Synology DS225+ NAS Review – Should You Buy?
The Synology DS225+ is a 2-bay desktop NAS released in 2025 as a refresh to the DS224+, aimed at home users, remote workers, and small teams needing centralized storage, backup, and multimedia functionality. It retains the Intel Celeron J4125 processor, a quad-core chip with integrated graphics, and includes 2GB of DDR4 non-ECC memory soldered to the board, with an available slot to expand the total to 6GB. Connectivity consists of both a standard 1GbE port and a 2.5GbE port, along with dual USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports for external drives or UPS devices. The chassis is compact and passively efficient, consuming less than 17 watts under load and producing under 20 dB(A) of idle noise—well-suited for environments where silence and energy efficiency matter.
The DS225+ runs DSM 7.2, Synology’s proprietary NAS operating system, and supports the full catalog of Synology applications for backup, file sharing, collaboration, and even light virtualization. Users can take advantage of tools like Active Backup, Hyper Backup, Surveillance Station, Synology Drive, and Virtual Machine Manager, with support for Btrfs and SHR offering additional flexibility. While the DS225+ delivers a solid turnkey experience for typical NAS users, its dated CPU, limited upgrade path, and increasingly restrictive drive compatibility policy raise questions about long-term value and competitiveness in the current NAS landscape. This review will examine five key advantages that justify its place in the market—and five potential drawbacks that could sway buyers toward alternatives or delay a purchase.
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Feature-Rich DSM Software and Integrated Services
One of the strongest arguments in favor of the DS225+ is its inclusion of Synology’s DiskStation Manager (DSM), widely recognized as one of the most polished NAS operating systems on the market. DSM 7.2 runs natively on the DS225+ and includes a comprehensive suite of first-party tools designed for file management, backup, synchronization, collaboration, and multimedia.
Applications such as Active Backup for Business enable full system imaging and granular backups for Windows and Linux clients, while Hyper Backup supports encrypted, versioned backups to remote Synology NAS, USB drives, or public cloud platforms. These tools are license-free and integrate tightly with DSM’s centralized control panel and task scheduler, making them practical for individuals and small teams alike.
The DS225+ also supports Snapshot Replication, allowing users to create fast, low-overhead restore points across shared folders or entire volumes. This is especially useful for protecting data against accidental deletion or ransomware threats. Multimedia services such as Synology Photos and Video Station are included, with support for AI-driven features like facial and object recognition—provided the RAM is upgraded to at least 4GB.
Additionally, users can deploy lightweight productivity services such as Synology Drive, Chat, and Office, all of which are accessible via browser or mobile apps. While the DS225+ is limited to 2 bays, it still benefits from full access to Synology’s software stack, giving users enterprise-grade functionality in a compact and relatively affordable unit.
Locked Drive Compatibility Limits Flexibility and Upgrade Options
A major drawback of the DS225+ is Synology’s increasingly rigid stance on drive compatibility, particularly with its 2025 product generation. At launch, the DS225+ only officially supports Synology-branded HDDs and SSDs, including the HAT5300 and SAT5200 series. While these drives offer solid performance and enterprise-grade validation, they are often more expensive than third-party alternatives and far less widely available in retail markets.
More critically, DSM may block or degrade functionality if users install unsupported drives—such as WD Red, Seagate IronWolf, or Toshiba N300—even if those drives meet technical requirements. This includes disabling RAID creation, expansion, and in some cases even volume initialization.
For users hoping to reuse drives from older systems or build cost-effective arrays with commodity drives, this presents a serious limitation. The policy effectively turns the DS225+ into a semi-proprietary system where basic RAID features and DSM warnings depend on purchasing Synology-approved hardware.
While it’s possible the compatibility list may expand in the future, as of July 2025, this restriction creates significant friction for DIY users or small offices managing mixed storage fleets. It also undermines the flexibility that has traditionally been one of Synology’s key advantages over more locked-down storage ecosystems. Users seeking the freedom to choose drives based on price, warranty, or local availability will find the DS225+ ecosystem increasingly restrictive.
Exceptionally Low Power Consumption and Quiet Operation
The DS225+ is particularly well-suited for 24/7 deployment in environments where power efficiency and noise are concerns, such as home offices, media rooms, or shared living spaces. In real-world usage, the system consumes just 16.98 watts during access and drops as low as 6.08 watts in HDD hibernation, making it one of the most energy-efficient 2-bay NAS systems in its class.
This low draw is aided by the efficient Intel J4125 processor and a single 92mm system fan that manages thermals without overcompensating. During testing, the DS225+ maintained component temperatures of 32°C–37°C even under sustained moderate CPU and disk activity, confirming that the chassis design and airflow are well-optimized for the thermal envelope.
In terms of acoustics, the DS225+ is also ideal for quiet setups. It produces just 19.6 dB(A) of noise at idle—barely above ambient background levels—and remains quiet even under drive access or medium fan profiles. This makes it an appealing choice for use in proximity to desks, entertainment setups, or even bedrooms, without becoming a source of distraction. The adjustable fan modes (Full-Speed, Cool, and Quiet) can be fine-tuned in DSM, allowing users to prioritize either silence or cooling based on workload and ambient conditions. For users who want a reliable NAS that can operate continuously without noticeable noise or energy penalties, the DS225+ delivers an efficient and unobtrusive experience.
Aging Intel Celeron J4125 CPU Limits Future-Proofing
The DS225+ continues to use the Intel Celeron J4125, a 4-core, 4-thread processor first launched in late 2019. While it still performs adequately for DSM tasks, light media streaming, and small office workloads, it is now well behind newer processor architectures in terms of efficiency, instruction set support, and overall responsiveness.
Competing NAS units released in 2024 and 2025 have moved on to Intel N-series, Jasper Lake, or even embedded AMD processors, many of which offer better performance-per-watt, additional cores, and support for modern instruction sets such as AVX2 and higher memory bandwidth. In contrast, the J4125’s dated 14nm Gemini Lake Refresh architecture lacks modern features and could begin to show its age sooner, especially under multitasking or when running additional DSM packages concurrently.
Although the DS225+ is not intended for heavy virtualized workloads or media encoding, the use of such an older CPU architecture restricts its growth potential. During testing, even modest activity such as Surveillance Station recording or Synology Drive sync tasks caused the CPU to reach 60–70% utilization, leaving little room for additional services. Docker and Virtual Machine Manager are supported, but their use is constrained by both CPU headroom and the device’s limited memory ceiling. For users expecting to scale their usage over the next 3–5 years, the DS225+ may struggle to keep pace as DSM continues to evolve and introduce more background services, analytics, and real-time processing demands.
Integrated Graphics for Light Transcoding and Multimedia Tasks
A notable advantage of the DS225+ is its use of the Intel Celeron J4125, a quad-core x86 processor that includes integrated Intel UHD 600 graphics. While this is not a new CPU, the presence of onboard graphics enables hardware-accelerated video decoding and transcoding, a feature that’s become less common in newer NAS systems using ARM-based or non-iGPU x86 processors. For users planning to run Plex or Jellyfin, this hardware acceleration allows the DS225+ to handle light 1080p transcoding tasks—useful when streaming to devices with limited codec support or over constrained network connections.
This capability is especially important for homes or small offices that want centralized media storage without relying on local playback compatibility. During testing, the DS225+ performed adequately when transcoding one or two 1080p streams simultaneously, especially when the source files used H.264 or H.265 formats compatible with the GPU.
Synology’s native apps like Surveillance Station and Synology Photos also benefit from integrated graphics, improving responsiveness during thumbnail generation and background indexing of photos and videos. While not intended for intensive media workflows, the DS225+ offers enough GPU performance for common multimedia use cases, making it more versatile than similarly priced NAS units that lack any form of video acceleration.
