Synology DiskStation DS920+ Review: A Feature-rich NAS For Every Need!

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Synology DiskStation DS 920+ review quick summery:

Overall expert rating: 4/5

Design, build and ports:

Setup & Software:

Performance:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Pros

  • Easy set-up & upgradation process
  • 4K transcoding
  • DSM software

Cons

  • No 2.5 or 5Gbe Ethernet
  • No PCIe express slot
  • NVMe restricted to cache only

The Synology DiskStation DS920+ is one of the most popular mainstream NAS available in India. The successor to DS918+ was long overdue and Synology has certainly done justice by delivering much-needed internal upgrades. The new and powerful NAS asserts itself as a smart, scalable, and local alternative to several cloud services.

Before we dive into our detailed review, let’s quickly have a look at DS920+ specs sheet and what really comes inside the box:

Synology DS920+ Specs and price

ModelSynology DS920+
CPUIntel Celeron J4125 4-core 2.0 GHz, burst up to 2.7 GHz
RAM4GB DDR4 non-ECC (expandable up to 8GB)
Drive bays4x (SSD/HDD); 2 NVMe M.2 slots
Capacity64TB (4x 16TB)
Cooling2x 92mm fan
Ports2x 1Gbe LAN
1x Rear USB 3.0
1x Front USB 3.0
Power consumption 32.17 W (Access)
9.69 W (HDD Hibernation)
Noise 20dB
Dimensions166 x 199 x 223 mm
Weight2.24 kg
Price₹ 53,999

Check Synology DiskStation DS920+ best price:

Synology DiskSation DS920+ Unboxing

Synology shipped the Diskstation DS920+ in a neat package consisting of a fairly regular collection of accessories and cables. In the retail package you will find the following things:

  • Synology DS920+ NAS
  • Power cable
  • 2x RJ45 LAN cables
  • Quick Start Installation Guide
  • Tray lock Keys
  • Screws for 2.5″ drives

Synology DiskStation DS920+ review : Design, Build and Ports

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

As far as design goes, Synology seems to follow one principle: why tinker with something that’s not broken? The Synology DS920+ looks identical to its predecessor. It’s a well-thought-out yet minimal black box predominantly made of plastic with the use of a few metallic components in internal chassis and mainboard mounts.

Synology has ensured three things here: rugged yet appealing construction, excellent airflow, and noise control. In this compact 6.5 x 7.8 x 8.7 inches (HxWxD) enclosure, Synology has created space for four drive bays on the front independent of each other. Installation is a seamless process that doesn’t require any tools to mount or unmount drives. All you need to do is simply pull out a drive caddies, put the hard drive in, and slide the trays back inside the NAS. Both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives are supported.

Apart from drive bays, the DS920+ facia also has a power button, a USB 3.0 port (type A), and LED status indicators. On the flip side, there are two Gigabit Ethernet ports, a USB 3.0 port (Type-A), and an eSATA port for further drive expansion. The two 1GbE ports on this Synology NAS have Link Aggregation / Failover support. Two 2.5GbE or 5GbE ports would have made it a sweeter deal, though. Turn the DS920+ upside down and you will find two removable panels underneath where you have space to slide in m.2 NVMe SSD slots for caching.

The DS920+ has these two fairly larger 9.2cm fans at the back which keep the temperature under check. Synology gives you the freedom to make manual speed adjustments, but we were perfectly content with the performance in auto mode.

Overall, we found the Synology Diskstation DS920+ design to be effective, durable, and appealing.

Synology Diskstation 220+ Review: Setup and Software

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Setting up a Synology NAS is an effortless process. Just put in hard drives, attach LAN cable, and boot it up. Once you do that just go to “http://find.synology.com” in your browser using the same network. Your NAS will be detected and you will be guided through the process of creating your Synology account and setting storage drive configurations.

We would suggest you use drives in the RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) configuration. There are several RAID configurations, but we preferred to go with Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR). Synology has even put out a RAID calculator using which uses can evaluate how much space they get in SHR configuration and standard RAID configurations.

