Hi Folks, I hope this is a topic of interest to discuss for folks that have a Synology DS923+ or have first-hand knowledge about the topic being discussed.
I wanted to start a discussion regarding 3rd party and Synology hardware (thoughts, experiences, recommendations) referenced below for the Synology DS923+. These might be some good starter points to get folks going:
A-when to buy / what people think is a good price/deal?
B-what order to buy and install hardware in (e.g. when you buy the NAS, open it, update to the latest DSM with nothing in it as step 1, then buy SSDs because the prices might be going up soon?, then start buying HDDs? and RAM over time? The best time to buy X is when? e.g. Black Friday?)
C-what to buy; what people actually bought that worked that they liked (e.g. 3rd party known to be compatible without losing function/options) <--- this feels like it should be a Poll with recommendations for 3rd party items per Synology device? Did nobody ever do that in this forum? I didn't find it before I started typing this.
D-workarounds for the 3rd party - (e.g. script to disable unofficial RAM warnings)
E-discussions around anything I provided in my personal context I provided below
I have been racking my brain listening to reviews, reading online trying to understand what I might want to do based on comments online and prices I see. To be frank, in general, the Synology costs seem outrageous when you compare it to 3rd party hardware.
Here is some data I collected as of 1/2/2024 in case it helps anyone in any way:
Bottom line is I think I know what I want, but i'm looking for folks in the forum to provide their thoughts from their first-hand experiences with the DS923+ and interacting w/Synology the vendor. Maybe someone will bring into this discussion that this RAM is the best that they bought for their DS923+, or this was the approach I took for the SSDs and what I bought that worked on my DS923+, or this is the best HDD I found for my DS923+, but I had to run x, y, and z scripts....whatever nuggets if info folks can share would be awesome. I'm hoping my post will help some folks with their decision-making process as well!
This is where I am coming from for context on what I think I would like to do (perhaps it might help others reading this to consider as well
):
: Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to join this discussion and offer their advice, experience, insight, and support! Please keep in mind, using unsupported 3rd Party could void your warranty or make you lose support from Synology....at least that's what i've been hearing and reading all over, so I might as well put that disclaimer in here on this first post as well. Everyone has different comfort levels of what that might mean...some may have firsthand experience w/Synology? Either way, do what you do at your own risk...same goes for me. 
I am comfortable running scripts and making changes and tinkering... this is my first NAS, but i've worked in Technology all my life. If I screw something up, i'll be ok. If you don't think you will.... you might want to stick to paying someone else to do it for you or pay for the OEM Synology Hardware.
I wanted to start a discussion regarding 3rd party and Synology hardware (thoughts, experiences, recommendations) referenced below for the Synology DS923+. These might be some good starter points to get folks going:
A-when to buy / what people think is a good price/deal?
B-what order to buy and install hardware in (e.g. when you buy the NAS, open it, update to the latest DSM with nothing in it as step 1, then buy SSDs because the prices might be going up soon?, then start buying HDDs? and RAM over time? The best time to buy X is when? e.g. Black Friday?)
C-what to buy; what people actually bought that worked that they liked (e.g. 3rd party known to be compatible without losing function/options) <--- this feels like it should be a Poll with recommendations for 3rd party items per Synology device? Did nobody ever do that in this forum? I didn't find it before I started typing this.
D-workarounds for the 3rd party - (e.g. script to disable unofficial RAM warnings)
E-discussions around anything I provided in my personal context I provided below
- Use 3rd Party Hardware?
- RAM
- M.2 NVME
- HDD
- Use Synology Hardware?
- RAM
- M.2 NVME
- HDD
I have been racking my brain listening to reviews, reading online trying to understand what I might want to do based on comments online and prices I see. To be frank, in general, the Synology costs seem outrageous when you compare it to 3rd party hardware.
Here is some data I collected as of 1/2/2024 in case it helps anyone in any way:
Bottom line is I think I know what I want, but i'm looking for folks in the forum to provide their thoughts from their first-hand experiences with the DS923+ and interacting w/Synology the vendor. Maybe someone will bring into this discussion that this RAM is the best that they bought for their DS923+, or this was the approach I took for the SSDs and what I bought that worked on my DS923+, or this is the best HDD I found for my DS923+, but I had to run x, y, and z scripts....whatever nuggets if info folks can share would be awesome. I'm hoping my post will help some folks with their decision-making process as well!
This is where I am coming from for context on what I think I would like to do (perhaps it might help others reading this to consider as well
):- RAM for Apps & Fast Cache - I want to max it out to 32 GB of RAM using two DDR4 (2666 MHz) 260-pin unbuffered ECC SO-DIMMs (i.e. 2 identical SODIMMs that are 16 GB each) because ECC is supported by the CPU and I believe it's the max amount designed for the Synology DS923+ to use w/Synology DSM software because of the Ryzen R1600 CPU in the NAS from my understanding. The DS923+ only came with 4 GB of RAM.
- I will be using the NAS for playing around, learning, and running lots of VM's, Docker images, etc. in addition to storage. (I'm trying to move lots of files and media off of USB's, devices, etc. and onto the DS923+ eventually.)