Limited Memory and Restrictive Upgrade Policy
The DS225+ ships with just 2GB of DDR4 memory, which is soldered directly to the motherboard, limiting flexibility from the outset. While it does feature a single accessible SODIMM slot to expand the total memory to 6GB (2GB onboard + 4GB additional), Synology officially supports only their own branded 4GB memory module. Using non-Synology memory will either trigger DSM warnings or void technical support eligibility. This restrictive policy contrasts with other NAS vendors that support industry-standard memory upgrades more openly. In practical terms, the 6GB ceiling is already considered low for 2025, especially as DSM continues to expand its service ecosystem and memory-hungry packages like Photos, Drive, and Surveillance Station become more prevalent.
Real-world testing shows that even at idle with no user-installed applications, DSM often consumes 28–38% of available memory due to intelligent caching. Once additional services are installed—such as indexing, media streaming, or light virtual machines—the system can begin to feel constrained, leading to slower response times or increased reliance on swap memory. For example, enabling facial recognition in Synology Photos or running simultaneous Docker containers may quickly push the system beyond its comfortable operational range. This limitation makes the DS225+ poorly suited for users who want to experiment with virtualization, host large collaborative environments, or ensure headroom for future DSM features. Even for modest multi-user environments, the soldered memory and limited upgrade capacity represent a clear technical bottleneck.
Dual LAN Ports with 2.5GbE Support for Faster Transfers
The DS225+ is equipped with two Ethernet ports—one standard 1GbE and one 2.5GbE—giving users flexibility in how they connect and scale their network performance. This is a meaningful improvement over entry-level NAS models that only offer single Gigabit connectivity, especially as more consumer routers and switches begin to support multi-gigabit speeds. When paired with a compatible switch or direct 2.5GbE connection, the DS225+ can achieve transfer speeds up to 280–290MB/s under optimal conditions, significantly reducing the time needed for backups, media streaming, or large file transfers over LAN. For those sticking to 1GbE setups, the second port still provides redundancy or the option to separate network traffic between general access and administrative tasks.
Although the DS225+ does not support link aggregation or PCIe expansion, having dual LAN ports allows for some segmentation and future-proofing in small network environments. Users can reserve the faster 2.5GbE interface for high-priority devices such as a workstation or editing PC, while the 1GbE port can be used for background syncing, IP camera feeds, or system management. The inclusion of 2.5GbE is also relevant in home lab and prosumer scenarios, where higher-speed NAS-to-NAS replication or remote backup over multi-GbE connections is becoming more common. While the benefit is conditional on the rest of the network infrastructure supporting these speeds, it’s still an advantage that many previous 2-bay NAS models from this brand do not provide.
Limited I/O Expansion and Slower USB Connectivity
While the DS225+ includes the essentials for a basic NAS setup, its external connectivity is minimal, offering just two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, each limited to 5Gbps. This is notably behind the current standard of USB 3.2 Gen 2, which offers 10Gbps, and well below newer competitors that feature USB-C, eSATA, or PCIe slots for future expansion.
The lack of a front-mounted USB port or SD card reader also reduces convenience for users who regularly transfer media from cameras or external drives. In scenarios involving backup rotation, media ingestion, or hot-swapping data from multiple USB devices, users may find themselves manually unplugging and swapping cables due to the low number and placement of ports.
This limitation becomes more pronounced as the DS225+ cannot be expanded via PCIe, ruling out the addition of 10GbE networking, additional NVMe cache, or external SAS enclosures. Even Synology’s own expansion units are unsupported on this model, meaning what you see is essentially what you’re locked into for the lifespan of the system. While the DS225+ works well within its default role, users requiring scalable connectivity for workflows like multi-tiered backup, external archives, or direct media workstations will likely find it too constrained. The inability to expand I/O makes it harder to adapt the device as your setup grows or changes, placing it at a disadvantage in a market where even entry-level NAS units are becoming more modular.
Compact Design with Full DSM Access and RAID Flexibility
Despite its small physical footprint, the DS225+ delivers the full functionality of Synology’s DSM ecosystem, enabling users to configure advanced storage, backup, and collaboration features without needing a larger or more expensive unit. Measuring just 165 mm x 108 mm x 232.2 mm and weighing 1.3 kg, the DS225+ fits easily on a shelf, under a desk, or alongside other AV equipment. This makes it especially appealing to users with limited space or those looking to maintain a minimal setup. The 2-bay form factor supports 3.5″ SATA HDDs or 2.5″ SSDs, and users can configure their storage using Basic, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, or Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) depending on redundancy and capacity needs.
The benefit here is that while the DS225+ lacks the expansion features of higher-end NAS units, it doesn’t compromise on software or configurability. DSM allows for volume expansion with larger drives, RAID migration from Basic to RAID 1, and SSD TRIM support for improving SSD longevity. Users can also benefit from Btrfs snapshots and file versioning, even on this compact system.
This flexibility allows individuals to start with a single drive and expand or rebuild as storage needs increase. The ability to pair this with external drives via USB 3.2 for backups or offloading archived content extends its functionality further. For users who want the core NAS experience without the complexity or physical scale of larger models, the DS225+ is a strong, space-efficient option.
Unclear Upgrade Path Amid Synology’s Strategic Shift
The DS225+ sits within a transitional period for Synology, during which the company has increasingly signaled a shift toward pre-populated, locked-down platforms such as the BeeStation and BeeStation Plus series. These newer lines are aimed at users seeking simplicity and cloud-like convenience, but they also reflect Synology’s broader move toward closed ecosystems with tighter control over hardware and software integration. As these preconfigured models begin to replace traditional bare-metal Plus series NAS options in Synology’s lineup, it’s unclear how much longer models like the DS225+ will remain actively supported or prioritized in DSM development.
This creates uncertainty for prospective buyers who want a long-term investment. While Synology’s current support lifecycle is generally strong, the tighter coupling between software and specific hardware could eventually result in DSM updates being optimized for newer, more restrictive platforms. For example, users of the DS225+ may find that future DSM features—such as enhanced AI functions or hybrid cloud integrations—are limited or unsupported due to the older CPU or reduced memory ceiling.
Additionally, if the company continues to prioritize its locked-drive strategy and proprietary accessories, even firmware-level changes could make legacy systems like the DS225+ feel increasingly boxed in. This isn’t an immediate concern, but for users thinking 3–5 years ahead, the direction of Synology’s portfolio suggests the DS225+ may not age as gracefully as its predecessors once did.
Synology DS225+ NAS Review – Verdict and Conclusion
The Synology DS225+ delivers a polished and well-integrated NAS experience that caters to home users and small teams looking for dependable data storage, backups, and light multimedia handling. Its compact form factor, efficient thermal and acoustic design, and access to the full DSM 7.2 ecosystem make it a compelling choice for those who prioritize low noise, low power use, and a robust software suite. The inclusion of 2.5GbE networking, integrated graphics for basic Plex or Jellyfin transcoding, and support for Btrfs, SHR, and snapshot replication ensure that it remains practical for a wide range of core NAS tasks. It’s a system that “just works,” and for many users, that is enough to justify its place on their shortlist.
However, the DS225+ is increasingly defined by its limitations as much as its strengths. The use of an aging processor, restricted memory expansion, limited I/O, and locked-down drive compatibility significantly reduce its appeal for users who expect flexibility, performance headroom, or long-term scalability. When positioned against similarly priced or even cheaper NAS solutions from competing brands—many of which offer newer CPUs, broader third-party drive support, and better external connectivity—the DS225+ risks feeling outdated straight out of the box. Synology’s evolving product strategy also casts doubt on the long-term direction for devices like this. For users who are already committed to the Synology ecosystem or need something simple and quiet for basic NAS duties, the DS225+ can still be a solid purchase. For those looking for open-ended expandability or stronger hardware per dollar, however, it’s worth comparing alternatives or waiting to see how Synology’s next generation unfolds.
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Im not sure 10 gig copper ethernet is the future since they are power hungry and produce lots of heat. I feel 10 gig fiber optic is the future
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Uh oh don’t let Synology see this otherwise they’ll make it so you can’t benchmark third party drives! Like how you can’t see detailed SMART info for third party drives ????
