Synology DiskStation DS423+ Home NAS Review

TweakTown's Rating: 89%

The Bottom Line

A bit pricey, Synology's DiskStation DS423+ NAS looks to shrug off its price tag with a solid user experience with DSM and performance perfect for an entry-level homelab.

Pros

• DiskStation Manager
• Applications
• Hybrid RAID support
• NVMe Cache x 2 (Read/Write)
• Upgradable memory (DDR4 SO-DIMM)

Cons

• 1Gbe Ethernet
• Expensive

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

Coming off the rather impressive DS423+ from Synology, I wanted to touch base back into the world of full-fledged appliances from the vendor as they have just revamped several models. One of these models was the DS423+, launched in March of this year. Interestingly, this new model doesn't seem to replace anything in Synology's existing portfolio, but rather a new model as the DS923+ is still available for those wanting a more capable appliance for 10Gbe Homelabbing. Overall, it does appear the 423+ will live alongside the 224+ as entry-level Plus series appliances, filling needs in the market as they see fit.

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Hardware specifications for the 423+ offer consumers the Celeron J4125 SoC, an older offering built on the 14nm process but ample for storage use. This CPU gives a true quad-core layout with a 2GHz base and 2.7GHz boost frequency operating on a 10W TDP. Memory support includes DDR4 SO-DIMM, and Synology does install 2GB from the factory. That being said, the NAS itself supports 6GB, should you upgrade. Connectivity for the DS423+ includes two RJ45 ports backed by 1Gbe and two USB 3.2 ports using the type-A standard. We also get two NVMe slots for adding read/write cache and the four main 3.5" bays.

Pricing

The Synology DS423+ comes in at $499 with a three-year warranty.

Synology DiskStation DS423+ Home NAS (Diskless)

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$536.64	$536.64	$536.64	-	Buy
	-	-	-	-	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 10/13/2024 at 5:07 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission from any sales.

Packaging

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The DS423+ did come in retail packaging, as seen above. This includes the traditional sticker with information about the NAS and branding along the bottom of the box itself.

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Accessories include the power adapter alongside two CAT5e ethernet cables and reading materials.

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As mentioned in the opening, the DS423+ has not changed its design and opts for the traditional four-bay aesthetic we have come to know. This gives us four across the front of the unit, with LEDs off to the right for each, while USB 3.2 and power are at the bottom.

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The side of the unit has an embossed Synology logo.

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The rear of the unit houses two large cooling fans. Below are the 1Gbe ports and USB 3.2 off to the left, with the power input and Kensington lock on the far right.

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Putting this unit on its head, we can examine the two NVMe slots used for caching.

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We would be nowhere without the help of our friends at Patriot, who provided us with four P220 SSDs for testing.

Software

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There are multiple ways to connect to your Synology DS423+. We chose to use find.synology.com to make it easy. As you can see, our NAS unit has been found, and we have begun initializing it.

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Moving further into the system, we must create the admin account and password.

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Once the initial setup is complete, we will land on the dashboard.

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Moving into the system, our first stop is the package center. This is hands down one of the most complete repositories of any NAS platform.

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Next, we enter the control panel; file services include SMB, AFP, NFS, and Rsync.

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Of course, you can create users and groups to manage your home or business settings appropriately.

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Those who want easy cloud access can use the Synology QuickConnect platform.

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The network offers settings for the two onboard 1Gbe ports, traffic management, and static route setup if needed.

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The hardware menu item offers controls over the NAS hardware, such as fan speed, memory compression, and power recovery options.

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External devices give access to any drives connected over USB 3.2; you can also set up a printer here.

Testing and Final Thoughts

Testing

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We kicked off testing with CDM and SHR using our Patriot SSDs. This netted us 118B/s read and 118 MB/s write, with a peak of 1Gbe.

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When switching to SHR2 (Hybrid RAID 6) with the 423+, the same performance was picked up.

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IOMeter offered us more granularity in our results, with 4K read reaching peak performance at QD32 and nearly 28K IOPS.

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Write performance was much quicker to reach peak performance, QD4 in this case, with IOPS touching 4500.

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Sequential workloads ramped up very quickly as well here. We have read operations at QD2 hitting 118MB/s.

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It is more of the same with Sequential Write workloads.

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OLAP workloads took longer to reach their full potential, peaking around QD32 and 2300 IOPS.

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OLTP was much quicker, touching 5300 IOPS at QD8.

Final Thoughts

The 423+ enjoys the same build quality we have come to know from Synology over the years. It uses the same four-bay chassis as the 920+ and 923+, a traditional design that has become part of its brand identity just as Drobo and others have theirs. Hardware-wise, while aging, the CPU design and memory setup are more than enough for storage, and that was easily proven through testing, where we could max out the 1Gbe connection with ease. That said, it does leave us disappointed that even after other vendors have started the move to 2.5Gbe as a standard, Synology still remains fast with 1Gbe connectivity.

In use, the + is quite good. DSM has actually been my preferred platform for years now, though I don't necessarily use my NAS appliances for more than app machines and pure home storage. We used the 423+ as a file machine for a few weeks, along with a media server after testing, and it appears to be quite reliable now, six months after launch, with no crashes or weird bugs to report.

Overall, DSM is still one of the best user-friendly NAS OSes. It is perfect for consumers wanting to enter the market without hassle, and the hardware is built well. That said, it does come at a premium. Diskless, you are looking at $499 for this unit (DS423+), and adding drives will cost you anywhere from $100 each up to $500 if you want to go big with 22TB monsters.