The Synology DS923+ vs DS920+ NAS – AMD vs Intel
Let’s face it, THIS is one of the biggest and earliest reasons that many users have been comparing the DS920+ and DS923+, as Synology surprised all of us with it’s choice of internal hardware in their latest diskstation release. To give you a little bit of history, Synology has always (for at least a decade or so) presented the plus series of 2-Bay and 4-Bay solutions with an Intel x86 processor with integrated graphics on board (i.e an extra component that is designed to be better suited to graphical data tasks, rather than use the normal/typical power of the processor as a whole. Indeed, the Synology DS920+ NAS arrives with exactly that, an Intel Celeron J4125 Processor, 4 Cores, 2.0Ghz frequency that can be burst when needed upto 2.7Ghz and on-board Integrated graphics. At the time of release, this was pretty much the ‘main’ Intel Celeron that was in use in the NAS market and provided an excellent middle ground between cost vs power vs efficiency in a NAS (other brands providing the same). So, when discussions of a follow-up to the DS920+ were beginning to be raised, many (myself included) assumed it would be another Intel Celeron inside (originally hypothesizing the N5105 or J6412). However, the confirmed CPU inside the DS923+ is the AMD Embedded Ryzen R1600, Dual Core, 2.6Ghz frequency that can be burst when needed to 3.1Ghz. The fact that the AMD R1600 does NOT feature any onboard/integrated graphics is a blow for anyone that is going to be considering the DS923+ over the DS920+ for server-side transcoding in Plex Media Server (either by choice or in the case of automatic conversion with HEVC/H.265). Now, before going any further, I need to highlight that the R1600 can DEFINITELY HANDLE 4K IN PLEX (I will cover this more later in an article on the blog, but you can watch the video here), so if you are choosing between the DS920+ and DS923+ for use as a native playback media server in 4K and 1080p, the CPU choice here is not an issue and in many ways, the increased horse power will allow more resources to go towards media playback across multiple streams AND other NAS services. Let’s take a closer look at the base internal hardware of the DS923+ and DS920+:
| NAS Model | Synology DS923+ NAS
|
Synology DS920+ NAS
|
| CPU Model | AMD Ryzen R1600 | Intel Celeron J4125 |
| CPU Architecture | 64-bit | 64-bit |
| CPU Frequency | 2-core 2.6 (base) / 3.1 (turbo) GHz | 4-core 2.0 (base) / 2.7 (burst) GHz |
| Hardware Encryption Engine (AES-NI) | Yes | Yes |
| Memory | ||
| System Memory | 4GB DDR4 ECC SODIMM | 4GB DDR4 non-ECC |
| Memory Module Pre-installed | 4GB x1 Module | 4GB X1 SODIMM Module (soldered) |
| Total Memory Slots | 2 | 1 |
| Maximum Memory Capacity | 32GB (16GB+16GB) | 8GB (4GB + 4GB) |
Ok, so let’s break this down into the advantages that either one provides. The Intel Celeron inside the DS920+ NAS and it’s integrated graphics are definitely going to have their use. Tasks that require more advanced graphical techniques, such as encode, decode, QuickSync-supported tasks, viewing images that can be manipulated in the viewer and running of anything presented in HEVC/H.265 compression are going to benefit from the graphical toolkit present in the J4125 CPU. Also, the power use/efficiency of the Intel Celeron in 24×7 use is going to typically be lower in like-for-like use cases (with a TDP rating of 10W on the Celeron vs 25W on the R1600 – but these represent max usage/non-typical). Finally, the Intel Celeron in the DS920+ is a 4-core processor, double that of the R1600 at 2-core. 4 Cores means that you can spread those dedicated cores to other processes more effectively and present a larger degree of processing power to those tasks. Now, the DS923+ and it’s AMD R1600 does counter all of these points with some impressive strengths of it’s own. For a start, that much higher base and turbo frequency of 2.6Ghz > 3.1Ghz. This means that you have a much more powerful NAS at your disposal to get most other tasks done and if you are not focused on those graphical areas mentioned earlier that the J4125 favours, the R1600 is going to get most other tasks done quicker and/or have more resources to spread out to more users at once.
