Synology DS925+ NAS Review – Good News, Bad News

If you have been looking at making the move away from your cloud service provider to gain better ownership of your data, or are looking to upgrade your existing network storage system to something a tad more modern, chances are that Synology and the new DS925+ system have already appeared on your radar. Synology, a 25-year veteran in the world of network-attached storage, is arguably one of the biggest names in the game and has long commanded the largest market share in home and business purchases of NAS. The new DS925+ is the refresh of the late 2022 Synology DS923+, upgrading a few things and arguably clipping the wings of others. Whenever Synology refreshes its range of solutions every few years, it is normally a moment of largely universal praise as long-term Synology users consider upgrading their kit.

However, the Synology 2025 series of devices has been arguably more contentious and criticized internet-wide due to the brand’s changing stance on its support of hard drives in this newer generation, revamping the way in which users can choose which drives they can use in their systems. This change is still very much in its early days and could easily end up working out for the best — or being reversed — but nevertheless, the Synology DS925+ has arrived on the scene to a great deal more criticism and apprehension than most other Synology NAS devices ever launched in the brand’s two-and-a-half-decade-long history. But all of that aside, is the DS925+ actually any good? What can it do, what can’t it do, and does it deserve your money and your data?

Synology DS925+ NAS Review – Quick Conclusion

On a sheer hardware level, the Synology DS925+ is one of the strongest 4-bay systems the brand has ever released in this class. Whether compared to the 2023 refresh or earlier models, it delivers a noticeably better hardware package for the price. The long-overdue move to 2.5GbE is welcome, even if extremely late, and the upgrade from a dual-core, four-thread processor to a quad-core, eight-thread chip is ideal for VMs and containers. The continued inclusion of ECC memory (4GB, expandable to 32GB) reinforces its focus on reliability. DSM remains a standout — arguably still the best turnkey NAS OS on the market for stability, usability, and features. However, the removal of 10GbE upgrade options feels like a significant regression, especially as external 2.5G/5G USB network adapters are now commonplace. The hardware, while generally solid, will still feel underwhelming to users who expect more flexibility — especially given the price.

But it’s Synology’s aggressive stance on storage compatibility that casts the longest shadow. The DS925+ refuses to initialise DSM unless you’re using approved drives — a dramatic shift from previous generations using identical hardware that supported many third-party drives. Synology’s vague communication and inconsistent rollout of this policy only amplify user frustration. It’s hard to escape the sense that Synology is either hesitating to fully commit to bundling its NAS units with storage, or clumsily trying to control the ecosystem. The DS925+ is still a very good NAS, maintaining a decade-long price point while offering improved internals and software. But unless Synology quickly clarifies this compatibility policy, this release may be remembered more for controversy than capability — their biggest “Apple moment” yet, for good or for bad.

SOFTWARE - 10/10

HARDWARE - 6/10

PERFORMANCE - 8/10

PRICE - 9/10

VALUE - 8/10

8.2

PROS

Dual 2.5GbE Ports: Finally upgrades from 1GbE, offering significantly better bandwidth and support for link aggregation and SMB multichannel.
ECC Memory Support: Comes with 4GB ECC RAM (expandable to 32GB), rare at this price point and excellent for data integrity in long-term storage.
Quad-Core Ryzen V1500B CPU: A proven server-grade processor with 4 cores and 8 threads, ideal for multitasking, VMs, containers, and business apps.
Excellent Thermal Performance: Dual 92mm fans and a well-ventilated chassis keep internal temperatures low even under extended load.
Low Noise Operation: Impressively quiet in idle and moderate use; system noise is more dependent on drive selection than fan noise.
USB-C Expansion Support: Adds future-proof connectivity via the DX525 expansion unit, replacing the aging eSATA interface.
Top-Tier DSM Software: Ships with DSM 7.2 — widely considered the best NAS OS — offering excellent backup, cloud, and media tools with a polished UI.
EXCEPTIONAL License-free software in Active Backup and inclusive-license Surveillance Station Software

CONS

No 10GbE Upgrade Option: Removes the PCIe slot from the DS923+, eliminating any path to scale beyond 2.5GbE.
Comparatively underwhelming hardware compared to similarly priced Turnkey NAS solutions available from QNAP, UGREEN, Asustor, etc
Strict Drive Compatibility: Will not initialise DSM without Synology-branded HDDs or drives on the compatibility list (which we are still awaiting confirmation on re: verification). Brand messaging on which drives work now, later, long term, etc is messy at the moment

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Synology DS925+ NAS Review – Design, Cooling and Power Consumption

The DS925+ maintains Synology’s long-standing chassis design, which has remained largely unchanged since around 2018–2019. It features a compact black plastic exterior with a solid metal internal frame that offers excellent durability and airflow.

The unit measures the same as its predecessors and blends easily into home or office environments. Ventilation is a central focus of the design, with large ventilated side panels, additional intake on the base, and a dual-fan array at the rear. These two 92mm fans replace the more typical single-fan setup found in many rival 4-bay systems, providing a more even and effective airflow throughout the unit.

The DS925+ also uses an external 100W power brick, though actual usage rarely approaches that limit.

In terms of noise, the DS925+ is impressively quiet during idle and moderate use — provided you’re using standard Synology-branded drives. With the system fully idle (RAID built, fans running at variable speed, no active users), the noise levels hovered around 36–37 dB(A).

When pushed with dual 2.5GbE connections and all drives under load, noise levels rose to about 48–50 dB(A), though much of this was attributed to the drives rather than the fans. Users planning to install high-capacity, enterprise-class drives like the HAT5300 series should expect higher operational noise. While the NAS fans remain relatively quiet, drive selection plays a significant role in the overall acoustic footprint of the system.

Power consumption during testing was also well within expectations. In a fully idle state, with base apps installed and the system not being accessed, the DS925+ drew approximately 28 watts. When fully loaded — with all four bays filled, SSDs installed, the CPU under strain, and both 2.5GbE connections active — consumption peaked around 62–64 watts.

These numbers align with what you’d expect for a Ryzen V1500B-based system with ECC memory and SSD support, though it’s worth noting that Synology’s own published power usage figures are lower. This discrepancy is likely due to Synology using SSDs in their testing rather than HDDs, which naturally draw more power and generate more heat.

Thermal performance on the DS925+ is particularly strong, especially considering the plastic enclosure. At the one-hour mark under moderate usage, system temperatures ranged from 35°C to 39°C.

After 24 hours of intermittent access, including background tasks like scrubbing and package installation, the system maintained a stable range of 34°C to 36°C. The dual rear fans, in conjunction with the well-ventilated chassis, clearly play a key role in keeping the internal environment controlled. These results are especially encouraging given that many competing 4-bay NAS systems still ship with only a single rear fan and less efficient airflow paths.

Bottom line, the DS925+ offers a refined, if familiar, physical design that prioritises quiet operation, effective heat management, and reasonable power efficiency – something this product series has always excelled at vs it’s competitors (such as the QNAP TS-464, Asustor Lockerstor series or still new UGREEN DXP4800. While Synology hasn’t reinvented the chassis, the dual fan design, ample ventilation, and strong thermal numbers show thoughtful incremental improvements. However, as with most NAS systems, the overall experience is still influenced heavily by drive selection — particularly in terms of noise and power draw. For users seeking a low-noise, power-efficient solution with excellent temperature control, the DS925+ remains a very well-balanced option in the 4-bay NAS category.

Synology DS925+ NAS Review – Ports and Connectivity

The Synology DS925+ supplies a fairly middling range of connections, depending on your point of view. Hot take: if you were to compare this device against previously released Synology devices, there is actually something of a mixed bag here to like as well as dislike. Likewise, if you compare the device to the available range of NAS solutions from this brand’s competitors, you could probably be especially critical of what you see here. However, there are some interesting features worthy of note, and given Synology’s heavy emphasis on internal operations and remote access priorities, it isn’t a huge surprise that the physical connections on this modest system are likewise pretty understated.

The front of the system features a single USB Type-A 5 Gb per second connection port that is predominantly used for connecting storage drives to make them remotely accessible. Synology has largely reduced the utility of these USB ports on their systems to simply storage and connection of a UPS system. So you can forget about utilising the majority of PC USB peripherals, directly connecting to the device over USB, or even simple network USB adaptors — a particularly unpopular choice by Synology in their DSM 7 update a few years ago. That said, the USB connectivity integrates extremely well with the backup software on this system, allowing for scheduled and automated backups to be conducted via this port, with particularly sophisticated filter customisation as needed.

Flipping the device around shows us the more important system connections available on the DS925+. The big headline here is Synology finally — finally — upgrading this system and the 2025 generation moving forward with 2.5 GbE ports, rather than the pedestrian and outdated 1 GbE network ports. The system features two ports, and the DSM platform allows for merging of these connections via protocols such as port trunking, link aggregation, load balancing, and SMB multi-channel, as well as failover as needed. These are certainly a welcome — if hugely overdue — upgrade on this system (when the bulk of this brand’s hardware competitors rolled out 2.5G as much as five years earlier at a similar price point). But at the very least, this does mean that users are going to be able to enjoy fuller saturation of the four SATA drive connections on this system more so than in previous generations of this product series.

That said, Synology giveth and Synology taketh away! Even though Synology has upgraded the default network connections on the device, they have removed the optional mini PCIe upgrade slot that was available on the DS923+ before this. This is going to be a huge kick in the ass for a lot of users who were considering purchasing this device over the DS923+ predecessor, as it means that the ability to scale up the network connectivity toward 10GbE is now not available on this system. So despite the fact that this system can now comfortably accommodate over two and a half times the external network bandwidth of its predecessor out of the box, it also means that the effective potential maximum network connectivity that a user could hope to achieve down the line has now been effectively halved! Again, this was always an optional upgrade in its predecessor, but it was an extremely welcome one for many — and given that even their value series of hard drives can hit between 180 and 200 MB per second per drive, that means that even the most inefficient RAID cluster with these drives will almost certainly still oversaturate the base twin 2.5G connections that the base model has. Therefore, you are being somewhat bottlenecked down the road because of this lack of network adapter upgradability. And don’t even get me started on the throttling that you will likely encounter if utilising M.2 NVMe RAID pools on the DS925+ via remote network connectivity.

Finally, we find another change in this product over its predecessors, and that is the shift in expandability on this system toward a USB-C output. This USB-C provides 5 Gb/s connectivity and only supports the new DX525 expansion chassis, which costs around $350 to $450 depending on where you are in the world and your local tax rate. Synology has always afforded the ability to expand this product series with a 5-bay expansion, either to spread the RAID configuration or mirror it appropriately, so this is a welcome — if expected — integration in the DS925+ class nonetheless, and it allows for greater storage scalability over the years.

All that said — and I’m sorry to be negative again — I can’t help but feel that this expandability is still being handled a tad clumsily. For a start, even at USB-C, that still means that the five SATA drives that the expansion supports are effectively capped in their maximum external bandwidth potential. And although you were never really going to enjoy greater speeds regardless — due to the 2.5 GbE network connectivity anyway — there are definitely going to be users who are sad about this further bottleneck on the performance of those drives in the expansion.

The fact that Synology did not implement an improved means of network connectivity — perhaps via 10 GbE or USB 3.2 Gen 2 (almost certainly due to a CPU choice limitation) — is really disheartening. Likewise, since this expansion now connects over standard USB, why are we still only limited to one expansion, and only via that specific USB port? The fact that we could have increased the number of expansion devices in line with the other available USB ports would have been tremendously appealing to users thinking about the long-term scalability of their system. And given that USB ports are common (if a little more restrained) on practically every single Synology NAS, this is a real missed opportunity to add storage expandability — and I can only assume it’s a conscious and deliberate choice by the brand to maintain their portfolio segmentation.

Bottom line: I love that this system is expandable, and I do like that a number of the features of the system have been improved over its predecessor. But as I mentioned earlier, the general standard of connectivity on the DS925+ is still awfully restrained when you take even a casual glance at the rest of the market right now. It only further underlines the fact that Synology is doubling down on this system more in terms of its software and capabilities rather than its hardware — which is no doubt going to please the bulk of users looking at this system who just want a stable NAS that does its job, but will nonetheless annoy enthusiasts and prosumers who want to make the most of their hardware.

Synology DS925+ NAS Review – Internal Hardware

If there is one area that Synology consistently gets criticised for, it is the hardware they choose to use. It can definitely be argued that, as a NAS is a 24/7 system, manufacturers need to focus heavily on the efficiency of hardware and keep things as high-performance as possible at the lowest cost of power consumption and hardware utilisation. Equally, it could be argued that because Synology prioritises software over hardware — and wants to maintain tightly locked price points in its portfolio — over the years they have had to be awfully tactical in the hardware they choose to use across their product lines. All these things no doubt play their part, but nonetheless, it all adds up to a system that is not exactly going to blow anyone away if they are looking at the hardware specs as the chief buying point for their first server or an upgrade.

The first thing I want to discuss is that CPU! Keeping things positive, this is a four-core, eight-thread AMD embedded server-class Ryzen processor. In human speak, that means this CPU is designed for server utilisation — chiefly for file processes and for spreading itself quite thinly across multiple processes and tasks with efficient ease. Additionally, this processor has already been utilised and heavily investigated by Synology since its first rollout at the higher end of the SMB section of its portfolio as early as 2019/2020 — so the brand has extensive experience in getting the very most it can out of this processor. Additionally, Synology has often taken the hardware configuration of a higher-tier solution in their portfolio and — between multi-year refreshes — then passed this hardware configuration down into lower and more affordable tiers over the years. So this processor’s appearance, and its refresh of the previous R1600 dual-core, four-thread processor in the DS923+ predecessor, is not unexpected — and for many, actually quite welcome.

