Synology DS223 NAS Review – The Importance of Value?
Looking for a shorter review? Check out my ‘Synology DS223 NAS – Should You Buy’ Article HERE
I think it would be fair to say that if you have been pondering leaving the relatively affordable but access/privacy questionable storage of Cloud services and moving towards your own compact private server, then Synology NAS has likely already appeared on your radar. Operating for more than 20 years, Synology has (largely thanks to their DSM software and services) been able to rise to the top of the home/business user market for the most part when it comes to turnkey NAS solutions. However, you cannot purchase DSM separately and in order access this platform and use it to manage your own NAS server, you need to buy a Synology Diskstation or Rackstation solution – and HERE is where alot of home/small business users start to show signs of sweat. With the bulk of mid-high performance desktop NAS solutions from Synology arriving at the $500-1000 mark (and that is without the all-important HDDs or SSDs), some find the entry point into the Synology NAS ecosystem a little daunting. However, this is where the Synology DS223 NAS 2-Bay enters the conversation, an entry-level/Value class Diskstation NAS that, although modest in size and price, is designed to give users access to around 70-80% of the Synology DSM software and services. The Synology DS223 NAS is the (some might say long, LONG overdue) refresh of the 2017/2018 released DS218. Although doing so with seemingly little in the way of change over it’s predecessor (indeed, just the CPU on the face of it, but more on that later), in our review of the DS223 NAS, I want to help you see if this new value series NAS deserves your money and your data? Let’s go.
Synology DS223 NAS Review – Quick Conclusion
As soon as your look at the Synology DS223 as an entry point into the Synology software platform and ecosystem for those that want to have a small, robust and user-friendly NAS – it makes ALOT of sense! There is a reason why it arrives at a price point $120-150 cheaper than the DS723+ and as long as you are looking at the DS223 as a low-power, low impact and low-demand device, you are going to come away from it happy! It provides the bulk of the DSM applications and services that most home/small office users are going to want for Multimedia, Collaboration, Backup, Sync’d team drives and surveillance, but does so in a much more affordable package than the Plus series. Where some users might hit issues when they assume that the DS223 can provide the same extent of features and performance of the DS220+, DS723+ and above. This NAS carries the ‘Value’ tag for a reason and as long as you keep that in mind, it is a great little NAS box and serves as a great first NAS or as an extension of your existing Synology NAS environment as an additional backup layer. The rather lacklustre support of USB in DSM 7 is slightly countered by this device having three on board (though 5Gb/s) for storage, which is more desirable for home users, as is that copy button function. The removal of the SD Card slot in recent refreshes of this series, plus the continued appearance of 1GbE is disappointing but expected at this tier in the brand’s portfolio. But overall I cannot really fault the DS223 NAS for those users who want to be able to access the Synology NAS platform, but are on a tight budget and/or have low-ranged demands for it’s use. Again, just don’t go expecting a Ford Mustang when you are paying the price of a Ford Focus!
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Synology DS223 NAS Review – Packaging
The modest/value series of Synology NAS drives are generally packaged in a more ‘IT Shop Shelf’ appealing way and the DS223 is no exception to this. The retail box on the face of it looks like standard brown-box-product-sticker fare, but a closer look shows that the box is printed with product-specific details regarding its services, hardware and contents. It’s a minor point, but it all adds to that Synology image/branding that has always given them the slight ‘Apple’ feel of the NAS industry.
Opening up the box shows us that the protection afforded to this device is a little underwhelming in transit. Unlike the more industrious Plus series in 4-Bay, 6-Bay and higher, the device is largely protected by a single-layer cardboard structure and little else. Now, the device is shipped unpopulated and is designed to be an affordable Synology solution – so I can appreciate that the level of expense and necessity towards protection in transit is negligible. However, it is still a little flimsy and if your retailer of choice is offering this unit pre-populated – definitely check they are adding more packaging to this one!
Unpacking everything shows us the familiar range of accessories that you would expect from a 2-Bay NAS. The DS223 system itself, screws, 1 metre Cat 5e network cable, first-time setup guide, information on 2-year warranty (extendable as an optional extra), external PSU and mains power cable.
As this is a more modest system, isn’t a huge surprise that the power supply unit is external. Aside from the ease of replacement in the event of a failure, removing this from the main chassis alleviates heat concerns internally of temp increases inside and allows much more modest PSU power ratings. This Synology-branded external PSU is 60W rated and will run at a very modest power use typically 24×7. Synology stated power consumption of 17.343W during full access and just 4.08W during Hibernation/Standby.
