Synology DS923+ NAS – M.2 NVMe SSDs Storage Pools – UPDATE

Last updated on 05 Dec 2022 📧 Subscribe
Contents hide
1 The Synology DS923+ NAS Supports M.2 NVMe SSDs as Storage Pools – New Update
2 What PCIe Generation and Speed are the M.2 NVMe SSD Bays of the Synology DS923+ NAS?
3 How to Create Storage Pools with M.2 NVMes on the Synology DS923+ NAS
4 Can You Use One M.2 NVMe SSD as a Storage Pool and One M.2 NVMe for Read-Only Caching on the Synology NAS?
5 Can You Run S.M.A.R.T Tests on M.2 NVMes that are used for Storage Pools on the Synology?
6 Can You Boot Synology DSM from the M.2 NVMe SSDs?
7 Can you use Non-Synology M.2 NVMe SSDs as Storage Pools in the DS923+ NAS?
8 Will M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Pools Be Possible on ALL Synology NAS Drives?
9 Synology DS923+ NAS Review – Quick Conclusion
10 Need More Help Choosing the right NAS?
11 Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

The Synology DS923+ NAS Supports M.2 NVMe SSDs as Storage Pools – New Update

Good news for anyone who has been following the recent reveal of Synology enabling M.2 NVMe SSDs as Storage Pools (covered previously here on NASCompares in this article) as it appears that the new feature is active on the Synology DS923+ NAS (released Nov 16th 2022). A recent update in DSM that, at this time, appears to ONLY be available for the DS923+ has allowed the two M.2 2280 NVMe SSD bays that were traditionally ONLY for caching to now be usable for storage pools. Full testing of this (as well as further updates to this article) will arrive very soon here and on youtube, but for now let’s discuss the M.2 NVMe Bays that you can use (bandwidth/speed), as well as the process of using the m.2 NVMe SSDs as Pools in the Synology DSM Storage Manager.

Note – Article Updated with information on M.2 NVMe SSD Compatibility, whether you can boot DSM from the M.2 NVMe SSDs and an update on the architecture of the PCIe Gen and Speed of the bays on the DS923+ NAS.

What PCIe Generation and Speed are the M.2 NVMe SSD Bays of the Synology DS923+ NAS?

Important! Big credit to u/lacarosa on Reddit for noticing an error in my original coverage! The PCIe on the M.2 NVMe Bays look like they might be limited to Gen 3×1. Doubling checking and making changes to the article as appropriate ASAP

First and foremost, one of the main reason why it seems that the Synology DS923+ NAS is one of the first NAS systems to have this feature enabled is that it is a PCIe 3 Generation system. Now, ALOT of Synology NAS systems are Gen 3 before this (Most of the business NAS systems have regular PCIe Gen 3 upgrade slots), however, it is unknown how the slots on other systems were divided internally with the available CPU Lanes and Chipset. Synology have regularly stated that they would only enable Storage Pools on NVMe SSDs if the full bandwidth was available and the System hardware had the architecture to support it. Well, in the case of the Synology DS923+ NAS, I was able to log into the system over SSH + Putty and it appears that although the SSD Bays are PCIe Gen 3 x4, they are capped at Gen 3×1. I am in the process of reaching out to Synology on this to find out if this is fixed and/or a setting that is pertinent to the M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Pools featuring rolling out further/more down the line. Additionally, we are still awaiting further confirmation on other PCIe Gen 3 systems, as well as the E10G20-T1 and M2D20 M.2 NVMe SSD Cards. We will update this article as soon as we know more.

How to Create Storage Pools with M.2 NVMes on the Synology DS923+ NAS

Much like creating a storage pool on the Synology DS923+ NAS with Hard Drives, the process for creating M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Pools is exactly the same (with 1 extra screen in the middle). First, you need to head to the Synology Storage Manager, then head to the Available Drives tab at the bottom (left-hand side). This will list the HDDs and SSDs that are installed in the NAS. Then you need to head to the top row of options and select ‘Manage Available Drives’. This opens a new tab that offers a range of choices of what to do with the available/unallocated drives in your NAS system. As you can see, the 2 M.2 NVMes are listed as available. Just head to the bottom option ‘Create Storage pool’ and click it.

