For the parent company, the Synology DiskStation DS720 + is a product classified for “IT Enthusiasts”, which probably means for a home user with advanced needs or for freelancers. Which is true but as we will see the possible applications of the little Synology house are also others, especially for those who do Smart Working.
Room with a view
Inside the box there is the empty NAS, a small instruction booklet, the (external) power supply and a Gigabit Ethernet cable, as well as the keys to lock the slides. The latter, typically created to prevent theft, are very useful in the office or at home to prevent other people besides the administrator from putting their hands where they shouldn't.
While photographing the Synology DiskStation DS720 + we immediately noticed that the front part houses the two visible slides (in addition to a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 connector and the power button): indeed, in plain sight, a typical mode professional (and a little cheeky), instead of a more moderate lid (such as the Synology DS220 +).
The back is classic and houses two Gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet connectors (with support for Link Aggregation / Failover), a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 connector, an eSATA port (no USB-C, too bad).
The dimensions are 166 x 106 x 223 mm, with a weight of 1.51 kg (to which must be added that of the discs), which absorbs a power supply of 65 W.
Inside the box the NAS, the power supply, the keys, a few screws for the SSD and an Ethernet cable
Plus is better than RED
The installation of the two mechanical units with which we tested the small NAS (small so to speak) took place very quickly, since no screws are needed, the disks are installed in the slides using plastic hooks.
The screws, which are still present in the package, are used for 2.5 ″ SATA SSD, in which case you want to replace a mechanical drive with a solid state one. Under the drive are two bays for high-speed M.2 2280 NVMe SSDs.
In the part underneath the NAS there are two slots for NVMe SSDs
Once we checked the compatibility of the disks we opted for two 12 TB WD RED Plus mechanical drives, which we used in RAID 0 mode. RAID 1 on two-bay drives) is given by the fact that it was still a trial period and all the data inside the 21.4 TB volume thus obtained was still a backup of another archive.
However, the choice of disks gave excellent performance: in addition to this, the WD drives also proved to be silent and fast (also helped by RAID 0): be careful, however, the WD RED Plus drives are not to be confused with the RED drives (non plus ), in practice the previous model, not very inclined to optimize the RAID in with the RED Pro units, faster and designed for professional use.
Only note, despite the presence of a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port and an eSATA, we would have appreciated a USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 port for the initial data transfer, which is always a delicate moment, decreasing the waiting time.
DSM 6 , almost 7
The test of the Synology DiskStation DS720 + took place with DSM 6.2.4-25556, because the most recent version (7.0) is not yet public (but it is close to Release Candidate at the time of writing these lines).
Synology's operating system is as always elegant, at the same time simple and detailed in the possibilities and elastic, even if the initial part of the installation of the services could be more automated.
The accessory apps are excellent, from mobile control to multimedia apps, from cloud synchronization to the management of third-party services such as the exceptional Plex, even if some parallel services find space among the native apps of Synology, excellent if taken individually but not enough integrated and horizontal like Plex.
The only flaw in this is the lack of an HDMI port that would have offered an extra opportunity of use, perhaps connected to the TV: it is always possible to use Plex, but you need a Smart TV or an Apple TV and the video port optimized compatibility.
A shame to use only for files
After the initial data transfer we played a bit with the Apps and services, where there is a version of Office to be used online, various backup systems, a Proxy Server, a video surveillance system, various development tools and all the Apps. multimedia above.
As we said at the beginning, the Synology DiskStation DS720 + is an excellent system to operate to archive documents, but in all honesty only as storage for a small group of people, the NAS would be wasted.
At home we see it as a network HUB to share documents to and from the office (for those who do smart working), to use different multimedia services (photos, videos, music) such as a private cloud, but if desired it can also become an interesting way to develop a copy of a website or a web based App on an intranet before making everything public on an external Hosting ( so you can do some experiments completely and for free).
The internal processor, an Intel Celeron 4-core J4125 with 2 GB DDR4 (expandable) to 6 GB, allows very quiet use in a domestic perspective, where the whole family can safely use it for storage and multimedia, even at the same time, while for the office we can assume a small office, 4-6 users at the same time.
In order to use the more advanced functions, however, we recommend the use of (at least) an M.2 2280 NVMe drive, whose speed prevents obvious latency of the mechanical disks.
Considerations
Small, quiet, comfortable (thanks to the operating system), elastic and powerful for all the needs we had, the Synology DiskStation DS720 + is one of the best NAS in the market range up to 500 Euro, ideal for the small professional who works at home with extensive sharing needs.
Considering that with two mechanical disks (for NAS, don't skimp on the cost) you can easily get 20-30 TB of space, such a drive is an excellent solution for a private cloud.
Not to mention that with external disks, such as the Synology DX517 external drive, the Synology DiskStation DS720 + can control up to 7 disks (for a total of 108 TB, with 7 16 TB disks) with even progressive expansion (optimizing costs ), for those who use it in private, effectively eliminating the storage problems of photos and movies, even in RAW.
The price seems right, considering the power and versatility of the system which, with the upcoming DSM 7, can only get better.
Pro:
• Mature and efficient operating system • Nice, if a little cheeky design • Double Ethernet connection
Cons:
• USB-C missing • HDMI port missing
Price:
• 469.70 Euro (unit without discs)
In the review we also tried
• 60.98 1TB WD RED Plus • 239.90 8TB WD RED Plus • 440.70 12TB WD RED Plus
Synology DiskStation DS720 + is available in authorized stores or you can also find it more conveniently at Amazon.co.uk.