Once the setup process is complete, you will be mostly interacting with Synology’s NAS operating system – DiskStation Manager (DSM) which is one of the best in business. Our Synology DiskStation DS 920+ comes running on DSM 6.2.4 which is feature-rich and delivers stable performance. Of course, Synology is all set to one-up its game with DSM 7.0 stable version which is just around the corner.

The Package Center on DSM is a one-stop solution to most of your application needs. The virtual web store lets you find and install applications to run your own Plex server to virtual machines and DNS server and self-hosted VPN or WordPress. Synology’s vast native cloud app library will have you well covered. Apps like Synology Drive and Hyper Backup allow you to move away from cloud storage and keep your personal data secure. Let’s now talk about the DS920+ hardware and performance.

If in case you are planning to buy a NAS and not sure about Synology DSM software, you can try their live demo here.

Synology Diskstation 220+ Review: Performance

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Synology DS920+ rocks an Intel Celeron J4125 which is a 4 core / 4 thread processor with an integrated Intel HD 600 GPU unit. The J4125 CPU is clocked at 2.0 GHz and can go all the way up to 2.7 GHz in boost mode. The NAS has 4GB of RAM soldered within the board and you can add another 4GB, expanding the total to 8GB. If you are planning to run a virtual machine on DS920+, we would recommend you go for that additional 4GB RAM.

For this review, we luckily managed to get our hands on Synology Enterprise HDD which is not meant for home consumers. With two 8GB HDDs set up in SHR configuration, we were quite impressed with the overall performance. Without caching, we tried copying loaded folders and large files over the network to test out speeds. While copying from PC to NAS we registered about 131MB/s transfer speed whereas while copying to the NAS we noted about 137MB/s transfer speeds.

With this hardware, the Synology DiskStation DS920+ manages to handle 4K transcoding and virtualization with remarkable ease. As compared to Synology DiskStation DS220+ (review) that we last tested, the DS920+ delivered significantly better file indexing speeds. Plex on the DS920+ flawlessly scanned and indexed my video library. We were able to stream Full HD and 4k content at a better bit rate. It hardly took any time before delivering 4K content via Plex to my home entertainment setup.

Apart from delivering excellent media server experience, we also tested several Google app alternatives that Synology has on offer like the Photo station to back up photos from different gadgets.

We were most impressed with the Synology Moments app. It’s an excellent alternative to Google Photos where it applies AI and deep learning algorithms on images and videos with similar faces, subjects, and places to automatically organize them. Being photography enthusiasts, we click hundreds of images every week then move them to my PC for backup. This time we decided to dump recent clicks to NAS via the Moments app. It effortlessly created a backup off my phone’s gallery on the NAS. It also automatically categorized albums in Shared, People, Subjects, Places, Tags, Videos, and Recently Added segments.

With Synology DS920+ we managed to perform all our regular tasks with their productivity suite without any major drawback or system-related issues.

This brings us to the most important question you must have in your mind:

Should you buy Synology DiskStation DS920+?

The answer is a loud and resounding yes. The DS920+ is noticeably faster and smoother than its predecessor and is one of the most feature-rich NAS available in India. If you are looking to set up a powerful 4K plex server for your home, or if you are someone who runs a small business, or you simply need to securely handle sensitive data, your investment in DiskStation DS920+ will be worth it.

Editor rating

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Reasons to buy:

  • Easy set-up and upgradation process
  • 4K transcoding
  • DSM software

Reasons to not buy:

  • No 2.5 or 5Gbe Ethernet
  • No PCIe express slot
  • NVMe restricted to cache only
Deepak RajawatDeepak Rajawat
Experienced technology journalist with over 7-years of experience. Before embracing online journalism, he has worked with several legacy publications including print editions at Hindustan Times and The Statesman. He also has a keen interest in Sports, which he used to cover with equal enthusiasm in his early career.

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