• I was supplied with two 16TB HDDs, though I can add more later. Photo: Tim Levy
    I was supplied with two 16TB HDDs, though I can add more later. Photo: Tim Levy
  • Photo: Tim Levy
    Photo: Tim Levy
  • Photo: Tim Levy
    Photo: Tim Levy
  • Photo: Tim Levy
    Photo: Tim Levy
  • Photo: Tim Levy
    Photo: Tim Levy
  • Setting up the system is as simple as following steps on your phone via the Synology website. Photo: Tim Levy
    Setting up the system is as simple as following steps on your phone via the Synology website. Photo: Tim Levy
  • Screenview in Synology Photos App. Image: Tim Levy
    Screenview in Synology Photos App. Image: Tim Levy
  • You don't have to use Synology Photos App of course. You can use the DSM to put files and folders of any type as if it is another hard drive. Image: Tim Levy
    You don't have to use Synology Photos App of course. You can use the DSM to put files and folders of any type as if it is another hard drive. Image: Tim Levy
  • You can look at images in the Synology Photos App which can show image metadata. You can also search via Tags or Keywords you have entered via other software such as Bridge or Lightroom. Image: Tim Levy
    You can look at images in the Synology Photos App which can show image metadata. You can also search via Tags or Keywords you have entered via other software such as Bridge or Lightroom. Image: Tim Levy
  • Within Synology Photos App, you can share via sending a link, and can also add password protection. Image: Tim Levy
    Within Synology Photos App, you can share via sending a link, and can also add password protection. Image: Tim Levy
  • The interface within the browser is a desktop environment with it's own propriety DSM software & apps. Image: Tim Levy
    The interface within the browser is a desktop environment with it's own propriety DSM software & apps. Image: Tim Levy
  • With Synology Drive, you can also use it to share either publicly without password, or with password protection. Photo: Tim Levy
    With Synology Drive, you can also use it to share either publicly without password, or with password protection. Photo: Tim Levy
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Review : The Synology DS925+ NAS system – an industry workhorse

By Tim Levy | 11 March 2026

For years, the Synology ‘Plus’ series has been the gold standard for prosumer and small business storage. However, as 2026 rolls forward, competition from brands like QNAP and UGREEN has intensified. The Synology DiskStation DS925+, released mid-2025, is the company’s latest answer – a four-bay powerhouse that finally brings 2.5GbE networking to the masses.

Hardware: The Enclosure and components

While it looks nearly identical to its predecessor, the DS923+, a look under the bonnet reveals a device that is more specialised than ever before.

The design of the DS925+ is ‘classic Synology’. It features the familiar, matte-black, four-bay chassis that hasn't changed much in five years. It’s compact, sturdy, and remarkably quiet, thanks to two 92mm rear fans that keep the system cool even under heavy load.

Photo: Tim Levy
About as attractive as the back of a fridge, but like a fridge, this side will be facing a wall.
The important things are those two quiet fans and the two 2.5GbE ports.
The old eSATA port is gone, replaced by a high-speed USB-C expansion port.
This is designed to work with the new DX525 expansion unit, allowing you to add five more drives for a total of nine. Photo: Tim Levy

Synology has swapped the dual-core Ryzen R1600 found in previous models for a quad-core AMD Ryzen V1500B. While the V1500B is a mature chip, the jump from two to four cores (and eight threads) makes a tangible difference in multitasking and running Docker containers.

Memory-wise, it comes standard with 4GB of DDR4 ECC (Error Correction Code) memory, which is essential for preventing data corruption, and it is expandable up to 32GB.

The most significant upgrade is the move to dual 2.5GbE ports. This change effectively doubles your potential network throughput. If you have a 2.5GbE switch, you’ll see immediate benefits in file transfer speeds, especially if you wanted to edit large RAW photo files directly off the NAS, or back-up / archive large folders of images.

You don't have to use Synology Photos App of course. You can use the DSM to put files and folders of any type as if it is another hard drive. Image: Tim Levy
Using Synology Drive which has a typical folder/file structure (as above). Image: Tim Levy

For highest speed – use direct cable

Don't forget that to get the highest speeds from your NAS, it's best to use a direct cable than using Wi-Fi.

Even with a high-end Wi-Fi 6 router, real-world speeds usually hover between 30–70MB/s, and that's only if you're in the same room. If there are walls in between, it can drop significantly.

In the real world, my home Wi-Fi upload transfer speed to the outside world is a painfully slow 18 MB/s. (Side note: Australia ranks a shameful 46th in the world for fixed broadband speeds, and for some silly reason, our upload speeds are very slow).

Compare this to a 2.5GbE cable that can handle a speedy 285 MB/s. This can mean the difference in a transfer time being 5X times faster, or even more.

1GbE vs 2.5 GbE VS 10 GbE

So the duel 2.5GbE ports are a welcome upgrade from the 1GbE port, though unlike the DS923+, the DS925+ loses the PCIe expansion slot. This means there is no official path to 10GbE networking.

Synology is betting that dual 2.5GbE (which can be aggregated via Link Aggregation for up to 5Gbps total bandwidth) is enough for most users at this price point. And the bottleneck in this case becomes the hard drive. To get anywhere close to needing the 10GbE speed, you'd need to install expensive SSD drives.

Of course, SSD drives are way faster (and more expensive) than HDD, but it has come to light that, even though there are less moving parts in an SSD – which means they should last longer – they suffer in long term storage from 'charge leakage' (aka electron leakage).

