I have a DS218j and have no intention to change or upgrade. I am a low end user and utilise PLEX (server) and photo storage works perfectly. White also suits my office setup. If your new to NAS and you don’t need to be a show pony the DS223j will be a good choice.
I was on the fence 223j or 223, I ordered the 223j. I couldnt justify spending 34% ($65) more for 1 extra gb of ram and 1 more usb port. It just didnt make sense especially since they both are the same in every other way including container manager.
Similar thing here with a 220j, I use run Plex and use the NAS as my cloud storage for 4 users, it all works well, the only thing that normally holds the performance back is the 0.5GB of ram, I also have a ds118 (1GB) and it has a clear advantage in that regard. But when its not too busy the 220j does a great job
@@garyk.4070 Well its not like the CPU is anything special (RTD1296) but in itself it is more than capable of handling the few connected users, my NAS is mostly used as a could service, the occasional backup of photos from smartphones and some Plex streaming in original quality (really not capable of any encoding). It is fair to say that in general the NAS is idling or doing light tasks, but when I navigate the settings to try out new features/handle permissions/users accounts and so on, the NAS, once I have a couple of apps open becomes quite slow even at opening a simple folder, in this cases the CPU is doing basically nothing and the only problem is the low amount of RAM, Resource Monitor also reports a high RAM usage and I assume it spills over to the HDDs which are really not ideal for that type of work... Also my ds118 which has the same CPU but double the RAM (and it is used for the same tasks) it does not run into this problem so soon, on that unit I can open more apps before the system starts to slow down. but again, both NASes are equally capable for what I use them for, the 220j is simply slower when I directly mess with it, but once it is set up I never had a problem (It is also worth noting that I have the same Segate Exos 6TB in both units)
@@haneko6422how’s plex working on the 223j? Setting uo mine soon just waiting on the hard drives to arrive. Been reading very mixed sentiments on it’s capability of running plex. Figured since 90 percent of the time it will be for home use with generally just one user maybe at most two in extremely rare instances this should work fine.
I got my parents a DS218j a while back and its been running well for 4+ years now. Two 4TB drives in RAID1. Primarily it is just a Plex (direct play, no need for transcoding in 2023) system, Time Machine and general file sharing. I got it for £130 in 2019, can't remember the price of the drives but that's a separate thing anyway. For £130 it has probably been one of the best tech gadget purchases I've made for them followed by the M1 MacBook Air which has been the first computer ever I've never had to do tech support for. I am not an Apple fan but can't deny those M1 Air's are damn good machines. 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD was a smidge higher than a comparable Dell or Lenovo of the same form factor but performance and battery life was in another league. Don't regret getting them a MacBook for a second. Getting into the Synology world is a bit like getting into the Apple world. Sure it is less flexible than a custom solution but it's hassle free and reliable which is sometimes all you want.
So i got my DS223j yesterday and got it all setup. I installed practically half of their DSM applications while transferring data and indexing and updating and playing a video through video station. I was trying to see if i could break it haha. Well long story short it worked flawlessly even while doing many things at once. In fact it never went above 71% memory usage. I dont feel so far that ram is going to be an issue for this machine its going to be the CPU when indexing, in particular indexing videos for video station that process will make the CPU go to 95%. While its doing that my memory usage was only like 41%. Same for Doing Photos with AI face recognition, dont expect to watch videos from video station while its doing these tasks the cpu will be pretty much maxed out. So far i cant find a situation where you would need more ram you cant run VMs on this thing and DSM is extremely memory efficient. The cpu is certainly going to be the bottleneck that being said it ran very very well. I can see where the older version such as the 220j would certainly be memory starved. The only issue i had with this system is antivirus essentials taking 8 hours to update its virus definitions all the while using 300-400mb of ram...... Like really synology why the heck does it take that long to get virus definitions makes no sense whatsoever? Also i think anyone else would probably have even better performance as im using 3tb red drives from 2014 as i cant afford new ones at the moment so im using ones from my old NAS. That being said i didnt have any issues but i feel the system could perform even better with newer drives.