| CPU / NAS Model | Intel Celeron J4125 (DS920+)
|
AMD Embedded Ryzen R1600 (DS923+)
|
| Architecture | Gemini Lake | Banded Kestrel (Zen) |
| Cores | 4 | 2 |
| Threads | 4 | 4 |
| Frequency | 2.0Ghz | 2.6Ghz |
| Turbo/Burst | 2.7Ghz | 3.1Ghz |
| Hyperthreading | N/A | Yes |
| GPU | Intel UHD Graphics 600 | N/A |
| GPU frequency | 0.25 GHz | N/A |
| GPU Turbo/Burst | 0.75 GHz | N/A |
| Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) | Decode / Encode | N/A |
| Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) | Decode / Encode | N/A |
| Codec h264 | Decode / Encode | N/A |
| Max. Memory | 8GB | 32GB |
| Memory channels | 2 | 2 |
| ECC Memory Support | No | Yes |
| PCIe version | PCIe Gen 2 | PCIe Gen 3 |
| PCIe Lanes | 6 | 8 |
| Thermal Design Power | 10W TDP | 15-25W TDP |
| Release date | Q4 / 2019 | Q2 / 2019 |
The fact the DS923+ R1600 CPU is a dual-core is a bit of a kick, but it does make up for this a bit with the fact it is 4 threads, which can be used as virtual CPUs in VMs and spread itself out more efficiently to multiple tasks than spreading cores would – less powerful, but more efficient. The R1600 CPU also opens up Gen 3 PCI lanes internally, allowing greater bandwidth to be afforded to the system’s internal chipset/hardware-services than the PCI Gen 2 lanes in the J4125 DS920+ (Gen2 = 500MB per lane, Gen3 = 1000MB per lane). This is likely how the DS923+ NAS can provide both a 10GbE optional upgrade (covered more later) and the two NVMe SSD slots (likely a higher gen/speed than those in the DS920+). Finally, let’s talk about memory! Both the DS920+ and DS923+ NAS arrive with 4GB of DDR4 memory, but even a casual glance shows quite alot of difference from this point! First off, the DS920+ can only be upgraded to 8GB maximum (CPU Recommended and NAS Recommened), whereas the DS923+ and it’s R1600 can hit 32GB of memory (over two slots, so 2x 16GB SODIMM) – That is ALOT of memory to play with! Additionally, the memory in the DS923+ is 3200Mhz (TBC!) and ECC (Error-correcting Code) memory that takes advantage of an additional on-board component that runs a checksum/parity-bit as data passes through the RAM at the beginning at compares at the end, repairing/healing data that might get corrupted in the write process (very caveman description, but it largely covers it). The memory in the DS920+ is 2666Mhz, non-ECC and 4GB of it is soldered to the board (only 1x upgrade slot).
Note – You can READ the full article that details all the tests and results of the Synology DS1522+ NAS and WD Red Pro 22TBs over 10GbE HERE. Alternatively, you can watch my YouTube video on these tests (with 5GbE testing too) here on the NASCompares YouTube Channel.
| Synology DS1522+ with 4x 22TB WD Red Pro RAID 5/10GbE Test – 64MB | Synology DS1522+ with 4x 22TB WD Red Pro RAID 0/10GbE Test – 256MB |
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| Synology DS1522+ with 4x 22TB WD Red Pro RAID 5/10GbE Test – 1GB | Synology DS1522+ with 4x 22TB WD Red Pro RAID 0/10GbE Test – 4GB |
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Business users and those running high volume and frequency databases are going to definitely see/want the benefits of that ECC memory, the scalability of it and the particular benefits of that R1600 Processor in the DS923+. The DS920+ is still, overall, the better multimedia choice in terms of the range of supported graphical services available, power consumption 24×7 and at the current value for money (It has been as low as £400-425 previously) it is incredible in 2022/2023, but really the hardware inside the DS923+ is much more business focused (not an accident I am sure). Thanks for reading and I hope this helped!
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Question some of the new models do have Intel Celeron. Do those all have the same imbedded graphics as this older model ?
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Seems like these comparisons are moot if you just connect any NAS to a Zidoo media player such as the Z9x or Z2000pro to pull the content from your NAS. Those will play anything smoothly, everytime.
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I have bought a DS1522+ a week ago. I was struggling with external discs breaking down one after another. Even a 5 week old 8 Tb barracuda drive. ????