The retail package and accessories that the Synology DS223 NAS arrives with are quite modest and that isn’t a tremendous surprise for a system carrying the ‘Value’ moniker. Additionally, there is precious little more than the brand could justifiably provide. That said, the protection afforded to the device in transit is a little underwhelming and given the tremendous attention Synology typically makes to their image and presentation, I would have liked to see something a bit more protective (motion/shock damage in transit). It’s a very minor complaint, but one that some will notice! Let’s discuss the design of the DS223 NAS.
Synology DS223 NAS Review – Design
The chassis that the Synology DS223 NAS arrives with was first debuted in the DS218+ series and has gone on to be the go-to casing that the brand has used in the majority of their home Diskstations. With the external completely plastic, internal metal framework, a removable front panel and hotswappable drives – this is still a very appealing looking chassis and still doesn;t look dated 5 years on.
Ventilation on the casing also stands out notably too, with the side vents being embossed in the brands logo, base level ventilation and the removable front pannel having ventilation slots built into the top and bottom, as it is raised a few millimetres from the main chassis front. Indeed, this casing is arguably one of the best on the whole Diskstation line up.
Of course, those vents aren’t just for show and actually serve as passive ventilation that works with the single rear active cooling fan. The internals of the DS223 (CPU, Netowrk Controllers, etc) do not nave any kind of active fan inside and are reliant on heatsinks to dissipate the heat from these components into the air. The DS223 is designed to be on 24×7, so effective heat dissipation and ventilation are HUGELY important and this, again, is an area where this familiar chassis does very well.
The Synology DS223 lacks any kind of LCD panel to give real-time information, instead favouring front-mounted LEDs that denote system, drive and network health/activity. These LEDs can be decreased/increased in brightness of course, as well as the system having an alert buzzer for critical attention (high system temp, RAID degradation, drive issue reported, etc). All fairly standard stuff from Synology here.
One thing I am pleased to see continue in this product series is the front-mounted USB Port and copy button. Synology have come under fire a tad in recent years for their diminished support of USB on their devices (more on that later) and although the Copy button was absent on the DS723+ NAS released last month (plus, that NAS only had a single USB port also), the DS223 NAS has this port, this button and for small/home users that might be more reliant on an affordable USB backup tier of their data (in either direction), this will be a continued welcome feature. Yes, you CAN use the USB Copy tool to auto trigger a backup to/from the NAS and USB (with versioning, Differential backups, Filters, Rules and exceptions too), but having the open to action this via a physical button is that tiny extra piece of mind. Fantastically binary in a digital world, but for the entry-level/small-scale user that the DS223 is aimed at, still welcome! That said, the most observant might see that the front chassis has a rectangular outline panel. THIS is where this series once featured an SD Card slot (a firm favourite by photographers). Sadly, this is a feature long lost to the past!
Removing that front panel of the DS223 is very easy (non-magnetized) as it is held in place by four rubber cushioned holder pins that slot in around the main two storage bays. The panel, nor the trays, can be locked and the panel is not hinged, so replacing it can feel a little loosy-goosey at first, but it does cover the drives and make the DS223 appear alot more discreet and less industrial (for those that care about these things). The trays tightly held in place at the top of case and can be hot-swapped when needed (i.e drive replacement).
Much like the bulk of Diskstation NAS devices from Synology, the DS223 have plastic click-and-load trays, that allow you to very quickly install 3.5″ HDDs (as well as featuring screwholes for 2.5″ media). You can run the system on a single drive if you wish, then add another drive as your storage needs grow. However, the expected setup of the DS223 is installing two HDDs and creating your RAID, such as RAID 0 or RAID 1, depending on the importance of your data and the necessity of a safety net (i.e redundancy). The DS223 is also one of the Diskstation solutions from the brand to support it’s flexible RAID system, Synology Hybrid RAID. This allows users to mix and match drives, though arguably less viable in this 2-Bay chassis that lacks the support of an expansion device like the DX517, it will make later expansion towards larger drives across the system much easier to migrate.