I think Synology’s idea with the drive restrictions is so that they can better support problems since the drives run their own firmware and are supposedly better optimised to work with the enclosure/filesystem/SHR etc. Would be curious to know if that’s actually the case though. I did see someone on Reddit saying Synology drives throw fewer errors in their enterprise systems.
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Went to uGreen. (I have been Syno user since 2013) RIP Syno.
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We are being forced to choose synology branded drives. I don’t want this and will see how this all plays out before I upgrade my system. I certainly don’t want to have to get rid of all of my 16TB drives just to buy Synology branded ones.
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Just a blatant money grab by Synology.
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– Allow me to introduce myself! – TrueNAS ☺☺☺
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Moving to TrueNAS here /w Toshiba MG drives. The prices for Synology drives in the UK is extortionate.
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My issue is their HAT5300 line is substantially more expensive the the equivalent Toshiba MG09 that it is rebranded from. Their HAT3310 are close enough to their original, but I won’t buy a Seagate ever again since they decided profit was more important than following US Sanctions, regardless of their excuse. I don’t care if you buy them, but lack of patriotism in a US company is something I can’t abide.
Still watching what is going on. I won’t make a decision until it is time to buy that next NAS. You would think they would fast track the companies that make their rebranded drives, at least on their + series, which is more prosumer/small business than professional. I’ve been happy with my Toshiba drives. I’d buy more.
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Slimey move from Synology I’ve been running their DS + RS gear for nearly 10 yrs… This does make me wonder if you could read firmware from a “synology” drive and just flash that onto an identical Seagate drive controller with it being the same internals and most likely same PCB.
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Thank you rob. Doing the lords work. Fuck synology. This is Sonos level disaster.
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*We’ve only ever used “cheap” disks for well over a decade, and we’ve NEVER had any problems with them.*
*Therefore, there is NO real, objective reason to buy massively overpriced Synology HW and SW.*
_(And yes, the Synology SW will also become massively more expensive; they will probably start with Synology Backup.)_
*How wonderful that there are ingenious alternatives that treat customers fairly*
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Why use synology at all – Any raspberry and external hardrive combination works as good and allows for a mirror-back-up drive for half the price
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I am looking to upgrade to more capacity than my 918+ with 4 WD 10 TB Red NAS drives. However, Synology new policy may cause me to look else where even though I have had No Issues with the Synology unit I have. What do you recommend? Thanks
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Synology are simply purchasing 3rd party drives, relabelling them before selling them on again with an additional mark up. People like Seagate or Toshiba are not going to be giving their drives away. As you say Rob, if the hardware is the same I cant really understand why Synology can’t verify them. They are currently using said drives with their own label. Doesn’t add up!
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Having recently purchased a new DS423+ (not choosing to lock myself even more by opting for a DS425+) I decided to go for SSD read/write caching. I diligently checked the SSD compatibility list for the DS423+ (surprisingly extensive BTW) and found a match on Amazon (I think most of the supported/tested SSD’s in their list are quite old now, so harder to get).
Waited two weeks to get hold of the pair of SSD’s I needed, only to find that I received that message during installation about them not being verified. Fortunately, I was able to continue past the warning. However, what’s going on? Why did I receive that warning for a hard to find SSD that was on the compatibility list?
Are Synology slowly reducing their compatibility list on existing models?
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Considering the criticism from the channel regarding this whole locked drive situation, fair play to Synology for giving you access to these for this video.
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I really think there is an easy fix that Synology could implement.
I am a IT professional. and my 1522+ is storing all my music and movies…. and is a backup location for my various home devices. But there is no way I paying 1 grand per 18TB drive.
What synology SHOULD do… is for enterprise users with a SERVICE contract… they can require their drives all they want.
But I am using UltraStore dives and they have never given me an issue and I should not be restricted… if a drive fails… that is why I have the synology… so I can swap it out.
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No more Synology for me I’m afraid, moved over to unRaid using unRaid array, cache pools and a zfs pool and extremely happy… Sorry Synology your silly decision has lost you one customer and I’m sure there are many, many more out there….
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My RS2423+ was one of the enterprise class NAS’s that they did the vendor lock on. At the time I purchased it they didn’t even offer a drive the size I wanted, so I had to use a workaround to get the system from reporting “degraded” and not run the monthly scrubbing. I’m looking at adding more drives to that unit this year, and while they now have a 20TB SAS option, I can’t justify the 40% markup.
For those of us with those vendor locked 2023 models, they still don’t support non-Synology drives, and I’m not holding my breath that the 2025 Plus series will get 3rd party support. Honestly, the current machine will be the last Synology I have unless they reverse course on the 3rd party lockout or get their performance and prices on their drives more on par with the competition.
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Apart from if they were crap , suppose, does it matter if they are good performers if you are forced to use them? And even if they were good could you depend on that in the future. If they are good and at a compatible price they’d sell without being forced to buy them. deal breaker for me and should be for you.
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These own branded drives are not much more than a marketing gag to increase their revenues.
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The simply solution to all this is buy a nas off someone else its clear synology are just ripping off customers by marking up their approved drives did anyone expect anything else
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The situation with Synology drives has been sick from day one. A while back I was considering an upgrade to a xs+ unit but found that Synology had changed their tune and started forcing their authorized resellers to ONLY sell units with Synology drives pre-populated in the drive slots. And not just one or two either! They were forcing people to fill the unit instead. To make matters worse, their array of large size drives is sparse and seems purposely setup to force users to fill up NAS units more quickly and potentially push additional sales. I ended up purchasing a used xs+ unit where the seller couldn’t sell the original Synology drives due to security concerns.
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Well, Seagate drives had (according to Backblaze) far higher failure rate than WD drives, therefore I would go for them. But If I cannot use them in Synology I am thinking of replacing my old one with some other NAS brand… I would even pay for some extended support for other drives manufacturer (lets make it like some licence/upgrade like cameras…) eg. 10 dollars per drive or something like that… but I dont want to be limited to some specific drives….
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And now we know why he keeps talking about SYNOLOGY …. 😉
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HAT5300 8TB = Toshiba MG06ACA800E and 12TB = MG07ACA12TE
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Plenty of people buy a sports cars then queue at Morrisons for petrol ????
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i dont know how good or bad of Synology but i am sure Robbie is a good guy
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Some sad customer payed for the free samples you got.
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I’d be interested to see Synology’s third quarter sales figures for DS units. I wonder how low the line will go before they rethink their foolish policy.
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I spent the night trying to decide how best to increase my storage capacity on a DS1621+ that is already populated with 16TB drives. I couldn’t find a way to do it short of buying an 5 bay expansion unit which, by the way, cost as much as a 2nd 6 bay NAS. I’m looking at other brands now.
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Also, if you look for the specific model number of a third party drive that is on the compatibility list many of them are no longer being made.
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Waiting for Friday.. is it friday yet? ????
Don’t buy a Synology today (or ever)
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Maybe someday someone will figure out how to change the firmware on non-synology drives ????????????
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Has anyone tested out the Toshiba MG series over the N300, if so how do you rate them for realabity and sound level.
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Shucks thats expensive ????
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Yeah this is a pure profit grab.
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I’ve gone to Ugreen Dxp4800plus. I used to have a DS220+ and was, am a novice with NAS abilities and use it just for Plex, photo storage etc. I’m very happy with moving and this was mainly because of the drive lock in fiasco.
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Funny enough, the only hdd issues and failure I’ve had in the last 5 years has been a synology drive ????
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LOL, Synology is using DELL’s pricing margins.
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Again poignant and to the point – ty
Synology has certainly shot it’self in the foot with this ‘lock-in’ and not being proactive with a positive list of 3rd party hdds. before going to market.
If Synology didn’t have the best OS we’d have moved elsewhere already, but now in a ‘holding pattern’ awaiting Seagate / WD whitelisting
Just my 2p
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Robbie:… so anyway I start blasting!
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moving to QNAP !!!!