@@partonello about 120mbs but my drives are 14 years old haha so you will probably get better results with new drives. My drives for some reason just wont die so until i need more space ill keep using them.
Hi - really like your reviews! Great work. English is perfect btw. I’m new to hardware and tired of cloud prices.. so considering NAS. I use docker and wondering what the implications are if it isn’t docker compatible. Are we saying if I wish to use docker and the file paths are on the NAS 223j, then I couldn’t get access via docker. TY
I really just want to store my data and have easy access to it. The only other concern is noise. But i heard it can be upgraded with a be quiet fan if needed.
I have a 1 TB drive from my dead laptop in an external box. If I buy a NAS and install the drive into it will I have access to the data or will the NAS format the drive? Second question can I add a second drive and switch it to raid mirroring without loosing the data on the first drive?
Hi and good evening, I need your help i am annoyed of having 2-3 small external hard drives(256-500gb). And to move them around from desktop to laptop and to take on trips . I store movies photos from camera and 3d files. And i was thinking of getting a small 2bay NAS to add like 4Tb at first one HDD. I was thinking of getting the DS223j since its at 200€ and it a good size for my case. But I wanted to ask if i can easily stream from it either inside the same network for example smart Tv (TCL 2023 model) . Or even when in a hotel to stream to my phone and then cast to local smart Tv. Will this work with this model? I read about it doesn't have much power to do transcoding but doesn't newer tvs and phones play 1080p files without problem? Can i test by simply adding the movie file to a usb and check if the tv plays it fine? Any thoughts? I dont need more than two bay for sure. Thanks in advance
I sent my trusty DS918+ packing in favour of an Asustor box. My 220j is my monthly backup NAS with a couple of WD Red 6TB drives in them. When that NAS finally dies I'll either go all in on Asustor or get a 2 bay Terradata (think that's their name) to try that out. What HDDs I choose to use is none of their business and I'm not buying their 'branded' drive (Toshiba) to give them more money. Nor am I buying a 10Gbps dongle/add on when my Asustor came with dual 2.5Gbps out of the box. Synology has well and truly lost the plot. Good vid though, I should swing by more often...
I am on the DS212j cannot get dsm7 which is a moot point to me. I only care for file serving services which works just fine. I am considering upgrading tho. Mainly because these new units do max out the gigabit port. My DS212j maxes out ~30MB/s which is mainly ok but i think i am willing to pay a but for another 70MB/s. Dont care for additional features.
I'm thinking of getting this ? I have a NAS DS713+ since 2015 but is having issues in 2024. Wlil the HDD in the NASDS713+, which I think are 3.5inch fit, work in the DS223j. Thanks.
Hey thanks for your reviews, i need a home server running some TBs of memory in network mode for home storage like photos some files etc, is it enough? does it run windows on it?
So confussed, I need to replace an old D-LINK DNS-320L, all i want is to be able to storre my pictures and some other files with access from all the computers on the network, not really bothered about streaming to the TV but that would be nice, what should i buy for x2 4TB drives ?????
Don't know much about NASs but figured this was too good to be true. Thought it could be used for 4K movie streaming but noppppe. Thanks for the review!
Hi, I love your reviews. Can you tell me if i can link my very old synology nas to this one, just looking to access all the old films and pictures on the old nas via the new nas just to avoid having to transfer everything, (use old nas as just extra storage)
Thank you Rob! The cheap price of the DS223j makes me considering to purchase it and use it as remote backup to my DS920+ (via Hyper Backup). Do you think its a good backup solution? Or maybe I should considering purchase some more advanced NAS for this kind of job?
Im not sure which to buy the ds 223 or save $60 and get the 223j. How big of a difference is the extra ram? Could you do a performance comparison please?
I ended up ordering 223j the cost increase to get that 1 extra gb of ram and 1 extra usb port just didnt make sense. The 220j is probably the most sold NAS ever and has been running with 512mb so with double the ram at 1gb the 223j should work even better.