Here is how the R1600 in the DS923+ 2022/2023 Release compares with the V1500B in the DS925+ Refresh:

Likewise, this processor provides the full spectrum of system software services and abilities that DiskStation Manager 7.2 has to offer. There is not a single DSM application or component that you are unable to take advantage of on this hardware spec. Alongside that, this CPU will comfortably allow for a decent number of VMs, containers, file processes, and simultaneous proprietary application services to all run at the exact same time — despite this system’s modest stature. Integrated graphics processors have been phased out from this particular product family — and this is the second refresh of the product line to remove integrated graphics-equipped processors — instead moving this kind of deployment to its smaller and more multimedia-focused DS425+ and DS225+ models. There are mixed results to this of course, especially given that the DS925+ has removed network upgradability — which I think may well leave quite a lot of CPU bandwidth by the roadside somewhat. But given the similarity in price point between this system and previous refreshes of this 4-bay series, I’m not, on the whole, unhappy with this processor. It’s just a continued departure by the brand away from classic 4-bays like the DS920+ and DS918+.

Alongside this processor, the system arrives with 4GB of DDR4 ECC SO-DIMM memory. ECC memory, in most network storage tech circles, is absolutely paramount for high-volume and high-frequency file transfers and long-term storage. Very, very few systems at the $550 price point ever include ECC memory in a turnkey NAS solution, and I know this is something that has always met with phenomenal praise by system integrators (SIs) who recommend Synology for simple and effective business storage requirements. Additionally, this memory can be scaled up all the way to 32GB, which — once you factor in the eight threads on this processor being spread out across multiple processes — is pretty darn good when you think about the scale of this system physically versus the potential of that software! Of course, in line with several other Synology policy changes over the years, the system is strictly compatible with only first-party memory upgrades from Synology — which you will not be surprised to hear are notably more expensive than third-party options in the market from Crucial, Kingston, and Samsung. This has always been something that has been met with notable disapproval by many, but Synology defends this by repeating the point that they want a single-party ecosystem, and the DS925+ is an appliance that centres around being smooth, efficient, and easy to deploy.

At the base of the system, we find the two M.2 NVMe slots that allow you to install one or two 2280-length SSD drives that can be utilised for read & write caching and/or use as storage pools. The benefits of utilising caching — when used in conjunction with the ECC memory and that file-transmission-focused processor — are pretty bloody significant, and it does allow for a degree of versatility and optimisation for users once again focused on high-volume and high-frequency data storage needs 24/7. But the use of these bays for storage pools is still pretty underwhelming at launch, and a big part of this is — much like other system upgrades — these M.2 bays are limited to only using Synology NVMe SSDs. This is a limitation compared with the predecessor, and while it’s a small tweak over the status quo, it becomes a significant one when you factor in that, currently, the only Synology M.2 NVMe offering is the heavily durability-focused but write-performance-weak SNV3400 series.

No doubt, as Synology rolls out more proprietary media-focused systems in their 2025 lineup and continues to expand the offering of branded storage media, the brand will eventually roll out a much more performance-rich NVMe SSD (perhaps the SNV5300 or SNV7400). But until that happens, these bays are a little restricted in terms of compatible media to really make the most of their capabilities right now.

Bottom line: for the money you’re laying down here — and if you factor in the value and quality of the software — many are going to be happy to overlook the comparatively underwhelming internal hardware on offer here when comparing it against the number of competitors on the market that focus on the hardware more than the software. If you’ve followed the brand for a long time, you’ll probably agree that what we’re seeing here is fairly standard for what this brand tends to include in their systems, and therefore you may be happy to give them a pass on this. But if this is a system that is chiefly being sold on its software and services — let’s discuss those a great deal more!

Synology DS925+ NAS Review – DSM Software and Services

The DS925+ arrives preloaded with Synology’s DiskStation Manager (DSM) 7.2, the latest version of their industry-leading NAS operating system. DSM has long been praised for its clean, intuitive interface that makes it easy for even novice users to get started while still offering deep functionality for IT professionals. Everything from user account creation, network configuration, file sharing, and app management is presented through a streamlined browser-based GUI. It’s an OS that feels more like a well-polished desktop environment than a traditional NAS UI, and the DS925+ handles it with ease thanks to its Ryzen CPU and ECC memory.

DSM offers comprehensive file management through File Station, and supports standard protocols such as SMB, FTP, WebDAV, and Rsync. Whether you’re accessing files locally or remotely, the experience is responsive and customisable. File previews, right-click menus, and in-browser streaming of media files all work out of the box, while features like folder-level encryption, WORM (write once, read many), and fine-grained user permissions ensure strong data governance. The included Synology Drive application further enhances file syncing and backup capabilities across multiple platforms — Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.

Synology has also baked in powerful backup and disaster recovery tools into DSM, with Active Backup for Business standing out in particular. It supports full OS and file-level backups for Windows, Linux, virtual machines, SaaS apps like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, and even other NAS devices.

Best of all, it requires no additional licenses for most features. Hyper Backup provides flexible multi-destination backup options, while Snapshot Replication protects against ransomware or accidental deletions by allowing near-instant recovery of shared folders or entire volumes.

For users focused on multimedia, DSM supports apps like Synology Photos, Audio Station, and Plex Media Server. While Synology has scaled back some native media tools like Video Station, DSM remains highly compatible with third-party platforms. Container Manager and Virtual Machine Manager allow for lightweight app deployment and virtualisation without a license fee — with the DS925+ capable of running multiple Docker containers or virtual DSM instances simultaneously. Synology’s mobile apps also tie in seamlessly with DSM services, offering secure access to files, surveillance feeds, photo backups, and more.

Ultimately, DSM is the DS925+’s strongest asset. Synology’s software-first approach continues to pay off, delivering an experience that’s miles ahead of most competitors in terms of polish, security, and integration.

Whether you’re a home user setting up private cloud storage or a small business deploying multi-site backups, DSM remains the gold standard in NAS operating systems. For many users, the value of DSM alone justifies choosing Synology — even when hardware compromises or compatibility limitations exist.

Below is a breakdown of how the Synology DS925+ improves upon the software and service support of the DS923:

Synology DS925+ NAS Review – Storage and Compatibility

At the time of writing this review, Synology is seemingly waging a war on third-party drives being used inside their systems. Back in 2020/2021, Synology began rolling out their own range of storage media for use in their systems — starting with SSDs and eventually expanding to a range of 3.5-inch server-class and enterprise storage-class hard drives. Over the years, we have seen the brand begin to reduce the number of third-party drives listed as certified and verified for use in the DSM platform and in their NAS server devices. This duality — of promoting their own storage media while supporting third-party drives — has had its balance shifted considerably over the last two major Synology generations and across several updates in DSM.

In 2022, when the brand rolled out an update in DSM 7.1 that changed the system status for any NAS using non-Synology-approved drives to display a warning state, the wider Synology user base was in uproar — whether it was because they didn’t like the brand’s position on dictating which drives worked and which didn’t, or because, as a system integrator or admin, they suddenly had a bunch of clueless users complaining that the system had gone from green to amber. Synology would eventually roll this back and, although they never reversed the policy of warning users that their drives were not on the compatibility list, they did soften the system’s response. Fast forward to now, and the brand is again changing its third-party drive verification and compatibility methodologies internally. The 2025 series and onward will strictly require drives that are already listed on Synology’s compatibility list. So why is that a problem right now?

Well — twofold. First, right now only Synology HDDs and SSDs are listed on the official DS925+ compatibility pages, despite the hardware inside the DS925+ being identical to previous Synology hardware from both the 2020 and 2023 generations — both of which still list many Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, Samsung, Kingston, and more drives. That does look a little off.

But the second, more serious reason is Synology’s aggressive approach to this policy. Previously, if you used an unverified drive, the system would warn you in Storage Manager after setting up DSM, informing you that the drives were not verified by Synology and that using them might put your system in an unsupported state — potentially limiting any after-sales or technical support the brand could offer. The 2025 series, however, currently will not even allow you to initialise the system out of the box if you are using non-Synology hard drives.

This will no doubt be problematic with e-retailers and online dealers — unless they make this strict compatibility policy exceptionally clear. The rollout of these changes across the 2025 series has been inconsistent and unclear at best. It first emerged via a press release on Synology’s German website, despite now being mentioned in different areas of global Knowledge Centers. Even now, as I write this review, although the official Synology DS925+ page is live, the wording surrounding unverified drives and their support on this new system remains very diplomatic and vague.

It might well be that weeks or months from now, as this system rolls out, the list of drives supported on the Synology DS925+ and other NAS systems in the 2025 series will eventually include third-party drives from WD and Seagate. Nevertheless, the messaging has been profoundly unclear and inconclusive. Synology has always supported third-party drives in numerous systems before this one — systems that, as mentioned earlier, have exactly the same hardware as this system and run the latest version of DSM as well! If their verification and compatibility tests have changed, they need to make this a great deal clearer and more justifiable to users. If they have numerous reported cases of unverified drives wreaking havoc, they need to share these results.

On the flip side, many could argue that as long as Synology provides a range of hard drives and SSDs that are comparable in price and performance to those of third parties, then losing access to third-party drives is no big deal. Unfortunately, that is not globally true. While there are some examples of Synology media being at the same price and performance level as third-party options, the availability and pricing for these drives is nowhere near as consistent as those of third-party brands — and for many, that forms one of the greatest long-term issues for their storage.

If you have an existing Synology NAS that is using third-party hard drives, you are still able to migrate drives over to the new system physically. This will allow for an easy upgrade path for existing users — but it’s not really a tremendous benefit for those who were considering the DS925+ as their first shiny new NAS system.

Migrating your drives physically from an older Synology NAS to a new device allows you to proceed – but with warnings

In discussions with numerous people online, a lot of us agree that Synology is kind of half-assing something here. If they’re going to support third-party hard drives and SSDs on their systems, then they need to do it — and do it as well as they have before. Revamping a verification system in-house that many would argue didn’t need revamping in the first place seems silly at best and calculated at worst. Otherwise, if they want to commit to recommending their own media above all else, just go the whole hog: bundle the solutions as standard, pre-populated, and maybe even extend the savings too. Interestingly, the changes in system recognition of non-listed compatible drives seems to only impact HDDs at this time. If you first-time-setup your Synology DS925+ NAS with SATA SSD(s) – you are still able to initialise the NAS as before – albeit with red and amber warnings on the storage GUI:

We’ve already seen the brand’s stance on storage media play out this way with M.2 NVMe SSDs in the 2023 generation and later — only allowing storage pool deployments if you use Synology-branded drives and no others (yet still supporting third-party drives for caching, if you like). Synology knew this was going to be an unpopular policy, but obviously, this is part of their wider roadmap. The brand themselves state that this is a move toward redefining their platform — away from being just hardware and toward becoming a full and complete data appliance.

I do also want to comment on the way that the system presents the use of 3rd party drives, even when used in authorized ways (eg using SATA SSDs in initialization does NOT bar you from their use the way HDDs are when not on the compatibility pages – likewise when you use drives from an older Synology NAS via physical migration to the DS925+).

When you DO have non-synology confirmed drives in the system via these methods – the presentation of DSM is notably more negative and aggressively alarming. Red and Orange text, icons, warnings, alerts and triggering words like ‘At Risk’ are thrown around far, far too liberally.

As mentioned several times, this might all turn out to be a storm in a teacup, and Synology may expedite verification of hard drives on their compatibility lists — or even U-turn on this decision entirely and pretend it never happened. Either way, a lot of users — new and old — have based significant purchasing decisions on this change by the brand.

Synology DS925+ NAS Review – Conclusion & Verdict

On a sheer hardware level, the Synology DS925+ is largely a superior system out of the box compared with any previous 4-bay Synology NAS solution released by the brand in this class series. Whether you’re comparing how much has scaled up in this refresh of the previous 2023 series release, or just generally looking at the standard of what you get for your money here, for the most part — in terms of hardware — it is better than the majority of systems that came before it. The long, long overdue upgrade to 2.5 GbE network connections is welcome (even if the brand is especially late to the party here). The upgrade from a dual-core, four-thread processor to a quad-core, eight-thread processor is certainly going to please those VM and app sandbox/container users greatly. And the continued implementation of ECC memory at 4GB, with scalability up to 32GB, only further doubles down on this point.

DSM continues to impress and still holds itself comfortably as the premier turnkey NAS software solution on the market — both in terms of its feature set as well as its stability and usability. The lack of 10GbE scalability is a bitter pill to swallow when many of us were just getting used to the idea of Synology engaging with 10G NIC upgrades at this hardware level. And although this feature is promised on the DS1525+, it is still something of a pain point on the DS925+ — especially now, as $25 USB-to-2.5G and 5G network adaptors are very much a thing and widely supported everywhere. But for the most part, the hardware is consistent — if a little underwhelming. Synology solutions, though, have never been about the hardware. But beyond this is where the rather curious and unpopular choices by the brand regarding storage compatibility and verification in DSM and the 2025 series in general really end up marring what could have been a very confident release by Synology in the DS925+.

I hope that months from now, this matter is just a memory, and Synology has either expedited the verification of third-party drives or reversed the majority of these decisions due to public outcry. In truth, I think a lot of users would probably have preferred the DS925+ to roll out pre-populated with storage media — much like their new BeeStation series does. Going down the road of restricting which drives people can use was never going to be popular, so either don’t do it or fully commit to it. There is, of course, the argument that these drives — which were previously verified and confirmed working on the exact same hardware (CPU, motherboards, network deployment, and software utilisation) in previous generations — have mystically now been deemed unverified on the new 2025 series and its genuinely identical hardware to what came before. It’s an odd line in the sand to draw, a message that has been delivered messily, and I do not envy the Synology marketing team having to shape the narrative on this one. The bottom line is that the DS925+ is still a very, very good Synology NAS system, and although it loses a few bells and whistles compared to its predecessors, it still delivers very well on a platform that has maintained the same price point for its scale for more than a decade — despite changing world events. But until Synology clears up exactly how and why they’ve changed drive verification on this system in a clear and transparent fashion, I do think this is a NAS device that is going to pale in comparison to the deployment and overall sales of its predecessor — and the brand needs to sort this quickly.