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If it’s hdds it’s ultrastars or MGs. Don’t need rebranded consumer drives
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In Canada, these are the current prices for 20TB drives:
Synology HAT5310 – $1034.99
Western Digital Red Pro – $584.99
Western Digital Gold – $599.99
Seagate Ironwolf Pro – $579.99
Seagate Exos – $549.99
Prices can be even lower during sales such as Prime Day or Black Friday or even as prices fluctuate over time. Also even the 26TB WD Red Pro ($789.99) is cheaper than the Synology 20TB.
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Let’s give Synology the benefit of the doubt and say they are moving in this direction (of drive lock-in) to reduce the variability in devices so they can better support end-users. If that was one of their goals (instead of a blatant cash-grab), then why oh why did they make it mandatory? Why take away something from loyal customers that has been present since the founding of your company? DSM is nice but is it worth hundreds or thousands in up-charges for re-labeled drives?
Roll out classes of devices: Beginner/entry-level=NAS with Synology-branded drives plus free tech support, mid-level/pro-sumer=NAS with optional branded drives and charged support, IT pro/tech geek=Synology enclosure + bring your own drives, you’re on your own. Or, screw over your existing base while confusing potential new customers.
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Thanks for the honest review. I would not mind paying a little more for a Synology branded hard drive or SSD for business purposes if that improves the support process, but these price differences are huge and for my friends, family and my own personal storage, freedom to use any brand of drive is simply a must-have.
So Synology should stop thinking they are EMC or NetApp and reverse this self-destructive choice with a firmware update and a public apology. Only then will I ever buy or recommend a Synology system again. I have used Synology for decades and I was really looking forward to upgrading this year, but now I look at other brands.
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By drive-locking, Synology is rewarding their most loyal supporters by keeping a good value on the older units. I can pay a bit more for their drives and upgrade to the 25 series… and still sell my ds1520+ at a great price. They’re playing 3D chess and it’s great for me!
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I don’t understand why you’d give synology such leeway about their supported drives list, or anything else for that matter. The fact that they’re not allowing the very same models they’re white-labelling tells you everything you need to know about the reason behind the drive lock-in.
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Why would I pay extra for vendor-locked hard drives that are just re-stickered Toshiba drives at 200% markup? I’ll just go with another NAS brand other than Synology that doesn’t do disk lock-in.
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Buying synology drives will never be the best value because they are too low volume, both in manufacturing and shipping. Most home and prosumer users are keeping an eye on sites like ServerPartDeals for floods of things like 18tb brand new enterprise drives for sale for crazy low prices like $189 because some shipment got refused by a datacenter somewhere. These are not common prices, but it happens commonly enough that it’s a nobrainer to wait for them. Synology can’t have sales like this, because they don’t make or ship enough drives. They’ll never be able to sell them to us basically, so they have to force it.
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I’m wondering if anyone remembers the old HDD silencers … lovely big radiators that one wapped their HDD inside to essentially keep the bloody things quiet!
They literally don’t exist anymore! ????
( _I’m wanting to build an ‘in room’ DAS without moving to SSDs and HDD noise is my main concern_ )
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Historically, for example, Sun used binned hard drives. Could Sybology be doing the same? Binned / first lot drives usually have better durability.
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I’m waiting to see someone burn the Synology firmware into a Seagate drive. Or, do what thestorageguy here on YT did and that was run the Github script to add other HDD’s onto your own Synology NAS’s approved list.
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The value series is the only one that compared to other consumer grade drives. The enterprise series is very much in line with other enterprise grade hard drives (like the ones you get from NetApp or other storage system manufacturers)
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Having to acquire a rare special type of hard disk has caused major problems for enterprise customers using Synology products. Even if you put price aside – Our problem in Australia is the geographic “tyranny of distance” with Synology having zero service centres covering regional areas, and neither of the (two) distributors carrying stock of Synology drives in capital cities. When a drive fails we have to wait for replacements to be shipped to Australia and they don’t even offer advance replacement service.
The company I work for still have over 56 x Synology 12-Bay NAS in our business we need to replace in the second half of 2025 and at the moment we are handling drive failures by holding our own stock in Sydney & Melbourne and having to ship them overnight to our branch sites. WE DO NOT WANT TO BE A SYNOLOGY SERVICE CENTRE!!!! They should have got their act together and organised a maintenance provider such as Interactive maintenance solutions before embarking on this lunacy. It does not matter if they change policy now, the management here are so sick of the hassles and will never buy that brand again.
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Here is my questions #1 do you have to return the drives to Synology or did they GIVE them to you #2 did Synology view this video prior to it going live on YouTube ? Honestly as you say …it really has no justification so my only thoughts were they are trying to Ugreen their way forward (Referring to Ugreen having been recently exposed at paying reviewers and demanding video approval)
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Maybe something has changed, as it has been a long time since I’ve been in enterprise storage, but the markup was usually justified by a guaranteed availability of certified drives over a longer period of time than manufacturers and retailers provide to the general public. Mixing different drives isn’t as bad as it once was but it can still be a gamble.
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Your statement or conclusion is so true, why on earth has Synology decided to go for vendor lock in and only supporting there own (rebranded) and more expensive storage media?! And why does this frustration come to a surprise so they are now working on expanding the compatibility list. so unnecessary and will turn away many (regular) customers who will now shop elsewhere for their NAS needs. This while the software (DSM) just works fine and is best in class. My 918+ still works fine with WD Red Pro disks, this choice is really not to be explained or justified other than commercial exploitation
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They are inserting themselves in as a middleman and overcharging to cover their “verification”. Scamming scammers got to scam.
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We prefer Seagate over WD because their warranty process is painless here in Australia. I cant see Synology doing better than WD in this regard.
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This is so cool! Synology has fantastic software. I am sure some company will purchase it at the bankruptcy auction for a very good price.
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Robbie if someone is buying larger hard drives – the NAS box is wrapper around the hard drives.
Hard drives are much more expensive than the the NAS unit.
Synology NAS DS923 – cost approx £137 / drive bay vs Seagate Ironwolf Pro 18 TB is £380
Synology drive bay cost 26% (the wrapper) . . . Seagate 18 TB hard drive 74% ( storage media) . . . . price per drive bay
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Please, please, PLEASE Ubiquiti, enable iSCSI on the UNAS Pro!!!
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I’m still seeing a couple of ideas behind their plan…
1) As with Broadcom/VMware – chase enterprise, after volume discounts buyer won’t care.
2) as with (1) less customers but far higher profit margins, and it’s the small aka “expensive to support” customers that you shed or overcharge.
3) They have a hope to charge WD/Seagate etc to validate their drive models, perhaps including a charge per drive. Though with the big margin on their own brand drives this seems less likely for now.
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I got 2 small Synology NAS. I like them, but since Synology announced this BS, for me this company is dead.
I will never again buy Synology.
Bye bye Synology
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Giving you drives to promote wont help Synology flog their hardware to us our minds are made up
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Synology drives produce too much noise for home office/home setups. NOISE! Do you understand, Synology? For that expensive price this is a sh_t drives.
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Not buying any Seagate drive under any branding – especially not when it’s even more expensive
Not buying into any new vendor lock-in situation either, after almost 40 years in Apple’s walled garden / iPadded cell
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I have this vision of 3 witches at Synology chanting “Bundle, bundle, toil and trouble. Give them half and charge them double” (with apologies to Shakespeare)
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Ditched Synology earlyer this year after +10 years and multiple generations of Synology NAS-ses because of (1) the increasing vendor lockin policy by Synology and (2) the lack of flexibility with regards to M.2 storage. Moved to Asustor and am quite happy with the platform, software, community support and flexibility overall.
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Not interested (c) Tony from LC signs 🙂
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6:13 On that 12 Tb Seagate Ironwolf drive, to make the arithmetic a little more dramatic ( and the comparison a bit more correct IMHO ) the premium for the Synology drive is 80% above the Seagate drive. ( $450 – $250 ) / $250 = 80%
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If I can’t put used Exos 26 tb drives in a nas, I have no use for synology. I don’t even look at drives less than 22tb.
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why do you keep promoting them?
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Synology NO MORE.. RIP…
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I’ve never heard you so critical about the new Synology drive lock-in policy, but I like it, since this is now much more in line with how most people here perceive it.
