[Update 27-May-2020] The DS420+ and DS720+ have now been maid official and are available now.
Synology recently launched their new affordable Synology DS220j which offers a significant performant bump from the DS218j thanks to the move from the dual-core Marvell Armada 385 chipset to the Realtek RTD1296 chipset.
They are now preparing for the launch of their other 2020 range with several new NAS devices going live on the Taiwanese Synology website.
Currently, there is no word on availability or pricing, and the current Covid-19 pandemic has no doubt thrown a spanner in the works. Current;y the Synology DS918+ is £519.98 on Amazon.
However, if you have been thinking about getting a new 4-bay solution and are in no rush, it could well be worth holding out for the launch of these new faster models.
So far, it looks like four devices are set to launch. There are two 2-bay models with the DS220+ NAS and the DS720+ NAS. Then two 4-bay models with the DS420+ and D9220+.
These new models introduce the newer Intel Celeron J4xxx chipsets which use DDR4 and all models apart from the DS220+ will offer M.2 drive bays that can accept the super-fast NVMe drives.
Synology DS420+ and DS720+ Now available
My initial post only covered the D9220+ and DS420+. Synology have now officially launched the DS420+ and DS720+ but no mention of the 4-Bay D9220+.
The new DS720+ is a two bay NAS with an improved Intel Celeron J4125 which is a 4-core chipset with 2.0 (base) / 2.7 (burst) GHz. This offers around a 60+% performance improvement in certain benchmarks when compared to the older DS718+ which had the Intel Celeron J3455 quad-core
Synology states in their press release that this offers up to 143% faster app responsiveness and over 15% performance boost in compute-intensive tasks.
You also now have the added benefit of 2 x built-in M.2 2280 NVMe SSD slots for caching options offering read/write access speed improvements of 20-fold. You also have the possibility to expand up to 7 drives with a DX517 expansion unit
This is available on a handful of retailers now for around £420 whereas the older model is still selling for £389 on Amazon, So the newer model should be well worth the extra £31.
Synology DS920+ NAS
4-Bay NAS with Dedicated NVMe SSD Cache Acceleration – Synology DiskStation DS920+ is an ideal network-attached storage solution designed to streamline data management and productivity. Two built-in M.2 SSD slots and Synology SSD Cache technology allow you to boost system I/O and application performance. With scalable storage design, DS920+ lets you start small and expand storage capacity with the Synology DX517 as your data grows.
Key Specs:
- Intel Celeron J4125 – Quad-core 2.0 (base frequency) / 2.7 (burst frequency) GHz
- 4 GB DDR4 RAM (expandable to 8GB)
- Disk slots – 4
- M.2 drive bay – 2 (NVMe)
Synology DS420+ NAS
Highly Capable 4 Drive 4K NAS Server – Synology DiskStation DS420+ is a network-attached storage solution for smooth data sharing, video streaming, and photo indexing. Two built-in M.2 SSD slots and Synology SSD Cache technology allow you to boost system I/O and application performance.
Key Specs:
- Intel Celeron J4025 – Dual core 2.0 (base frequency) / 2.9 (burst frequency) GHz
- 2 GB DDR4 RAM (expandable to 6GB)
- Disk slots – 4
- M.2 drive bay – 2 (NVMe)
Processors – Intel Celeron J4125 vs J4025 vs J3355 vs J3455
The new CPUs used in each NAS should provide a significant boost in performance, with increased frequencies, larger cache and the move from DDR3 to DDR4.
In the Cinebench moving from the J3455 to the J4125 you see an improvement of 68% and 63% for the single-core and multi-core results respectively.
Then moving from the J3355 to the J4025 there is a 70% and 72% improvement.
As previously mentioned, the official statement from Synology is that the new chipsets offer up to 143% faster app responsiveness and over 15% performance boost in compute-intensive tasks. You can then get a 20x improvement in rear/write access with the NVMe cache drives.
| J4125 | J4025 | J3455 | J3355 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frequency | 2.00 GHz | 2.00 GHz | 1.50 GHz | 2.00 GHz |
| Turbo (1 Core) | 2.70 GHz | 2.90 GHz | 2.30 GHz | 2.50 GHz |
| Turbo (All Cores) | 2.70 GHz | 2.90 GHz | 2.20 GHz | 2.50 GHz |
| Cores | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Cache | 4.00 MB | 4.00 MB | 2.00 MB | 2.00 MB |
| Codec h264 | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode |
| Codec JPEG | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode |
| Codec h265 8bit | Decode | Decode | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode |
| Codec h265 10bit | No | No | Decode | Decode |
| Codec VP8 | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode |
| Codec VP9 | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode | Decode | Decode |
| Codec VC-1 | Decode | Decode | Decode | Decode |
| Codec AVC | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode | Decode / Encode |
| Cinebench R15 (Single-Core) | 79 | 85 | 47 | 50 |
| Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core) | 296 | 160 | 181 | 93 |
Synology D9220+ vs DS420+ vs DS918+ vs DS418play comparison table
| D9220+ NAS | DS420+ NAS | DS418play | DS418 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor model | Intel Celeron J4125 | Intel Celeron J4025 | Intel Celeron J3355 | Intel Celeron J3455 |
| Processor architecture | 64-bit | 64-bit | 64-bit | 64-bit |
| Processor clock | Quad-core 2.0 (base frequency) / 2.7 (burst frequency) GHz | Dual core 2.0 (base frequency) / 2.9 (burst frequency) GHz | Dual Core 2.0 (base) / 2.5 (burst) GHz | Quad Core 1.5 (base) / 2.3 (burst) GHz |
| Hardware encryption engine (AES-NI) |  |
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| Memory | ||||
| System memory | 4 GB DDR4 | 2 GB DDR4 | 2 GB DDR3L | 4 GB DDR3L |
| Total number of memory slots | 1 | 1 | 2 GB (2 GB x 1) | 4 GB (4 GB x 1) |
| Memory can be expanded to | 8 GB (4 GB + 4 GB) | 6 GB (2 GB + 4 GB) | 2 | 2 |
| Storage device | 6 GB (2 GB + 4 GB) | 8 GB (4 GB x 2) | ||
| Number of disk slots | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Maximum number of disk slots for installing expansion devices | 9 | 9 | ||
| M.2 drive bay | 2 (NVMe) | 2 (NVMe) | 2 (NVMe) | |
| Compatible disk types * (see all supported disks) | 3.5 “SATA HDD | 3.5 “SATA HDD | 3.5″ SATA HDD | 3.5″ SATA HDD |
| 2.5 “SATA HDD | 2.5 “SATA HDD | 2.5″ SATA HDD | 2.5″ SATA HDD | |
| 2.5 “SATA SSD | 2.5 “SATA SSD | 2.5″ SATA SSD | 2.5″ SATA SSD | |
| M.2 2280 NVMe SSD | M.2 2280 NVMe SSD | M.2 2280 NVMe SSD | ||
| Maximum internal net total storage capacity | 64 TB (16 TB drive x 4) (Capacity may vary by RAID types) | 64 TB (16 TB drive x 4) (Capacity may vary by RAID types) | 64 TB (16 TB drive x 4) (Capacity may vary by RAID types) | 64 TB (16 TB drive x 4) (Capacity may vary by RAID types) |
| Maximum total net storage capacity with expansion device | 144 TB (64 TB + 16 TB drive x 5) (Capacity may vary by RAID types) | 144 TB (64 TB + 16 TB drive x 5) (Capacity may vary by RAID types) | ||
| Maximum single storage capacity * | 108 TB | 108 TB | 108 TB | 108 TB |
| Disk hot swap support | |
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| External port | ||||
| RJ-45 1GbE network port | 2 (Support Link Aggregation / Failover) | 2 (Support Link Aggregation / Failover) | 2 (with Link Aggregation / Failover support) | 2 (with Link Aggregation / Failover support) |
| USB 3.0 port | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| eSATA port | 1 | 1 | ||
| USB / SD Copy | |
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| File system | ||||
| Internal disk | Btrfs | Btrfs | Btrfs | Btrfs |
| EXT4 | EXT4 | EXT4 | EXT4 | |
| Remarks | exFAT Access must be purchased separately from the package center. | exFAT Access must be purchased separately from the package center. | exFAT Access must be purchased separately from the package center. | exFAT Access must be purchased separately from the package center. |
| Exterior | ||||
| Size (Height X Width X Depth) | 166 mm x 199 mm x 223 mm | 166 mm x 199 mm x 223 mm | 166 mm x 199 mm x 223 mm | 166 mm x 199 mm x 223 mm |
| weight | 2.24 kg | 2.18 kg | 2.23 kg | 2.28 kg |
| other projects | ||||
| System fan | 92 mm x 92 mm x 2 pcs | 92 mm x 92 mm x 2 pcs | 92 mm x 92 mm x 2 pcs | 92 mm x 92 mm x 2 pcs |
| Automatic power recovery | |
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| Noise value* | 19.8 dB (A) | 19.8 dB (A) | 20.5 dB(A) | 19.8 dB(A) |
| Timer switch | |
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| Wake on LAN | |
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| Power supply / transformer | 100 W | 90 W | 90 W | 100 W |
| AC input voltage | 100 V to 240 V AC | 100 V to 240 V AC | 100 V to 240 V AC | 100 V to 240 V AC |
| Current frequency | 50/60 Hz, single frequency | 50/60 Hz, single frequency | 50/60 Hz, Single Phase | 50/60 Hz, Single Phase |
| Power consumption * | 32.17 W (Access) | 28.30 W (Access) | 29.01 W (Access) | 28.8 W (Access) |
| 9.69 W (HDD Hibernation) | 8.45 W (HDD Hibernation) | 10.59 W (HDD Hibernation) | 12.6 W (HDD Hibernation) | |
| British Thermal Unit | 109.84 BTU / hr (Access) | 96.63 BTU / hr (Access) | 98.98 BTU/hr (Access) | 98.27 BTU/hr (Access) |
| 33.09 BTU / hr (HDD Hibernation) | 72.11 BTU / hr (HDD Hibernation) | 36.12 BTU/hr (HDD Hibernation) | 42.99 BTU/hr (HDD Hibernation) | |
| temperature | ||||
| Operating temperature | 0 ° C to 40 ° C (32 ° F to 104 ° F) | 0 ° C to 40 ° C (32 ° F to 104 ° F) | 5°C to 40°C (40°F to 104°F) | 5°C to 40°C (40°F to 104°F) |
| Storage temperature | -20 ° C to 60 ° C (-5 ° F to 140 ° F) | -20 ° C to 60 ° C (-5 ° F to 140 ° F) | -20°C to 60°C (-5°F to 140°F) | -20°C to 60°C (-5°F to 140°F) |
| Relative humidity | 5% to 95% RH | 5% to 95% RH | 5% to 95% RH | 5% to 95% RH |
| Warranty | 3 year hardware warranty, extendable to 5 years coverage- EW201 | 3 year hardware warranty, extendable to 5 years coverage- EW201 | 2 Years | 3-year hardware warranty, extendable to 5-year coverage – EW201 |
[Original Post: 3 May 2020]