98 percent what i have is 1080p. That is doing fine. But it is struggling with 4k. A DS1621xs was just to expensive.
I hate it that Synolgy on purpose choose to use these CPU’s. They are doing that deliberate. So you have to step up bigtime. Actually with a CPU and a build in GPU a lot of people would not buy their expensive Nas line. Synoly could have used a slightly more expensive CPU with build in GPU. And that would have cost us around 50 dollar more. But we all would have done that gladly. And it is really a stupid move from from Synology because a lot of people will be looking at Qnap because of that. So in the end it will cost them money.
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I don’t understand why you would not want to optimise your CPU performance with SMT. It’s basically just saying you’re happy to have your CPU sitting idle instead of working, for a slight improvement on task completion times.
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Why can’t Synology get with the embedded graphics program! If QNAP interface and software was more user friendly. Synology would really have problems.
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Hey guys – really good video. I really researched this topic a lot and decided against the 923+ or 723+ due to dual core and no embedded graphics. I will tell you though, the the 1500B Ryzen in the RS1221+ is a beast. It is by far the fastest NAS I have. My RS422+ has the Ryzen 1600 in it and I’m not super impressed. Most home users are not going to benefit from 10GBE yet because everything else in the house runs 1GBE or less. I’m sticking with the DS920+, DS720+, and RS1221+ for now and skipping the 23+ series. I think Synology really let us down on this one. Also, the hard drive selection on these from the QVL is getting stupid for something that crosses between home and business NAS for the home user who wants more power.
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I just purchased a 723+ and a pair of 12TB drives. Did I make a mistake? What would you purchase instead, staying in the Synology family, DSM is the requirement. I am not going to use Plex ever, It will be mostly used for personal cloud and Synology Photos for local management of my family’s photos’ and videos.
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Just upgraded from a DS1812+ recently and ended up with DS920+ instead of the 923+ purely because Synology opted to use an iGP-less chip for the new generation. There are ryzen embedded chips with igp. So disappointed with Synology for cutting out the igp in their new prosumer models.
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Does the DS920+ support these 22TB drives as well?
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Synology could have used 1605 chip with integrated graphics and had AMD hardware transcoding for a couple of extra dollars, instead crippled the DS21,22,23+ models for plex
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My dude, another spot on video – can guarantee you have helped more than one person make an informed decision.
I have been holding and holding with my 214play (bleh) to see what XXX23 brings and it looks like XXX20+ is still the answer for the prosumer/transcode user.
Perfect level of information and impartiality (I’d call the new releases a hot steaming pile, but that’s just for my use case) – lets hope they’re not gearing up for a quad core DS923+Play++GOTYE+Platinum+++++ with an onboard graphics!
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920+ for me !! , I some times I do not understand Synology ?! just upgrade the Intel Cpu with 4k support and you have ours wallets !!
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the 920+ has some stuttering during playback. it wil just freeze for a tenth of a second during playback (like the spiderman-scene at 8:40 when they’re talking, 8:49 with the large screen, at 9:00 during the fade-in). That would be unplayable for me because it’s very noticable and annoying. Could it be that the settings were wrong for playback in plex? That it’s playing back in 24p instead of 23,997p and that’s why you get stuttering?
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The Synology DS923+ NAS Review is now LIVE! Find it here – https://nascompares.com/2022/11/16/synology-ds923-nas-review/
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I absolutely LOVE my 920+. I have had zero problems for 3 years now.
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I’m sorry but this videos is just misinformed. The integrated graphics are not used for transcoding. There are dedicated chips for this purpose. The memory is a huge boon and the base model wattage is 15 not 25. They could have stuck with Celeron but the amd isn’t bad and was specifically created for embedded unlike the celeron.
I think it’s a smart move
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Great video ????
Was wondering if you have a link for that video trailer which you showed last? I believe it was a Hevc 4k
60mb/s ?
Would like to DL it and try some tests on my end !
Cheers
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Changed from. 1817+ to 1821+ resulted into 3.5gbit to nearly 7gbit performance of a single 10gbe copy from my pc
Same Intel card, same hdds… Just the Nas changed.. Thanks ryzen…
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*Intel Celeron J4125* : _Release Date Q4 2019,_ 4-Core CPU with Integrated Graphics (Synology 2020 NASes)
*AMD R1600* : _Release Date Q2 2019,_ 2-Core CPU with no Integrated Graphics (Synology 2023 NASes) Progress ? ????????????