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The Synology HAT5300 12TB cost more than either a 20TB Seagate IronWolf Pro or a 20TB WD Red Pro.
Say it all really.
Thank you Rob for the effort you put into this.
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I’m happy with QNAP NASes – I can see now that switching from Synology to QNAP back then was a good decision ✌
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Almost anti-trust to lock out competition. Arrogant and eventually self destructive strategy. The pathway out of the market. Cheery bye.
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This video pushes me even further from Synology. Either they have a completely out of touch marketing dept. or Synology really wants to ease out of consumer class NAS systems. I think Synology will see that consumers no longer want their NAS models soon due to the lack of iGPUs for transcoding Plex, the outdated CPUs they use, and/or because of the Synology only HDD/SSD requirements. They would be best served, profitability wise, to license their OS to others down the road.
As I said in the previous NASCompares video, I’ll keep my DS920+ until it dies and recently have added a NUC as my Plex server that transcodes my 4k library from my DS920+ storage easily and only use my DS920+ for storage and surveillance. I will be buying something other than Synology to eventually replace my DS920+.
Maybe I’ll just use my Asus NUC 15 Pro+ with external storage via Thunderbolt. Like this: Acasis 40Gbps M.2 NVMe 4 Bay RAID SSD Enclosure. The Ultra 2XXH CPUs are light years more capable that the J4125 CPU in my DS920+.
The NUC market is exploding now and it will be exciting to see where this goes. The NUC market in 2025 is $2.5B and is expected to grow by 15% each year through 2033. This might be understated since NUCs now can replace desktops and an external GPU can be added via a docking station.
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Excellent work as always Robbie.
I personally just can’t see this ending well for Synology. They’ve caused so much ill will towards the brand that even if they were to reverse course, the damage has already been done.
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Why? …. Money money money ????
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I’m gonna be honest, I own a DS1522+ Synology and it’s populated with 12 TB hard drives from Synology for a few years now, and not once have I seen or received a firmware update that is needed for their hard drives. It may happen more in data centers by certain applications that the company needs to be running in, but for home use, I feel it’s a terrible excuse to keep forcing people to buy their drives. If it offers no other benefits, then a normal Seagate or Western Digital drive, granted those drives will come with five-year warranties compared to the three you get, and the possible chance of getting a firmware update, and you don’t have to pull the drives out and update them. I haven’t had an update on a hard drive since 1999, a Maxtor 20 gig hard drive back in the day.
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why would anyone rely on a single point failure for storing data? i mean you buy a NAS and then you have a need to replace a drive but they are out of stock for many months, sounds like the dumbest decision ever, not to mention if there Software and Raid only works “properly” on their “drives” then you have another single point of failure for not being able to recover Data.
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Blacklist other harddrive isnt a good way to promote you have something better
If their custom firmware works better ,people will buy those without badlisting thing
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Those drives are so expensive because they know people are stupid enough to buy them.
If everybody would stop buying them prices would drop like a brick.
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Synology still trying so hard to get Robbie to recommend their 2025 units.
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“BuT WhY aRe We StilL TalKinG ABoutSynoLogY !!1!”
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The price difference “justifications” from Synology:
1. “We put a sticker with our logo on the drives and even wrote our name in the [otherwise unchanged] firmware!”
2. “Stop thinking already and give us your money!!1!11!”
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I can’t see Synology backing down on the locked drives for at least 6-12months and then what will it be a few selected or will they remove the restriction all together with just warnings saying its a non verified drive.
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I still maintain that Synology are watching and waiting to see how user feedback and the PR fall out of this drive lock-in policy plays out. If I were in their marketing team right now, I’d be very worried about how the near-universal negative press they’re receiving will impact sales.
Sinology won’t tell us what the verification requirements are. That tells me there is nothing special here, other than corporate BS. If third-party drives, the ones that have always been verified, do become usable, it will prove there was nothing wrong with them to begin with.
What will be more interesting is to see how Synology walk this decision back if they get smart and choose to.
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Bottom line here, it’s pure profit driving Sinology’s decision to lock users into their own rebranded drives. No matter what corporate-speak excuse they offer, it cannot be denied. Had Synology done the R & D, spent millions building their own drives, there might have been some justification. Instead, they’re basically slapping their own label onto Seagate and Toshiba drives and replacing the OEM firmware with their own. That firmware, based on performance stats, hasn’t been touched at all. The reason for the firmware, is to control the situation. Synology say you can update the firmware on their drives without a shutdown. Sure, you could do this on other drives, too. Synology simply don’t offer that facility. There’s nothing about their firmware that allows live updates, other than them making a determination to do it or not.
At the prices for a 16Tb HDD from Synology as opposed to an Ironwolf, you could spend over £1,200 more by populating a 4 bay with their drives.
That’s an awful lot more money for what amounts to nothing in terms of difference between thir drives and the OEM versions they’re based on.
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No matter how hard you try …. you cannot pit a lipstick on a pig (ahem Synology drive). I’m sorry there’s no justification for a home user/prosumer to buy synology drives or any of the Synology 2025 NAS Boxes as long as the drive lock in is still there.
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Synology started great as a company but they are now nothing more than greedy goblins. My suggestion, don’t buy the new synology nas or synology HDD’s. Sooner or later they will cave and stop being anti consumer.
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You know, the price difference between the drives would actually pay for a NAS. I recently purchased a new DS423+ for my backups. It cost me less than the price difference between a 20Tb Seagate Exos and the Synology equivalent HDD.
Even at lower capacity points,, multiple Synology HDD’s will add the cost of another NAS to the total cost.
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Don’t even care. I won’t be forced into using their brand
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It would be interesting to understand exactly what kind of firmware is in the SynoGate LogyWolf drives, other than branding.
To be honest, I’m really just hoping that Synology will sell DSM as a license for people to run on their own systems.
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Paying extra for a synology sticker doesnt sound all that great
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Thank you for your excellent video ????????????
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The solution is to buy another brand like qnap or other
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Ohh boy, the comments will be fun….
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Synology are way too expensive. And the drive are too small
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Western digital is the best from our data. Funny that Synology doesn’t subcontract to them. At the end of the day it is a scheme. They have zero real data altogether to prove anything, this is simply forced revenue because they can’t compete very well.
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My ethernet cable is made out of 4 wires.
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Now i know everyone buying synology. No other Nas come close in ultilizing the resources.
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Video station? It’s gone!
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Thanks for the recommendation on Advanced Media Extensions. However, since DS Video is no longer available (I am now using Plex Pass), do I still need to install this extension?
Thanks
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Just bought one . I had 918+ before and I still have 4 GB stick left after I sold it . Will it be ok to put in my new 224+ ?
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More capable than I dared to hope. I will propably be running jellyfin to get QSV for free.
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Tell me something. Is it required to have your Plex up and running on your computer and other devices before you set it up on the Nas? Or can you install it on the Nas alone?
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think my ds215j recently died, gonna try the 224. i know the hardware is old, but it’s still a huge upgrade over mine.
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Excelent video, just what I needed.
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You won’t ‘bin it’ within 24 months. Unless it’s a TerraMaster which claimed to have a 10GB port, when in fact it seems to have been nothing more than a hole in the case labeled as if it were a port ( yes I tried their support, however that proved fruitless).That’s what happened to me, and yes I binned it. I now have an Asustor and couldn’t be happier. It’s 2.5gb port works as it should.
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I found even if you dont have fast internet over 1gig getting a router that supports 2.5gbe and getting as many devices on to that on a busy network can help reduce traffic on the local network, large families and small business can benefit from a cheap upgrade to 2.5gbe as most existing Ethernet installs can be upgraded pretty easy buy buying new hardware.
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I tend to only download in 1080p h.265 Would I fine with this nas for plex?
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Try as hard as I like, I can’t saturate my 2.5 gig network. I also have a 5GB fiber connection and, well… even with torrents and usenet running on NVMEs on separate router connections I’ve managed 3GB. For about 30 seconds.
I’ve got a lot of Linux ISOs now, though.