Next yo will need to select the AID configuration (again, much as you would with HDD Storage pools). The range of available RAID configurations will depend on the number of drives, and as the DS923+ NAS only has 2x  M.2 NVMe SSD Bays, options such as RAID 5 and RAID 6 will be absent. You can even choose the flexible SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) config if you choose. Select the level of redundancy you want for you drive pool and then click ‘next’.

This leads to the one difference between HDD/SSD Storage Pools in the main SATA bays and those made via the M.2 NVMe SSD Bays – this si that the M.2 SSD drives, as they are PCIe architecture, cannot be hot-swapped whilst the system is in operation. This is quite normal, but also sensible that they system tells a user this now, as pulling them out when the system is in operation has a HIGH possibility of making the system completely crash and require a reboot/fail!

From this point you need to select the M.2 NVMe SSDs that you want to use for your storage Pools. Just put a tick next to the drive and then go from there. Remember, the level of RAID you choose will reflect the number of SSDs you need to select.

And that is about it! You will be given the choice to conduct data integrity checks (which you can skip and do later if you choose), but from this point you just need to check that all the settings you have select are correct and then go ahead and click ‘apply’.

And that is it, your Synology DS923+ NAS will begin creating your new M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Pool. As you can see in the image below (you can ignore the RAID Scrubbing, which is unrelated to this and something from another video I am working on) I now have two storage pools. The bigger/slower HDD one in Storage Pool #1 and the new smaller, faster NVMe SSD Storage Pool #2.

Can You Use One M.2 NVMe SSD as a Storage Pool and One M.2 NVMe for Read-Only Caching on the Synology NAS?

Yes you absolutely can! During the volume creation screen, you can go ahead and select a RAID configuration that only needs 1x M.2 NVMe SSD drive. These include ‘SINGLE’, ‘SHR’ and ‘BASIC’. Selecting these means you will only need to add 1x M.2 NVMe SSD to the pool creation screen. Then you can follow the same steps as previously mentioned to create your single M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Pool.

This leaves the other M.2 NVMe SSD Bay unallocated, which you can then go ahead and return to the ‘Manage Available Drives’ option in the storage manager and assign the other M.2 NVMe SSD Bay to caching. As you can see in the image below, I went ahead and assigned M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Bay #2 as a READ-ONLY cache drive to Storage Pool #1.

It is worth remembering that the Synology DS923+ (at the time of writing) when it comes to caching options will only allow Read Only or Read+Write Caching with these drives – you cannot enable WRITE-ONLY caching. So, choose wisely!

Can You Run S.M.A.R.T Tests on M.2 NVMes that are used for Storage Pools on the Synology?

Yes, you absolutely can. As you can see from the image below, you can run SMART tests on the Storage Pools on your Synology NAS, even on the M.2 NVMe SSD media. The same goes for Benchmarks too.

Can You Boot Synology DSM from the M.2 NVMe SSDs?

Unfortunately, at the time of writing and testing, you cannot use the M.2 NVMe SSD Bays on the DS923+ NAS as a boot drive for DSM. To clarify, I booted the device with NO SATA HDD/SSDs and JUST the 2x M.2 NVMe SSDs inside (so the system was in initialization mode). The DS923+ did not recognize the M.2 NVMe SSD drives as usable system media for the DSM OS. You are greeted with the image below:

Perhaps this will be changed later on as the M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Pool utilization improves, but as it stands right now, you cannot use the NVMe drives for the system OS (but you CAN create Storage Pools and Volumes that you can then use within existing applications as sources, such as the Virtual Machine Manager and Active Backup.

Can you use Non-Synology M.2 NVMe SSDs as Storage Pools in the DS923+ NAS?

After testing multiple different M.2 NVMe SSDs in the 2280 bays of the DS923+ NAS, I am afraid (at least at the time of writing) that non-Synology m.2 NVMe SSDs cannot be used as storage pools. Disclaimer, I ONLY had PCIe Gen 4 SSDs for my tests, so these are quite high end drives for purpose. However, as PCIe4 is backwards compatible, this should not be a problem in a PCIe3 slot. Most of the drives I tested were shown in the M.2 SSD area of the storage manager. HOWEVER, I could not use them as Storage Pools, as they were listed as ‘not tested or validated’ by Synology.

