Memory Upgrades on a NAS - Before You Buy

Memory I tested in this video (with amazon links):

Other Memory that has been tested and worked:

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's video. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a fee from qualifying purchases.

If you have purchased a new NAS Drive in the last few months, then chances are that you would use it to the best if its abilities increasing the memory to the maximum in order to run more apps and allow more users to access the device at any time. The latest 2020 Generation of Synology NAS (the DS920+, DS420+, DS720+ and DS220+), much like the older gen devices, all arrive with the ability to upgrade the memory to 8GB, but some users like to push this limitation, using unofficial memory from brands like crucial or Kingston, installing bigger and faster memory. Generally speaking, Synology NAS has a long-standing reputation for being underpowered when compared to brands like QNAP and Asustor, at least out of the box, choosing to focus on their award-winning DSM software. This is changing a bit in 2019/2020 with the newer Synology drives featuring improved hardware choices, but still, for many, it seems a little underwhelming. One potential benefit that’s highlighted to improve performance considerably multiple users is to upgrade the RAM (Random Access Memory) in the Synology NAS drive. Today’s post will cover my thoughts on the usefulness of upgrading the factory-installed RAM, how to determine if a RAM upgrade is needed at all and exactly how to do this. Let’s start with the latter, do you need to upgrade RAM?

[cpocsm]

Brilliant video, I am learning so much from your expertise and professionalism, Many Thanks

[asdf]

I've noticed that during regular file operations, my TS-h973AX running 8GB uses over half the RAM. My TS-h886 has 16GB, and also uses... half. So it's upgrade time. The TS-h886 runs ECC DDR4 UDIMMs and the TS-h973AX with the AMD proc looks like it uses any DDR4 SODIMM, ECC or not. However, the intarwebs recommend that when running ZFS (I am!), to use ECC. So 64GB for each for now, maybe 128 total for the TS-h886 if I add a storage expansion and fill it with surveillance drives in addition to running Plex.

[elfwyn]

My main problem was running a Plex Server without running out of Memory. My 4GB Ram Qnap had the tendency to cap out at 80% and start to Swap Files aggressively leading to the failing of the QTS User Interface. At that point I had to restart the NAS every evening until I disabled Plex. Now with an added 8 GB (Qnap Original) I only ran into that Problem once again with Plex taking whopping 7GB of Ram at that time. Maybe some memory leaks in Plex in that version or it did just use everything it got.
I have to say I was shocked when I saw QTS break down when the swapping threshold was reached.
I would rather have some extra Ram even for normal tasks now.

[A.O.S.A]

Unrelated question:
Does anyone know if synology 920+ can run Samsung SSD 980 PRO ?

[JohnMuz]

Ram may work fine until the vendor updates OS. Keep original ram. May have requirement to revert during upgrade, then return to the better configuration... All part of the fun. (keep copy of data)

[A.O.S.A]

When I saw your video, I was thinking:
It’s too late, I already ordered kingston 16GB memory for my synology 920+, but thanks god you didn’t say anything against doing it 🙏🏻

[codecage]

Just put one of the Crucial 16GB DDR4 SODIIMM modules (CT16G4SFD8266) in to my DA1621+ after removing the 4GB Synology module that came with it. The NAS failed to boot when powered back up! Changed back to the original RAM and it booted fine. Anyone with any thoughts? Maybe a bad module? Guess I have time to return to Amazon.

[BrianJeffersonTecson]

Will this work on a Synology DS224+? Thank you.

[JLneonhug]

Have a question not related to this (sorry).
For 2 Bay drives: shr is basically raid 1? It doesn't split it by 1gb slots?

I'm deciding 720+ vs 920+, however, I don't think I'll fill up 12Tb anytime soon.

Thanks!

[IT_RUN]

I upgraded the memory to 8 GB on my DS920+ for virtual machines And notice that My windows 11 virtual machine sometimes could not use the full 6 gigs because of system resources and so I had to reduce it to 5 GB. After a while, I decided to unofficially upgrade to 20 GB (16 GB stick + 4 GB built-in) made a noticeable difference allowing me to allocate 12 gigabytes to Windows 11 VM leaving a full 8 gigs for the system. I also have an Ubuntu VM which I allocated 8 GB. It's worth mentioning that I don't run them at the same time obviously.

[armenianmate]

@NASCompares Hello bro, I upgraded my DS220+ to 10 GB by adding crucial 8 GB memory module. Everything went ok and didn't have any problem with system stability. Just after upgrade, I can see gradually the "Cached" memory starts to increase in resource monitoring and almost after a week (even when I do a system restart) it reaches to 8.5 GB and this is causing free memory amount to be less than 1 GB, and if I check the swap memory I see system start using about 1.3 MB out of 7.7 GB. Is this a normal behavior? Why DS220+ doesn't empty cache memory to use it instead of using swap memory? Will this be fixed in DSM 7? Thanks for your hint ;)

[Losschris]

Crucial has worked great in my 1522+ and RS3621xs+

[elainefeather]

Thank you, very helpful ! My education continues … little by little !

[ianmadeit]

My god you are so damn helpful. Thanks!

[BlankBrain]

I have a Synology 920+, and added 16GB for a total of 20GB. The memory works fine, but was not used. I then swapped out the 16GB for 4GB to meet Synology's recommendations/requirements. I haven't seen the top 4GB get used. If I ever need more memory, I have it.

[jtrapper]

can I ask your opinion on how to speed up the load times viewing image previews using adobe bridge or any software in general? The images are on the nas folder, ethernet, D920+ Synology; I use my laptop to view and work on the images. will ram help here, or adding cache drive?

[martinbeaumont]

So which is the best first upgrade for a 920+ Adding more memory or adding NvME caches?

[reddlief]

Exactly what I needed to know, thank you!...can I use 1 of my 5 NAS disks as a backup (incremental) for parts of the other 4? I use 3x 4TB Passport WD External drives that I keep offsight in my safety deposit box. I do a complete back up with the Externals every quarter, but I'd like a copy on sight that I can restore a file I might have corrupted while using. Possible? Thanks....

[steeez]

I want to upgrade the ram on my qnap ts-462. Do you have a reccomendation? Is 16gb too much?

[daveg]

I just increased the memory in my Asustor AS6704T 4-bay NAS. I used a stick of Patriot Viper Steel 8GB DDR4-3200 CL18 SODIMM. It isn't on the qualified list, which is really short, but the memory works fine. None of the memory on the qualified list was even available in Canada that I could find, which is really bad, Asustor needs to test and qualify more memory. I have one more slot so I can increase it to 16GB in the future. I also like the Patriot since it has a heat spreader on it. The Celeron N5105 can only access 16GB, but I am using this unit as a file backup only, so I don't need much memory.