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When I bought a laptop a few years ago, I saw that WiFi 6e was available. I bought a 6e Intel card, only to learn that my HP laptop BIOS only whitelisted certain cards.
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With 2.5Gbit clients on LAN, 10 Gbit to the NAS probably makes sense because of shared band with….
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when he called a ROUTER a rooter I spit out my drink. LMAO.
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Is there a nas motherboard with 3 or 4x 10GbE and 6 sata ports?
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1GbE will eventually go the way as single core processors. I have 10GbE in my NAS servers with 16TB of NVMe and I still can’t saturate what a 2.5GbE connection would give me.
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I am going for RJ45 10G straight.
Where are the 2,5gb models from synology??? People got to help themselfs with RJ45 to USB dongle workarounds…
Come on Synology….
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Honestly, if you have a NAS and are using it in any serious way, 2.5Gb should be a minimum at this point. In fact, I’ve found some reasonably priced gear that’s mostly 2.5GbE, with some 10Gb SFP+ ports as well, and will probably run fibre for 10Gb connections to major switches in my house, then the 2.5Gb connections to each individual device. Is fibre overkill? YES, but I WANTED Cat6A years ago and was told “Cat5 is plenty” only to now be unable to do 10Gb. So for that magical future proofing, fibre is going in, and that should basically do the job forever, since the fibre itself can do 400Gb+ it’s just the hardware at each end that would need upgrading. Do I think I’ll ever use 400Gb… no, but 40Gb would be nice, and maybe one day I might want 100Gb, this way we never have to re-run the cables (yes conduit is amazing, and even MORE future proof than fibre, but it’s not viable in an old, existing house like ours without basically moving out for a month).
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This video NEEEEEEDS timestamps for the individual models…. I just can’t sit here and watch it all… I just want to know about the DS723+ transcoding… Please add timestamps, I’m not watching the whole video to find it.
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What do you think the max number of streams would be at one time?
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How would these files perform WITHOUT Plex Pass?
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been eyeing a 300 dollar Atom device with everything on it which is nice but people hate Atom so am like ok lol
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Amother chap’s youtube NAS channel says that besides upgrading devices, for 10 gbe you’ll need to upgrade to CAT6 cabling as well – and THAT is a BIG consideration, unless it’s original construction!
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Do you have a model number of a GPU that can be installed. Saw a video of yours on the 923+ where you talked about a GPU for the NAS
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Hi @NASCompares! Thank you for all your videos. I just bought the DS224+ to have my own media server and for mobile photo/video backup purposes. I have a queston: How many users at the same team would be able to watch movies on my server? Would upgrading the RAM to 6GB allow more users to watch movies at the same time? Thank you in advance!
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DS224+, what is the maximum memory upgrade that you have seen work? I tried a 16gb stick, and the system wouldn’t even boot up. Tried the 4gb and it worked.
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I wish you would include subtitles in your transcoding tests….. Downscaling a video while simultaneously including a subtitle usually stresses my Plex server. It’d be nice to see how this Synology NAS system handles it.
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Can this be hooked up to an Nvidia shield pro tv ?
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Interesting how much difference a year makes. I just looked on Amazon and you can get four 2.5G ports plus two SFP+ ports for US$55…
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thanks for the video… will be buying this, and just sticking in 8gb or 16gb ram stick to help it to be great photo and plex nas. (yes I know officially only 4gb recommended but I’ve read people using more ram and it works as cpu do support bigger sticks 😀
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So! buy 4GB is mandatory, where I can buy that ram? link
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I purchasted the Nimbuster NAS from you in 2020 to set up my home network and it’s super slow when connected to a Netgear gigabit switch and trying to save and get files from my Mac or PC. I’ve tried to aggregate the connection from the NAS to the switch but it’s still super slow. I guess the bottleneck is in the gigabit Netgear switch. Would I have to buy a 2-5gbe switch? If so how should it be connected and set up? Many thanks for any advice .
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My question is 2.5GB enough for a single editor an a NAS?
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o/ from the US. I recently purchased a ASUS GT-11000 pro (on sale) which has 1 x 10g and 1×2.5g ports. My WAN port on my modem is a 2.5g. I connected my 10g port to my Dlink DMS-106xt. I have my dlink connected to a simple unmanaged cisco switch in my living room that connects to my xbox, ps5, TV, and apple TV, none of which support 2.5gb only 1gb. Then I have my dlink connected to a asus GT6 that supports a 2.5g port and 3x 1gb ports. I learned that I should have bought the Zen wifi pro since it supports two 2.5gb ports. Why this matters to me? My pc supports 2.5gb and 1gb on the mobo. Now I’m not going to lose any sleep over it but since I am designing a network that suits my needs I didn’t account for that error in my budget. After buying all these things I didn’t fully think my network setup thoroughly because now I have to buy another multigig 10G port switch that likely cost 300$ USD to fix my error. I just dont have enough 10g ports now. Problems for future me.
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Hello, if you were to run 4K movies on two televisions and 1080P on a phone and a tablet, how much would the CPU be loaded in percentage? I will definitely be purchasing additional RAM. Do you think the DS220+ processor (2 cores and 2 threads) will be sufficient for hassle-free playback on 2 TVs in 4K movies and a tablet with a phone at 1080P?
Is it worth paying extra for the DS224+ for these tasks?
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For DYI builds, would a Nvida Tesla P4 be of any use transcoding video? I picked up a couple on ebay (its a sickness I know) and wonder if they can be used in my plex server.
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NASCompares. Please, I need your help asap. I’m going insane because I can’t figure something out on my TV. I’m using DSM 7.2 > DS1520+ with an andriod 9 TV. How do I repeat a video on my Android TV? I can’t find the option anywhere. On my laptop, when I access my NAS there on the DSM, there is an option to ‘Repeat’. Help! Pleassseee!!!
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I find the CPU utilisation on the Plex dashboard to be inaccurate on my setup.
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Synology really cheapening out to maximise profits. If QNAP would stop having security issues and apply more pressure.
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What browser are you using in your tests?
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Hi. Worth noting that in order to use plex outside of your network you will need to do some port redirection on your internet router. It may be not allowed by your provider (it’s the case for me).
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I would like to see a comparison between the DS124 vs DS223j. They both seem pretty similar in price and performance. I cannot decide what to get 🙁
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Appreciate the effort. But you probably could’ve re-uploaded this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwZ7vemddOI&ab_channel=NASCompares) and replace all mentions of DS720+ with DS224+ and the result wouldn’t be any different.
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Great video! While watching I paralleled these tests on my DS220+ and it played all of these videos at maximum quality with ease, including the jellyfish 400mbps 4K video. However I have 6GB of memory installed. Hardware transcoding is a must, when I tried it without a Plex Pass the J0245 2-core CPU was pegged at 100% with constant buffering during playback of the Dune 16mbps trailer (I didn’t even attempt the jellyfish videos).
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I enjoyed the video but I have to note your memory comments. The DS 224+ supports 6GB using a 4GB DDR4 SO-DIMM. In the USA at the time of this writing Amazon sells a Samsung PC4-3200 4GB stick for $6. While Synology only claims 6GB as max, J4125 is known to support 8GB sticks, which would allow up to 10 GB of single channel memory. That’s enough for pretty much anything running on a DS224.
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Could you make a jellyfin test video on the 224+?
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Congrats to NASCompares on 100,000!
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I have actually just purchased the ASUSTOR gen 2 6 bay NAS because of thus channel. Just confused about using plex on it. How do I get to watch plex on other devices.
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Many thanks!
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Congratulations on 100K! Well deserved!
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Beauty of Taiwan!
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First!!
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I think 2.5GBE is underrated. Getting over 280Ms for file transfer speeds. Its pretty fast for what I do with editing videos
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Thank you for this video, when I renovated my place with Cat 6A cables I moved to a2 gigabit internet connection just this year, however only recently I have purchased USB 2.5 gb singles to upgrade my connections and it has been amazing, thank you for your video it was informative and helped me make the right decision to wait for a year and then move up
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10Gb is good for the network backbone, like the unifi aggregation switch is a no brainer
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We don’t need discuss 2.5 GbE, 1 GbE has effectively been the standard for LANs at the edge for over a decade. Thanks to Moore’s Law, computer power doubles, every 18 months (or less), so very quickly LAN speeds need to improve by an order of magnitude (x 10) to be significant.
