What Makes The Synology DS720+ A Unique Diskstation

The newest tiny desktop NAS from Synology is the DiskStation DS720+. The Synology DS720 Plus appears like the normal two-bay Synology product, but it has a few novel features, such as two additional NVMe M slots. Two more berths on the bottom make a total of four. This specific NAS is made to make managing user information storage and multimedia easier.

The Latest Inclusions

Another potent 2-bay NAS product from Synology is the DS720+. However, what makes it unique is the inclusion of twin M.2 SSD storing bays that are typically seen exclusively in bigger “plus” models. You can see from the numbers above how much performance flexibility this adds. The J4124 4-core Intel Celeron processor, DDR4 RAM up to 6GB, and compatibility with Synology’s DX517 expansion bays round out the package for individuals who may want extra storage space as their demands change. The usually superb and thorough DiskStation Manager, which offers a variety of potent multimedia and administration tools, manages it and also provides two 1GbE ports.

The Performance

For performance, we examined CIFS and iSCSI systems with both HDD-only as well as SSD caching. You also come across 743 IOPS write CIFS 344 IOPS read along with 569 IOPS iSCSI write in and 777 IOPS read during our 100-percentage read/write spontaneous 4K performance test. The DS720+ achieved 45,392 IOPS write in CIFS and 31,468 IOPS read with cache, compared to 49,404 IOPS write and 54,225 IOPS read in iSCSI. We measured 28,163 IOPS read and 28,002 IOPS write in CIFS and 28,476 IOPS read and 28,403 IOPS write in iSCSI throughout the 8K consecutive testing throughput. When caching was enabled, CIFS recorded 28,416 IOPS for write operations and 28,174 IOPS for read operations; whereas iSCSI registered 28,474 IOPS and 28,538 IOPS for read and write operations respectively.

Last but not least, the DS720+ achieved 231MB/s read and write in CIFS as well as 230MB/s read and write in iSCSI on their large-block sequential test. When caching was enabled, CIFS and iSCSI both posted equal performance numbers of 231 MB/s read and 230 MB/s write.

The Significant Bonus

The Synology DS720+ increases power for users that initially require a compact, powerful NAS but later prefer a reduced initial outlay with a 5-bay expansion capacity. Our statistics show that the inclusion of the NVMe slots has been a significant bonus. Even over GbE, a little flash may drastically improve speed. The main drawback is that these flash ports cannot be set up for RAID, but they work great for caching. Overall, Synology’s DS720+ 2-bay NAS sits comfortably among their line of good offerings.