The individual SATA drive bays are located directly in front of the rear active cooling fan, with no additional wires or separate data/power connectors for the drives. This allows the air to pass around/in-between the drives and out through the numerous vent panels. The DS223 lacks any kind of M.2 NVMe SSD bays or an accessible memory upgrade slot in the main storage bay area, as found in the likes of the DS923+ and DS723+ NAS, but then again this IS designed to be a much, much more modest solution!
Another question some users might have about the DS223 NAS is to do with HDD and SSD compatibility. In the last 12-18 months, Synology has been a tad erratic about their position on HDD support, with some more enterprise units arriving with restricted supported HDD/SSD lists that largely feature their own storage media (HAT5300, SAT5200, etc). In the smaller/compact NAS devices, we have seen Synology take a less 1st party position and the DS223 has that similar broader media compatibility. The is still the odd ceiling of 18TB at the time of writing, despite 20TB and 22TB HDDs inthe amrket (arguably down to Synology only providing 18TB HDDs in their series), but at least the compatibility on this more value series solution is a great deal more accessibly that the higher tiers
There are still lingering questions around the subject of Synology releasing a value series of HDDs for their home and SMB NAS solutions (eg a HAT3300 or HAT3310? Perhaps built on more domestic/standard class NAS ranges like Seagate Ironwolf drives), but even then, at this scale of NAS it would be tough to see Synology impose tighter compatibility lists on value devices such as the DS223. Let’s discuss the ports and connections that the Synology DS223 arrives with.
Synology DS223 NAS Review – Ports and Connections
The external connectivity of NAS is something that has been something of a sticking point with Synology NAS in recent years, as when the brand has refreshed existing series’ periodically, the external connectivity has (in most cases) remained unchanged in both the quantity and quality of the default connections (i.e 1GbE, 5G USB, etc) and the DS223 is not going to break this rule. However, given the more value/entry-level targetted stance of the DS223, I am less critical here. Indeed, the connections here are IDENTICAL to that of the DS218, but few modest home users would have been pushing the boundaries of these connections in the frist place really.
During operation, that rear fan (with it’s RPM supporting manual/automatic rotation speeds takes up the bulk o the rear space. It’s also worth highlighting that although this fan is by no means noisy when in operation, it can even be swapped out unofficially for an even quieter fan if needed (video guide on that soon). When it comes to noise, as long as you opt for regular NAS class (so, not Pro or Enterprise) drives under 10TB, you are barely going to hear this system when in operation! Additionally, the system is quick to intelligently switch to standby/hibernation under the default settings if connections idle are left for a short period, which also lowers the fan speed accordingly.
Two further USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports are included on the rear, which are always welcome (especially when the recent prosumer DS723+ 2-Bay NAS only had 1x port in total) and despite these being Gen 1 (so 5Gb/s, rather than 10Gb Gen 2 ports), home users are going to be much more included to take advantage of these. The range of supported USB devices outside of external storage drives and UPS’ that DSM 7 supports at the moment is a little lite (especially in comparison to the wider range of accessories and adapters supported in DSM 6.2) but at the very least you still have a large amount of storage options for your external USB drives/keys, your small UPS,
The decreased support of USB on the Synology platform and DSM 7 is only really going to be an issue for smaller scale and home users when it comes to increased bandwidth network adapters (2.5GbE or 5GbE over USB) or wireless adapters for those looking for a secondary/convenient (if slower) wireless connection). In both these cases, DSM 7 USB support will immediately stop you. There has been an increase in users finding workarounds via github and unofficial patches, but there are short-term solutions that could be undone in a DSM update that would be foolish to skip, in lew of the security patches/fixes it might contain.
Then there is the default network connection of the Synology DS223 NAS of 1x 1GbE. Now, despite my protests and complaints about the default connections of bigger and/or more aggressive NAS systems having 1GbE in the last few months, I am actually less bothered about it’s appearance on the DS223. First and foremost, the ARM v8 CPU inside might well only have limited network support of 2.5GBASE-T/2.5G, as well as be less capable of fully saturating that bandwidth effectively despite the 2x SATA Drives. Then there is Synology maintaining their price point for this device when factoring in DSM. The option to add USB network upgrades would have been desirable (especially given the number of USB ports on offer here), but the DS223 having 1GbE is not the dealbreaker in my eyes that it might have been on a bigger or more powerful system.