What few (none?) of the network companies have realised is that computers now come equipped with Thunderbolt 4/USB4 ports and Thunderbolt Hubs. Over our PANs we are already doing 40 GbE. We need switches with TB4 ports, Fairly predictably, network equipment brands have fallen into the trap of treating 2.5 GbE as the new normal.
The new normal is 40 GbE.
We can do 7+ Gb over 5G mobile networks.
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2.5g isn’t futureproofing. 10g has been around for much longer than 2.5g or 5g… if you’re going to use cat5/6 cables, just go to 10g. the only reason I can think of that companies are feeding us 2.5 and 5g right now is in attempt to segregate a market that started and should be homogeneous. 10g is the way of things right now, today. but even that’s not futureproofing. if you want to futureproof, you should get 10g sfp+ switches and nics and use om3 fiber and/or dac cables to make your connections. the reason for this is that sfp+ is 10g, uses less power, and if you use fiber connections, that fiber will later be able to run 25g, 50g, and 100g (and probably more later on) via bonding multiple frequencies of laser communications together in a single strand of fiber. if you’re building a house today, put om3 in the walls and be happy. worst case scenario, you want to use one or more rj45 based network devices and you buy a 3-5 port sfp+ switch and use sfp+ to 10g ethernet modules for the devices you want to use. the biggest reasons to go with 10g: copying large files (such as videos you’ve got today with your nice video camera), photos from a dslr camera, high resolution audio recordings, backups to and from your NAS. virtual machine migrations for high availability or automatic resource re balancing for homelabbing and/or hosting of services from your home such as nextcloud, video game servers, plex server so you can store your dvd and blu-ray collection on your NAS and distribute that content to every computer, tv, phone, and tablet in your home and outside of your home when you travel, etc. and now that residential fiber is FINALLY gaining traction (I live in rural ct (I can literally walk to cows) and was just offered symmetrical 5 gigabit fiber (I took them up on the symmetrical 2g fiber because it was the same $110 I was spending on 600/25 from charter spectrum cable)), and in some other places, you can get up to symmetrical 10g now.
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My ISP model is 2.5GbE, most recent motherboards are 2.5GbE, NAS more often come with the red 2.5GbE socket now. It’s a no-brainer to just get a 2.5g switch and be done with it. gigabit network is basically slowly dissapearing with the current hardware being sold.
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The 5gb adapter for qnap makes sense when all the clients for 2.5gb
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will you notice or need 2.5 times better throughput for local file transfers vs 1gig? if you don’t do much transfers, and you are not running a time critical business(or personal req) that requires it, then probably not.
but where it may matter is for the upcoming wifi 7 stuff will will benefit from multigig (without it, you will simply be bottlenecked. if you are going to get wifi7, get multi gig networking gear to go with it, e.g. switches, nics etc)
homelab networking enthusiasts may also appreciate more than the standard 1gig.
Also in 2023, a lot of motherboards nowadays have 2.5gbe. You would have to go out of your way to go for the cheapest possible motherboard to get a 1gbe port.
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That thumbnail haha. You’re a funny person.
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The issue with 2.5G is the switches… If you poke around, you can get 10GbE for the same or less than 2.5G, especially if you like old Enterprise gear as I do. I can set up 10gig for way less than I can for 2.5gig, as Enterprise skipped 2.5Gig thus it’s not around in the used market. If you need managed switches, like I do, then 2.5G actually costs more than 10gig. Since regular cat6 cables can handle 10gig speeds over shorter cable lengths, it’s less of an issue than you make it out to be.
2.5G may be on a lot of new devices, but if the supporting hardware is more expensive than 10gig, it’s pointless.
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Your talk about futureproofing really hit me. Its one of the reasons (having GbE FTTP WAN/Internet already) I was determined that when I finally paid a decent chunk for a new router, it MUST have at least 2.5GbE WAN and LAN, rather than the 2.5Gbe WAN OR LAN which seems common, and rather defeats the point IMO, as you’ve got an instant bottleneck.
I am looking to upgrade the backhaul around my house fairly soon, as it will mean even if my NAS is still only running 1GBps, I will have full capability to max out the internet AND NAS at the same time across the network, or. if its via a machine with 2.5GbE, maximise the internet AND NAS usage at the same time, all the whilst having overhead so other devices on the network can still communicate with each other. Also means I will not be instantly having to run to upgrade equipment if I 1.8/2/2.5Gb FTTP becomes available.
Im not expecting all of this to happen now. But it may well in the next few years, and will also give additional overhead room for shared bandwidth on the network if multiple machines are heavily active at a given time. Again, not designing around whats capable now,. but what may happen in the next few years.
The only thing delaying the upgrade is the cost of 2,5GbE switches at the moment, multiple machines around my house already have 2.5GbE NICs, but whereas I can get GbE NICs for pennies, a 2.5GbE Switch is still over £100.
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.900 Gigabit/s= 112.5 MegaBytes/s = a single spinning rust slow sata hard drive speed
1.1 Gigabit/s= 137.5 MegaBytes/s = a single spinning rust fast sata hard drive speed
2.3 Gigabit/s= 287.5 MegaBytes/s = generic 2.5Gbit/s Linux data rate
4.4 Gigabit/s= 550 MegaBytes/s = a good sata ssd
60 Gigabit/s= 7500 MegaBytes/s = some Gen 4 NVMe PCIe SSDs capable of 7500 MB/s
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10 GB network is expensive and only makes sense with fiber optic cable. 2.5GB Ethernet can use old CAT5e, CAT6 cables. It also uses less power than 10GB copper Ethernet. Unfortunately, 10GB SFP can not switch to 2.5 GB but then fall back to 1GB.
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I work in business and small datacenter networking, and anything between 1 and 10 Gbps does not exist. SFP, sure, they’re 1, 10, 25, 40, 100 Gbps.
Even in my home use, I’d rather get everything on 10 Gbps than pay the barely supported premium for 2.5 or 5 Gbps, especially on managed devices.
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its complete overkill. more people than not dont yet have access to fttp in the UK for even 1gb and thats going to take a good 5 years at least.
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Power consumption is massively missing from these reviews. Anything you are going to have running 27/7, energy usage is such a big thing.
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I think 1Gb/s will be sufficient for most house/small business users (except NAS storage, iSCSI) for next 5 or more years.
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Moved entire network to 2.5gbe. Pickup up a 453E and a bunch of 2.5 to USB3 and some new switches. Real nice speed boost! No fans, so it is quiet.
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That was extremely informative, thank you
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I think at this point it’s pretty safe to say that for most non enterprise applications 2.5Gbe is the horse that is firmly in the lead over 5 and 10
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I took your advice and went 2.5gbe and also bought a Asustor AS6702T Nas with NVME storage, I am having the easiest of times setting up the Nas it is so simple. Watching Blu-ray files from the Nas is super fast. Thanks for all your help. Looks like I’m planning for 10gbe in the near future.
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I only have 1Gbe router. If I buy a 2.5Gbe USB C Ethernet adapter, would the speed increase compared to a 1Gbe connection?
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Workstations have 10gbit on almost every port now USB etc. Except for the one you use the most, your network interface port. It is not overkill, it’s falling behind in my opinion. A lot of people rather have wifi for network connections nowadays cause it is surpassing their cabled network speeds and it is more convenient. If you still care to put a cable through the ceiling you better have something that makes it worth it! Large capacity NAS at the read and write speed of local SSDs.
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I have 2.5GBe right now. no switch either. just added an extra 2.5g nic in my server and desktop, and have them as an additional direct NIC. updated hosts file on my server and voila, my server can be accessed at 2.5g for $50.