- I use these specs above because they are what is listed for the "compliant" Synology hardware and I would like to keep it close to what they have and hopefully from their compliance list on their page, but I don't want to lose out on the hardware capabilities anywhere either. Leaning towards 3rd party due to co$t...but willing to go Synology if I must. Maybe someone knows if the $96 OWC I referenced works without throwing any warnings of using unsupported hardware?
- I simply want ECC because the hardware supports it; if the DS923+ supports something, I don't want to miss out on the option of being able to use that feature/capability. Error Correction Code memory sticks seem like a better idea than non-ECC despite the additional cost to protect from bit-rot.
- M.2 NVME SSD High Speed Storage/Caching - I planned on using this for caching metadata (e.g. Media server metadata, or Database data, etc.), but also for high-speed read/write access for Virtual Machines, and Docker containers and the sort. There are 2 slots for the DS923+. I heard people say to put both together in a RAID as a faster storage pool and use it for storage and just manually put the metadata in that location. For capacity, i'm not sure. I'm thinking either 2x2TB 3rd Party or 2x800GB Synology. On the compatibility list, the Synology M.2 2280 size NVMe SSD that is a 3.1 inch form factor rated for +3.3V/2.0A connecting via SATA on a USB 3.0 interface. (400,000/70,000 sustained 4K random read/write IOPS for demanding I/O & supports Caching Intensive Workloads up to 1,022 TBWand DSM can update and use the custom firmware on the Synology SNV3000 series.)
- If I wanted the media server metadata to be able to grow to ~250 GB and the VM and Docker storage to be another ~150 GB, I would need at least 400 GB times 2 for the RAID. Synology's highest on the compatibility list is 800 GB so I could do two of those maybe.
- Based on the co$t again, does it not make sense to just get 2 of the 3rd Party 2TB M.2 NVME SSD's instead? This is where I was Leaning, but I did not want to get something that might prevent me from using it as a storage pool because my understanding is it will cache fine, but if I get the wrong one, I can't use it for storage; i'm also concerned about the firmware updates on the NAS or the Hardware messing up stuff later and causing issues. The benefit of making one a cache is that it takes stuff from the HDDs that are frequently accessed and makes it available in the cached volume dynamically I think. The 4TB M.2 NVMEs are way more expensive. I researched it for a PS5 before and am not sure if there will be value for me in this NAS to go that high. If anyone has ideas/reasons, to go to 4TB, i'd love to read about that in this as well.
- Spinning HDDs (Hard Disk Drives) Storage - I want lots of storage, and have 4 bays in the DS923+ to work with. Drives are expensive; especially the Synology branded Toshiba drives. I understand they may have custom firmware for Synology hardware? My plan was to put 4 HDDs that are 16TB each in a RAID 5 array that will protect for a 1 drive failure scenario. The Synology listed compatible drives are 3.5" 7200 RPM, 512 MB Cache, SATA III 6 GB/s, CMR, with a 2.5 Million hours MTTF & 550 TB/year Workload ratings with up to ~262 MB/s sustained transfer rate, so I was hoping for a drive similar to those specs. (I think it includes, CMR or PMR using Helium sealed platters (9) with vibration sensors and balance monitoringtoo.) Plus, I was planning on buying a 5th and/or 6th HDD to have ready as a spare in case of a failure(s). I felt the 16TB price point was my magic number because I needed to buy some spare drives in the event of a failure now and in the future for another NAS. (I am planning on getting another NAS with a good GPU later and a lot more bays....8 maybe... it will cost more in every way, but I wanted to try to use the same size HDD in the future too hopefully.) 16TB was the right cost per TB number for me because of these factors I think. The highest capacity Synology was showing was 18TB on the compatibility lists. I know you can get 22TB and probably more now. If I were going 3rd party and there was a higher capacity at a wow price, I would want to do that for this 4 bay maybe.
- Backblaze usually puts WD Red Pro's & Toshiba's high on the reliability lists, but they co$t a lot and I saw Seagate there too. Because of the Toshiba's, I was thinking the Synology branded drives might be worth it, but the price is crazy. Then I looked at the Seagate IronWolf Pro's...they are are expensive....less, but still expensive. Someone in a review said the Seagate EXOs were louder, but might be cheaper...I did not find that to be the case really. I'm not so worried about noise, but probably should be.
Synology RAID Calculator --> You can never have enough space. 
37.3 GB - System Reserved Synology DS923+ [4 x 16TB (RAID 5 - 1 Drive Safety)] translates to.... 43.7 TB - Available Capacity 14.6 TB - Protection
- Again, trying to at least stay close to "compliant" list specs, but co$t makes no sense. Leaning for 3rd party here. I'm guessing most people here do 3rd party with the drives?
: Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to join this discussion and offer their advice, experience, insight, and support! Please keep in mind, using unsupported 3rd Party could void your warranty or make you lose support from Synology....at least that's what i've been hearing and reading all over, so I might as well put that disclaimer in here on this first post as well. Everyone has different comfort levels of what that might mean...some may have firsthand experience w/Synology? Either way, do what you do at your own risk...same goes for me. I am comfortable running scripts and making changes and tinkering... this is my first NAS, but i've worked in Technology all my life. If I screw something up, i'll be ok. If you don't think you will.... you might want to stick to paying someone else to do it for you or pay for the OEM Synology Hardware.
) if they are not looking at these forum threads and are not willing to make their prices more competitive!