Hmm, the compatibility thing was not something I was expecting. I have an old DS213 air that's still working great but I was thinking of getting another device before it stops working (easier to migrate when both work after all...) and was thinking that easiest would be if I can just move the drives to the new NAS and keep going... What are the odd that drives compatible with an older model but now not on the list simply won't work? :p Have an old 4TB Red and a 4TB Gold.
Drives are generally generic and work fine in anything*, regardless of what's in the compatibility list says. The * is because if you buy a desktop drive that doesn't have low timeouts (30s rather than 7s), it'll drop from RAID. You need to go with a Red Pro, Gold, Ironwolf Pro, or Exos drive to be completely safe. You should be good with an old CMR Red. (SMR is a big no-no.) You should double check that the DS213 formatted drives in such a way that they can be moved over to a new unit, before purchasing anything. In the past you had to stick with the same grade/architecture - Realtek to Realtek, Intel to Intel, etc.
I just got 2 of "HGST Ultrastar 7K6000 HUS726060ALE610 6TB 7200 RPM Enterprise Hard Drive" thats surely not in the supported lists. Slapped them in DS223j just 2 days ago. it didn't even have a caution noti or anything, it just works normally like when I use DS120j with the most supported HDD like Ironwolf.
Hi, I would need a little help here. I am buying my first NAS. The main purpose of it should be replacing Google Photos. I am planning of putting about 8TB of storage inside of it. But I cannot choose between QNAP TS-233 and Synology DS223j. On one hand the QNAP is more powerful, but I heard that Synology has better software. Anyway feature that I use very often in Google Photos is searching using AI. For example if I want to search photo of my car, so I just type "car" and it shows me pictures of my car. I wonder which of the phone apps (QuMagie or Synology Photos) is overall better and also wnich have the better AI recognition. Or should I just choose QNAP for the hardware? I will be very greatfull for any opinion.
QNAP has a long history of having security issues, for what it's worth. I usually opt for less features, more stability, more security. Not sure if this would have the AI photo subject discovery that you desire...
What about official DS223j Plex support? Still not available in Package Center although DS223 had official support which has the same CPU? Anyone knows?
The color makes it look like some Apple product which is a no no. If there is a black version, it would be great. Or I just have to settle for a different model in black of course.
I'm afraid my school was quite atrocious...you will just have to endure. Also, there is only a single space between 'speak' and 'in'. Also, I think you meant 'correct English' or 'English correctly', but please, do go on...
@@gwtpictgwtpict4214 Must be some accent from Liverpool or some other place where they speak like they have a hot potato in the mouth..I honestly couldn't follow.
I have a DS218j and have no intention to change or upgrade. I am a low end user and utilise PLEX (server) and photo storage works perfectly. White also suits my office setup. If your new to NAS and you don’t need to be a show pony the DS223j will be a good choice.
I was on the fence 223j or 223, I ordered the 223j. I couldnt justify spending 34% ($65) more for 1 extra gb of ram and 1 more usb port. It just didnt make sense especially since they both are the same in every other way including container manager.
Similar thing here with a 220j, I use run Plex and use the NAS as my cloud storage for 4 users, it all works well, the only thing that normally holds the performance back is the 0.5GB of ram, I also have a ds118 (1GB) and it has a clear advantage in that regard. But when its not too busy the 220j does a great job
@@mastroitek Hi, I’m keen to know what is the indication that only 0.5GB is holding back performance? I also note that the new DS223J has 1GB
@@garyk.4070 Well its not like the CPU is anything special (RTD1296) but in itself it is more than capable of handling the few connected users, my NAS is mostly used as a could service, the occasional backup of photos from smartphones and some Plex streaming in original quality (really not capable of any encoding). It is fair to say that in general the NAS is idling or doing light tasks, but when I navigate the settings to try out new features/handle permissions/users accounts and so on, the NAS, once I have a couple of apps open becomes quite slow even at opening a simple folder, in this cases the CPU is doing basically nothing and the only problem is the low amount of RAM, Resource Monitor also reports a high RAM usage and I assume it spills over to the HDDs which are really not ideal for that type of work...