Now, these drives COULD be used as SSD caching drives, but NOT as M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Pools. This will definitely disappoint users who were considering non Synology drives for this new feature on the DS923+ NAS. To confirm, the SNV3400-400G drives that I tested DID work and WERE usable as M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Pools.

Will M.2 NVMe SSD Storage Pools Be Possible on ALL Synology NAS Drives?

Much like my previous point about M.2 NVMe SSDs as DSM Boot drives, I am unable to test this for approx 2 days or so, as the system is busy making videos and articles for NASCompares. However, I WILL be testing and confirming this ASAP – updating this article as soon as I know the answer. Now the fact that the Synology DS923+ NAS online resources state that the NVMe SSD Bays can be used for M.2 NVMe SSD storage does NOT mean that ALL Synology NAS with these bays will support this feature. In previous years, when I have discussed this feature with Synology team members at events, they have always been pretty clear on this. They did not want to enable this feature on systems that did not provide the hardware and/or bandwidth to support its full use. So, for example, the DS918+ and DS920+ (which both feature M.2 NVMe SSD Bays) are built on PCIe Gen 2 architecture, whilst most M,2 NVMes available right now commercially are either PCIe Gen 3 or Gen 4. Synology HAS released several PCIe3 NAS’s in the last 1-2 years with M.2 SSD bays (such as the AMD Emb.Ryzen powered DS1621+, DS1821+, and DS1621xs+), but for whatever reason, the feature was still not made available (perhaps because the available lanes were spread too thinly and the bays are perhaps PCIe 3 x2 – That’s not a blanket statement, just a hypothesis. PCIe Generation increases the bandwidth. To massively oversimplify it a bit, PCIe 2 is 500MB/s and PCIe 3 is 1,000MB/s, and the x2, x4, X8 etc figure is a multiplier. So a PCIe 2×2 = 1,000MB/s, whereas PCIe 3×4 = 4,000MB/s. ALL of these numbers are potential maximum bandwidth (i.e the pipe which the SSD can try to fill) and do not factor in a whole bunch of dual-lane architecture stuff, but the gist is pretty much there. Remember, although I mentioned earlier about external performance (i.e 10GbE networking), the only internal limitations for apps, data and services are the PCIe Lanes afforded to the M.2 bays and the CPU+Memory inside the system. The more bandwidth and horsepower the NAS has, the BETTER the results and then you are talking big performance numbers!

 

Synology DS923+ NAS Review – Quick Conclusion

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.

SOFTWARE - 10/10
HARDWARE - 7/10
PERFORMANCE - 9/10
PRICE - 8/10
VALUE - 9/10


8.6
PROS
👍🏻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 as Storage Pools!!! FINALLY!
👍🏻Tremendously User-Friendly!!!
CONS
👎🏻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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      104 thoughts on “Synology DS923+ NAS – M.2 NVMe SSDs Storage Pools – UPDATE”

      6. So I do unreal engine stuff and need like 2 8tb on m.2 pci5 12gb/s available and 48tb on hard drive that I can drag back and forth to work on whenever I change projects. Can you make that video????? thank you love your work.
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      10. So now. after a year. Created the cache and are using my 2 TB WD black. with my 4-disc raid 5 but then they stopped being recognized. by the syn 923+ and now I cannot acccess my volume at all. What do I do? Have 18TB of important film footage I dont wanna loose.

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        1. This is quite harsh. If your NAS worked with old drive and new DSM bricked it, it is Synology fault. I would open a support ticket and demand them to fix it. 100% their fault. Otherwise use this https://nascompares.com/recover-raid-or-move-data-from-broken-nas-to-a-new-one-synology-qnap-asustor/

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      12. I have a nvme ssd pool on my 920+ (WD red) where I only install software and VM, after latest restart I get an error “not supported by current DSM version”.
        I don’t even know how to fix this now. Any suggestion?
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      13. Hello Brother. I understood that Synology approved for use only its SSD/NVMe model, but in practice can I use it on 1522+ brands like WD SN770 or Kingston FURY?
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      15. For DS-923+, in addition to the original M.2 NVMe SSD SNV3410 for cache memory, is there any other brand or model that can be replaced?

