Synology 2-Bay DiskStation DS723+ (Diskless)

Product Information

Such absolutely pointless decisions on their part. Ah well. I should have held off longer and waited for a USB 4 storage option as this unit is a complete and utter disappointment!

If you bummed out about Google’s policy change with Google Mail/Photos, Synology have their own solution called Synology Mail Plus and Photo Station catering for this exact need. Synology Office offers an alternative to Google Office/Office 365 and Surveilance Station offers NVR capabilities to your NAS allowing a central control center for all your IP camera feeds. Other than the fewer drive bays, both natively and via expansion, and all that implies, the DS723+ is expected to deliver the same performance and overall experience as the DS923+. Although 2x SATA drive 10G performance on the DS723+ and it’s CPU+Memory combo cannot be confirmed right now, I CAN answer the question of how the R1600 CPU and pro-class hard drives will perform over 10GbE in a four drive combo. Previously here on the NASCompares, I was fortunate enough to run ATTO tests on the DS1522+ (same R1600 CPU, but 8GB Memory and more bays) with RAID 0 and RAID 5, over four WD Red Pro 22TB Hard Drives. Now, it is worth remembering that these are NOT your common, everyday SATA hard drives and are designed to be rugged, high-performance disks (7200RPM, 512MB Cache, 10x 2.2TB platters, etc) AND the DS1522+ was populated with four drives (twice the maximum bays of the DS723+). That said, the results in both a RAID 0 and RAID 5 setup and in particular file size tests, full saturation of read transfers of 1.15GB/s was achieved, with write performance peaking at around 800-900MB/s. Now, these ARE artificial tests (so, not really representative of everyday use), but are nevertheless very compelling results for the CPU inside the DS723+ being able (with sufficient media) to sufficiently saturate the E10G22-T1-mini upgrade. More domestic/smaller scale HDDs such as the WD Red Plus or Seagate Ironwolf drives in a 2-Bay configuration of the DS723+ would likely cap at around 400-50MB/s at most.Only caveat here is if you require hardware transcoding then the DS723+ might not be the best solution for you. We tested out the unit with Plex 4K Direct play Unlike previous models where one of the memory modules were soldered onto the mainboard, the DS723+ allows for all modules to be upgraded. The unit can be upgraded to a whopping 32GB of memory if you ever had the need to and allows for a great degree of expandability in terms of running applications on the NAS.

Great emphasis has been placed to ensure passive cooling of the DS723+ as you’d notice there’s air vents on every side of the external enclosure to provide the best efficiency for the rear cooling fan. Given that these units are meant to run 24×7 the correct chassis design is very important to get right which Synology have done well here. The biggest selling point for Synology is the software. While TerraMaster and ASUSTOR offer better hardware in this category, their software efforts don't come close to what you get with Synology. The DS723+ runs DSM 7.1, and it features an exhaustive list of software features.Related The Synology DS723+ NAS Expandable 2-Bay Revealed UPDATE 11/01/23 –The Synology DS723+ NAS Drive has now been RELEASED! You can find our reveal and before you buy guide below:

The new server is very similar to the DS923+ in processing power and hardware specs, as you will note in the table below. Synoloyg DS723+ vs DS923+: Hardware specicications A thing to note here is that you can use one Synology SSD drive for storage and the other for cache if you so desired to make use of both features. While you can’t boot from these drives at the time of writing without first installing standard drives on the main drive bays, this is a significant step in the right direction for Synology after years of users requesting for SSD storage capability. With the DS723+, Synology is solidifying its position in the home category. Between the DS1522+, DS923+, and now the DS723+, there's a good selection of servers targeted at home users, and the best part is that they share the same Ryzen R1600 hardware, making the purchasing decision a little easy. The DS923+ and DS723+ have the added benefit of utilizing the M.2 slots for storage, and that is a huge deal — considering just how long it took the brand to roll it out.

With the Synology DS723+’s NVMe drives and 10Gbe Ethernet capabilities, you can host more demanding applications directly on the NVMe drives. If you wer into image/video editing, I’d highly recommend using the NVMe storage volumes for this as you’ll see a significant improvement to your read/write performance compared to the standard drives. Actual maximum storage pool and volume sizes vary depending on drives used, the number of drive bays available, and the RAID configuration.

The DS723+ is the 6th generation after the DS720+, DS718+, DS716+, DS713+, and DS710+. The last two digits signify their model year. There’s no denying that the Synology DS723+ is currently one of the fastest NAS devices to hit the market in 2023. With the ability to increase the unit’s memory to 32GB, NVMe storage volumes and 10GbE ethernet capability Synology have successfully future proofed the DS723+. It's clear that Synology is prioritizing the use of its own HAT5300 series of hard drives on its NAS models, but for most home users eyeing the DS723+, this will not be a huge issue. And having said that, you can use a 20TB IronWolf Pro with the NAS just fine; the only caveat is that should something go wrong, the brand will not provide technical assistance. perhaps Synology will come up with 10Gbe optical variant later, again something possible useful for businesses…Thank you for your valuable insights. I would ignore all the very disrespectful comments. Not worth getting your BP up for it. Cheers. Hybrid cloud capabilities provided by Synology Hybrid Share allow users to merge the benefits of on-premises and cloud by storing cold data in the cloud while keeping frequently accessed files cached on the local device for access at LAN speeds. Creating M.2 storage pools requires the use of Synology-verified SSDs, which are rigorously tested under extreme temperature conditions. Thermal parameters for SSDs and NAS units are fine-tuned to ensure optimal management of thermal conditions under I/O-intensive environments. ( Learn more)