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Thank you for this video. It was a big help in making my decision to buy the DS920+. It’s a great NAS and I am so happy I bought it.
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Oooooooooooh;
Synology DS1522+ NAS Video Station Testing 4K & 1080p https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLTVjScmU-w
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i’ve watched your other vidoes of 4k comparasions but these NAS are not able to play HIGH BITRATE 4k content. So if the intel CPU is powefull enough then what is creating the bottleneck? because streaming is mostly IO bound process (as contracy to cpu bound process which requite more processing power) so processorer can’t be bottleneck. what are everyone thought on this?
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IGP missing is not good
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Im going Qnap next time. Syno is just doing everything wrong lately
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Used my NAS more for 4k video… still using the DS918+
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Hello guys. I’m really confused ???? I want to buy a NAS but what should I buy? Synology? Qnap? What processor? I want to use it as a media player. Most of my video’s are 4K or 4K HDR/Dolby vision. Please some advice? Thank you.
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Hmmmm …. AMD is famous for it iGPUs.
???????????Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll why in the heck didn’t Synology just put a AMD CPU with iGPU in their darn home/office NAS???????????? (no entiendo senor 😉
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I ended up buying the 1522+ as I was hopeful it would have a graphics processor but come to find out that it’s not really needed and not a hill to die on to be honest. Better option is the 10GBE (that should have been included) as a future proof option and more ram. If embedded graphics is a must for plex then just buy a NUC or use a old computer for a Plex server. Most if not all formats play on newer devices so transcoding isn’t needed.
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I think even the seagull behind Ed was totally unimpressed by the argument for AMD. Of course if Synology’s aim is to have a separate range of commercial NAS and a separate range of consumer, media, NAS then fine.
But they should announce their intentions as I guess half their customer base wants Plex and also 1gb Ethernet and has no use for 2.5 gb or non embedded graphics
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Trying to “both sides” this is a bad look for your credibility as an independent reviewer. Call it like it is – this is a bad move from almost any angle, and the few advancements in the -23 series are things that could have easily been achieved with a newer CPU with integrated graphics. Synology cheaped out because they got a good bulk deal on low end Ryzen chips, and their product lineup is going to suffer for home users for the next few years because of it.
It feels like you’re so committed to Synology because your YT channel relies on them being successful, so you don’t know how to react to bad decisions like this other than to put on a brave face.
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14:53 really says it all….
We have no issue with AMD powered CPUs if they would have the same or better GPU power which the R1600 has not… APU NAS when?
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What is the NAS going to be used for? I think with the support of virtual machines and containers, your NAS can also double as your main home server. If that’s what you’re looking for, I’d say go QNAP.
That’s what I did. I bought the QNAP TVS-H1288x. Yes, it is expensive, but it also serves many purposes in my home. I have a Plex server, along with a Windows 11 and Ubuntu VM running, and a few containers to handle various duties in my house. It has 4 2.5Gbe ports, 2 10 Gbe ports, and 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports for any imaginable network needs you might have. I can still add a GPU if I want and I’m currently only using a portion of the machine’s potential. So I won’t be needing to upgrade this H/W anytime soon.
If you just want a NAS, then the CPUs offered by Synology are more than capable of handling the task. I prefer the Synology S/W over QNAP, but Synology needs to up their H/W game to include at least one 10Gbe port on every model they sell. Buying a NAS today with 1Gbe ports is a waste of money, and quite honestly link aggregation does not do the job. I have an old DS1512+ that is over a decade old and still running fine. None of these new 2023 Synology boxes you’ve been discussing offer much more than that old DS1512+ I already have as far as a NAS is concerned.
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Would it be a possibility that Synology developed a “graphics card” to plug into the pci-e expansion slot? So you could choose between graphics acceleration or 10G adapter.
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I just have a separate pc that comes on, on demand for when I need to play Plex media. It boots in 10s so it’s fine. I’ve given up on wanting to use a NAS for videos.
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Had moved to 1621+ last year, i never found losing the gpu cost me anything. My prefered way to watch video is through ds file and native player, both in home and on the go. I don’t had much those extreme high bit rate video file outside of a select few of collections. Those are wast of storage and money in my opinion.