The DS925+ is a good NAS for the money in terms of hardware and software, but we may well be witnessing Synology’s biggest “Apple moment” — for good and for bad.

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Alors que la saison 2 de The Last of Us cartonne actuellement sur Max, voici notre guide des meilleures séries post-apocalyptiques, pour toujours plus de survie, à voir en streaming.

Synology vient de dévoiler officiellement son prochain NAS : le DS925+. Il fait déjà beaucoup parler de lui sur les réseaux. Même s’il n’est toujours pas commercialisé, ses spécifications sont d’ores et déjà connues. Vous avez été nombreux à nous solliciter pour savoir ce qu’apporte ce nouveau modèle face à son prédécesseur le DS923+. Nous vous proposons donc un comparatif clair et détaillé basé sur les données constructeurs pour vous aider à y voir plus clair.

DS925+ vs DS923+

Les NAS DS925+ et DS923+ sont des boîtiers plutôt haut de gamme chez Synology. Ils proposent chacun 4 emplacements en façade pour des disques durs ou SSD, ainsi que 2 emplacements SSD NVMe sous le NAS (pour le cache ou comme volume de stockage).

Il est également possible d’y connecter une unité d’expansion à 5 baies (DX525), permettant d’atteindre un total de 9 disques. Cette nouvelle unité externe utilise un port USB Type-C.

Processeur

Synology poursuit l’intégration de processeurs AMD Ryzen Embedded dans ses NAS. Le DS925+ embarque désormais un Ryzen V1500B Quad Core cadencé à 2,2 GHz, en remplacement du Ryzen R1600 Dual Core du DS923+.

Ce changement apporte une légère amélioration des performances, notamment en multitâche. Cependant, aucun des 2 modèles ne dispose d’un iGPU (processeur graphique intégré), ce qui limite leur capacité à faire du transcodage vidéo matériel… un point important pour les usages multimédia.

Mémoire ECC

La mémoire vive n’évolue pas entre les 2 modèle. On reste sur 4 Go en DDR4  ECC (Error-Correcting Code ou en français, code correcteur d’erreurs). La mémoire ECC est plus chère, mais elle apporte une certain stabilité. Elle est rarement conseillée dans les NAS, sauf lorsque le système utilise le système de fichiers ZFS.

Les 2 modèles intègrent 4 Go de mémoire DDR4 ECC, extensible jusqu’à 32 Go. C’est vraiment peu pour ce type de produit. La mémoire ECC (Error-Correcting Code) améliore la stabilité et la fiabilité, même si elle n’est pas indispensable dans un NAS non basé sur ZFS.

Connectique

Le DS925+ gagne 1 port USB 3.0 Type-C et 2 ports réseau 2,5 Gb/s. C’est la grande nouveauté de la gamme DSx25+, trop longtemps attendu.
En revanche, il perd l’emplacement pour la carte réseau 10 Gb/s (en option sur le DS923+). Ce dernier permettait d’atteindre selon le fabricant 1180 Mo/s en lecture et 772 Mo/s en écriture séquentielle, avec des SSD NVMe.

Limitation volontaire

Le principal point de friction reste la politique de compatibilité imposée par Synology. Le fabricant restreint l’usage aux disques durs et SSD certifiés. À ce jour, aucun disque n’est officiellement validé pour la série DSx25+, ce qui pourrait poser problème à court terme pour les acheteurs souhaitant utiliser leurs propres disques.

Tableau comparatif DS925+ vs DS923+

En synthèse

Le DS925+ s’inscrit dans la continuité du DS923+ avec quelques améliorations : un processeur plus costaud, des ports réseau 2,5 Gb/s et une connectique légèrement enrichie. Cependant, la suppression de l’emplacement pour carte 10 Gb/s et la politique de disques certifiés viennent tempérer cet enthousiasme.

Pour les utilisateurs ayant besoin de plus de baies, le DS1522+ reste une alternative intéressante avec ses 5 baies natives et la possibilité d’ajouter jusqu’à deux unités DX517. En revanche, son prix est plus élevé, aux alentours de 757 €.

Une semaine bien diversifiée dans les sujets les plus lus sur Numerama, parce qu'on retrouve du jeu vidéo, de la série TV et de l'automobile.

Avec des dizaines de nouvelles séries mises en ligne chaque mois, le catalogue de Netflix ressemble à un vaste océan de nouveautés, dans lequel il peut être difficile de faire des choix. Pour vous guider dans l'immensité de cette plateforme de streaming, voici donc 16 séries qui, selon nous, sont les meilleures actuellement disponibles sur Netflix.

Depuis quelques années, les westerns envahissent nos petits écrans. Alors que Nouvelle vie à Ransom Canyon cartonne actuellement sur Netflix, voici les meilleures séries du genre, à découvrir en streaming. Mais attention : il faut avoir l'esprit téméraire pour s'aventurer dans le Far West, avec chapeaux de cow-boy obligatoires, évidemment.

L'une des séries les plus cosy du catalogue Netflix s'apprête à revenir très bientôt pour de nouveaux épisodes. Mais quand pourra-t-on voir la saison 5 de À l'ombre des magnolias exactement ?

Depuis déjà trois ans, le triangle amoureux entre Belly, Conrad et Jeremiah passionne les fans de L'été où je suis devenue jolie, sur Prime Video. Mais quand pourra-t-on découvrir la saison 3, qui sonnera la fin de la série ? Date de sortie, casting, bande-annonce... On vous dit tout sur le sujet.

[Deal du jour] C’est ce 24 avril 2025 qu'est sorti le RPG français Clair Obscur Expedition 33, développé par le studio montpelliérain Sandfall Interactive. Voilà où le trouver au meilleur prix sur PlayStation 5 et Xbox Series.

Synology DS925+ NAS Officially Launches in Eastern Markets – Full Specs and Features Confirmed

Following early retailer listings and semi-official leaks earlier this year, the Synology DS925+ NAS has now been formally launched in Eastern markets, including Taiwan, Japan, and China. With full documentation and product pages now publicly available, we finally have confirmation of the system’s complete hardware and software capabilities, as well as early indications of pricing and the compatibility of Hard Drives and SSDs (something of a hot button topic of late). As expected, this system builds on the DS923+’s foundation but introduces key changes that shift its performance profile and position within the Synology portfolio once again!

At the heart of the DS925+ is the AMD Ryzen V1500B, a quad-core, eight-thread processor previously used in larger business-class NAS models like the DS1621+, DS1821+, and DS2422+. Its integration into a 4-bay unit marks the first time this CPU has appeared in Synology’s enthusiast/prosumer tier, bringing greater virtualization, multi-user performance, and multitasking efficiency to this class. With a base frequency of 2.2 GHz and TDP of 16W, the V1500B is a lower-power but more scalable chip compared to the dual-core R1600 in the DS923+, which has a higher clock but fewer threads. This change benefits users focused on Docker, VMs, or simultaneous file operations.

Confirmed in the datasheet is the DS925+’s dual 2.5GbE network ports, supporting Link Aggregation (LAG) and SMB Multichannel, allowing up to 5GbE aggregate throughput—a significant improvement over the DS923+’s 2x 1GbE configuration. Expansion also sees a shift: the DS925+ uses the new DX525 expansion unit, connected via USB-C (6Gbps), replacing the legacy eSATA-based DX517. Internally, the system includes four hot-swappable drive bays (3.5″/2.5″ SATA HDD/SSD), and two M.2 2280 NVMe Gen 3 slots for SSD caching or storage pools (when using Synology’s SNV series drives).

Memory support includes 4GB of DDR4 ECC by default, expandable up to 32GB via two SODIMM slots, and the system supports 200TB volumes (with 32GB RAM) and up to 32 internal volumes. Storage management features are as expected from DSM 7.2+, including Snapshot Replication, Hyper Backup, Active Backup for Business, and Hybrid Share. While the system does not support 10GbE upgrades (removal of mini PCIe slot), Synology appears to be emphasizing strong native network performance and reduced complexity over modular upgrades.

Physically, the chassis weighs 2.26kg, has two 92mm fans, and offers 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, alongside one USB-C expansion port. It operates within a 0°C to 40°C range, supports high altitudes up to 5,000m, and includes all standard Synology DSM security tools: firewalls, encrypted folders, SFTP, HTTPS with custom ciphers, and Adaptive MFA. As a data platform, the DS925+ supports 500,000 hosted files in Synology Drive, up to 80 Office users, and 150 Synology Chat users. On the virtualization side, it supports VMware, Hyper-V, Citrix, OpenStack, and allows for up to 8 virtual DSMs or VM instances (license-dependent). Surveillance support includes two default camera licenses, and scalable support for up to 40 IP cameras at 1200FPS (H.265), with full integration into Surveillance Station and optional C2 cloud backup.

Synology DS925+ Pricing and Availability

Following the official launch of the Synology DS925+ NAS in Eastern markets—including Taiwan, China, and Japan—we now have more concrete pricing details. In China, the base unit without drives is priced at ¥4,999, which converts to approximately £500 before tax. Pre-configured options are also being sold, featuring combinations of Synology’s own-branded hard drives in 4TB, 8TB, 16TB, and even 64TB arrays. For example, a DS925+ with 2 x 8TB Synology drives (16TB total) is listed at ¥8,469 (~£845 pre-tax), while a fully populated 64TB configuration with 4 x 16TB drives is priced at ¥14,919 (~£1,490 pre-tax). In the UK and other Western markets, the DS925+ is expected to launch in early May, with Amazon UK listings already live very briefly last week before it was taken offline, showing the base unit at £550 including VAT. Here’s a rough estimate pricing table for the Synology DS925+ configurations, converted from Chinese Yuan (CNY) to both US Dollars (USD) and British Pounds (GBP) using the exchange rates as of April 22, 2025 (remember this does not precisely calculate tax across nations and their currencies, so these are for rough guidance only):

• 1 Yuan= 0.1371 USD

• 1 Yuan = 0.1025 GBP​

Note: Prices are approximate and based on exchange rates as of April 22, 2025. Actual prices may vary due to fluctuations in exchange rates and regional pricing policies with regard to inclusive tax at checkout.

The accompanying DX525 5-bay USB-C expansion chassis—which replaces the legacy DX517 and uses a similar metal casing—is priced at £439. These prices align with Synology’s long-standing strategy of maintaining consistent MSRP targets for its 2-, 4-, and 5-bay Prosumer-tier NAS units year-over-year, even when internal hardware evolves.

Synology DS925+ NAS HDD Compatibility in 2025

One of the biggest shifts accompanying the DS925+ release is Synology’s newly enforced drive compatibility policy on 2025 and newer NAS systems. Starting with this model, only drives listed on the official Product Compatibility List (PCL) will be supported during initial installation. At launch, this list consists exclusively of Synology-branded HDDs and SSDs, though Synology has confirmed that it plans to expand the third-party validation program moving forward. This move represents a broader shift by Synology toward an appliance-like ecosystem, citing increased reliability, faster support diagnostics, and significantly reduced system anomalies when validated media is used. According to the company, using listed drives can reduce storage-related issues by up to 40%, while severe disk anomalies on newer systems have reportedly decreased by as much as 88% under the new policy. Even though the DS925+ NAS has not been globally launched, in the regions it HAS been launched (China, Australia and Jopan, at the time of writing) it has opened up access to the DS925+ hard drive compatibility pages. Here is what you will find:

Practically speaking, this doesn’t mean you can’t install third-party drives (e.g. Seagate or WD), but using unlisted drives may limit your access to certain features—such as volume creation, deduplication, disk health analytics, automatic firmware updates, and even eligibility for Synology technical support. Fortunately, drive migrations from older Synology systems are supported, and older Plus series models (up to and including 2024) remain unaffected.

Still, new users and businesses investing in DS925+ hardware should factor these limitations into their decision, especially if they plan on using existing non-Synology drives. We are still awaiting FULL confirmation on the extent of the utility of 3rd party HDDs in realword use however. For example – can you even initialize a Synology DS925+ NAS with unverified Synology Hard Drives? There have been claims online that you cannot – but until this is fully verified, I/we will need to hold off full judgement!

Final Thoughts

The Synology DS925+ marks a meaningful update to the company’s 4-bay Plus series—bringing improvements in multi-core processing, networking, and system efficiency. The shift to a more capable 4-core, 8-thread AMD V1500B CPU, combined with 2.5GbE networking and modernized expansion via USB-C, ensures this model is better suited to the needs of virtualized, multi-user, and SMB environments. Yet, some users will see the removal of the PCIe slot for 10GbE upgrades as a notable loss, especially compared with the DS923+ which retains this feature.

That said, the DS925+ does benefit from many refinements learned across the Synology portfolio, and its arrival coincides with a broader strategy shift—one that tightens integration between hardware and software while prioritizing platform consistency. This NAS is clearly aimed at power users and businesses ready to invest in Synology’s controlled ecosystem, and for those who are fine with that trade-off, it offers a lot of value. However, prospective buyers who are still committed to third-party drives or planning future high-speed networking upgrades may want to carefully weigh their long-term priorities before making a decision.

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Quelles séries de fantasy regarder sur Netflix ? Suivez le guide, entre de la fantasy coréenne et fantasy urbaine, avec, parfois, des touches fantastiques et des dimensions historiques.

KB5055523 pour Windows 11 24H2 pose de sérieux problèmes. Microsoft confirme un bug critique entrainant un écran bleu de la mort (BSOD).

Cet article Windows 11 et KB5055523 : Microsoft confirme les plantages et déploie un correctif en urgence a été publié en premier par GinjFo.

