Synology DS925+ overview
Luka Manestar
Luka Manestar
It has been ten years since the first 4-bay model that offers an expansion on top of the initial bays, and that is exactly what we have here with a brand new, yet very familiar DS925+ NAS.
Released today in APAC countries and following along the steps of its predecessor, the DS925+ looks exactly like the DS923+ with some changes to the internal specifications that directly reflect its port layout as well. It is also worth mentioning that the current model now has the same exterior look third generation in a row. It seems that Synology has become fond of this professional design, and truth be told, I have nothing against it.
With their focus on enterprise and large business devices (the ActiveProtect Appliance lineup) throughout most of 2024, the time has finally come to update the enthusiasts and prosumer models.
How will DS925+ fill in that role? Here is a quick overview of the new model.
Table of Contents
: Intro
: Specifications
: Synology and 3rd party drive support
: Intro
For anyone who waited for the new model, the time has come. Now, was the wait worth it? Well, you will be the judge of that. To be clear, anyone using the X23 model can rest assured that no upgrade is needed because the DS925+ arrived with the same 2020/2021 AMD CPU, and while a different SOC is indeed being used in the current edition, there will not be much difference.
The biggest and only change is on the inside, while we can also see certain modifications on the back of the NAS in terms of its ports.
This is still a powerful device that can, with a few upgrades, offer a lot of various features and different deployment scenarios.
: Specifications
The DS925+, this time around, has had a bit of an "upgrade" by switching from the R1600 AMD CPU to the V1500B. This is a jump from a 2-core to a 4-core/8-thread CPU that is a logical choice for a device of this caliber. With the same 4GB amount of ECC RAM (up to 32GB) and two NVMe slots, the main difference is the network support.
This type of model always had a dual LAN port, and up until now, those were 1GbE interfaces. For the X25 devices, Synology finally decided to step up and upgrade them to 2.5GbE.
While this was a long time coming, compared to the previous generation, Synology also decided to completely eliminate the 10G support using their mini 10G adapter.
DS925+ (left) vs DS923+ (right) backplane comparison
As can be seen from the comparison images above, there are several changes on the back side of the new NAS model. First off, the mentioned expansion 10G slot is completely missing, while the same USB 3.2 Gen 1 slot was reallocated to the left-hand side.
Finally, the expansion slot that was eSATA for a long time is this time replaced with USB-C. This also confirms that the new DX525 expansion device will not be compatible with older models, as was the case with DX517, for example.
Why Synology decided to eliminate the 10G support remains to be seen. Maybe there will be some support via the expansion USB-C port? That is highly unlikely as the port is clearly marked as "expansion". What is more interesting is that the upcoming DS725+ (2-bay model) also lost the 10G support, while both X23 predecessor models had this option. Considering that the CPU has not changed in terms of the new SoC, and the RAM amount is the same, makes this decision even more peculiar.
Perhaps the upcoming DS1525+, along with some other 1U RS devices, will still have this option?
The following links are 2023 reviews of the DS723+ and DS923+ and their 10G speed test
Luka Manestar
Luka Manestar
Nevertheless, the new DS925+ is here, and we will have to use it as it is. For many users out there, the upgrade of the networking interface will be just enough reason to upgrade, as both ports in combination with SMB multi-channel capabilities (on supported OS) will allow for a 5G throughput.
10G speeds, while today not something that is enterprise-only due to accessible hardware at decent pricing, might still be a bit of an overkill for some. It still requires an end-to-end upgrade of cables, interfaces, switches, and routers (for web access), so it is a certain investment. The same can be said for a 2.5GbE upgrade, but pricing on that level is marginally more expensive than 1GbE, and makes for a logical choice today, as it did already 4-5 years ago.
DS925+ is covered with a usual 3-year factory warranty that can be extended to a total of 5y via Extended Warranty Plus. Depending on the country, it will be around €65 (+tax) for the extra 2y.
Speaking of price and depending on the geographic location, the model will cost about 550€ (with tax, diskless), as it was the DS923+ model.
The datasheet for this new model is available here.
Luka Manestar
: Synology and 3rd party drive support
Based on the official information that was announced on April 16th, the following changes are in effect.
Düsseldorf – April 16, 2025 – Following the success of the High-Performance series, the company is now increasingly relying on Synology’s own storage media for the Plus series models, which will be released starting in 2025. Users will thus benefit from higher performance, increased reliability, and more efficient support. “With our proprietary hard drive solution, we have already seen significant benefits for our customers in a variety of deployment scenarios,” said Chad Chiang, Managing Director of Synology GmbH and Synology UK. “By expanding our integrated ecosystem to the Plus series, we aim to provide all users—from home users to small businesses—with the highest levels of security and performance, while also offering significantly more efficient support.”
For users, this means that starting with the Plus series models released in 2025, only Synology’s own hard drives and third-party hard drives certified according to Synology’s specifications will be compatible and offer the full range of functions and support.
There will be no changes for Plus models released up to and including 2024 (excluding the XS Plus series and rack models). Furthermore, migrating hard drives from the existing Synology NAS to a new Plus model will continue to be possible without restrictions. The use of compatible and unlisted hard drives will be subject to certain restrictions in the future, such as pool creation and support for issues and failures caused by the use of incompatible storage media. Volume-wide deduplication, lifespan analysis, and automatic hard drive firmware updates will only be available for Synology hard drives in the future. Tight integration of Synology NAS systems and hard drives reduces compatibility issues and increases system reliability and performance. At the same time, firmware updates and security patches can be deployed more efficiently, ensuring a high level of data security and more efficient support for Synology customers.
This means that on day one of the release, no official 3rd-party drive will be supported unless they have passed the certification. How the certification of 3rd-party drives will go remains to be seen, but we can see that Synology drives will not be, in fact, exclusive.
Looking at the actual supported Synology drives for the DS925+, all 3.5", 2.5", and a complete list of NVMe models are supported. On top of this, with the aforementioned changes to the policy, drives that are being migrated from an earlier model will also work, but potentially in a limited feature capacity.
Another note to point out is that this new policy is affecting the HDD lineup of drives, not SSDs. Meaning that while 3rd party SSDs will be unverified they will still be usable.
Given that the model launches today in the APAC region, we'll soon receive firsthand, solid insights on its compatibility both immediately and over time.
The up-to-date 2025 policy is also explained in more detail in the Synology KB article on the following link.
Synology Inc.
Blackvoid will certainly get this device in for testing as soon as possible, so be sure to visit back for a full review soon.