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      20. I have a DS1821+, with one 1TB NVMe on which I have created a partition where I run applications and docker images from. I use Hyperbackup to backup the data.
        I’m considering buying an identical NVMe drive, and join them into a RAID1. Ideally I would like to partition my RAID 1 NVMes into two partitions; one volume for apps and dockers, and one volume for BTRS metadata space (and maybe caching). Anyone know if this is possible (not through the GUI obviously)?

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      25. Hmmmmmm …… request an update on this subject;
        The DS920+ has just been discontinued probably to steer buyers to the lackluster DS923+ (ex: @7:40 NVMe SSD HW is PCIe gen3x4 but is SW capped at PCIe gen3x1 ;).
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      26. I have a ds1612+ that has 2 pools – 3x8gb hdd shr for bulk storage and 2x1gb ssd shr mainly for VM images and other speed sensitive stuff ( home directories etc. And 2x500gb nvme for cache. As an experement, I created a storage pool on the nvme drives (using ssh and shell commands, unsupported) And it all worked and was as fast as I hoped.

        BUT – the nvme drives ran very hot (50C-60C and higher), and on at least two occasions (copying 100Gb+ from ssd to nvme) the system shut itself down due to heat.

        If I had thought about it in advance, I could have turned up the fans to full, but that’s hindsight. And that was too noisy for everyday use, for me.

        So it looks as if the suggested reason synonlogy dont support this yet because of heat issues , may have some truth to it. Note this was the only issue I had, and it was gratifyingly fast.

        I’ve now reverted to ssd for fast storage, hdd for bulk, with nvme cache for both ssd and hdd pools. As well as back to a supported configuration, It just feels safer.
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      28. Thanks! I’ve gone through a myriad of sites to gain an understanding of available NAS options, and your site is THE ONLY site I’ve found that will allow me to spec out the components of my NAS properly – in other words, the confidence to “know” that what I “think” I know about the service levels I’ll receive from my NAS, is actually what I “know” I’ll receive from that NAS. Nothing worse than knowing that what you thought you knew, you now know you didn’t really know. (unless you’re inventing a new light bulb or something). Marketing brochures only get you so far…
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      29. @nascompares Now that DSM supports M2 for storage and cache is it possible to do both at the same time? E.g. put 2x4TB in the DS923 and use 4TB for cache and 4TB for data storage? Both in mirrored partitions
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      30. So does this mean instead of the 2.5 or 3.5 HDD drives bays for storage , we will be able to use NVME m.2 SSDs for faster storage speeds ? Or is it just casheing? So is this a new NAS system enclosure they will be releasing or is this a current model that will get a update ? I’m confused . Sorry I’m new to this,
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      31. Interesting, as I was just looking into getting a NAS after my external classic HDD is taking too long to get going. Anyhow, the first thought I had was, “Can I use m.2 drives to make a NAS even faster?” Turns out – NO. Next thought was, “How about using an adapter from m.2 to SATA?” That said, is that not an option? Thanks.
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      36. I’ve been using an NVME storage pool on my DS918+ for nearly two years now — which needs some command line volume creation — which is absolutely brilliant for VMM and Docker use.
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      40. I think they have limited the SSD Pools to the 923+ in a desperate attempt to save the product, otherwise there would be literally no reason to upgrade from a 918+/920+. Also I think support for the 918+/920+ will last until the successor of the 923+ will be released, which probably will be Intel based again, so also longer support (as was mentioned as a reason to buy the 923+ in a previous video) is really no reason to upgrade to the 923+.
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      42. I have had several synologys since 2012. Love them. Currently have a 1520+ which is great. But the way synology is going with the new dual core processors and now this… I’m building my own unraid nas and let’s the 1520+ be a secondary for the next many years. Synology is on the way downhill…
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      43. I found out that NVMe has to be from Synology, when I already ordered some WD Red NVMe. So I manually created a Volume with them via terminal and I really hope I won’t regret it later. Do others have experience with manually created RAID 1 NVMes on Synology?
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      44. I just have to say: What the hell did you expect? Synology have been throwing their draconian BS left and right for a long time now, and you wait until now to be really genuinely outraged? About this? This is bloody peanuts compared to the other shit they’ve pulled in recent history. Still, thank you for finally taking a concrete and forceful stance on something like this. It was about time.
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      47. Argh! ???? So frustrating! Not withstanding I already bought a 2TB Samsung M.2 NVMe for my DS1821+ for a storage pool, what seems to be neglected is that folks like me who took up a bay for a 2TB SSD for VM’s could gain that bay back for a 14, 16, 18TB or more for much more increased storage availability on your NAS. This capability approach better get corrected or many will be persuaded to look elsewhere.

