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Synology's DiskStation DS920+ is the successor to the DiskStation DS918+ bringing with it a faster processor and more modern RAM support than the previous model. In place of the Intel Celeron J3455 (1.5GHz) processor of the DS918+, the DS920+ uses an Intel Celeron J4125 processor clocked at 2.0GHz backed by DDR4 memory as opposed to the DDR3L used by the previous generation DiskStation.
As with the DS918+, the DS920+ has a pair of NVMe supporting M.2 SSD slots in the base of the unit for high speed caching purposes which means you don't lose any of the main storage capacity should you decide to go down this route.
If the current 64TB of storage space supported by the DS920+ suddenly becomes a bit thin for your needs, fear not as it can be expanded and this is where the eSATA port on the rear panel comes in to play. The DS920+ supports Synology’s DX517 Expansion Unit which provides an additional 5 drive bays of storage capacity (80TB capacity at the time of writing) to the NAS.
With both LAN ports connected in Link Aggregation mode, Synology quote throughput figures for the DS920+ at 226MB/s for reads and 225MB/s for writes. We tested it with a single Gigabit connection and got an average of 118.8MB/s for reads and 115MB/s for writes for the five array types (RAID 0,1,5,6 & 10) that we built the hard drives in for testing.
Synology’s NAS OS is DiskStation Manager (DSM), one of the better NAS operating systems out there. Fast to install and feature-rich it uses clearly labelled icons to display the large range options you can choose from. There are two ways of tackling what the software has to offer. The Basic main and control panel pages offer quick and easy access to the basic features making it easier for the first time user to find what they need and feel comfortable with. However, should you want to delve in deeper to the OS to find out all it offers then the Advanced main and control panel pages have many more options to choose from.
We found the DiskStation DS920+ on Span.com for £542.40 (inc VAT) HERE
Pros
- DSM OS.
- Overall performance.
- NVMe M.2 SSD slots.
- Expandability options for both storage and memory.
Cons
- USB 3.0 ports only.
- Only a maximum of 8GB of memory supported.
Kitguru says: Just like its predecessor, the DS918+ Synology’s DiskStation DS920+ is a powerful, flexible 4-bay NAS for the home or office. With a pair of dedicated M.2 NVMe slots for caching duties and the ability to add more capacity via an expansion unit, it is able to keep pace as any office demands grow.
