Written 22 Aug 2026. Specs from the maker pages linked below. Prices from those stores. I haven't used these. Confirm the diskless SKU before you click. Amazon is full of drive bundles.
Quiet overnight backups with Synology DSM: DS224+
Quiet overnight backups with Synology DSM when the Plus extras matter. Dual gigabit and a 6 GB RAM lid are the ceiling. Skip Plus if sleep backups alone are the job.
Quiet overnight backups with Synology DSM when the Plus extras matter. This is not the first-NAS three-way. That page already parks DS224+ as the “want sleep” pick against a 10G UGREEN. This is the single-SKU note: what the chassis actually is, what DSM still wins, and the day you should stop buying Plus 2-bay hardware.
Official hardware: Intel Celeron J4125 (4C/4T, 2.0 / 2.7 GHz), 2 GB DDR4 non-ECC plus one slot, official max 6 GB (2+4). Two hot-swap bays for 3.5" SATA HDD or 2.5" SATA SSD. Dual 1GbE (MTU 1500). Two USB 3.2 Gen 1. One 92 mm fan. No M.2. No PCIe. 165 × 108 × 232.2 mm, 1.30 kg. 60 W brick. RAID: SHR, Basic, JBOD, 0, 1. Two-year hardware warranty, extendable to four with Extended Warranty Plus in NA/EU. Spec PDF last updated 17 Jun 2026.
Synology’s own lab numbers: 14.69 W access, 4.41 W HDD hibernation, 22 dB(A) idle with Synology HDDs at 1 m. Scheduled power on/off is in the spec. That is why this box still belongs in a bedroom more than a 10G 4-bay does. Maker figures, not a Labthrift wall-watt log.
DSM is still the restore story people have actually used. Hyper Backup, Photos, snapshots, and a package list that does not require you to live in a forum. Virtual Machine Manager is “recommended 2 VMs.” SAN Manager is a hard lid: 2 iSCSI targets, 4 LUNs. That is a product limit, not a drive limit. Dual 1GbE means a single client tops out around 110 MB/s. There is no NIC upgrade path.
Drives are the real bill. Buy CMR NAS HDDs (WD Red Plus, IronWolf, Toshiba N300). Skip WD Red EFAX (DM-SMR), WD Blue 3.5" EZAZ, and BarraCuda 3.5" 4 / 8 TB (SMR). IronWolf 1–6 TB SKUs are 5400 RPM; the 8 TB ST8000VN004 is 7200. 5400 / 5640 RPM NAS drives are fine for Hyper Backup and Time Machine. They are the wrong only datastore for Proxmox over iSCSI.
Street, 22 Aug 2026
| Path | Listing | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Diskless chassis | Synology-class US MSRP cited at $299.99 (FrontDeskReview, verified against synology.com 27 Jun 2026). | Amazon diskless ASIN B0C6927XPX. A 16 Aug 2026 price-history snapshot showed $499.99 on that ASIN. Third-party / bundle noise. Confirm the diskless card. B&H: 1781611-REG. |
| Skip bundles | B0CTQMPJ9M / B0FZXFXRHJ class drive kits | Don't buy a 16 TB reseller bundle to “save a click.” |
Need four bays and still want DSM? DS423+. Same J4125, same 1GbE, same 6 GB lid, plus M.2. Head-to-head: DS224+ vs DS423+. RAID question: SHR vs RAID 1. Want 2.5G without paying for 10G? UGREEN DXP2800.
Skip
Skip this box the day you want 2.5G, a VM datastore, or more than two bays. Skip using it as the only iSCSI LUN for Proxmox. Skip a used DS918+. No current Synology Certified Refurbished listing, and third-party “refurb” is out. Skip filling the bays with old laptop HDDs; see 2.5 vs 3.5.
Sources
Synology DS224+ product page (hardware + DSM tables, fetched 22 Aug 2026). Product spec PDF (updated 17 Jun 2026). Amazon B0C6927XPX. B&H 1781611-REG. FrontDeskReview / synology.com $299.99 MSRP cite, 27 Jun 2026.