Unlike hard drives, which record data by magnetising sectors on a physical platter, SSDs store information as an electrical charge inside microscopic NAND flash cells. Over time – especially if the drive is left unpowered in a drawer – those electrons can physically leak out of the cells, and therefore – goodbye precious photos!

But don'r freak out if you have SSDs as your archive – just make sure you keep them either powered on, or just run them every while and you should be fine.

Photo: Tim Levy
Prior to installing the drives.
The set up is very easy, drives just click in and then you follow the steps on your phone / web.
Photo: Tim Levy

The drive compatibility debate

The DS925+ was initially at the centre of a storm regarding Synology's stricter drive compatibility policy. Early firmware versions caused confusion by flagging popular third-party drives like WD Red or Seagate IronWolf.

Fortunately, they have since softened this stance with the latest DSM 7.3 updates. While the DS925+ will still show a warning if you aren't using Synology-branded drives, it no longer blocks you from creating volumes with high-quality third-party alternatives.

Synology states: "You have flexibility to install third-party HDDs and 2.5" SATA SSDs for storage pool creation, but Synology strongly recommends using verified drives for best results."

This feels fair enough. When someone digs up a bunch of low-cost, off-brand hard drives from 1998 that have been sitting in a drawer, they shouldn't wonder why they don't perform to modern specs.

Using recommended HDDs ensures better reliability, performance, and allows Synology to integrate health monitoring and firmware updates directly into the OS. Personally, I applaud this change to giving people the option to use any drive they want; it shows Synology listened to the 'vendor lock-in' feedback and adjusted accordingly. Bravo!

Expansion and future-proofing

The DS925+ introduces a new expansion path. The old eSATA port is gone, replaced by a high-speed USB-C expansion port. This is designed to work with the new DX525 expansion unit, allowing you to add up to five more drives for a total of nine.

The interface within the browser is a desktop environment with it's own propriety DSM software & apps. Image: Tim Levy
The interface within the browser is a desktop environment with it's own propriety DSM software & apps.
Image: Tim Levy

The software: DSM 7.3 and beyond 

While other manufacturers offer flashy hardware, Synology’s DiskStation Manager (DSM) remains the most polished, user-friendly, and stable NAS operating system on the market. It feels remarkably like a standard desktop computer environment, complete with a taskbar and icons. You don't need to be a systems administrator to manage complex tasks.

Whether you are replacing Google Photos with Synology Photos, managing complex PC backups via Active Backup for Business, or running a surveillance station, the system simply works.

Screenview in Synology Photos App. Image: Tim Levy
Screen view of Synology Photos App. You can use tagging / keywords, or search by date.
Image: Tim Levy

There are over 100 apps in DSM and below are some of the more popular ones.

Synology Drive: A private, subscription-free alternative to Dropbox or Google Drive.

Hyper Backup: Automates the '3-2-1' backup rule by syncing your NAS to external drives or the cloud.

Synology Photos: High-speed indexing with AI-powered facial and object recognition for sorting massive libraries.

Snapshot Replication: Creates 'point-in-time' copies, allowing you to roll back folders if you accidentally overwrite a file or get hit by ransomware.

USB Copy: Automatically ingests and sorts files the moment you plug your camera’s SD card or SSD into the front port.

Active Backup for Business: Centralise backups for Windows PCs, servers, and VMs with no licensing fees.

A view from Synology Photos. You can add your own tags, use AI recognition, or add tags in Lightroom, Bridge, Capture One etc. Photo: Tim Levy
A view from Synology Photos. You can add your own tags, use AI recognition,
or add tags in Lightroom, Bridge, Capture One etc. Photo: Tim Levy

Final Verdict

Personally, I would rather own a reliable system that 'looks after itself'. And if this means using pre-approved hard drives that I know will last for years and be super reliable – so be it. The disk units undergo comprehensive testing – including over 500,000 hours of stress and compatibility checks – to ensure stable 24/7 operation under multi-user workloads. They also feature a workload rating of up to 300 TB per year – something I know I won't even get close to personally, but for a small to medium business, this is a considerable amount of data.

I'm not using the NAS system to work off (photo editing / video editing) as my computers internal SSD's reach speeds of 7,000MB/s. The NAS is mainly used for archiving my work safely and securely. 

And I feel the Synology DS925+ does this with minimum fuss. The exterior looks fairly monolithic and hardy, I don't want it looking like it's a car from the Fast And the Furious with glowing neon lights spilling from underneath it. And talking of fast cars - unless I'm going deaf, I don't ever recall hearing it function.

Of course there are other options out there, but I feel that you need a bit more tech savviness, and their integrated software doesn't have the ecosytem depth of Synology's Disc Station Management (DSM).

The DS925+ doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it refines it for a 2.5GbE world. It’s a dependable workhorse that prioritises stability and reliability – and that's what I need in a photo archive.

You can find out more about the Synology DS925+ on the Synology website.

Storage for Photographers: How Much Do You Need?

So if you have a NAS with 4x12TB drives using SHR, that would give you years of headroom, or the ability to archive hundreds of thousands of RAWs while maintaining a robust safety net for your data.

In this configuration, Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR) acts as your insurance policy, providing one-drive fault tolerance. This means you’d have approximately 36TB of usable storage, with the remaining 12TB dedicated to parity. If one of those four drives fails, you simply swap it out, and your archive remains intact.

To put that 36TB into a photographer's perspective – if you’re shooting with 45MP camera, your uncompressed RAW files sit around 60–80MB. 36TB would hold roughly 450,000 to 600,000 images. If you use Compact RAW (approx 20MB per image on a 45MP body) or a lower-resolution sensor (24MP), that number easily climbs toward 1.2 million images. That is a lot of work!