Synology is closing the gap on third-party hard drive support further in 2025

UPDATE 3 – Synology has now made the DS925+ NAS NAS Product Page live in several of the Eastern regions (China, Australia, Japan – not the Taiwan page yet however). With it, we can now see the official compatibility pages. On the hard drive page there is now only Synology Drive media, and the option to select supported 3rd party HDD choices is removed. For all we know, this will return if/when 3rd party drives from WD and Seagate are verified. But at least for now, it seems the brand is serious about only recommending its own storage media in their 2025 systems at launch:

The full list of drives includes the Synology Plus series of HDDs, the Enterprise class drives and the enterprise class SATA SSDs. However, there are currently no Surveillance class drives listed (WD Purple/Seagate Skyhawk, etc):

In terms of M.2 NVMe SSD support, the brand has also removed any selection of 3rd party SSDs from Samsung, WD, Seagate, etc. I am particularly surprised about this, as their own M.2 drives are good for durability, but performance-wise are much lower than most in the market and whether it is as caching drives or as storage pools, there are definitely a lot of good options in the market. I hope Synology roll out some performance class SSDs to compensate for this very soon.

Original Article:

Over the last few years, Synology have not been exact about being forward in supporting. Back in 2021, we started to see the brand reduce the number of third-party hard drives and SSDs on their systems. This diminishing support has manifested itself in two main ways. The first is that drives that are listed on the official support and compatibility pages have significantly reduced, favouring the utilisation of their own growing range of hard drives and SSD media. The second way this has presented itself drew significant criticism in 2022/2023, when utilising third-party hardware resulted in the system presenting warning messages and even service limitations being suggested. It appears that this is something they are putting into force for their new 2025 series of devices. Numerous websites in Germany have today reported that Synology plans to go full first-party drive priority on all systems released from the 2025 generation and onwards. An official statement from Synology via an official source has not been released, but it appears that the brand is going to go hard on pushing their own drives when using their own systems – at least at launch. So, what are the intended limitations for those who want to use non-Synology branded drives from Seagate and Western Digital? And why would Synology do this with their systems that have been open for over 25 years? Let’s discuss.

UPDATE #2 – There is now an official press release by Synology on this, available from Synology.de:

Synology is increasingly relying on its own ecosystem for upcoming Plus models Germany, Düsseldorf – April 16, 2025 – Following the success of the High-Performance series, the company is now increasingly relying on Synology’s own storage media for the Plus series models, which will be released starting in 2025. Users will thus benefit from higher performance, increased reliability, and more efficient support.  “With our proprietary hard drive solution, we have already seen significant benefits for our customers in a variety of deployment scenarios,” said Chad Chiang, Managing Director of Synology GmbH and Synology UK. “By expanding our integrated ecosystem to the Plus series, we aim to provide all users—from home users to small businesses—with the highest levels of security and performance, while also offering significantly more efficient support.”  For users, this means that starting with the Plus series models released in 2025, only Synology’s own hard drives and third-party hard drives certified according to Synology’s specifications will be compatible and offer the full range of functions and support.

There will be no changes for Plus models released up to and including 2024 (excluding the XS Plus series and rack models). Furthermore, migrating hard drives from existing Synology NAS to a new Plus model will continue to be possible without restrictions.  The use of compatible and unlisted hard drives will be subject to certain restrictions in the future, such as pool creation and support for issues and failures caused by the use of incompatible storage media. Volume-wide deduplication, lifespan analysis, and automatic hard drive firmware updates will only be available for Synology hard drives in the future.  Tight integration of Synology NAS systems and hard drives reduces compatibility issues and increases system reliability and performance. At the same time, firmware updates and security patches can be deployed more efficiently, ensuring a high level of data security and more efficient support for Synology customers.

TL;DR: Synology to Restrict Third-Party Drive Functionality on 2025+ NAS Models

Starting with the 2025 generation of Synology Plus series NAS devices, the company appears to be tightening restrictions on third-party hard drives. While you’ll still be able to use non-Synology drives (like those from Seagate or WD), early reports suggest that certain features may be limited or disabled unless you’re using Synology-branded or Synology-certified drives. According to preliminary reporting (not yet officially confirmed by Synology), using third-party drives may restrict (i.e several news reports indicate this, but no official statement/confirmation yet):

• Creation of storage pools

• Access to health monitoring tools

• Volume-wide deduplication support

• Drive lifespan analysis

• Automatic firmware updates

• Access to official Synology support

Older NAS models (up to and including 2024, excluding XS+ and rackmount units) are not affected. Drive migration from existing systems to new ones should remain possible — but full functionality may require Synology drives.

Source – HERE (or click below)

What are the proposed limitations of using third-party hard drives in the Synology 2025 lineup?

Although the brand themselves, at the time of writing, has not officially stated that devices after the 2025 series will only support their drives, sources highlighted on numerous news outlets have detailed that a number of key storage features and functionality are going to be limited. These include health monitoring tools, deduplication features built into DSM, official support from the brand in some cases, and (most worrying of all if it’s true) storage pool support. I’m still waiting for further clarification if this storage pool support limitation to first-party drives is only referring to the use of M.2 NVMEs in storage pools (something we are already aware of from the 2023 series), or whether people are not going to be able to use third-party hard drives in storage pools moving forward in 2025 series releases. But it would seemingly very much indicate the latter. It’s also worth highlighting that this limitation seems to be a ‘launch’ choice and may also mean that drives are granularly added to the supported pages as the likes of WD and Seagate submit compatibility reports. But the message seems to be that Synology themselves will not be the ones who verify the drive compatibility.

It should also be worth highlighting that users who have purchased devices before the 2025 lineup will not be currently affected by this change and will continue to have broader support of third-party hard drives, although even that has diminished since 2021–2022 as it stands. This does bring into question for some whether this broader policy is something that would be applied in a large-scale DSM update down the road, i.e. DSM 7.3 or DSM 8. For now, until we have an official statement from the brand or access to compatibility lists for the intended new products, we need to reserve our full judgement.

Why would Synology reduce compatibility with the majority of third-party hard drives (Seagate and WD)?

There are plenty of reasons why Synology would consider a move like this, for good and for bad. So in the interest of balance, let’s start positive. What are the good reasons why Synology would endeavour to only support the use of their own storage media in their systems?

• To a much smaller group, it allows them to tailor performance and system deployment expectations a great deal more realistically and could result in improved overall performance for all users, as it allows the development of future solutions to be significantly more targeted.
• If Synology solutions only support Synology drives, it allows the brand to be a great deal more effective at reducing the TCO of the system to buyers, as it will be an all-in-one party solution and even opens the door to the brand rolling out bundled systems that will further reduce the total cost of ownership.

• Export costs in the US — Synology centralising the full component list of their products to the end user can also allow them to better absorb any potential costs efficiently and hopefully pass those cost savings onto the consumer, reducing reservations on purchasing the product in light of potential price hikes.
• Support will be a great deal more specialised if end user deployments have fewer variables to consider, resulting in reduced support resolution times and potentially improved support services as an end result for all users.

Beyond the other potential benefits, they will be considering this proposition to drastically reduce third-party hard drive compatibility and utilisation in the 2025 lineup:

• In a word, profit. Having their own storage hard drives as the main — and potentially only — storage option alongside their systems will allow the brand to make profit vertically across the product deployment. For a long time, the brand was only really monetizing the core system itself, which is really only going to be replaced every 7 to 10 years for most users. Storage media, given the escalating growth rate of people’s data, will require a great deal more regular replacement.

• If Synology storage media is largely the only option to buyers, the brand has a greater degree of control over which products are available. So, for example, currently Synology has fewer different capacity tiers and drive variation tiers compared with other brands (i.e. 24TB drives, surveillance-optimized drives, M.2 NVMEs built for performance, etc.), so in some cases a user may have to opt for a larger capacity or a more enterprise-class drive when they might not need to.

• Eliminates smaller-scale purchases. This is a particularly cynical point of view, I know, but a move like this will almost certainly push value series devices significantly more towards the likes of the BeeStation (which are already pre-populated and fixed with Synology storage media) and away from the Plus series, as a divide begins to appear in terms of the overall total purchase price for many users. Alongside upselling their value series to that buyer tier, it will also move only more serious buyers towards the Plus series and higher from 2025 onwards.

All of the above reasoning towards why Synology would prioritise their own drives over that of third parties are my own points of view, but I do think there’s a ring of truth in some of them.7

What are the potential problems surrounding Synology’s push toward its own storage media over third-party drives?

There are several small issues that are worth highlighting in this broader plan of Synology hard drive prioritisation that we should probably touch on — and hopefully ones that Synology themselves will resolve quickly if this is something they’re going to push hard on. Such as:

• The brand inadvertently revealed earlier this year that they are working on a 6 x 2.5-inch SATA SSD system called the DS-625 Slim. However, the only 2.5-inch SATA SSD media the brand has are way too enterprise — the SAT5200 series — and would be like putting a Ferrari engine into a Ford Focus in terms of the disparity in the hardware being used and the price point!

• Synology has still yet to introduce higher-performing M.2 NVMe storage media, and although several of the new 2025 series of devices arrive with M.2 NVMe support, Synology’s own M.2 SSDs prioritise durability over performance. That is a good thing, but users who are not going to be able to use third-party SSDs for caching or storage pools face being restricted to much lower-performing SSDs in these bays.

• How will the system identify the use of third-party drives, and to what extent are these drives going to be limited? Although lots of details have been revealed in the news reports today, we’re still yet to see a full detailing from Synology themselves on an official platform.
• Surveillance utilisation. Synology has an impressive range of surveillance solutions in the NVR and DVA series, as well as support for Surveillance Station on the majority of their systems, but to date, the brand still does not have surveillance-optimised hard drives in its lineup. Surveillance-optimised hard drive media like WD Purple are designed to have much higher write performance leveraging rather than read, and surveillance drives are generally only accessed for a very small percentage of the time when in use. Will third-party drive limitations extend to these systems as well?

I’m still waiting on an official Synology response on this matter, as there have been early indications (such as the Synology DS925+ Amazon.co.uk link 2 days ago) that indicate some of these systems may be arriving in May 2025 — not that far away! So, until we have full and officially backed confirmation on this, still treat it with a grain of salt. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disheartened by this move by the brand, as although their software is still absolutely the king of the hill in the world of NAS, further restrictions on their more modest hardware to only use their own range of hard drives — versus that of more widely available, globally distributed, and industry veteran–backed drives — seems a very odd move, and one that I think a lot of home/prosumer/enthusiast/SMB users might take issue with.

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Want to follow specific category? Also Read...Synology DS925+ NAS ReviewSynology DS925+ NAS ReviewSynology DS925+ vs QNAP TS-464Synology DS925+ vs DS923+ NAS Synology vs UGREEN NAS (in 202Synology vs Terramaster in 202Synology vs UGREEN in 2025 - WSynology vs QNAP in 2025 - WhiWeek 17 Tech Roundup – LenovSynology DS925+ NAS Released Subscribe You can also follow specific search terms:

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

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If you like this service, please consider supporting us. We use affiliate links on the blog allowing NAScompares information and advice service to be free of charge to you.Anything you purchase on the day you click on our links will generate a small commission which isused to run the website. Here is a link for Amazon and B&H.You can also get me a Ko-fi or old school Paypal. Thanks!To find out more about how to support this advice service check HEREIf you need to fix or configure a NAS, check Fiver Have you thought about helping others with your knowledge? Find Instructions Here  

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Pour marquer les 15 ans de la série Metro, 4A Games offre un véritable cadeau aux fans. Le titre Metro 2033 Redux est disponible gratuitement

Cet article La série Metro fête ses 15 ans : Metro 2033 Redux est offert pendant 48 heures ! a été publié en premier par GinjFo.

The Synology DS925+ NAS is (STILL) Coming..and Soon

It is fast becoming the worst-kept secret in the world of network-attached storage, but Synology’s continued plans to launch refreshes of a number of their popular desktop devices received another public outing this weekend, when keen users on Reddit spotted the official pages for the Synology DS925+ and DX525 on Amazon.co.uk, listing hardware specifications, pricing, release dates, and general background info. Although the appearance of the DS925+ isn’t exactly surprising—given the large info drop semi-officially revealed at an official event by a user on Chiphell—it is nonetheless surprising to see these two official Synology products seemingly added by Synology themselves for Amazon distribution, yet with absolutely zero mention on the traditional Synology platforms (Synology Products, Synology Downloads, Synology Download Registry, etc). Nonetheless, this appearance has confirmed numerous details about the DS925+ hardware specifications, for good and for bad, so I wanted to go through the further confirmed specifications and what they mean.

Synology DS925+ NAS Confirmed Hardware Specifications

As previously alluded to last month in the previous leak, the Synology DS925+ will arrive with the already integrated CPU from AMD that featured on previous SMB releases—the V1500B. This is a quad-core CPU that allows for more cores, more threads (i.e. more vCPUs) than the R1600 in the DS923+, as well as a lower TDP—though also a lower total clock speed available at first. It arrives with 4GB of ECC memory that can be scaled up to 32GB via two SODIMM DDR4 slots. DS925+ includes 2 × 2.5GbE, a very welcome if somewhat overdue upgrade on this product series from Synology. The SSD compatibility for storage pools and the speed allocated to each slot is still TBC. The expansion capabilities of the DS925+ have changed from the long-running eSATA support and DX517 of older Synology devices and now lean towards popular USB-C, and this is what triggered the new DX525 expansion box. We are still awaiting confirmation of the confirmed speed of this USB-C port, as well as its broader compatibility for other things (given the larger variety of USB-C options available in the market compared with eSATA), but slides shown at the Synology partner event last month seemingly indicated that this will NOT be USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps.

Probably the biggest and most controversial change here in the newer generation box is the removal of the mini PCIe upgrade slot that featured on the DS923+. The new DS925+ completely lacks this ability to scale up to 10GbE later down the line, which is probably going to upset a lot of users. PCIe modules they have sold (which would greatly explain, perhaps, the motivation for removing this feature), it is still something of a blow that this new generation device has removed a particularly appealing network upgrade path option. The motivation for this could be theoretically for multiple reasons, such as:

• Synology might well have deemed the two-times 2.5GbE network connectivity on the DS925+ sufficient for the four drives of SATA storage that it features, as well as ensuring that the system does not overlap other devices higher in the product portfolio food chain too much.
• The PCIe line distribution of this CPU and the chipset used on this board might result in limitations to the distribution of those lanes and therefore made the upgrade difficult to implement.
• The USB-C port for expansions may support a 10GbE upgrade module down the line that Synology intend on rolling out—a bit of a long shot though, as currently USB-C to 10GbE is only afforded to TB3/TB4/USB4 connectivity and would commit a great deal of internal lane distribution to that port to accommodate this potential upgrade.
• As previously alluded to, perhaps user integration of this upgrade slot on previous DS923+ devices was too low to justify accommodating this feature in the newest iteration.