Also my ds118 which has the same CPU but double the RAM (and it is used for the same tasks) it does not run into this problem so soon, on that unit I can open more apps before the system starts to slow down.
but again, both NASes are equally capable for what I use them for, the 220j is simply slower when I directly mess with it, but once it is set up I never had a problem
(It is also worth noting that I have the same Segate Exos 6TB in both units)
@@haneko6422how’s plex working on the 223j? Setting uo mine soon just waiting on the hard drives to arrive. Been reading very mixed sentiments on it’s capability of running plex. Figured since 90 percent of the time it will be for home use with generally just one user maybe at most two in extremely rare instances this should work fine.
Hey bro, thanks for your review, really appreciated you detailed descriptions, they have been really helpful on possibilities of the device...
I got my parents a DS218j a while back and its been running well for 4+ years now. Two 4TB drives in RAID1. Primarily it is just a Plex (direct play, no need for transcoding in 2023) system, Time Machine and general file sharing. I got it for £130 in 2019, can't remember the price of the drives but that's a separate thing anyway. For £130 it has probably been one of the best tech gadget purchases I've made for them followed by the M1 MacBook Air which has been the first computer ever I've never had to do tech support for. I am not an Apple fan but can't deny those M1 Air's are damn good machines. 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD was a smidge higher than a comparable Dell or Lenovo of the same form factor but performance and battery life was in another league. Don't regret getting them a MacBook for a second. Getting into the Synology world is a bit like getting into the Apple world. Sure it is less flexible than a custom solution but it's hassle free and reliable which is sometimes all you want.
Thanks Rob. I really appreciate your very regular and consistent videos on the techie stuff. keep up the great work.
I really love your input from this video. I believe I will buy this things since I'ma beginner in all
No support of Active backup disqualifies this NAS immediately!
Thanks for the useful do and don'ts of the DS223j!
I have an older version and it suits my needs completely. I’ve had it for several years, and no plans to upgrade.
So i got my DS223j yesterday and got it all setup. I installed practically half of their DSM applications while transferring data and indexing and updating and playing a video through video station. I was trying to see if i could break it haha. Well long story short it worked flawlessly even while doing many things at once. In fact it never went above 71% memory usage. I dont feel so far that ram is going to be an issue for this machine its going to be the CPU when indexing, in particular indexing videos for video station that process will make the CPU go to 95%. While its doing that my memory usage was only like 41%. Same for Doing Photos with AI face recognition, dont expect to watch videos from video station while its doing these tasks the cpu will be pretty much maxed out.
So far i cant find a situation where you would need more ram you cant run VMs on this thing and DSM is extremely memory efficient. The cpu is certainly going to be the bottleneck that being said it ran very very well. I can see where the older version such as the 220j would certainly be memory starved.
The only issue i had with this system is antivirus essentials taking 8 hours to update its virus definitions all the while using 300-400mb of ram...... Like really synology why the heck does it take that long to get virus definitions makes no sense whatsoever?
Also i think anyone else would probably have even better performance as im using 3tb red drives from 2014 as i cant afford new ones at the moment so im using ones from my old NAS. That being said i didnt have any issues but i feel the system could perform even better with newer drives.
What are your transfer speeds, when copying to and from it?
@@partonello about 120mbs but my drives are 14 years old haha so you will probably get better results with new drives. My drives for some reason just wont die so until i need more space ill keep using them.
Hi - really like your reviews! Great work. English is perfect btw. I’m new to hardware and tired of cloud prices.. so considering NAS. I use docker and wondering what the implications are if it isn’t docker compatible. Are we saying if I wish to use docker and the file paths are on the NAS 223j, then I couldn’t get access via docker. TY
I have a DS213j. Looking at the DS224+, DS223 and DS223j as an upgrade. What would you recommend?
why do you update is it slow?
I really just want to store my data and have easy access to it.
The only other concern is noise. But i heard it can be upgraded with a be quiet fan if needed.
These make for an ideal off site backup destination. I am still using my DS213J (on DSM7.1 and only 512MB RAM) for just this purpose.
