A few question from a new Synology DS720+ owner

Playground Hardware
#1

Good Morning,
So last week I opted to purchase a DS720+. I have to play with the cache slots yet but i'm running a 1tb ssd in slot 1. I've switched over to this running my channels server, so far it actually runs faster than my previous setup (HP pro desk G3 I5 2.5mhz, 8gig of ram, 1tb SSD). I have no complaints about how its running thus far. I do have a few questions about as this is my first NAS like this:

  1. It has 2 LAN ports, currently I'm using 1, should I be using both? Are there any advantages/disadvantages?

  2. Because this is a 4 core celeron with 6 gig of ram, in theory could it handle running Channels, Plex (recording live tv over the air as a backup), and act as a low usage file server (more for storage of photos and some files)?

  3. It has a USB 3.0 port, can I hookup my 4 bay external docking station and use the movies and tv shows I already have via that 3.0? What if any impact might there be to channels? I'm currently running that via a NVIDIA Shield TV Pro as my Plex server but would like to migrate to one solution.

I appreciate everyone's help as I continue to learn about all of this new technology.

#2

  1. The second lan port would only count if you have multiple logins to your server. You will only ever get 1 gig speed nothing faster. So if you don't have a ton of things accessing it probably not worth setting up.

  2. I have a DS920+. Which is the same thing as yours but with two more bays. It looks like your machine comes with 2 GB of ram, upgradable to a total of 6 gb of ram. Did you add this? If you did then you should be fine. If you didn't add the 4 gb stick. I would recommend it as 2 could be leaving some performance behind.

  3. I can't tell you about the USB 3.0 slot. You probably should have opted for a bigger bay like the ds920+. Then you could have moved it all directly onto the nas. Hopefully someone else who has more experience with external options can help you with this.

P.S. the ssd cache will bairly give you any performance bump. Again this is mainly used for heavy usage. I added one to mine and couldn't really tell a difference. You can probably watch a few videos on youtube about it.

#3

I connect both of my ports on my Synology for local redundancy ... Even though if your main connection goes down for some reason the most you would lose is remote access ... but local recordings etc ...will continue to work. Remote access is as easy as forwarding the port 8089 to the 2nd connection.

#4
  1. I use both for redundancy. Probably don't need it but I do have it setup this way.
  2. I use my 1019+ which has the older cpu to run Channels, Plex, Pluto for Channels, Home Assistant, Synology Drive, Synology Photos, and at one point I will add Surveillance Station back to it.
  3. The issue you might run into is if the Synology can read the filesystem that is on the External. You can try, but I would have that data backed up.

I 2nd what @jxxaxxy said above, if you already have that much storage you might be better off with the larger DS920+ or the 1520+

#5

Almost positive that would be NO.
Synology only supports a single USB device connection, not hubs, and I assume your 4 bay docking station uses an internal hub.
You could try connecting it and see if it shows up.
Here are the supported file systems
https://kb.synology.com/en-us/DSM/help/DSM/AdminCenter/system_externaldevice_devicelist?version=7

#6

You know the saying You Don’t Think You Need IT – Until You Do

1 Like
#7

Literally my job revolves around thinking like this.

1 Like
#8

I want to thank everyone for their replies. I have downloaded the plex server and installed it. I will let everyone know how the USB thing goes. Hopefully i can get it to work.