Any of those reasons, or others, might well be why Synology decided to rescind this feature on this device. Nevertheless, it is something of a bitter pill that this device will not be featuring the ability to scale up out of the potential 5GbE bonded network connection that it arrives with and likely serves as a slight bottleneck to more high-performance hard drives in the SATA bays, as well as a significant cap on using SATA SSDs or M.2 NVMes in storage pools via the provided slots.

The AMD Ryzen R1600 and V1500B are both embedded CPUs used across Synology’s NAS lineup, but they serve distinct roles depending on the target user and workload. The R1600 is a dual-core, four-thread processor with higher clock speeds (2.6GHz base / 3.1GHz boost), making it ideal for environments that prioritize single-threaded performance—such as general file sharing, light server tasks, and basic backup operations. It has a TDP of 25W and is commonly found in more entry-level to mid-range Synology NAS models like the DS723+ and DS923+. By contrast, the V1500B is a quad-core, eight-thread CPU running at a lower base clock of 2.2GHz, but it delivers greater efficiency and significantly better multi-threading performance—essential for virtual machines, Docker containers, multiple user sessions, and parallel workflows. Its lower TDP of 16W also makes it a more efficient option for always-on deployments in business settings.

CPU Comparison: AMD Ryzen Embedded V1500B vs R1600

What makes the V1500B particularly notable in the DS925+ is that this CPU was previously reserved for Synology’s larger SMB and enterprise-tier systems, such as the DS1621+, DS1821+, and DS2422+. By introducing it into a prosumer-class 4-bay NAS, Synology is clearly continuing its long-standing trend of moving mature hardware platforms down into lower product tiers over time, as the cost of components becomes more accessible and manufacturing scales improve. This strategy enables Synology to offer higher-tier performance at mid-tier price points, effectively refreshing their product range while maintaining price consistency. For users who prioritize multi-tasking, virtualized workloads, or long-term scalability, the arrival of the V1500B in the DS925+ marks a significant shift in capability for this tier of NAS.

Want to Understand How Synology NAS Product Refreshes Work, as well as Why Synology Chooses Certain Hardware? Read my article below:

Synology DS925+ NAS HDD and SSD Compatibility?

Unfortunately, there is no mention of Synology’s position on third-party hard drive and SSD compatibility on the new DS925+ confirmed yet. Realistically, basing it on the predecessor and other Synology Plus Series devices, at the very least, we’re going to see a repeat of the priority towards Synology’s own series of hard drives and SSDs, with a handful of third-party drives from Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba added to the support list. This has now become the status quo with the majority of Synology Plus Series and above devices, and if this device rolls out with that, I’m not going to say that it’s perfect, but at the very least it does still leave a narrow window open for users to use third-party hard drives without the system spitting alerts or amber warnings at you during setup.

As the system is being listed on the Amazon pages without drives included, that at the very least removes the concern of many that Synology may have been proceeding down the pre-populated system route, or being more rigid on the lock-in of the drives you can use on the system. Nevertheless, there is still the matter of the M.2 NVMe slots and whether this system will continue with the policy of third-party drives only being supported for use as caching, whereas Synology’s own M.2 NVMe drives support both caching and storage pools. It will most certainly continue with this position.

Synology DS925+ NAS Price and Release Date?

As originally predicted last month, the pricing of the DS925+ will be largely the same as that of the DS923+, as Synology is always keen to maintain the pricing at each tier of its portfolio year on year—even if sometimes that can result in the hardware being a little more lean despite the cost of components going up. I kind of respect how long Synology has been able to maintain the same price for their prosumer 4-bay device, right? All the way back since 2015, it has always arrived at that similar £550 price. Keep in mind that the price listed on the early leaked Amazon.co.uk page includes VAT, whereas pricing listed in other countries like the U.S. will likely not include tax.

With regards to the intended release date and availability of the DS925+, the Amazon leak page appears to indicate the 7th of May. Now, whether this has always been the plan by the brand when refreshing all of its currently existing product line, or it is a launch date that has been changed rapidly in light of discussions surrounding tariffs and stock travelling around the world, is yet to be confirmed. Nevertheless, that seems like a fairly reasonable launch date in light of the information—originally appearing online with the product page added to Amazon on April 8th—and the slow but steady gear Synology goes through when making a product live across traditional online retailers. You can use the links below to monitor the availability and price of the Synology DS925+ on Amazon, as it will redirect to your own region via the link. Anything purchased via these links will result in a small commission to me (Robbie) and Eddie at NASCompares, which really helps us keep doing what we do.

Synology DS923+ vs DS925+ NAS – Buy Now or Wait?

When comparing the Synology DS923+ and DS925+, the differences are subtle but important depending on your priorities. Both NAS units share the same price point, run Synology’s DSM software with identical features, and include the same baseline 4GB DDR4 ECC memory (expandable up to 32GB). They also both lack integrated graphics, feature four SATA drive bays, and offer two M.2 NVMe Gen 3 slots for SSD caching. However, the DS925+ gains an edge in raw parallel processing power, featuring a quad-core, eight-thread AMD V1500B CPU, which translates to more virtual CPUs (vCPUs) for virtual machines and containerized applications. It also benefits from dual 2.5GbE ports, enabling up to 5GbE performance with Link Aggregation or SMB Multichannel, compared to the 2x 1GbE ports on the DS923+, which top out at 2GbE combined. Additionally, the DS925+ offers a faster expansion interface via USB-C (6Gbps) versus the older eSATA (5Gbps) on the DS923+.

That said, the DS923+ still holds certain advantages. Its AMD R1600 CPU features a higher clock speed, which may offer better single-threaded performance in lighter tasks or low-concurrency applications. Crucially, the DS923+ supports an optional 10GbE upgrade via its mini PCIe slot, a feature completely removed in the DS925+, which could be a deal-breaker for users planning to grow into a higher-speed networking environment. So, should users buy the DS923+ now or wait for the DS925+? If 10GbE upgradeability or faster per-core performance is important for your workload, the DS923+ is still a strong option. However, if you’re prioritizing multi-threaded performance, better default network speeds, and a more modern expansion standard, the DS925+ is the more forward-looking choice—particularly for virtualization and container-heavy environments. Ultimately, both devices serve the same class of user, but choosing the right one depends on whether your focus is scalability or efficiency out of the box.

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Visiting a NAS Production Facility in Shenzhen, China – The CWWK Factory and Office Tour

As part of a broader effort to explore the landscape of Chinese tech manufacturers, I recently visited the facilities of CWWK (ChangWang) in Shenzhen, China. CWWK is best known in enthusiast circles for producing NAS motherboards and compact computing solutions, often associated with budget-friendly, DIY network storage builds. My visit aimed to independently assess the scope and structure of their operations. What made this particular tour notable was the access I was granted: no NDAs were signed, there were no editorial restrictions placed on what I could film or ask, and I was permitted to record freely inside their production and R&D spaces.

This is uncommon, particularly in the tech hardware space, where many brands—especially in Asia—are typically guarded about internal processes, even when media are invited. The open format allowed for a more thorough and independent evaluation, without needing to speculate based on secondhand reports or promotional material.

It’s important to contextualize how the visit came about. CWWK did not arrange or sponsor my trip to China in any way. I was in the region for a series of self-funded visits to multiple tech companies, looking to gain a clearer understanding of how various hardware brands operate behind the scenes. The idea was to go beyond spec sheets and product listings and see what real infrastructure, if any, stood behind companies whose products are often marketed under many different brand names on platforms like AliExpress, Amazon, and Alibaba.

I reached out to CWWK on short notice—roughly 10 to 14 days prior—and they agreed to the visit. The fact that they were able to accommodate the tour with minimal lead time is worth noting. It doesn’t rule out the possibility of some presentation enhancements being made in preparation, but it does suggest that the company was not reliant on elaborate staging to present a working production environment.

The first location I visited was a mixed-use building that included administrative offices, logistics personnel, and access to part of the factory floor. Externally, the building bore no clear CWWK branding, which initially raised questions about ownership or exclusivity. Inside, however, the picture was more cohesive: staff wore uniforms bearing CWWK logos, and product runs on the factory floor featured motherboards that matched CWWK’s catalog.

While I wasn’t given lease documentation or corporate records, the volume of CWWK-branded activity suggested the company either occupies a substantial portion of the facility or has secured long-term, semi-exclusive use of the space. Several floors were accessible, and the presence of both production and support teams indicated that this was more than a satellite or temporary operation. Even so, it’s likely this building is part of a larger industrial complex shared with other tenants, which is common practice in Shenzhen’s manufacturing zones.

One of the key questions I brought to the visit concerned product design and IP ownership—specifically, whether CWWK truly engineers its own hardware or rebrands ODM (original design manufacturer) platforms that are available generically to other companies. In a formal meeting with several members of their team, facilitated by a translator, I was told that all motherboard designs are created in-house.

The company emphasized that while many of their designs do appear under other brand names, including through known resellers or system integrators, the core engineering and schematics originate from their internal teams. Some of these designs, they explained, are distributed under license or through contract manufacturing relationships.

While I wasn’t shown the full design pipeline or documentation for each SKU, I was given access to product schematics, test rigs, and development areas. Based on what I observed, it’s reasonable to conclude that CWWK controls the design process and that their platforms are later distributed—often without clear attribution—by partner companies.

Technical support and warranty policies are often ambiguous when it comes to imported tech from overseas sellers, so I took the opportunity to ask about their post-sales procedures. According to CWWK staff, customers who purchase through major e-commerce channels like AliExpress and Alibaba are serviced directly by the company’s internal support team. This contradicts the assumption that resellers handle all inquiries. They described a standard one-year warranty policy, during which defective products are repaired where feasible rather than replaced outright.

While this approach may not satisfy buyers expecting instant replacements, it aligns with broader industry trends aimed at reducing e-waste and extending hardware lifespans. I observed a dedicated support office where staff were responding to issues, many of which involved firmware or BIOS concerns. The responses to my questions were generally clear but did follow a templated structure, which made it difficult to determine how adaptable their support might be in complex cases.

Moving onto the factory floor, I was able to observe multiple stages of the production workflow. The environment combined automated processes—such as SMT (surface mount technology) component placement and soldering—with manual checkpoints, where staff would verify board integrity, inspect connector alignment, and move products between stations. The factory space showed signs of active use: floor scuffing, desk wear, and tooling marks suggested long-term operation rather than short-term setup.

Workers were equipped with anti-static wrist straps, and safety protocols appeared to be in place, though a few inconsistencies were observed. For instance, not all staff were wearing the full lab coats or coverings that I was required to wear as a visitor. While that’s not uncommon in similar facilities, it’s worth noting in the context of manufacturing discipline. Overall, the workflow followed a logical structure, and there were observable quality checks along the line, including one instance where a misaligned port was flagged and redirected for correction.

Direct interaction with factory personnel was limited, mainly due to language barriers and the guided nature of the tour. I attempted brief conversations, but most staff were focused on their tasks and understandably uninterested in lengthy exchanges with a foreign visitor.

I did not observe any signs of distress or visible overwork, but equally, I did not have enough time or context to draw firm conclusions about working conditions. The facility walls displayed motivational signage, some of which featured quite stern phrasing around responsibility and company reputation.

These types of messages—such as “Your mistakes are our mistakes”—may reflect common workplace culture in the region rather than specific managerial attitudes. In contrast, a separate building used for research and marketing featured more aspirational language. These environmental details may offer some insight into the tone and structure of the company, although they should be interpreted cautiously.

A portion of the facility was allocated to repairs and technical diagnostics. I observed several staff members actively responding to customer-reported issues and working on returned products. Desks were equipped with diagnostic tools and some BIOS interfaces were visible on screens.

In a nearby room, technicians were repairing or reworking boards—examples included reseating CPUs, correcting poorly soldered connectors, and inspecting DIMM slots.

Although the scale of this area was not massive (around six to eight desks), it indicated an operational RMA process. I did not assess how quickly repairs are processed or whether every return is examined manually, but the team appeared to be addressing real customer issues, not simply staging activity for the tour. Staff in this area were dressed more casually than the production line workers, likely due to the nature of their tasks involving pre-owned or defective components.

The second facility, located in the Beta Industrial Park, was clearly identified as a CWWK property. Unlike the first building, this one included prominent company branding, product showcases, and internal signage referencing CWWK’s development roadmap.

The upper floors were used by the R&D and marketing teams. In a dedicated product room, I was shown nearly every motherboard they’ve developed, including legacy models and upcoming releases. Several new boards were in early development, featuring high-density SATA fan-outs via SFF-8654 and NVMe expandability.

Designs ranged from micro-ITX to mATX, with plans to scale modularly using add-on cards for storage and connectivity. I also viewed design schematics and 3D renderings used to plan component layout and case compatibility. CWWK is working on 10GbE-capable models using newer Intel and AMD platforms, including boards with ECC memory support and USB4 integration. While I was not permitted to document everything in detail, the scope and clarity of the development process suggested an active, technically capable engineering team.

After spending a full day across both facilities, my overall impression of CWWK was that of a mid-sized but competent hardware developer with a growing international presence. While the first building’s exact ownership remains somewhat ambiguous, the second building was clearly operated and branded by CWWK, housing their product, development, and marketing teams. More significantly, based on my observations and the responses given, it is clear that CWWK designs and owns the intellectual property behind their motherboards.

