Head-to-head · Best 4-Bay NAS Drives

QNAP TS-464 vs Synology DS923+

Which is the better buy? Side-by-side on rating, price, strengths, and watch-outs — with the published ratings we averaged to get there.

The short answer

Synology DS923+ comes out ahead by a narrow margin (4.5 vs 4.6). The gap is mostly about households and prosumers who want the least-friction NAS experience and value mature software over raw hardware spec — read the strengths below before deciding.

Ranked #2 in Best 4-Bay NAS Drives

QNAP TS-464

4.5

$566

The TS-464 is the right answer if Plex transcoding is the primary use case. The Celeron N5095's iGPU handles four simultaneous 4K HEVC transcodes without choking, and the dual 2.5 GbE ports plus a PCIe slot for 10 GbE expansion give you more network headroom than the Synology DS923+. The trade-off is QTS — functional but less refined than DSM. Power users learn to live with it; casual users may not.

Strengths

— Intel Celeron N5095 with iGPU — sustained 4K HEVC hardware transcoding for Plex/Jellyfin
— Dual 2.5 GbE ports stock, port trunking gets close to 10 GbE speeds (~589 MB/s)
— PCIe Gen 3 slot lets you add a 10 GbE card later

Watch-outs

— QTS is less polished than Synology's DSM — more menus, less consistent UI
— QNAP has shipped security vulnerabilities that received late patches in the past
— Higher idle power than the Synology DS923+

$566 · Check Price on Amazon Full review →

Higher ratedRanked #1 in Best 4-Bay NAS Drives

Synology DS923+

4.6

$599

The DS923+ is the default 4-bay NAS recommendation for most users, and has been since launch — DSM is the most polished OS in this space, ECC RAM support is unusual at this price, and the platform handles continuous backups, media serving, and a few virtual machines without breaking a sweat. The two main limitations — gigabit-only stock networking and no native hardware transcoding — push power users to the QNAP TS-464. Everyone else gets the easier path with the Synology.

Strengths

— AMD Ryzen R1600 dual-core CPU with ECC memory support — rare protection against silent data corruption
— DSM (DiskStation Manager) is the most polished NAS operating system available
— Two M.2 NVMe slots for read/write caching (or storage pools on DSM 7.2+)

Watch-outs

— Ships with only 2x 1 GbE ports — 2.5 GbE is becoming standard at this price tier
— Synology's drive-compatibility list pushes you toward their branded HAT3300 drives
— Hardware video transcoding requires a Plex Pass workaround — no iGPU like QNAP

$599 · Check Price on Amazon Full review →

How they stack up

QNAP TS-464

Beats the Synology DS923+ on hardware transcoding and stock 2.5 GbE, but loses on operating system polish. Less raw CPU than the TerraMaster F4-424 Pro (which offers 8 cores vs the TS-464's 4), but the Celeron's iGPU is a meaningful advantage for media work. Cheaper than the Asustor Lockerstor 4 Gen3 and UGREEN DXP4800 Plus while still offering credible 2.5 GbE.

Synology DS923+

DSM is materially more polished than QNAP's QTS, Asustor's ADM, UGREEN's UGOS, and TerraMaster's TOS. Loses on raw spec to the QNAP TS-464 (4K transcoding, 2.5 GbE stock), the UGREEN DXP4800 Plus (10 GbE stock), the TerraMaster F4-424 Pro (8-core CPU), and the Asustor Lockerstor 4 Gen3 (5/10 GbE dual). The software gap closes the hardware gap for most non-power-user buyers.

Specs side-by-side

Spec	QNAP TS-464	Synology DS923+
Bays	4 (3.5" / 2.5" SATA)	4 (3.5" / 2.5" SATA)
CPU	Intel Celeron N5095 (4-core, 2.0-2.9 GHz) with iGPU	AMD Ryzen R1600 (2-core, 2.6-3.1 GHz)
RAM	8 GB DDR4 (up to 16 GB)	4 GB DDR4 ECC (up to 32 GB)
Networking	2x 2.5 GbE	2x 1 GbE (optional 10 GbE)
Expansion	PCIe Gen 3 x2 slot	Gen3 x2 network upgrade slot (eSATA)
Video Output	HDMI 2.1 (4K 60)	—
M.2 NVMe Slots	2x PCIe slots	2x slots
OS	QTS (QuTS hero optional)	DSM (DiskStation Manager)
Max Sequential Read	~600 MB/s	625 MB/s

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