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This whole apparent myth about threads = cores is BS. Even at slightly higher clock speeds, the R will underperform vs. the Celeron in a server environment especially, when running multiple processes 24/7 is key. If they had opted for a 4c/8t ofc no contest, but they didn’t. Incidentally that also makes the whole point about more RAM totally moot. Not to mention the lack of iGPU, which makes this plus generation utterly irrelevant to many of the usual customers in this segment. Oh, and that’s not even mentioning the outdated 1G NIC which is laughable at this point.
Btw, Pentium branding is also gone as well as Celeron in case anyone wonders.
I like the back and forth that you guys do though. It’s a great service to your viewers, and ultimately help them choose the right product, ofc on that note your advice should be to avoid this plus generation all together because it’s nothing but a cash grab on Synology’s part 😉
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I hope they will start using N300 cpus with alder lake E cores, until that i wait for next NAS
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I wanted to buy a new NAS for Plex/Jellyfin but these new ones are just useless to me…
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I’m very disappointed about there being no integrated graphics because I think most home users are going to want to play movies on it. Luckily I didn’t hold out on the 923. I gave us waiting and bought the 920 and I’m glad i did. Seems like Synology is definitely heading down the business market on the small units instead of home user.
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Nothing news on ds1823+? Will use standard hard disk or synology ones?
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AMD makes power efficient APUs with integrated graphics – the Ryzen U series processors. The Ryzen 3 5400U has 4 cores, 8 threads, 3 GHz base clock, 4 GHz boost clock, and integrated graphics, all with 15W of power consumption. It seems like that APU would be a perfect fit for a NAS that is going to be used to decode and stream 4k video. It may increase the cost a bit, but consumers who want to stream 4k video from their NAS probably would be willing to pay it.
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I’ve been using Synology NAS for 11 years on a 1Gb/sec wired network and am a Plex user. I’ve experimented with various setups to maximize 4K video delivery to various output sizes, as in iPad/iPhone, PC/Mac, 4K smart TV and 1080p projector. Any time a 4K video had to be transcoded to another size, the Synology CPU was buried. By one user. I found out that the Apple TV 4K also performs transcoding of 4K input to match the display it’s connected to. So the server no longer needs to perform the transcoding (unless I’m on my iPhone/iPad, which requires transcoding, and it isn’t pretty)! This means that the Synology NAS needs less processor cores/speed (in most cases) when transmitting video media.
I, too, am awaiting a new Synology box that provides 4 or 5 discs with at least one 2.5Gbs network connection and a processor/GPU configuration that supports fast video decoding. Without that option, I have no need to upgrade. Synology’s focus is not on multimedia so I look to the near future with doubt. Perhaps Intel will eventually create new devices with this market in mind.
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I wanted to upgrade my 713+ / DX513 to an 1821+.. ( 1823 ? 1824?..)
If it came out with an R1600 I wouldn’t take it.
I’m ready to put 100 euros more and have power
they piss off synology not to offer a powerful NAS with graphics
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Not that TDP means much at all, but the R1600 is 12-25w. The old J4125 was 10w. Current Celerons are 40-60w. The R1600 has a graphics version and all R1600 support 2 10Gbe. They could have at least given people that. The R1600 from a computing standpoint beats most celerons and people do want to run docker and maybe VMs, so gimping it with a weak CPU would have been a bad decision.
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So, I have a DS1821+ with an AMD CPU and all my media on it; Photos, video, and music. I run Plex on an old Dell Latitude laptop with a 2nd Gen i7. I stream my media to 2022 Apple TV’s. Not a single day buffering, local or remote. Works for me, or I’d say so.
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It depends on the use of the NAS – for me, the primary function of my current DS920+ is to run a Plex Server for remote devices not direct connected devices – in this case, having an IGPU is very important for me so I was naturally disappointed with the DS923+ using an AMD Ryzen which means I now have to look at QNAP or Asustor Lockstor 4 Gen2 with the N5105 CPU when it comes to upgrading – that or switch to using a Windows PC to run Plex which is not desirable due to power consumption
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Synology is going in the wrong direction. They dropped the ball across the field with not only the cpu shift, but not investing in their hardware. Their software is getting stale as well. They clearly are about bottom line profit and not about product… I’m done with them. QNAP is putting money and thought into what they are doing, I’m with them.