There were also strong indications that they serve as an upstream supplier for other brands—likely including companies like Topton, MrRoute, and similar resellers often seen on Chinese e-commerce platforms. Whether these partners act as distributors, integrators, or white-label resellers wasn’t explicitly stated, but the relationship appears to exist.

CWWK is not a shell company or brand-only operation; it is a functioning developer and manufacturer of computing hardware with its own IP, infrastructure, and personnel. For buyers, this doesn’t automatically guarantee performance or support satisfaction, but it does lend some credibility and traceability to a product category often dominated by opaque supply chains and unbranded goods.

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New Synology NAS for First Half of 2025 Revealed – DS925+, DS1825XS+, DS625Slim, DS1525+ and More

After what seems like quite a while for many, we have finally got pretty large confirmation that Synology are refreshing a large number of their Desktop (and a couple of Rackmount systems) devices – as well as launching a few new storage media options. This new information arrives via ChipHell user ‘nineeast‘ in a recent forum post. I am still in the process of identifying the event that the photo below was taken from, but given the preponderance of people taking photos, it won’t be long before this spreads further. This is of course the potential that this is a hoax… but (as you will see later in the article) the chiphell post is not the only source. Nevertheless, it looks like Synology are getting set to refresh a huge number of solutions, launching their DS925+, DS425+, DS225+, DS1525+, DS1825+, DS725+, DS625slim, DS1825xs+ and RS2825RP+ between now and Summer 2025. So, let’s discuss what these refreshed devices bring and whether they deserve your data.

*Update* In order to better track each of the new Synology NAS revealed at this event, I have made update pages for each device below. Additionally, as mentioned in the video, I am canvassing user feedback on these new releases (ideally existing Synology NAS users and/or SIs – system integrators) for a follow up video soon. put your feedback in the comments below or in the Reddit thread HERE

• Synology DS925+ NAS News https://nascompares.com/news/synology-ds925-nas-news/
• Synology DS1525+ NAS Leak https://nascompares.com/news/synology-ds1525-nas-revealed/
• Synology DS425+ NAS Revealed https://nascompares.com/news/synology-ds425-nas-revealed/
• Synology DS1825+ NAS News https://nascompares.com/news/synology-ds1825-nas-news/
• Synology DS425+ NAS News https://nascompares.com/news/synology-ds425-nas-revealed/
• Synology DS1825xs+ NAS Revealed https://nascompares.com/news/synology-ds1825xs-nas-revealed/
• Synology DS225+ NAS News https://nascompares.com/news/synology-ds225-nas-revealed/
• Synolgoy DS625slim 6-Bay NAS Revealed https://nascompares.com/news/synolgoy-ds625slim-6-bay-nas-revealed/
• Synology DS725+ NAS Revealed https://nascompares.com/news/synology-ds725-nas-revealed/

Credit to nineeast on Chiphell forum

Which Synology Solutions were Revealed at the Synology Event?

The big deal here is that it is tremendously rare for Synology to reveal their roadmap of solutions, let alow share it with users in such a detailed fashion. Synology have always been tremendously restrained when it comes to revealing their product refreshes (and new product lines). That said, refreshes of products in their portfolio periodically is pretty normal, and most Synology solutions will see a refresh every 2.5-5years (depending on the product tier, with XS series devices generally having a longer refresh cycle), and many have been wondering about when a refresh to the x22/23 range of devices would arrive, and in what form it would take. The TLDR list of solutions shown were:

The biggest takeaway in these shared images seems to be that the bulk of the solutions in this 2025 year refresh are going to remain largely the same, but with two main changes across the board.

Credit to nineeast on Chiphell forum

Thise changes are 1GbE network interfaces will be upgraded to 2.5GbE interfaces universally, and expansion devices that would have previously used eSATA as a means of connectivity will now be USB-C (as well as a reshuffle of the CPUs in the product tiers/families around), but we will get onto that latter point in a moment. Further information and images have also been shared by user ‘ERROR204‘ on imnks, another storage *& network related forum, as well as bringing further information on the expansion devices. The DS1525+, DS925+ and DS725+ will serve as refreshes of the DS923+, DS723+ and DS1522+ NAS. It’s unclear whether they will be using that mini PCIe upgrade card like the existing series (the E10G20-T1-MINI) as the slide below indicates that they will not, but the DS925+ and DS1525+ will see the R1600 Dual Core / 4 Thread Ryzen processor in their predecessor replaced with the v1500B 4 Core / 8 Thread CPU (previously used in the 6/8/12 Bay desktop NAS devices. The DS725+ however will remain as the R1600, but will see the 1GbE NICs upgraded to 2.5GbE.

Credit to ERROR204 on imnks.com

Interestingly, the default memory on the DS725+ will increase to 4GB of ECC Memory (as opposed to the 2GB in the DS723+ predecessor). However the slide below also indicates that it will no longer support the mini PCIe 10GbE adapter. So it’s a mixed bag in the DS725+ refresh really. This slide also indicates that the USB-C connected expansion will seemingly remain at 6Gb/s transfer speeds – which is a little odd, given USB 3.2 Gen 1 is 5Gb/s and USB 3.2 Gen 2 is 10Gb/s – something to ponder.

Credit to ERROR204 on imnks.com

Next is the ‘media’ series of devices and also a return of the Synology SLIM series. The DS625slim arrives (refreshing the DS620slim from 2020) and the DS425+ and DS225+ arrive as refreshes for the comparatively (for Synology’s MO) new DS224+ and DS423+ NAS. These will be continuing to use the existing Intel J4125 Quad Core Celeron CPU from 2019/2020 (something I know will not please everyone), but will also see upgrades to 2.5GbE from the 1GbE on their predecessors. Additioanlly, I think we can assume the DS425+ will have the 2x M.2 NVMe slots of it’s predecessor.

Credit to ERROR204 on imnks.com

Now the DS925+ (a refresh of the DS923+) has the upgrade from the R1600 CPU to the V1500B CPU we mentioned earlier, alongside the new USB-C expansion support (the DX525) and 2.5GbE NICs, so I think we can assume the DS1525+ will be similarly reprofiled from the DS1522+, but I am unsure if it will have 2x USB-C ports instead of 2x eSATA (almost certainly, but not 100%). I think many user are going to have mixed feelings once again about the CPU choices present here in the bulk of these new refreshes.

Credit to ERROR204 on imnks.com

Now onto those two 8 Bay devices, the DS1825+ and DS1825xs+ (serving as refreshes of the DS1821+ and DS1823xs+ respectively). As covered in my video in 2024 about previously leaked information on the DS1825+, it seems that both of these devices will have the same CPU as their predecessor devices, but will see upgrades from their 1GbE ports towards 2.5GbE (with the DS1825xs+ maintaining it’s 10GbE copper connection). All other specifications (M.2 slots, expandability, memory, etc) will all seemingly remain the same – though I think we can once again assume that expansion ports will be USB-C in line with the DX525 box.

For many, it will be a little disappointing that we did not see a 6-Bay model arrive and in fact there has not actually been a 6-Bay Synology NAS since 2020 (when the DS1621+ and DS1621xs+ were launched), increasing fears that Synology are eliminating that tier of their portfolio. However, there is ZERO confirmation on this and the 6 Bay option in the Synology store is still present for the DS1621+ and DS620slim, though the DS1621xs+ has disappeared (likely replaced internally with the 8 bay XS option).

Finally, there is the storage media that was listed. Some drives we already knew about. For example, the SAT5221 Series of SATA SSDs already appeared on vietcorp (HERE), but the HAT3320 is seemingly a refresh/new line in the Synology Plus series of hard drives – and there have been rumours circling for a while that these would be Seagate Ironwolf drives, but currently unconfirmed.

Finally, there is the Synology SNV5420 series – a new M.2 NVMe media drive range, but it is currently unclear if this is a complete refresh of the SNV3400/SNV3410, or as the naming convention seems to indicate, a higher performance/class of M.2 NVMe SSDs. This is something that has been LONG DEMANDED as Synology still have a solid insistence on their systems/add-on cards with M.2 NVMe Support HAVE TO be their own media drives if you want to use the slots of Storage pools, yet the SNV3400 range and it’s variations are comparatively low speed and high priced vs the rest of the M.2 NVMe SSD market as a whole.

So, that’s everything we know so far. Let’s now discuss what we think together in the comments!

The New Synology 2025 Product Line Up – What I Like and What I Don’t!

I have mixed feelings about the entire Synology refreshed line up – on the one hand I DO think there is a meaningful refresh here on the DS925+ and DS1525+ NAS. No one was expecting Synology to completely change this product family, as they have already made it pretty clear that these two system profiles are designed now more for the SMB user, small business, container deployer and those with file processing needs – i.e not multimedia as the focus. So, them upgrading this from the R1000 CPU in the x23 series to a V1000 CPU (doubling the cores and threads) will be tremendously welcome – as will 2.5GbE out the box (though I would like more clarification on the E10G22-T1-MINI 10GbE upgrade card support – as it looks like this is now not supported and that would be a real shame). Also, as much as its a bummer to see the V1500B CPU that Synology have already had on their products in 2020 in these 4 and 5 Bay solutions, they ARE good follow up CPUs over the R1600 in profile, and still have a length support time with AMD backing them up. All that said, the DS725+ seems pretty hard done by here, in fact the DS425+, DS225+ and DS725+ all seem to essentially be the same NAS, but with the 1GbE NICs swapped out with 2.5GbE. I mean, if the price remains exactly the same as the DS423+, DS224+ and DS723+ (and no other hardware surprises arrive in the form of no NVMe slots, etc), then these are…technically…refreshes. But more like a DS224+II, than a whole new DS225+.

Regarding the Intel Celeron devices, I am a little puzzled more than anything else. 2.5GbE on these is good (even if we overlook the fact that 2.5GbE has been fairly standard on ALL NAS systems in place of 1GbE since 2020 from everyone else), but the J4125 CPU is a CPU that has long since retired by Intel (indeed, Intel Celeron naming itself is long gone in favour of the Alder Lake and Twin Lake N processors). So unlike the strong support afforded to the AMD processors I mentioned above, the J4125 seems a remarkably dated choice right now. Still, better some kind of graphical capable CPU in the line up than none at all. Still, odd choice. As there are a lot of holes in these specifications, it’s tough to make a full list of what is good and bad, plus we have to acknowledge that things CAN change during development. So, I’ll hold off for now with anything concrete on my own thoughts, but again, I would love to chat in the comments here or on YouTube for your own thoughts.

Things we still need confirmation on!

As I just mentioned, there are still a lot of gaps in these specs and till we have the full picture, we can’t judge anything! So, here are the questions I still have about these new refreshes that remain unanswered for now:

• HDD and SSD Compatibility, will it be largely the same as the existing 22/23/24 series devices (i.e largely Synology drives, but a few Seagate/WD/Toshiba drives), or will these new series be the first to arrive with strict Synology-only drive media and/or pre-population?
• How is the USB-C 6Gb/s? Is it an adapter, or a USB-C Port on the old lane internally?
• Where is the 6-Bay?
• Ambiguity at best, complete removal at worst, of the 10GbE upgradability of the 2/4/5 Bay V1500B option NAS’. Is this for real?
• Is the SNV5420 a new high performance M.2 NVMe?
• Why refresh all of these at the same time? Some solutions like the DS1823xs+ or DS224+ are very early in their expected run, so a refresh so soon seems unnecessary. So why now?

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‘Used Seagate EXOS HDDs Missold as ‘New – Other Drives Implicated

Now would be a very good time to check any hard drives you’ve purchased in the last 12 to 24 months! Recent reports from popular German news outlet Heise have raised increased reports of refurbished and modified SMART-reported drives being sold as brand new, leading to large concerns of widespread ex-cryptocurrency-burnt drives being sold through trusted business and domestic retailers. Although the scope of the issue seems to be largely focused on Seagate Exos data center-class drives, because of the wide-ranging drives that were used in Chia cryptocurrency mining several years ago, there is an increased likelihood that other large-capacity and high-durability drives should be considered, thanks to the relative ease of firmware modifications and larger quantities of HDDs being resold off the back of 5 year durabilities lines being crossed by the original coin miners!

UPDATED 20/02/25 (video HERE)

Reports are now arriving that Seagate Ironwolf and Ironwolf Pro modified/mis-sold HDDs are now also affected. The extent to this is still too early to confirm, but the latest reports from Heise indicate that 8TB and 16TB HDDs have been highlighted.

Further reports from ComputerBase via a community member fanatiXalpha provided further evidence and indications of this via the images from the original article here:

REAL HDD	FAKE HDD

In this video I discuss multiple ways to initially identify issues with a ‘new’ Seagate Ironwolf HDD that do not involve connecting the HDD to a system. Later in this article cover several more methods that require connecting the drive to a NAS or general client system.

Another Example of a Fake HDD from user Busse:

Original Article:

The Missold Hard Drive Issue – TLDR

• Check Your HDDs – Reports indicate used Seagate Exos hard drives are being sold as new, particularly 12TB-18TB models.

• Firmware Manipulation – SMART data shows zero usage, but deeper FARM tests reveal 15,000-50,000 hours of prior use.

• Widespread Issue – Over 200 reports from buyers in Germany, Japan, Australia, and other regions, spanning multiple retailers.

• Crypto Mining Connection – Many affected drives likely came from Chia cryptocurrency farms (2018-2022) and re-entered the market fraudulently.

• Tampering in Supply Chain – Drives may have been repackaged and resold by wholesalers and distributors, bypassing Seagate’s official channels.

• Retailers & Seagate Respond – Some retailers are issuing refunds/exchanges. Seagate denies involvement and is investigating the supply chain breach.

• Verify Your Drives – Use SMART, FARM, Seatools, and warranty checkers to confirm if your drive is genuine. Report suspicious drives to Seagate and your retailer.