I have a 1 TB drive from my dead laptop in an external box. If I buy a NAS and install the drive into it will I have access to the data or will the NAS format the drive? Second question can I add a second drive and switch it to raid mirroring without loosing the data on the first drive?
would like to know too
NAS will format the HDD; better connect your external box to router on an USB port
Hi and good evening,
I need your help i am annoyed of having 2-3 small external hard drives(256-500gb).
And to move them around from desktop to laptop and to take on trips .
I store movies photos from camera and 3d files.
And i was thinking of getting a small 2bay NAS to add like 4Tb at first one HDD.
I was thinking of getting the DS223j since its at 200€ and it a good size for my case.
But I wanted to ask if i can easily stream from it either inside the same network for example smart Tv (TCL 2023 model) . Or even when in a hotel to stream to my phone and then cast to local smart Tv. Will this work with this model?
I read about it doesn't have much power to do transcoding but doesn't newer tvs and phones play 1080p files without problem? Can i test by simply adding the movie file to a usb and check if the tv plays it fine?
Any thoughts?
I dont need more than two bay for sure.
Thanks in advance
I sent my trusty DS918+ packing in favour of an Asustor box. My 220j is my monthly backup NAS with a couple of WD Red 6TB drives in them. When that NAS finally dies I'll either go all in on Asustor or get a 2 bay Terradata (think that's their name) to try that out. What HDDs I choose to use is none of their business and I'm not buying their 'branded' drive (Toshiba) to give them more money. Nor am I buying a 10Gbps dongle/add on when my Asustor came with dual 2.5Gbps out of the box. Synology has well and truly lost the plot. Good vid though, I should swing by more often...
They probably switched to 1Gb memory because 512Mb is hard to buy nowadays.
Hi. Great vid. I currently have a ds118. Would I notice the difference if I bought this Nas?
I need another NAS like I need another hole in my head. But, I always enjoy your videos and keeping up to date.
Am I getting this right? BTRFS and Plex on a “J” series Synology NAS? Didn’t Plex not run on ARM cpus?
Still have my DS213j has dsm 7 on it and use it as my off-site backup. Still works ok. Is a little slow but for home-use still fine.
I am on the DS212j cannot get dsm7 which is a moot point to me. I only care for file serving services which works just fine. I am considering upgrading tho. Mainly because these new units do max out the gigabit port. My DS212j maxes out ~30MB/s which is mainly ok but i think i am willing to pay a but for another 70MB/s. Dont care for additional features.
Which Synology nas do you think is the best for Plex ?
qnap ts-464 is best for plex
I'm thinking of getting this ? I have a NAS DS713+ since 2015 but is having issues in 2024. Wlil the HDD in the NASDS713+, which I think are 3.5inch fit, work in the DS223j.
Thanks.
How to fix raid 1 degraded status on a 2bay system?
Hey thanks for your reviews, i need a home server running some TBs of memory in network mode for home storage like photos some files etc, is it enough? does it run windows on it?
Dude. Your taskbar. 😵💫
So confussed, I need to replace an old D-LINK DNS-320L, all i want is to be able to storre my pictures and some other files with access from all the computers on the network, not really bothered about streaming to the TV but that would be nice, what should i buy for x2 4TB drives ?????
Don't know much about NASs but figured this was too good to be true. Thought it could be used for 4K movie streaming but noppppe. Thanks for the review!
Can you load Plex on it
I wonder if the limitation of its network goes well with a Raid 1 config instead of Raid 0. And just accept that it is a Raid 1 box instead.
Only 1G of ram will will make it slow, they should change their firmware to allow part of the hdd to be used as ram.
Thks for an NAS video each day
So you can't put just Any drive in there? It has to be compatible?
hi does the 223j suport TRIM for ssd? nowhere to find this info
Hi,
I love your reviews.