        I get forcing enterprise users to buy Synology drives, but forcing prosumer devices to do so will be a self inflicted wound. Typical home users and even small businesses do not have the budgets to support that, especially in this economy and Synology should know better.

        Synology’s claim to fame is giving users features otherwise unavailable with other brands. If they continue to limit adding capabilities others have had for years, it will be a very bad mistake. I’d say I’m slightly on the other side of annoyed compared to Rob and Eddie. ????
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      50. I’m just setting up my new 923+

        For me the NVMe wasn’t ever about storage pools, I’m more interested in them for cache and not for speed but HDD drive longevity. Also ECC RAM support is MAJOR for me. I’m still amazed that all RAM in 2022 isn’t ECC. There’s good reason servers generally use ECC ram. Sure it can be “slower” but RAM is so damn fast these days that’s a negligible downside in real terms.
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      54. So I ordered a ds1621+ for cyber Monday. When i added the 10gb card I noticed the m.2 daughter board was only a pcie 1x connector for both ssd.
        If they used a non spec connector with their own pin out they couldn’t possibly have more then 2 lanes per ssd… I’m guessing one lane per drive.
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      56. The announcement does seem bizarre for only one product, but their requirement for their M.2 ssd’s as a requirement is not. Synology is going more this route of locking down supported storage. As a result I’m going with QNAP as my new 8 bay. I have a wonderful DS1520+ which has been bulletproof but QNAP supports many more vendors for both HDD’s and SSD’s. They support ssd storage pools now.
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      58. For me, as my experience with IT goes, I had decided early-on that I would track stable branch of software and not at all beta. Seems to me maybe they are using consumers for beta testing? Although I’ve done testing in software, I prefer to be paid for my testing – unless it is just a cool and wanted feature. I do leave the door open for that instance.
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      59. For me it’s totally true that M2 it’s a killer app type feature because I was doubting between ds920+ with Jellyfin transcoding or ds923+ with M2 for my apps/dockers. finally I get the ds920+ because it’s also a joke the Synology compatilibity for M2 as storage.
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      60. Typical Synology move to be honest. I love their NASs but they are just so frustrating when they keep shooting themselves in the foot.