What has been reported on the Seagate EXOS HDD Misselling

Earlier in the year, Heise reported that they had received dozens of reports from users who had purchased brand-new, enterprise-class Seagate Exos hard drives, only to find that when receiving the drives, they had scuffs and marks on them that suggested they were used—and used en masse. Further investigation of the hard drives using popular firmware tools initially showed that the drives’ SMART data was indicating little to no power-on usage. However, deeper investigation with deeper drive tools went on to reveal that the firmware had been manually adjusted to hide the tens of thousands of hours that these drives had already accrued in use.

Usage on drives has varied from between 15,000 hours and 50,000 hours, well over five years of deployment and well outside the warranty and workload rating on these drives in most cases. What is interesting though, is that retailers that have been impacted by this, and in fact a wide-ranging number of German retailers, have been highlighted as sources of these drives. However, reported issues span outside of Germany and include claims from purchases made in Japan, Australia, and other parts of Europe.

Fingers are initially being pointed at wholesalers, large-scale resellers, and distributors who supply the traditional retail and e-commerce websites that most users would be eligible to purchase from. Depending on the retailer, and several have already been highlighted in the now over 200 reports submitted to Heise, the returns and RMA process does differ from site to site, but this does appear to be a growing issue that most users will not even realize they have been hit by unless they take the time to investigate the usage data on their drives.

Primarily, Chia crypto farming has been highlighted as the origin of most of these drives, with huge quantities of large-capacity data center drives being purchased in 2018 to 2022, when this emerging and less GPU-centric form of cryptocurrency was being mined. Brands such as Seagate, WD, and Toshiba saw extraordinarily high sales numbers during this period for these drives, and equally, domestic users ended up being negatively impacted by supply shortages and price hikes. It seems that a lot of these drives that have either been abandoned from previously pursued cryptocurrency setups or just simply swapped out for ongoing farming have now made their way back into the supply chain under the guise of being regular, new, out-of-the-box drives!

The distribution channels, wholesalers, and affected e-commerce websites in order to ascertain how these drives have entered the supply chain and to what extent it has happened. They issued the following statement:

“We are taking this matter very seriously and are conducting a thorough investigation. As explained in the previous statement, Seagate did not sell or distribute these drives to retailers. We cannot provide details of the ongoing investigation, but we suspect that these drives are new products that Seagate sold to customers and were later resold by them on the used market. In this case, we believe that the drives were remarketed somewhere in the used market supply chain and resold as new. We recommend that retailers only purchase drives from certified Seagate distribution partners, as purchasing from certified Seagate distribution partners is the best way to ensure the authenticity of Seagate products for retailers and their customers.

Seagate has processes in place to investigate these types of cases, with teams working proactively with our vendors to take action where necessary. Our security team also regularly works with local authorities to take necessary action. Many investigations are initiated based on anonymous tips and reports from partners and customers. These measures are designed to protect Seagate partners and end customers in an increasingly global marketplace.

We encourage anyone who suspects they have received a used drive marketed as new to help with the investigation by reporting the incident to us directly at [email protected] . In addition, customers who have doubts about whether the products they purchased match the claims of the sellers can access our warranty checker tool . Suspicious drives and/or sellers can also be reported anonymously through our Ethics Hotline .

We are grateful for the trust our customers have placed in us and are determined to do everything possible to maintain that trust.” – Provided to Heise.de in response to the 200+ HDD Claims HERE 7/2/25

Which Hard Drives are affected/reported?

Currently, the bulk of aggregate reporting of this is going through the Heise website, and a lot of the submissions have been done via their anonymous reporting link, so exact model IDs are hard to track down right now. However, the bulk of the reported mis-sold drives appear to be Seagate Exos drives ranging from 12TB to 18TB. As mentioned earlier, however, the original reporting suggests that other drives have been highlighted by users. Realistically, it’s pretty unlikely that only Exos drives are going to be impacted as such. A wide-ranging procurement took place during the peak of Chia cryptocurrency farming, and pretty much any moderately durable, high-capacity hard drive was changing hands quickly at that time. This all does seemingly indicate right now that a lot of these drives are being offloaded with their firmware modified by one or a handful of bad actors, who likely are sitting on high quantities of the same hard drives. However, it would not surprise me whatsoever if over the coming months and years, we see spikes on affected drives outside of the Seagate Exos data center series.

How Can I Check If My Drives Were Mis-Sold as New?

Tools:

• Putty Download Tools HERE
• Seatools (PC/Linux) HERE
• Smartmontools HERE
• DriveDX for Mac HERE

There are multiple ways to check whether the hard drive inside your system, which you purchased as brand new, is actually new. However, the suitability of each tool will depend heavily on the system type and operating system your drive is running on. Seagate’s Seatools application allows you to check and validate multiple data points on your hard drives. However, it is only available as a Windows or Linux client, as well as a portable version. That means Mac users, or those less comfortable with command-line tools, may find it difficult to use—not to mention users who have multiple drives deployed in systems without a suitable GUI or command-line interface for validity checks. Below, I’ve broken down recommended tools and commands that you can use to verify your drives, their power-on hours, and other critical details.

How NAS users can Check and Verify the usage of the HDDs:

NAS users who suspect their drives may have been mis-sold as new can verify their SMART data and power-on hours using various tools. Most NAS operating systems, including Synology DSM, QNAP QTS, TrueNAS, and UnRAID, have built-in SMART monitoring tools within their storage manager or disk health sections. These tools provide essential SMART attributes, including Power-On Hours (POH), Reallocated Sectors, and Drive Temperature. However, in some cases, the SMART data may have been manipulated to show zero usage, making further verification necessary.

For deeper analysis, users can SSH into their NAS and install smartmontools, a command-line utility that provides detailed drive health reports. Running the command:

smartctl -a /dev/sdX

(where X is the drive identifier) will display all SMART attributes, including power-on hours. However, if the SMART data has been reset or manipulated, users can check the FARM (Field-Accessible Reliability Metrics) values for a more accurate picture of a drive’s actual usage history. To retrieve FARM values, NAS users can use:

smartctl -l farm /dev/sdX

This will reveal true power-on hours, drive usage patterns, and whether a drive has been extensively used before being reintroduced into the supply chain.

For those using QNAP or Synology NAS devices without direct access to smartmontools, Seagate’s Seatools (Windows/Linux) can be used by connecting the drives externally via a USB or SATA dock. Additionally, Seagate’s warranty checker tool allows users to verify if their drive was originally part of a multi-drive batch—a red flag that it may have been previously used in a server or data center environment.

How NAS Users Can Check SMART Data and Power-On Hours Over SSH (Including FARM Values for Verification & Integration with Smartmontools)

NAS users with SSH access can perform a deeper, more accurate verification of their hard drives’ SMART data and power-on hours to detect possible tampering. While many NAS systems, such as Synology DSM, QNAP QTS, TrueNAS, and UnRAID, provide built-in SMART monitoring via their web interface, these tools often rely on basic SMART queries, which may not reveal manipulated or reset power-on hours. By accessing the NAS via SSH, users can run Smartmontools directly, allowing them to extract FARM (Field-Accessible Reliability Metrics) values, which are not included in standard SMART logs.

To begin, users should SSH into their NAS and install Smartmontools if it is not already available. On Debian-based NAS systems (such as OpenMediaVault, TrueNAS SCALE, and some QNAP models running Debian Linux), install Smartmontools with:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install smartmontools

On Red Hat-based systems, use:

sudo yum install smartmontools

For NAS systems that do not allow package installations, users can still manually compile Smartmontools or install a Docker container that includes the tool.

Once Smartmontools is installed, running the command:

smartctl -a /dev/sdX

(replacing X with the correct drive identifier) will display SMART attributes, including Power-On Hours (POH). However, since bad actors can manipulate SMART data to show zero hours, users should perform an additional FARM query with:

smartctl -l farm /dev/sdX

Unlike SMART power-on hours, which can be reset, FARM values track long-term reliability metrics stored at a deeper firmware level, making them much harder to falsify. If there is a discrepancy between SMART-reported power-on hours and FARM-reported power-on hours, it strongly suggests that the drive has been used before but was manipulated to appear new.

Integrating Smartmontools into a NAS for Automated Checks

To automate drive health monitoring, NAS users can schedule periodic SMART and FARM scans using cron jobs or integrate them with the NAS system’s notification service.

1. Create a SMART Monitoring Script
   Users can create a simple script to check SMART and FARM values for all installed drives and log the results.

#!/bin/bash

LOGFILE=”/var/log/smart_check.log”

echo “SMART Check – $(date)” >> $LOGFILE

for DRIVE in /dev/sd[a-z]; do

    echo “Checking $DRIVE…” >> $LOGFILE

    smartctl -a $DRIVE >> $LOGFILE

    smartctl -l farm $DRIVE >> $LOGFILE

done

Save this script as smart_check.sh and make it executable:

chmod +x smart_check.sh

2. Schedule Automated Checks with Cron
Users can schedule the script to run daily or weekly using cron.
Open the cron editor:

How Desktop Windows users can Check and Verify the usage of the HDDs:

Desktop users can verify the SMART information and power-on hours of their hard drives using several tools, including Smartmontools 7.4+, CrystalDiskInfo, and Seagate’s Seatools. The easiest method is using CrystalDiskInfo, a free GUI-based tool for Windows that displays critical SMART attributes, including Power-On Hours (POH), Reallocated Sectors, and Drive Health Status. However, if a drive has been tampered with, its SMART data may have been reset, making further verification necessary.

For deeper inspection, users can install Smartmontools 7.4 or later, which provides advanced diagnostics, including FARM (Field-Accessible Reliability Metrics) values, which can reveal the drive’s true runtime history. To check SMART data, open a command prompt (or terminal in Linux/macOS) and run:

smartctl -a /dev/sdX

(replacing X with the correct drive letter) to view detailed SMART attributes. If the reported power-on hours seem too low or suspiciously reset, users can retrieve FARM values by running:

smartctl -l farm /dev/sdX

This command will reveal the actual power-on hours and potential prior usage, even if the SMART data was modified.

Alternatively, Seagate’s Seatools (available for Windows and Linux) can run extended drive diagnostics, check SMART status, and validate warranty details. Users can also enter their drive’s serial number into Seagate’s warranty checker tool to confirm if the drive was originally sold as part of a batch, which may indicate prior data center or enterprise use.

How Mac users can Check and Verify the usage of the HDDs:

Mac users can verify SMART data and power-on hours using Smartmontools 7.4+, Seagate’s Seatools for Linux (via a bootable drive), and third-party macOS utilities like DriveDx. Since macOS does not provide built-in SMART monitoring tools, users need to install Smartmontools via Homebrew by running:

brew install smartmontools

Once installed, users can check SMART attributes, including power-on hours (POH), by opening Terminal and running:

smartctl -a /dev/diskX

(replacing X with the correct disk identifier, which can be found using diskutil list). If the reported power-on hours appear suspiciously low, users can retrieve FARM (Field-Accessible Reliability Metrics) values by running:

smartctl -l farm /dev/diskX

This will reveal the true runtime history of the drive, even if the SMART data was manipulated to show zero or low usage.

For users who prefer a graphical interface, DriveDx is a third-party macOS tool that provides SMART data, health status, and power-on hours. However, DriveDx does not display FARM values, so Smartmontools remains the best option for deeper diagnostics.

Since Seagate’s Seatools is not available for macOS, users can create a bootable USB drive with a Linux live environment (such as Ubuntu), run Seatools from there, and check the drive’s SMART health and warranty status. Additionally, Mac users can enter their drive’s serial number into Seagate’s online warranty checker to confirm if the drive was originally part of a batch sale, which may indicate prior enterprise use.

It’s important to note that depending on your system, the directory paths and identifiers for your drives will vary significantly. So, even if 100 users all had the same hard drive model, if they deployed them in different NAS brands, desktop OSs, or even external enclosures, the directory paths and device names would be different. Keep that in mind.

Are only Seagate EXOS Hard Drives Affected?

The Exos series drives appear to be taking the brunt of the reporting here. Realistically, if this flood of dubiously classified new drives is true, then the Exos series is definitely not going to be the only drives impacted by this. Moreover, Seagate was not the only hard drive manufacturer that was pumping out large-capacity hard drives at 12TB, 14TB, 16TB, and 18TB during the peak of this particular crypto-mining industry change! I think it is only now, thanks to the correlation of reports by Heise, that any kind of through-line has been found that specifically targets one hard drive brand or model series. At best, it really comes down to the bad actors who are modifying the firmware on these drives having the financial incentive to do so on a larger scale on a different hard drive series that they happen to have their hands on. The modification process of the onboard firmware and SMART data on Seagate drives is largely identical to that of the process on WD or Toshiba hard drives, and therefore, it really once again comes down to a question of correlating reports of these fake new drives all being collected together.

How Has This Happened? How Did Used Hard Drives Enter the Supply Chain?

You might not know, but when you purchase a hard drive from your local retailer, that retailer almost certainly does not directly receive their stock of hard drives from the hard drive manufacturer in question. Ordinarily, hard drives, like a lot of electrical components, have a pre-established supply chain that retailers and e-commerce websites have to follow when selling their goods. With the exception of OEM companies who can buy from further up the chain and cloud/data centers like AWS and Google who can even buy right from the top, there are technically four layers in the supply chain of hard drives.

1. The first part of the supply chain is the hard drive manufacturer itself, in this case, Seagate Technology, which manufactures the hard drives at one of its production facilities in numerous locations around the world.
2. The next step in the supply chain is the Regional Distribution Centers (RDCs). These are the hubs where the hard drive brand sends its manufactured goods to be distributed to numerous smaller distribution centers across different countries.
3. The next step is wholesalers and resellers. Sometimes resellers can also act as direct-to-end-user sales points, but the lines can get blurry depending on the quantity or device in question. Nevertheless, the majority of electronics and consumables (including hard drives) cannot be sold directly from this point to an end user and instead need to be funnelled to the final step in the chain—retail shops.
4. Which brings us to the final step in the chain—traditional retail outlets on the high street and the e-commerce websites you choose to purchase from. These are the ones you’ll be most familiar with, and unfortunately, a lot of these are the same retailers that end users impacted by these mis-sold hard drives have as their initial point of contact.