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synology needs to sell its operating system or with subscription like qnap.
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I am 100% with Eddie here. This is a pure business release of products cause they “had” to put out their xx2/3 models. Its obvious for anyone that knows this product category that these amd cpu`s is not suited for these nas`es. They are only in there to give themselves a bigger profit.
They fail on both power consumption and media which is a big deal for this product category. Feel sad for those ending up buying these without knowing this big flaw.
Not to talk down on amd cpu`s btw, They are great for many things.
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Both Intel or AMD is generally fine, lack of integrated graphics is on Synology. I would be happy with DS423+ if it had integrated graphics, but i doubt it will if it’s not Intel CPU, since 4xx+ usually has cheaper CPU and AMD with graphics would be more expensive.
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Intel for video encoding, no contest. I have a old QNAP Intel system that I want to replace with a new modern Synology Intel system but Synology don’t want to supply one.
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I was looking forward to 723+ and 923+ but without embedded graphic and still only 1gbe speed, I will not buying them. Very disappointed!
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Integrated graphics is a must for plex and with camera’s in mind. But I also find it stupid that intel still does not support ecc memory. I also think that they should support it.
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I’ll be looking for a Plex NAS in the next year and I want one with a GPU. If they’re are any available then I may have to look at a Mac Mini or such.
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For virtual machines, I still think the intel is better, and I agree also that for home users integrated graphics is better match for a NAS.
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Please, Unraid vs TrueNAS. I’m fed up with Synology’s cheating out on parts and charging tons with crippled systems, with no GPU/ HW encoding, dual cores in 2023, No built in 10GBe. I was waiting for years to upgrade my DS916+ which is still rock solid, but I need to run VMs (I run 1 virtual DSM currently) and to have extra power for more dockers Plex, and I needed more than the 8GB RAM I have and a built in 10GBe.
I’ve already bought a Lenovo mini PC from 2010 with 6 core 12 threads Intel CPU and upgraded it to 32GB DDR4 RAM and installed Proxmox for my VMs, but confused whether to install TrueNAS or Unraid for Plex and shared drives.
Thanks for all the efforts mates. I’m an avid follower. Keep up the great work and salute to to seagulls, lol ????????
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Thanks gents, this is The Question.
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Is the NAS using ssd or hdd?
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So… Useless for transcoding. Thanks but no tanks synology.
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People love trying to cram as many apps on their NASs as possible, and that usually ends up being the problem. Setting up a Plex server on an old PC that has a GPU can be a much better option. You can still keep all the files on the NAS. Either that or transcode everything into a codec that works on your NAS. Handbrake can batch convert stuff, and works with a large percentage of GPUs for doing things like this.
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What we need is synology software on Qnap hardware,synology really sucks when it comes to the hardware
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Much appreciated! ????????????????
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Would it be possible to link the test files? I’d like to do some testing myself!
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I think a great video you should make should be a high end build of a nas.
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Is there a big difference in power draw in this kinda of use case between the two?
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So, if I’m not wrong if I would watch a 4K HEVC HDR 10bit 60 mbps movie (a BD-REMUX) I should buy the DS920+ right? There is something you are constantly repeating: a client hardware support, what is that???
If I have a LG C2 OLED TV an Apple TV 4K connected on it and a DS920+, will I have a good experience watching movies on 4K HEVC???? Cause I don’t know if I should wait until DS923 releases, what do you recommend me?
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I bought the 1522+ with all my media is HD not 4k it works great. the browser side only seems to work with mp4 videos not sure why. I really like your videos thank you.
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0:18 wait a minute, that wasn’t a square!
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Thanks for your videos @NASCompares 😀 They have been helping a lot, especially your DS1522+ coverage! By the way, during DS1522+ manual download for Plex, after clicking Synology (DSM 7), which package should I choose?
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Let’s be honest, unless you have the need for server specific features such as transcoding or watch history sync across devices or other shenanigans, you’re going to have a hugely better responsiveness/playback experience on a dedicated device such as Apple TV, or other beefy SBC running Infuse, Kodi or the like. And they can stream at pretty much all resolution/bitrate/codec from any potato or even the lowest tier Synology NAS 😉
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I’d probably go with the DS1522+ as it’s newer and has a 10GBE option and if finding I need the transcoding engine I’d just buy a NUC and take the load off the NAS
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You didn’t cover my standard usecase. I have 4k files on server, but on device I watch 1080p or 720p due to bandwidth.