Indeed, heading over to Synology’s own site shows that the DS223 stands up moderately well in a number of typical performance tests over 1GbE and is only really showing it’s modest power level when compared against Intel/AMD systems in more complex/high-frequency tasks. ARM processors have come a long way in the last 3-4 years (especially in the ARM v8 tiers such as the RTD1619b here) and they are doing a great job of balancing efficient power use vs output. The DS223 still has the same glass ceiling as the DS218 in terms of external connectivity, but it definitely seems to either get the average job done with less power use or just have more in the tank compared to that of the DS218, DS118, DS418 and DS218play with the Realtek RTD1296.
As mentioned, the ports and connections of the Synology DS223 are not exactly going to blow your socks off, but are quite reasonable for a value/entry tier into the Diskstation NAS hardware. I still hope this is going to be the last time in a product series (even ARM) that we see 1GbE and USB 3.2 Gen 1 in the DS2XX tier, but right now I think it doesn’t serve as too much of a bottleneck for the hardware on offer here. No one can criticize a Ford Focus for not being a Ford Mustang after all! So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at what is under the bonnet on the DS223 NAS.
Synology DS223 NAS Review – Internal Hardware
The external casing is remarkably well held together (involving removing the rear fan, additional screws and leveraging a couple of internal clips) but removing the plastic casing revealsthe extent of that metal framework. The main controller board is separated from the twin SATA storage bays via a large aluminium panel, only providing a small opening for the PCIe connecting slot for the storage cage and SATA board.
The inside of that plactic casing is surprisingly well structured, with a grid framework that maintains quite a rigid feel, despite its plastic material. How much of this framework also possibly dissipate vibration and/or noise might also worth looking into at a later date too. The main SATA storage cage takes up the bulk of the available space, but there is still plenty of space around and behind this for ventilation and active airflow.
It’s quite hard to show, but you can see in the image below how the rear fan, although largely covering the HDD/SSD bays, is also at the top of that smaller cavity for the main controller board, CPU, Memory and ancillary components in the DS223. The metal panel in between the board and storage acts both as a means of channelling that airflow AND as a means of heat dissipation by the looks of it.
Removing the main storage cage and panel shows you the main controller board. Inside is a large heatsink for the Realtek RTD1619b CPU. This CPU. unlike those found in domestic PCs, does not rely on a directly connected CPU fan but rather that heatsink is going to be dissipating heat out into the flat/wide airflow cavity created by the barrier between the storage and main board. The main thing to keep in mind with the DS223 NAS hardware is going to be much, MUCH more focused on hardware efficiency than more NAS systems in higher-powered or larger configurations (eg DS723+, DS923+, DS2422+, etc). ARM processors are typically found in battery-dedicated devices or systems that cannot afford large/consistent power delivery to the main processor, and are designed around the instructions that are being sent/delivered to/from the CPU being compressed. This allows the CPU to perform tasks that a more aggressive/powerful CPU (such as an Intel or AMD x86 64Bbit processor) would use more power to perform. HOWEVER, this comes with notable downsides. First off, ARM processors cannot action complex instructions particularly efficiently (as they are either unable or very difficult to compress). Additionally, ARM processors typically have a lower clock speed (once again, to ensure a good level of power use vs actions on devices built around batteries of power efficiency). These factors add up to why you will often find ARM processors in more affordable and/or entry-level NAS systems and the DS223 is no exception to this. But is the RTD1619b a good CPU and does it compare well against the RTD1296 in the DS218 NAS?
The RTD1619b is a much newer generation ARM processor that provides everything that was available in terms of features and handling of the RTD1296 in the older gen Synology value systems, but also increases them in a number of areas too. Improved graphics handling efficiency, cache handling and a higher available clock speed. In the grand scheme of things, this means that the DS223 will be able to do the same tasks as the DS218, but do it using less power and therefore be able to do more tasks in total at any given time. You are still going to be occasionally hamstrung by the ARM architecture (graphics handling is supported by a smaller-scale onboard graphics component, but it pales in comparison to intels’ integrated graphics or AMD vega equivalents). What about onboard memory?
