Synology DS923+ Review: Expandable 4-Bay NAS for SMB

★★★★ ☆

4.4/5

💰

High-end

$600-$1200

⚡ Key Specifications

• ▸ AMD Ryzen R1600 (2C/4T, up to 3.1GHz)
• ▸ 4GB DDR4 ECC (expandable to 32GB)
• ▸ 4 × 3.5"/2.5" SATA bays (hot-swap)
• ▸ 2 × M.2 NVMe (cache or storage)
• ▸ Dual 1GbE + optional 10GbE module

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Synology DS923+ at a glance

The Synology DS923+ is a 4-bay NAS aimed at home offices and small businesses that care more about reliable storage services than “media box” features. The headline is flexibility: ECC memory support, NVMe slots that can be used for cache or storage pools, and a clean upgrade path to 10GbE—but only if you add Synology’s dedicated module.

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Is the Synology DS923+ worth it vs DS423+ or DS1522+?

This is the key buying decision for most people.

• Choose Synology DS923+ if you want an expandable storage platform: ECC memory, NVMe flexibility, and optional 10GbE—plus the DSM ecosystem that makes backups and file services easy to operate.
• Choose Synology DS423+ if your priority is “NAS as a Plex box.” The DS923+ class is frequently criticized for media-transcoding use cases because it does not have an iGPU.
• Choose Synology DS1522+ if you want a 5-bay chassis today and more long-term expansion headroom (including how many expansion units you can add).

In other words, the Synology DS923+ is usually the better “storage server,” while the DS423+ is often the better “media appliance.”

Does the optional 10GbE upgrade actually matter?

Yes—if your network and drives can exploit it.

Out of the box, the DS923+ has dual 1GbE ports. Link aggregation can help with multiple clients, but it won’t turn a single file copy into 10GbE. To break out of gigabit ceilings for single-client workloads, you need the E10G22-T1-Mini 10GbE module and a 10GbE switch/NIC on the other side.

In practical terms:

• For backups, sync, and multi-user office shares, dual 1GbE can already be “good enough.”
• For large photo/video projects, VM storage traffic, or fast workstation backups, 10GbE is where the DS923+ feels like it moves into a different class.

Can the DS923+ handle Plex and 4K transcoding?

This is the most common “gotcha” in a Synology DS923+ review.

The DS923+ uses an AMD Ryzen CPU without an integrated GPU, so you should not buy it expecting trouble-free hardware-accelerated Plex transcoding. If your workflow is mostly direct play (clients that support your codecs), it can be fine. If you need frequent transcoding—especially 4K—the safer architecture is:

• run Plex on a separate mini PC (Intel Quick Sync is popular),
• keep media on the DS923+ via SMB/NFS.

That setup preserves DSM’s storage strengths while avoiding the CPU-only transcoding limitation.

NVMe: cache only, or real storage?

For many NAS buyers, this is a deciding feature.

The DS923+ provides two M.2 NVMe slots that can be used for SSD caching and, depending on the configuration and DSM support policies, can also be used to form SSD storage pools. The practical takeaway is that NVMe can improve responsiveness for “small random I/O” workloads (metadata, thumbnails, many small files) and can also be used to create fast tiers for certain datasets.

If your workload is mostly large sequential media files over 1GbE, NVMe cache can be far less noticeable than upgrading your network first.

Software value: why people still pay the Synology premium

DSM is the reason most buyers choose Synology even when raw hardware looks conservative.

The DS923+ benefits from the mature DSM stack:

• Btrfs snapshot tooling for quick rollback
• Centralized backup workflows (PCs, servers, VMs, some SaaS)
• File sync/collab (Synology Drive)
• Solid admin UX for permissions, shares, alerts, and storage monitoring

For a small business or a “single admin” homelab, the operational simplicity is often the biggest ROI.

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• Synology DS423+ Review: A 4-Bay Plex NAS That Works - Better fit if you want a NAS that doubles as a Plex appliance.
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