If I understood correctly in case of transcoding new Synology NASes absolutely unusable for two or more users simultaneously
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Why is Synology abandoning Intel? Plex users are a large percentage of their customer base.
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Very good video and review of both products.
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TLDW; Direct Play works fine on any relatively modern CPU architecture, and the slight increase in raw CPU computing power in Ryzen makes no real world difference when playing media in their original format compared to Celeron from a few years back. But the 1522+ is hot garbage anytime you need to transcode. If you ever need to stream outside your own network when traveling, or sharing with friends, or with client hardware that doesn’t support some of your media files, then the 1522+ is functionally useless for you and will be a giant headache to manage.
I don’t know why you had to sugar coat it with trying to think up cases where the 1522+ would be “good” for Plex – in the real world, you’re going to have to spend an inordinate amount of time checking your media formats to make it work when you just want to watch a movie on your NAS. That’s a terrible user experience compared to the 920+, which “just works” for Plex.
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Can’t wait for them to go on sale
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Just the comparison I’ve been looking for! Probably masochistic as I already bought the 920+
…Love how that every time I watch one of your videos there are more hardware and boxes in your office. Waiting for the video ‘coming to you from behind the Synology boxes’
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Thanks for doing this video. Could you try doing the test with a Plex client on a 4k Smart TV or 4k capable dongle? I’m not sure if its true anymore that most of the devices people own don’t support HEVC. Apple’s supported it on their devices for years now. So has LG. I’ve used the Plex clients on both an appleTV 4k and a bottom of the line LG 4k SmartTV from 2016 devices to watch 4k HEVC movies streamed from a DS116 without so much as a hiccup and without plex pass. I may not be in the majority but I’m pretty sure I’m not that much of an outlier.
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I have learnt the hard way to stick with Intel CPUs for hardware transcoding. AMD has consistently dropped the ball on video hardware accelerated transcoding compared to Intel CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs. A real shame. I always look for Intel CPUs to meet my hardware accelerated transcoding needs.
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I was hoping to upgrade my 718+ to a 4 bay NAS. Looks like it won’t be the 923+ if that does launch with the same processor as expected. The lack of native 10Gb ethernet, together with the price of the optional port, is disappointing too.
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Great test vid, cheers. Also thanks for the update on the 923+ on your website. I seriously hoped the 923+ would’ve launched with a CPU that supports hardware transcoding. Disappointed that it’ll probably be just a 4-bay version of the 1522+. All I want in a Synology NAS are: 1) ECC RAM, 2) 4+ bays, 3) hardware transcoding. I can get 2 out of 3 with the 920+ (2 and 3) and the 1522+ (1 and 3) but not all 3…
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Wonder if synology will eventually released a NAS capable of 4K transcoding. I’m thinking about building my own NAS with unraid. I’m looking to update my DS1517+ within the next few month possibly. As 4K become the new standard, if I am to spend over 1000$+ on a NAS, I want to be able to futures proof and be fast enough.
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Wonder if synology will eventually released a NAS capable of 4K transcoding. I’m thinking about building my own NAS with unraid. I’m looking to update my DS1517+ within the next few month possibly.
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It’s almost impossible to rip 4k video from 4k disks these days. To be honest, I gave up, and all of my ripped movies are in 1080p.
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Can you please review: Asustor Lockerstor 6 Gen2 AS6706T !!!!
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Can you use the Plex client instead to confirm rather than web browser
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Can you do Video Station also? Then also streaming it to something to like a Nvidia Shield that might have the codecs on the playing end to see if it still strains the cpu
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One question: Why are the WD Red Pro 22TB HDDs all healthy? Did you edited the compatibility file on the Syno or anything else? Normaly only the 14TBs Red Plus are approved at Snologys compatibility matrix 🙂
Thx in advance and Cheers
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WE want Asustor AS6706T review PLZ !
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Thank you very much – very helpful ❤ and thoughtful.
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One important test is missing.
10gb + raid 5 + nvme cache.
Would be interesting to see.
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Hi, there is a typo in the cover picture. Instead of DS1522+ it is written as DS152+. Maybe you want to correct it?
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