Can you tell me if i can link my very old synology nas to this one, just looking to access all the old films and pictures on the old nas via the new nas just to avoid having to transfer everything, (use old nas as just extra storage)
Thank you Rob! The cheap price of the DS223j makes me considering to purchase it and use it as remote backup to my DS920+ (via Hyper Backup). Do you think its a good backup solution? Or maybe I should considering purchase some more advanced NAS for this kind of job?
Im not sure which to buy the ds 223 or save $60 and get the 223j. How big of a difference is the extra ram? Could you do a performance comparison please?
I ended up ordering 223j the cost increase to get that 1 extra gb of ram and 1 extra usb port just didnt make sense. The 220j is probably the most sold NAS ever and has been running with 512mb so with double the ram at 1gb the 223j should work even better.
Hmm, the compatibility thing was not something I was expecting. I have an old DS213 air that's still working great but I was thinking of getting another device before it stops working (easier to migrate when both work after all...) and was thinking that easiest would be if I can just move the drives to the new NAS and keep going... What are the odd that drives compatible with an older model but now not on the list simply won't work? :p Have an old 4TB Red and a 4TB Gold.
Drives are generally generic and work fine in anything*, regardless of what's in the compatibility list says. The * is because if you buy a desktop drive that doesn't have low timeouts (30s rather than 7s), it'll drop from RAID. You need to go with a Red Pro, Gold, Ironwolf Pro, or Exos drive to be completely safe. You should be good with an old CMR Red. (SMR is a big no-no.)
You should double check that the DS213 formatted drives in such a way that they can be moved over to a new unit, before purchasing anything. In the past you had to stick with the same grade/architecture - Realtek to Realtek, Intel to Intel, etc.
I just got 2 of "HGST Ultrastar 7K6000 HUS726060ALE610 6TB 7200 RPM Enterprise Hard Drive" thats surely not in the supported lists. Slapped them in DS223j just 2 days ago. it didn't even have a caution noti or anything, it just works normally like when I use DS120j with the most supported HDD like Ironwolf.
i only want to backup some photos
Exactly what I want to do and wondering what is the best for Apple iPhone photos
do you need a NAS for that?
Hi, can 223j fit a drive with u.2 connector for the top bay?
no active backup makes this an instant no go
It IS a killer app, yeah
Hi, I would need a little help here. I am buying my first NAS. The main purpose of it should be replacing Google Photos. I am planning of putting about 8TB of storage inside of it. But I cannot choose between QNAP TS-233 and Synology DS223j. On one hand the QNAP is more powerful, but I heard that Synology has better software. Anyway feature that I use very often in Google Photos is searching using AI. For example if I want to search photo of my car, so I just type "car" and it shows me pictures of my car. I wonder which of the phone apps (QuMagie or Synology Photos) is overall better and also wnich have the better AI recognition. Or should I just choose QNAP for the hardware? I will be very greatfull for any opinion.
QNAP has a long history of having security issues, for what it's worth. I usually opt for less features, more stability, more security. Not sure if this would have the AI photo subject discovery that you desire...
i'm looking for similar features, did you had any luck finding the right item?
@@Drewer Hi, I changed my mind eventually and bought a DAS instead of NAS.
so, is there a long version?
Thank you for your review :)
There's a refurbished DS218+ on the synology store for €244.77 that beats this one in everything
What about official DS223j Plex support? Still not available in Package Center although DS223 had official support which has the same CPU? Anyone knows?
How is 19min a "Short Reviw"? :|
After test 223j.all slow .read write.i can do anything in this speed
no
The color makes it look like some Apple product which is a no no.
If there is a black version, it would be great.
Or I just have to settle for a different model in black of course.
Can you speak in proper English? Your accent is very difficult to understand.
I'm afraid my school was quite atrocious...you will just have to endure. Also, there is only a single space between 'speak' and 'in'. Also, I think you meant 'correct English' or 'English correctly', but please, do go on...
😉
What a terrible comment, his english is perfectly understandable. Your english is just not good enough, go back to school my friend
He was, that was an English accent.
@@gwtpictgwtpict4214 Must be some accent from Liverpool or some other place where they speak like they have a hot potato in the mouth..I honestly couldn't follow.