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Hi m8, watched a good few videos regarding NAS, are you interested in a video tutorial setting up a semi cheap NAS setup with semi total noob build. I Have the parts etc, but cache disk, OS and RAID setup are still total nightmares for someone like myself still surfing channels to find a definitive answer to my questions?
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I belive wifi ratings include the overhead and payload of packets, where ethernet speeds are just the payload, something to keep in mind
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I have 2.5G fiber (upgraded from 1G a couple months ago) in my house. I’m still waiting for a router with multiple 2.5G ports. Most only have it on the WAN or the LAN, but not both. Really frustrating. Hopefully that changes with the upcoming Wifi 7 routers.
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Only the newest 10GbE equipment will negotiate down to 2.5 or 5 gigabit. Those speeds were not available until 2016, when 10 GbE had already been around for a decade.
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I picked up a QNAP TS453D not long back to replace an older Qnap with the dreaded bad firmware update. It’s got twin 2.5Gbe ports on it but the trouble I’ve found is there’s limited routers and network switches currently available to actually utilise this feature. I even decided to update to a wifi 6 router (as I’ve got a wifi 6 laptop). While the routers got link aggregation, they’re still only 1Gbe ports. The only router that did have 2.5Gbe (ASUS) was considerably more pricey and didn’t have link aggregation either – so barely worse off having twin 1Gbe ports.
Besides, the features only useful IF the laptop had 2.5Gbe capability too. But still OK if you’re running a few devices concurrently sending data (at least the transfer speeds aren’t bottle necked).
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Wish 2.5GbE would become standard, 1GbE is way to slow these days.
My pc has 2.5GbE, My Router has 2.5GbE, My Synology 5 bay NAS has 1GbE 🙁
Network is only as good as the weakest link.
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You touched on it, but to expand:
You are only going to get a maximum speed equal to the weakest link in the chain.
If your Internet and router is 2.5gbps, but your switch is 1gbps and your old laptop’s network card is 100mbps, then you will never get performance from that laptop faster than 100mbps.
I have 300mbps ethernet and 1 PC with 1gbps LAN, and 2 PC sticks with 100mbps LAN.
The PC sticks will only ever send/receive at a max of 100mbps to either the internet, the other PC stick, or the PC.
The PC will only get internet of 300mbps and the communication between the PC and the sticks will be 100mbps max.
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My APs have 2.5Gbe ports. I am researching POE switches with 2.5Gbe ports.
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I don’t really need 2.5g everywhere , but I would like it on my core connections. sadly I cannot find a cheap 4 or 8 port switch (unmanaged) with a 2.5g uplink port and the rest as 1GB ports . If anyone knows of one , comment below.
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Fun future-proofing story – built my house over 20 years ago. The town had no cable internet yet, but I still had every phone plate box run with 2 Cat 5 cables. First, wired for multiple phone lines, then DSL came. When real ISP came, 4 wires got me 100Mb speed. As we didn’t need the phone lines for dial up, over time I rewired each port to have full 8 wire 1Gb connectivity.
At 2.5Gb, it’s only one room that needs this. My home office with multiple computers and NAS. Exactly right that 2.5 is pretty cheap to add, and my spinning drives aren’t saturating that. Unless I change to a RAID configuration on the desktop, this setup will work for quite a while.
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95% of homes have cat5e, so there’s no question of 10GbE without ripping the walls, which isn’t a problem at 2.5GbE. 95% of WiFi6 APs have 1 GbE LAN, so how do you want to use the full WiFi6 bandwidth, between laptop and NAS, laptop and internet etc. If you want to take full advantage of WIFi 6, you have to buy the most expensive AP which has, guess what… 2.5GbE LAN.
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Yes but only if you buy basic nas’s, 10gbe is better , you can buy 10gbe 2nd hand switches and nics so cheaply now and often only need a switch with 2 x10 for your main pc and nas.
1100mps is what your nas can do in a raid or with m.2 on 10gbe.
280mps is good for budget nas’s where you have max 2 drives mech models or cheap Sata SSD’s its good to see entry level at 2.5gbe
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Synology Buys holding off for 2.5Gbe
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Intel Nuc low End I3 have 2.5Gbe now
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Synology is sadly missing the Boat. I have 1 2.5 Gb Network on almost all the workstations Server, 2.5GBe I will have Fiber connect soon. Qnap and many other have Nas have 2.5Gbe , I have talked to Synology Tech Support no word on any 2.5GBe sadly Nas box after 2.5GB Fiber, will be the slowest device in the Network , Does anyone have and info on 2.5GBe from Synology
Qnap has had it for years
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Nice! Would like to see a 2.5gb video showing a setup. Maybe with connectivty to NAS devices that don’t have a 2.5gb adapter (usb or card added) and a more modern one. What Cables do i need? Virutalization station concerns? Port binding? that sort of thing.
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Don’t forget to check your specs. Many early 10Gbe chipsets don’t support 2.5Gbe and 5Gbe. Buying cheaper switches may leave you stuck at 1Gbps if they don’t support the middle speeds.
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I went with 2.5Gbe on my 4 bay NAS. It’s an older Asustor unit. Several computers need to access it at the same time. My Plex Server saves all DVR files there and my Transcoding setup transfers files off and back on. It really helped with congestion when streaming from Plex. I’d go up to 10Gbe with my next NAS.
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I really love your videos! You explain things in such clarity just one thing, why are they so long?
I noticed that in one of your videos you repeated the same thing 4 times (different examples) before getting to the heart of the issue.
Can you please try to make your videos shorter?
Thanks!
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Want full 2.5/10Gb speed? Full DATA PATH upgrade is always required 🙂
2.5Gb should be an entry data speed standard. 1Gb is to just slow for current performance of internal devices. Also 2.5Gb might be last standard that can be thermally manageable in laptops or SFF/Thin clients. 5 and 10 are just too hot. Also 5 and 10Gb are fast but use of external USB/Thunderbolt devices is not what you would call stable…
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can i use a usb to 2.5gbe on my synology NAS
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2.5GbE is too slow, I recommend 10GbE ????
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Thank you for putting this out, practical thinking is hard to do when speed is the topic. Time to stay grounded and avoiding distractions is the way for me. Lol. Cheers.
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Ese atuendo me vuelve loco fukada-jpp.monster loco contigo y tienes ese cuerpo curvilíneo, hiciste un buen trabajo modelándolo también. También me gusta el último atuendo. Me encantac cómo los cinturones de liga se.
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I’m just starting to move everything to 2.5gb with my truenas running a 10gb. But I’m also seeing better performance from my 1gb devices.
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I’m running 10 Gb/s at home so the answer to this debate is kind of obvious to me.
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Firstly, I am impressed by your ability to count by 2.5. I have a new PC arriving today that has 2.5GbE built in. Luckily, it also has 10GbE built in. (It’s a Core i9 Intel NUC 12 Extreme.) I’ve been 10GbE in my home lab for nearly a decade, starting with a Netgear switch, progressing to as used Arista Networks switch and finally installing a Ubiquiti aggregation switch a few months ago. The Ubiquiti switch has four 25GbE ports as well, so I’ve gone an upgraded my two Dell PowerEdge servers to 25GbE with Mellanox fibre cards. I’ve upgraded my two big Synology NASes as well. The Synologys support the Mellanox cards out of the box. I consider the 2.5GbE standard a “feature” aimed at consumers to get them to buy hardware (again). 10GbE is and has been an enterprise solution for a very long time now. It’s too bad vendors have been so slow to get on the 10GbE bandwagon. A 10GbE NIC or switch shouldn’t have to cost more than a 1GbE or 2.5GbE NIC or switch.
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For a home/SOHO network, being able to transfer files at around 280MB/s is a big upgrade from just 105MB/s. That reason alone is enough to use 2.5GbE.
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Any plans to test if it allows better access or throughput to a nas when compared to using gigabit on the same device?
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2.5Gb is 10 years too late.. huge bottleneck with modern drives.
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for me convient. faster than 1 GB, cheap, works fine and none of my Hardware is bottlenecking it. Did i think about 10gig…yes, but this would have caused such an upgrade cascade….
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