Cisco Catalyst 1200-24T-4G 24-Port Gigabit Managed Switch vs Synology DiskStation DS923+ 4-Bay NAS Enclosure

What separates them

These two differ on 3 recorded specifications. The Synology DiskStation DS923+ 4-Bay NAS Enclosure is $50.99 dearer. They are different kinds of product — managed switch against network attached storage — so read the table as two spec sheets rather than a like-for-like.

Cisco Catalyst 1200-24T-4G 24-Port Gigabit Managed Switch vs Synology DiskStation DS923+ 4-Bay NAS Enclosure

Cisco

Cisco Catalyst 1200-24T-4G 24-Port Gigabit Managed Switch

$549.00

The 24T in the model number means twenty-four data ports and no PoE at all -- the PoE variants are the 24P and 24FP, and buying this one for access points is the common and expensive mistake.

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Synology

Synology DiskStation DS923+ 4-Bay NAS Enclosure

$599.99

Four bays and ECC memory are the two things that separate this from the two-bay units, and ECC is the one that matters for a machine holding the only copy of anything.

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Who the Cisco Catalyst 1200-24T-4G 24-Port Gigabit Managed Switch is for

Buy it if: Sites aggregating several access switches over fiber and wanting Cisco management without licensing.

Avoid it if: Anyone powering access points or cameras, who needs a 24P or 24FP instead.

Who the Synology DiskStation DS923+ 4-Bay NAS Enclosure is for

Buy it if: Offices needing four bays, ECC memory and a route to 10 GbE later.

Avoid it if: Media servers relying on hardware transcoding, which this processor cannot do at all.

Specifications, side by side

3 of 18 rows differ. Differences first.

SpecificationCisco Catalyst 1200-24T-4G 24-Port Gigabit Managed SwitchSynology DiskStation DS923+ 4-Bay NAS Enclosure
Price$549.00$599.99
Annual energy useAbout 166 kWh a year running continuously, roughly $28 at $0.17 per kWhAbout 286 kWh a year running continuously, roughly $49 at $0.17 per kWh
Rated powerAbout 19 W typicalAbout 32.7 W in access, 12.1 W at hibernation
WarrantyLimited lifetime hardware warranty3-year limited warranty
Capacity not published4 bay
CoolingFan cooled not published
Drive bays not published4 x 3.5 inch SATA, diskless
Expansion slots not published2 x M.2 2280 NVMe for cache
Forwarding rate41.66 Mpps not published
Layer 3 featuresStatic routing and inter-VLAN routing not published
ManagementWeb UI, CLI and Cisco Business Dashboard not published
Memory not published4 GB DDR4 ECC, expandable to 32 GB
Network ports not published2 x Gigabit Ethernet, 10 GbE via expansion card
PoE budgetNone -- see the 24P and 24FP variants not published
Port count24 x Gigabit Ethernet plus 4 x SFP not published
Processor not publishedAMD Ryzen R1600 dual-core 2.6 GHz
Rack units1U not published
RAID levels not publishedBasic, JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10
Switching capacity56 Gbps not published

Every row is a figure one or both products record. A blank is a figure the catalogue does not hold, not a zero.

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