The Synology DS223 NAS arrives with 2GB of DDR4 memory, which is quite a reasonable day 1 amount. The DSM 7 system software (which is a fraction pared down on ARM systems – just because some features/services are just not possible on this architecture) will end up using around 200-300MB for general systems running with a handful of the Synology collab/media apps running and approached 1GB and above once you start factoring in surveillance (the 2 camera licenses being used) and a few backup operations. The only real issue with the memory is that the 2GB is fixed, so that means that you cannot really expand your range of simultaneous operations/tasks too high. Again, that RTD1619b ARM processor was already bringing something of its own performance bottleneck anyway, so this isn’t a dealbreaker (again, 2GB is good and not the expected 1GB or even 512MB that we are likely to see in the likes of DS123 and DS223j down the line). Its just a shame when this CPU seems to have a 4GB cap that they couldn’t raise the minimum memory level on ARM system systems to meet this, given the improvements and growth of the system OS DSM.
During my testing and software review of the DS223 (see in the video a few scrolls down) the only issue I encountered with this CPU in NAS, keeping things in perspective that it IS a Value Series NAS and should be considered Entry-level), as that the CPU would never sit at 20-25% usage. No, it would either idle at under 10-15% whilst its apps hibernated and it awaited orders, OR it would spike to 50-60-80% quickly as I tackled even slightly more proactive tasks. Again, this is systematic of ARM processors being a little more all-or-nothing when in operation handling tasks. The RTD1619 in the DS223 definitely works well and runs DSM 7 very well – it’s just very easy to make it work hard, even when you aren’t trying to! Let’s discuss DSM and to what extent you can use it on this entry-level Synology NAS.
Synology DS223 NAS Review – Software and Services
The Synology Diskstation Manager application (DSM) is pretty much one of the MAIN reasons that most people end up choosing the Synology brand. The hardware can often be described as ‘playing it safe’ from time to time, but the DSM platform is one of the most well-developed network and data management platforms in the world. Managing to make the traditionally complex and convoluted matter or managing your data storage and network configuration very straightforward and intuitive. Arriving as an operating system class graphical user interface that you can access via a web browser or mobile device, this expands to a huge range of native (i.e task-specific and tailored) client tools for Windows, Mac, Android, Linux, iOS and even multimedia tools for Amazon Alexa and FireTV. All this said, the Synology DS223 NAS is a NAS built around power efficiency and a lower price point for home/low-end users. How does that impact the range of tools and services available in DSM 7 with an ARMv8 64bit architecture compared with those found in an Intel or AMD x86 64bit processor? Well, MOSTLY the more value tier of hardware provides a 70-80% similar experience in terms of the applications and services on offer. There are definitely some concessions in terms of the extent to which some applications can be used (eg fewer cameras in surveillance station, fewer simultaneous shares and active users, HEVC transcoding is heavily reduced in it’s scope/range, AI photo recognition is disabled by default but can be enabled, etc) and some applications are completely unavailable, but on the whole you ARE getting a good entry point in to the Synology ecosystem. If you want to learn about the latest version of DSM 7 and the FULL RANGE software and services that are included with the platform on a more powerful NAS system, watch my FULL review below (alternatively, you can read the DSM 7 Full Review HERE):
As mentioned, the DS223 supports many of the DSM 7/7.1 applications and services. Here are some stand-out apps that are supported:
Synology Office – Create documents, spreadsheets, and slides in a multi-user environment. Real-time synchronization and saving make collaboration a breeze. This allows you to view and edit your office documents in a native Synology application (no internet access needed) and keep all file management and handling internally.
Synology Cloud Sync – This allows you to connect and synchronize the data you may have on your 3rd party cloud platform to be accessible on the NAS (as well as allow a 1 way or 2 way sync between NAS and Cloud as needed). A wide variety of Cloud platforms are supported (including the usual Google Drive, DropBox, etc)
Synology Chat – Aimed at businesses, Synology Chat is an IM service that transforms the way users collaborate and communicate. This serves as an alternative to Whatsapp, Skype and more
Synology Drive – Host your own private cloud behind the safety of your NAS with 100% data ownership and no subscription fees. Add to this the local client support for iOS, Android, Windows and Mac for file streaming/pinning so you can natively view the contents of your NAS in your OS file explorer, without taking any local disk space unless you choose to!
Synology Photos – Manage your photos and videos with deep-learning AI that automatically group photos with similar faces, subjects, and places. Also built to help photographers manage their photos and share them with clients for feedback or business development. Recent updates to Synology photos have added new features and improved the sharing/private collection spaces. Additionally, Google TV has also recently added a Synology Photos application.
Synology Calendar – Stay on track, share calendars, and schedule meetings, while ensuring sensitive information remains safely stored on company premises.
