surveillance C2,etc) but with strict support for only Synology’s own cloud platform  ‘Synology C2’, it is a little hauling when you have a AWS, Backblaze and/or Enterprise cloud account you could be using. The same goes for storage media compatibility, with the official compatibility of the DS923+ (which DOES include a large number of Seagate Ironwolf, WD Red and Toshiba HDDs alongside the HAT5300 & SNV3400/3410). The maximum capacity HDD listed is 18TB (see below), likely because that is the largest HDD that Synology provide in their branded series, the HAT5300 – despite WD Red Pro, Ultrastar and Seagate EXOS/Ironwolf Pro providing 20TB and 22TB NAS hard drives right now (both of which have been tested and working – see images above).

Again, this all makes sense. Synology want their platform to be the best it can be and they cannot test/verify ALL components – it would be a borderline unlimited task! So they have decided to make it clear that unless they are 100% confident that a 3rd party component will provide the performance/services to the standard they officially state, they cannot confidently say they will support a user that is running an unverified setup. However, there are some areas where this is pushing the limits a little, such as the memory/RAM compatibility of the DS923+ NAS. Only Synology ECC DDR4 SODIMM memory is listed, despite it almost certainly being a rebranded module from Samsung, Kingston, Crucial or ADATA to begin with and costing significantly more than those. The HAT5300, SNV3400/3410 and SAT5200/5210 can make a compelling case that they have Synology firmware onboard that differentiates them from 3rd party drives or the original Toshiba MG06/07/08/09 they are built on – but the strict rules on Synology memory are very restrictive.

The same goes for the compatibility of M.2 NVMe’ on the Synology DS923+, with only Synology SNV400 and SNV3410 SSDs on the officially supported list, despite many, MANY others being supported. With the DS923+ soon to be the first Synology NAS to allow M.2 NVMe SSD storage pools, this is the kind of limitation/restriction that (if left unchanged after the update, later in release and/or DSM 7.2) is going to ruffle some feathers!

As mentioned, I completely understand why Synology are taking this position – they are a company that is much more about their software (DSM) and its prestige/abilities than they are about the hardware. Synology DSM continues to be THE BEST NAS software in the market and alot of that is down to how Synology invests in it. That kind of investment and continued innovation in services and abilities to create the perfect one-brand ecosystem is built on them putting their platform first! But there is no avoiding that users who are considering the DS923+ NAS for its hardware, so they can run their own 3rd party software and/or want to upgrade using non-Synology components, might be less keen on this position.

Server Side HEVC/H.265 Support and Conversions on the DS923+ are Weak

Finally, there is a lack of integrated graphics. Most users will not notice this as an issue in day-to-day use, but multimedia users and especially a large % of Plex users will notice, if they are a little more reliant on the server-side processing than on the client. For example, if your media collection contains alot of dense/complex audio media (RAW, MP4a, etc) OR alot of higher-end HEVC/H.265 Media BUT you do not have client hardware that supports these types (or allows local client conversions/transcoding), then the NAS will have to use raw horsepower to get the job done – much less efficient than embedded graphics doing the job. Again, you might not be impacted by this (your client hardware might have enough power and privileges, or you own a local HEVC-licensed device), but it IS a concern if you are running a Plex Media Server on the DS923+ and need the NAS to convert files on the fly. Earlier in 2022, I compared the DS920+ (with a Celeron) vs the DS1522+ (with this same AMD R1600) in a detailed YouTube video testing 4K Media in Plex. Here are the results:

Synology DS923+ NAS Review – Conclusion & Verdict

(Original MASSIVE DS923+ NAS Review HERE) Synology has clearly made something of a gamble in the release of the Synology DS923+ NAS. There is no avoiding that making the switch from the Intel Celeron that has historically been the build choice of this product family and opting for the AMD Emb.Ryzen has ruffled some feathers! On the face of it, the R1600 here has a heck of alot of going for it over the previous generation! Higher clock speed, greater PCIe Gen 3 Support throughout, that 4-32GB of DDR4 memory in such a compact system and just generally giving you a lot more horsepower to play with, as well as better bandwidth potential inside and out! But at what cost? The 1GbE standard connectivity in the base model leaves alot to be desired, the proprietary 10Gb upgrade (though incredibly handy) limits the upgradability a tad and the lack of an integrated graphics processor is likely going to result in many long-term Synology advocates to skip this generation. Synology Diskstation Manager (DSM 7.1 at the time of writing) still continues to impress and although the brand still continues to heavily push their 1st party priorities, they have left a little more wriggle room in DSM 7.1 than DSM 7 before it in terms of media compatibility. In terms of design, I cannot fault Synology on this as the DS923+ chassis still arrives as one of the best-looking and still exceptionally well-structured devices at this physical scale and storage level. As always, a Synology NAS is more about the software than the hardware (and the DS923+ delivers in spades on the software side!) and with DSM 7.2 around the corner improving things. Just always keep in mind that the Synology DS923+ NAS is a system that arrives with the slight emphasis on having to do many things ‘their way’. If you are less technically versed, then you will definitely appreciate this level of user-friendly design and assistance, but more technically minded admins’ main strain a pinch! In short, the DS923+ IS a good NAS drive, but its focus has certainly ebbed more towards the business user this generation than the home.

Synology DS923+ PROS	Synology DS923+ CONS
DSM 7/7.1 (and DSM7.2 Around the corner) still continues to be an absolute tour-de-force of NAS Software This latest generation expandable 4-Bay arriving with a 10G Upgrade Option is fantastic ECC Memory Support and scalability to 32GB is completely unparallel at this price point The design of the DS923+ NAS still continues to be market-leading The New CPU architecture allows great PCIe3 bandwidth to be afforded to the rest of the hardware, inside and out Low Noise, Low Physical Impact and Intelligent Automatic Power Use Adjustment Settings Increased Support for macOS in Synology Drive and Active Backup Suite (DSM 7.2) Synology C2 Cloud Services, 1st Party Backup/Sync Tools and Collaboration Suite App = Complete 1st Party Eco-system that can rival Office365 and Google Workspace PCIe Gen 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Support will be hugely beneficial if/when Synology enable Volume Support on these drives, as more Diskstation NAS switch to Gen3 bays (no official confirmation, but looks increasingly likely) Tremendously User-Friendly!!!	The AMD Emb.Ryzen instead of a Intel Celeron (with Integrated Graphics) will be a dealbreaker for alot of users The default 1GbE ports that the system arrives with are tremendously dated The USB ports on the system are older gen USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gb/s) and their support/usability have been quite pared back in recent DSM releases The continued moves by Synology to prioritize 1st party hardware and software services may put some users off Plex Support on the Synology DS923+ is still great for native playback, client-side handling and client devices with relevant multimedia licenses in place, but if server-side media conversions are needed – this system will struggle in comparison with the DS920+ before it

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