        Have to agree with all your points, constantly holding their hardware back with bizarre software decisions.
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      61. Amateur hour at Synology releasing the SSD storage pool feature as it is. Why cant I use my trusty Samsung Pro NVMe? And please put NVMe in Rackstation models please. I won’t buy a Synology NAS until this is addressed. Also ditch the 1Gbit and add WOL support to the 10Gbit card
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      62. I have bad memories of the NVMe cache launch with the 2018 models, back then Synology was on DSM6 and NVMe cache did not add the improvements people expected. Everyone said: “Don’t bother, waste of time, your data is at risk on cache during a power outage, worthless!” But then DSM7 came out and NVMe cache finally worked, it took everyone months to re-review it and finally change the public opinion: “Synology NVMe cache is actually pretty good.” It feels like we’re in that same situation, where the NVMe storage pool hardware is there, it could do it, but DSM isn’t ready for it, and Synology do not have great M.2 drive options if we are forced to use their SSDs.
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      63. Highlighting the negatives is consumer centric and that’s the way it should be. I want to upgrade from a ds216+II but synology just can’t seem to find a way to take my money.
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      66. *Note* – Apologies for the clickbaity title. I ‘ummed and ‘ahhed for about an hour on the title, as this is more about my own POV based on M.2 NVMe SSD support. Plus, this is a feature that will likely improve and increase in its use over time. So I will delete this video when it becomes irrelevant. Have a great week!
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      69. I just read your article about this. Thanks for testing! Storage pools only availble if you use the overpriced Synology SSDs and even if you do so, no possibility to use them as boot drive for DSM. Overall the DS923+ is a joke and partial downgrade to the DS920+. Even the CPU seems to be slower despite consuming more power since it’s only a dual core while the J4125 is a quad. Synologys policy reminds me of Apple.
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      71. that would be really awesome and also could justify use of 10Gbe on smaller (less bays) NASes,
        NVME SSD offer superior performance even on 1Gbe with tons of small files operations indeed 🙂
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      73. Too bad I own a 918+… However, I wish in the future we are offered super compact NAS system (the size of an old VCR cassette or even a cigarette pack) with only NVME slots (4 or 8) and one or two 10Gbe ETH ports. It’s not only about performance: I need a 100% silent NAS. And also an extremely low power comnsumption one. In a couple of year it’s possible SSD drivers are going to cost the same as mechanical ones, per TB. When 16TB NVME are out, I think mechanical disks are dead.
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      74. Until now, I have no NAS, so please forgive this silly question, but wouldn‘ t it make sense to install DSM for better performance on a SSD?
        Could the M.2 NVMe storage on Synology an option to run DSM on it?
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      75. PCI-x Gen2 has 2Gbit per second bandwidth, and that is a million miles beyond any sniping rust speed, not to mention IOPS. So there is no reason for Synology not to enable this in DS920+, but greed (if you want it buy new hardware).
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      77. Honestly the PCI-E gen 2 argument is kind of moot; sure it won’t give you the full bandwidth of the SSD… but at the same time, it would still not be bottlenecked on things like VM’s or other docker containers, it’s still worthwhile having. I’m more interested as to whether you can use the solid state drive with multiple partitions; having a mix of storage and caching by using a relatively large drive.
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      80. Ryzen R1600 , Why would they use this Chip ?

        Chip came out in Feb 2020, I can’t find Price for Ryzen R1600 , If someone can find the Chip Price I am sure it would be cheap by now.
        Please Post the Price,

        I bought a 1522+ Installed 10Gb Network card , I like the box doing Backups no Plex so Graphics not hurting me , HyperBackup across VPN to another Synology Box
        30+ Workstations Bare Metal , 40 Mailbox Backups, What helped I bought 2x 2TB NVME Gen 3 Crucial drive, in a Read Write Configuration. Number of Files is 15 Million + takes a awhile to count these files. I have it hooked up to Netgear 10,5,2.5.1 Switch. Server has 10GBNics Workstation 2.5Gbe Standard with Workstations now. Even Lowest Intel Nucs have 2.5GB Network cards.

        Even with this I don’ use 4GB Max Ram on This Box Comes with 8GB ECC Ram. Why use faster Chip , I just see Synology trying to save $$ on Hardware. Can this box Max out
        Hard drives not sure. When I backup my VMware Server for Incremental takes about 2.5 mins.

        People cry about this not being fast enough . I am happy with the 1522+ , I looks like you could have 2x 10GbE if Synology wants to.

        Is Qnap ahead in some ways yes they are in the Hardware side , Before Synology I used Qnap Worried about Security on Qnap.

        Ryzen R1600 Last Time Buy 2029 from AMD So this chips will be around for sometime in the future for Synology. I would say at least another 3 years , then 3 years later maybe for the low end Synology boxes that will come in the future .

