Replace a DS215J?

[Enquiries]

Howdy! I'm looking to replace my rather old and dated DS215J with a 4 bay-NAS.
The Synology DS423+ or the Synology DS923+ or do I go for a completely different model?
Mainly PC/iPhone/Mac backups, photo library and camera roll 2K/4K videos (most likely be more towards storage than playback or kinda wanna try Plex for films but will be the odd 2-3 films, nothing major)..

Max £600 for NAS itself not inc. hard drives (will ideally like to use my 2 drives in my DS215J as these are only recently purchased to up the size, is this possible?).

Thanks

[ed]

Thanks for getting in touch. If you’re looking to upgrade from the DS215j and stick within the £600 range (excluding drives), both the DS423+ and DS923+ are solid options, but they have slightly different strengths.

The DS423+ is the better pick if you’re after something more multimedia-friendly out of the box. It includes integrated graphics, so it’ll handle light Plex use better (like occasional 1080p or basic 4K playback) without relying on the client device to do the heavy lifting.

The DS923+, on the other hand, has more expandability – like upgradable RAM, NVMe bays for storage pools, and 10GbE support (with an optional upgrade). However, it doesn’t include integrated graphics, so Plex hardware transcoding isn’t available. If media playback is minimal and more about raw storage and backups, this is still a strong choice.

Regarding your current drives: yes, you can reuse them if they’re compatible (ideally CMR/WD Red Plus/IronWolf types), but you won’t be able to simply drop the existing RAID or SHR volume from the DS215j into a new NAS. You’ll need to back up the data first, wipe the drives, and set them up fresh in the new unit.

If you want something a bit more flexible or cost-effective, you could also look at QNAP’s TS-464, which often goes for a similar price and gives you HDMI, built-in graphics for Plex, and good app support. Just bear in mind the software is a bit more involved than Synology’s DSM.