Synology Hyper Backup – Backup your NAS safely and efficiently to multiple destinations with deduplication, integrity checks, compression, and versioning. This supports a large number of backup tasks that can go on a schedule, support a rotational retention policy, filters, exclusions and more. You can run backups from NAS to NAS, NAS to USB, NAS to Cloud and NAS to Remote NAS. Though for USB routines, it is recommended to look a the USB Copy tool, as this allows your local backup routines to be much better defined and executed.
Synology Surveillance Station – Safeguard your business, home, and other valuable assets with reliable video surveillance tools. The system arrives with two camera licenses and gives you access to a range of surveillance tools, add-ons, live feed, in-browser camera view/control, privacy screens, alert/notification customization, watermarks, edge recorded on SD cards for supported cameras and recently the inclusion of cloud dual recording with C2 Surveillance.
Synology Video Station – Manage all your movies, TV shows, and home videos. Stream them to multiple devices or share them with friends and family. Thanks to the support of Metadata scraping (by connecting a free MovieDatabase account) you can use Video Station to build your own equivalent of a Plex Media Server-presented multimedia collection. Also, there are additional Video station client applications for mobile devices, Amazon Fire TV and more, so you can enjoy your media from your sofa in the best-presented way possible and using native transcoding, as it is a 1st party app.
Synology Audio Station – Manage your music collection, create personal playlists, stream them to your own devices, or share them with family or friends. Additionally, there is a ‘skill’ added to Amazon Alexa that allows you to voice command the music on your NAS to play from your smart speaker.
Synology File Station – Manage your Synology NAS files remotely through web browsers or mobile devices.
Important! The following Apps are either not supported by the DS223 NAS or are currently unavailable at launch, but there are hopes/plans to see them arrive on this hardware:
Synology Active Backup for Business (ABB) – Definitely won’t be supported! It’s a great tool and one of the flagship Synology Apps, but this modest hardware will make ABB in any way stable/consistent
Synology Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) – It was always going to be completely off the cards for the DS223 to support the Synology Virtual Machine application. Aside from the 2GB of default memory that cannot be upgraded, the Realtek CPU inside this system is built around instruction compression and efficiency – something VMs are not known for when delivering commands!
Synology Central Management System (CMS) – Synology CMS allows you to manage multiple Synology NAS servers quickly and conveniently from a single location. This is a more power-hungry and heavy task than you might think and currently is unavailable on the DS223 value NAS
Synology High Availability – The Synology Active-Passive failure software system is definitely too power necessitated for the DS223
Plex Media Server – Yes, the main reason some buyers might be looking at the DS223 as a modest multimedia server on a budget. At the time of writing (Feb 6th 2023), Plex has not issued a compatible version of their server tool for this particular ARM v8 Processor. It will likely appear on the official Plex downloads and/or Synology App center a short while after the DS223 is globally released. Stay tuned! You cannot really fault the software and services that are included with the Synology DS223 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.
Synology DS223 NAS Review – Conclusion & Verdict
As soon as your look at the Synology DS223 as an entry point into the Synology software platform and ecosystem for those that want to have a small, robust and user-friendly NAS – it makes ALOT of sense! There is a reason why it arrives at a price point $120-150 cheaper than the DS723+ and as long as you are looking at the DS223 as a low-power, low impact and low-demand device, you are going to come away from it happy! It provides the bulk of the DSM applications and services that most home/small office users are going to want for Multimedia, Collaboration, Backup, Sync’d team drives and surveillance, but does so in a much more affordable package than the Plus series. Where some users might hit issues when they assume that the DS223 can provide the same extent of features and performance of the DS220+, DS723+ and above. This NAS carries the ‘Value’ tag for a reason and as long as you keep that in mind, it is a great little NAS box and serves as a great first NAS or as an extension of your existing Synology NAS environment as an additional backup layer. The rather lacklustre support of USB in DSM 7 is slightly countered by this device having three on board (though 5Gb/s) for storage, which is more desirable for home users, as is that copy button function. The removal of the SD Card slot in recent refreshes of this series, plus the continued appearance of 1GbE is disappointing but expected at this tier in the brand’s portfolio. But overall I cannot really fault the DS223 NAS for those users who want to be able to access the Synology NAS platform, but are on a tight budget and/or have low-ranged demands for it’s use. Again, just don’t go expecting a Ford Mustang when you are paying the price of a Ford Focus!
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