        Comments Welcome

        Specs Below
        Ryzen Embedded R1600 is a mobile processor with 2 Cores, launched in February 2020. Embedded R1600 on a 14 nm production process TDP of 25 W , SoC Features
        Ethernet: 2x 10GbE
        USB: 2x USB 2.0, 4x USB 3.1 Gen2
        SATA: 2x SATA3
        Ethernet 2x 10GbE
        PCIe® Lanes 8L Gen3

        TDP 12–25W
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      84. Looking forward to being able to use Samsung 990 Pro Gen 4 SSD’s in my Synology web server!
        Just wish I could get a decent CPU in an affordable system to handle the web hosting I do with mine… Thanks for the great videos…
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      87. Great job covering some of the possible Synology created pitfalls. Anyway, this gives some (a little) purchase to Syno’s push for 10GbE over 2.5GbE in its offerings (I still think they should have had 2.5GbE for consumer models).
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      88. It seems that users of Synology NAS devices have also finally had their time ???? I’ve been using M.2 NVMe modules on QNAP NASes in RAID as very fast data volumes moreover for VM (+ GPU) for many years now, and as I watch, I’m glad I switched to QNAP. Still waiting a few years for Synology to introduce something is quite a hassle ????
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      89. from a tech standpoint there is no reason not to enable pci-e gen 2 bays for storage.
        pci-e gen 2 offers 2gb bandwith, (net a bit less of course) but that is still 10 times faster than sequential read/write of hdds.
        nvme-disks may offer a bit higher sequential read and write in theory but for one you cannot utilize that speed even with a 10gbit connection and even if you could, you will tax the ryzen r1600 quite a bit with a maxed out pci-e gen3 raid setup. the chip is much more capable than the celerons before when it comes to io, but it still is only 2core/4threads at fairly moderate clock speeds.

        in practice there is very little advantage for this kind of hardware between pci-e gen 2 and gen 3. what we really want are the iops and those are not hindered by pci-e gen2.

        load times will be greatly improved and with this announcement a tiny windows vm that does not require a lot of compute but profits of fast disk access becomes a real possibility combined with the up to 32gigs of ram. imagine a small business that runs e.g. the accounting database for shared access on a 923+ (i’d have loved to have seen the 4core 8 thread amd chip for that very reason, it would have made this from a good into a great soho setup).
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      90. Really exciting! Great video, as always! I think with PCIe gen 5 becoming mainstream (4GBps per lane!) it would be cool to see what that would mean for all-NVME NAS builds. Even a relatively modest 16 PCIe5 lane slot could theoretically support 16 drives at “ok” speed or 8 drives at excellent speed, and that’s not even counting M.2 slots built into the board!
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      91. Another strange decision from Synology. This will annoy far more than it impresses because those that want this but need more drive slots will be left out and those who have recently bought other high end systems will be screwed over.
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      92. Personally, I’m ripe to upgrade my 5 year old NAS, but I’m waiting for a truly modernized NAS product. By this I mean, a NAS chassis not built to accommodate 3.5”drives at all. I want a new NAS that only uses smaller, next gen devices such as NVMe SSDs, the benefits being a much smaller box, and correspondingly lower power use, noise, and heat.

        However, NAS makers seem to move pretty slow. It could be awhile.
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      95. Having created another storage pool on NVME through SSH on a DS1019+ in the last 3 days (51 hours uptime) it provides a massive boost to Docker and VM’s even on PCIE 2.0. I look forward to it being native in DSM 7.2 even if it is not directly supported on my model.
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      97. The way they’ve ignored what other NAS makers were doing with NVMe is yet another example of Synology embracing technology to the point where it makes little sense. It may be that they’re noticing a downturn in sales that forces them to act.
        That they still use ESATA for external storage connections, won’t provide 2.5GbE as a standard LAN port and insist on Synology branded upgrades (when they don’t make drives, NVMe or RAM) makes me wonder if its domination of the NAS market is destined to end abruptly.
        That they might not support older NVMe capable machines with the storage upgrade smacks of a company that is overconfident in its ability to dictate to the customers what the future will be.
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      98. Not being able to use SSDs for Storage Pool is one of the 2 reasons I’m avoiding Synology (the other being the HDD compatibility story). It’s nice to see they’re (seemingly) fixing this.
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      101. *Note* – I have only JUST uploaded this video! Youtube takes a while to process in 720P and 1080p (15+ mins). So if you are only seeing this in low quality, come back in a bit and it should be at full HD quality soon! Thanks for watching!
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