The issue is that these used hard drives, which are being falsely marketed as new, have been introduced into the supply chain somewhere between steps two and four. Seagate has not had any involvement in their reintroduction into the supply chain. Somewhere along the line, these used drives were inserted into the system, and that is what Seagate is currently investigating. The retail outlet where an affected user purchased the drive has more than likely been completely unaware that they have been selling used drives as new. In most cases, these drives would have arrived in sealed retail packaging, and the retailers would have been reluctant to open up supposedly new products for testing, as doing so would immediately devalue the product in the eyes of their consumer and business buyer base.

Therefore, it is going to take time for Seagate to find the smoking gun and pinpoint which wholesaler, reseller, or distributor allowed these used drives to re-enter the supply chain.

Is Selling Used/Refurbished Hard Drives Illegal?

The sale of used, data center-grade, refurbished, or officially recertified drives is completely legal. Although Seagate, WD, and Toshiba would probably prefer to see the used hard drive market disappear, selling used drives is not illegal.

Many online retailers, including Amazon and Newegg, actively sell recertified and renewed drives—just as easily as brand-new ones.

The problem here is that these were used drives that were fraudulently mis-sold as brand new—and that IS illegal. In short, this is fraud, and the people selling these drives could be pursued for damages if customers lose data due to these drives failing far sooner than expected. That’s why any drive that isn’t new is required to be labeled as recertified, refurbished, or renewed. This ensures clarity for the buyer when making a purchasing decision.

That said, some sellers intentionally make it hard to determine if a drive is refurbished. For example, a Seagate IronWolf 12TB hard drive sold on Amazon’s “previously owned” listings might clearly state that it’s used—but it won’t mention that it was originally manufactured in 2017, meaning it could be 8 years old and already have tens of thousands of hours of prior use. It wouldn’t be so bad if the manufacturing date was displayed at the top of the listing, but instead, it’s buried deep in the product details. Bottom line: Selling used drives is not illegal. Selling used drives under the guise of being brand new is fraud—and highly illegal.

Is This Seagate’s Fault?

In all honesty, one could argue that Seagate is responsible for selling large volumes of high-capacity, data center-class hard drives to the original cryptocurrency farmers. However, this would be no different than selling the drives to any regular SMB, just a question of large-scale volume. Seagate is not responsible or in any way officially authorizing the reselling of its hard drives under the classification of new storage media. Additionally, the official partners that Seagate chooses to sell its goods through have almost certainly sold these drives with as much authentication between them and the distributors/resellers as possible. It could be argued that Seagate should personally step in at the supply chain level further down the chain to periodically check the health and condition of drives—much like a hard drive secret shopper—but that’s really about it. Right now, as long as Seagate commits to investigating how this occurred and acts upon what they find to ensure that mis-sold drives don’t enter the supply chain again, that’s about as far as I think this can go in terms of blaming Seagate. Realistically, we can’t lose sight of the fact that it is the fault of the bad actors who modified these hard drives in an effort to recover the original money spent on them before Chia farming collapsed. Wherever the entry point was that allowed these drives to re-enter the supply chain, that is what needs to be identified and stopped.

What Should I Do if I Believe my HDD was Missold?

If you believe that the hard drive in your NAS, server, or storage system was mis-sold to you as a brand-new drive when in fact it was heavily used, you need to contact your point of sale immediately. Tools such as Seagate’s own warranty checker allow you to enter the serial number of your hard drive into their database checker. Regardless of whether your hard drive is still under warranty, it will still highlight whether this is an official drive or not. Additionally, if you purchased a single drive that was sold as new, but upon entering the details into the warranty checker on Seagate’s website shows that this drive was part of a larger batch, this would imply that the drive you purchased was originally included in a larger server system previously—not unlike how a food or drink product is labeled as part of a multipack and not for individual resale. If a single drive that you purchased as brand-new is listed as originally part of a multi-drive system, it is highly recommended that you contact your retailer and/or raise this with Seagate directly for further investigation.

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WE LOVE COFFEE

‘Used Seagate EXOS HDDs Missold as ‘New – Other Drives Implicated

Now would be a very good time to check any hard drives you’ve purchased in the last 12 to 24 months! Recent reports from popular German news outlet Heise have raised increased reports of refurbished and modified SMART-reported drives being sold as brand new, leading to large concerns of widespread ex-cryptocurrency-burnt drives being sold through trusted business and domestic retailers. Although the scope of the issue seems to be largely focused on Seagate Exos data center-class drives, because of the wide-ranging drives that were used in Chia cryptocurrency mining several years ago, there is an increased likelihood that other large-capacity and high-durability drives should be considered, thanks to the relative ease of firmware modifications and larger quantities of HDDs being resold off the back of 5 year durabilities lines being crossed by the original coin miners!

UPDATED 20/02/25 (video HERE)

Reports are now arriving that Seagate Ironwolf and Ironwolf Pro modified/mis-sold HDDs are now also affected. The extent to this is still too early to confirm, but the latest reports from Heise indicate that 8TB and 16TB HDDs have been highlighted.

Further reports from ComputerBase via a community member fanatiXalpha provided further evidence and indications of this via the images from the original article here:

REAL HDD	FAKE HDD

In this video I discuss multiple ways to initially identify issues with a ‘new’ Seagate Ironwolf HDD that do not involve connecting the HDD to a system. Later in this article cover several more methods that require connecting the drive to a NAS or general client system.

Another Example of a Fake HDD from user Busse:

Original Article:

The Missold Hard Drive Issue – TLDR

• Check Your HDDs – Reports indicate used Seagate Exos hard drives are being sold as new, particularly 12TB-18TB models.

• Firmware Manipulation – SMART data shows zero usage, but deeper FARM tests reveal 15,000-50,000 hours of prior use.

• Widespread Issue – Over 200 reports from buyers in Germany, Japan, Australia, and other regions, spanning multiple retailers.

• Crypto Mining Connection – Many affected drives likely came from Chia cryptocurrency farms (2018-2022) and re-entered the market fraudulently.

• Tampering in Supply Chain – Drives may have been repackaged and resold by wholesalers and distributors, bypassing Seagate’s official channels.

• Retailers & Seagate Respond – Some retailers are issuing refunds/exchanges. Seagate denies involvement and is investigating the supply chain breach.

• Verify Your Drives – Use SMART, FARM, Seatools, and warranty checkers to confirm if your drive is genuine. Report suspicious drives to Seagate and your retailer.

What has been reported on the Seagate EXOS HDD Misselling

Earlier in the year, Heise reported that they had received dozens of reports from users who had purchased brand-new, enterprise-class Seagate Exos hard drives, only to find that when receiving the drives, they had scuffs and marks on them that suggested they were used—and used en masse. Further investigation of the hard drives using popular firmware tools initially showed that the drives’ SMART data was indicating little to no power-on usage. However, deeper investigation with deeper drive tools went on to reveal that the firmware had been manually adjusted to hide the tens of thousands of hours that these drives had already accrued in use.

Usage on drives has varied from between 15,000 hours and 50,000 hours, well over five years of deployment and well outside the warranty and workload rating on these drives in most cases. What is interesting though, is that retailers that have been impacted by this, and in fact a wide-ranging number of German retailers, have been highlighted as sources of these drives. However, reported issues span outside of Germany and include claims from purchases made in Japan, Australia, and other parts of Europe.

Fingers are initially being pointed at wholesalers, large-scale resellers, and distributors who supply the traditional retail and e-commerce websites that most users would be eligible to purchase from. Depending on the retailer, and several have already been highlighted in the now over 200 reports submitted to Heise, the returns and RMA process does differ from site to site, but this does appear to be a growing issue that most users will not even realize they have been hit by unless they take the time to investigate the usage data on their drives.

Primarily, Chia crypto farming has been highlighted as the origin of most of these drives, with huge quantities of large-capacity data center drives being purchased in 2018 to 2022, when this emerging and less GPU-centric form of cryptocurrency was being mined. Brands such as Seagate, WD, and Toshiba saw extraordinarily high sales numbers during this period for these drives, and equally, domestic users ended up being negatively impacted by supply shortages and price hikes. It seems that a lot of these drives that have either been abandoned from previously pursued cryptocurrency setups or just simply swapped out for ongoing farming have now made their way back into the supply chain under the guise of being regular, new, out-of-the-box drives!

The distribution channels, wholesalers, and affected e-commerce websites in order to ascertain how these drives have entered the supply chain and to what extent it has happened. They issued the following statement:

“We are taking this matter very seriously and are conducting a thorough investigation. As explained in the previous statement, Seagate did not sell or distribute these drives to retailers. We cannot provide details of the ongoing investigation, but we suspect that these drives are new products that Seagate sold to customers and were later resold by them on the used market. In this case, we believe that the drives were remarketed somewhere in the used market supply chain and resold as new. We recommend that retailers only purchase drives from certified Seagate distribution partners, as purchasing from certified Seagate distribution partners is the best way to ensure the authenticity of Seagate products for retailers and their customers.

Seagate has processes in place to investigate these types of cases, with teams working proactively with our vendors to take action where necessary. Our security team also regularly works with local authorities to take necessary action. Many investigations are initiated based on anonymous tips and reports from partners and customers. These measures are designed to protect Seagate partners and end customers in an increasingly global marketplace.

We encourage anyone who suspects they have received a used drive marketed as new to help with the investigation by reporting the incident to us directly at [email protected] . In addition, customers who have doubts about whether the products they purchased match the claims of the sellers can access our warranty checker tool . Suspicious drives and/or sellers can also be reported anonymously through our Ethics Hotline .

We are grateful for the trust our customers have placed in us and are determined to do everything possible to maintain that trust.” – Provided to Heise.de in response to the 200+ HDD Claims HERE 7/2/25

Which Hard Drives are affected/reported?

Currently, the bulk of aggregate reporting of this is going through the Heise website, and a lot of the submissions have been done via their anonymous reporting link, so exact model IDs are hard to track down right now. However, the bulk of the reported mis-sold drives appear to be Seagate Exos drives ranging from 12TB to 18TB. As mentioned earlier, however, the original reporting suggests that other drives have been highlighted by users. Realistically, it’s pretty unlikely that only Exos drives are going to be impacted as such. A wide-ranging procurement took place during the peak of Chia cryptocurrency farming, and pretty much any moderately durable, high-capacity hard drive was changing hands quickly at that time. This all does seemingly indicate right now that a lot of these drives are being offloaded with their firmware modified by one or a handful of bad actors, who likely are sitting on high quantities of the same hard drives. However, it would not surprise me whatsoever if over the coming months and years, we see spikes on affected drives outside of the Seagate Exos data center series.

How Can I Check If My Drives Were Mis-Sold as New?

Tools:

• Putty Download Tools HERE
• Seatools (PC/Linux) HERE
• Smartmontools HERE
• DriveDX for Mac HERE

There are multiple ways to check whether the hard drive inside your system, which you purchased as brand new, is actually new. However, the suitability of each tool will depend heavily on the system type and operating system your drive is running on. Seagate’s Seatools application allows you to check and validate multiple data points on your hard drives. However, it is only available as a Windows or Linux client, as well as a portable version. That means Mac users, or those less comfortable with command-line tools, may find it difficult to use—not to mention users who have multiple drives deployed in systems without a suitable GUI or command-line interface for validity checks. Below, I’ve broken down recommended tools and commands that you can use to verify your drives, their power-on hours, and other critical details.

How NAS users can Check and Verify the usage of the HDDs:

NAS users who suspect their drives may have been mis-sold as new can verify their SMART data and power-on hours using various tools. Most NAS operating systems, including Synology DSM, QNAP QTS, TrueNAS, and UnRAID, have built-in SMART monitoring tools within their storage manager or disk health sections. These tools provide essential SMART attributes, including Power-On Hours (POH), Reallocated Sectors, and Drive Temperature. However, in some cases, the SMART data may have been manipulated to show zero usage, making further verification necessary.

For deeper analysis, users can SSH into their NAS and install smartmontools, a command-line utility that provides detailed drive health reports. Running the command:

smartctl -a /dev/sdX

(where X is the drive identifier) will display all SMART attributes, including power-on hours. However, if the SMART data has been reset or manipulated, users can check the FARM (Field-Accessible Reliability Metrics) values for a more accurate picture of a drive’s actual usage history. To retrieve FARM values, NAS users can use:

smartctl -l farm /dev/sdX

This will reveal true power-on hours, drive usage patterns, and whether a drive has been extensively used before being reintroduced into the supply chain.

For those using QNAP or Synology NAS devices without direct access to smartmontools, Seagate’s Seatools (Windows/Linux) can be used by connecting the drives externally via a USB or SATA dock. Additionally, Seagate’s warranty checker tool allows users to verify if their drive was originally part of a multi-drive batch—a red flag that it may have been previously used in a server or data center environment.

How NAS Users Can Check SMART Data and Power-On Hours Over SSH (Including FARM Values for Verification & Integration with Smartmontools)

NAS users with SSH access can perform a deeper, more accurate verification of their hard drives’ SMART data and power-on hours to detect possible tampering. While many NAS systems, such as Synology DSM, QNAP QTS, TrueNAS, and UnRAID, provide built-in SMART monitoring via their web interface, these tools often rely on basic SMART queries, which may not reveal manipulated or reset power-on hours. By accessing the NAS via SSH, users can run Smartmontools directly, allowing them to extract FARM (Field-Accessible Reliability Metrics) values, which are not included in standard SMART logs.

To begin, users should SSH into their NAS and install Smartmontools if it is not already available. On Debian-based NAS systems (such as OpenMediaVault, TrueNAS SCALE, and some QNAP models running Debian Linux), install Smartmontools with:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install smartmontools

On Red Hat-based systems, use:

sudo yum install smartmontools

For NAS systems that do not allow package installations, users can still manually compile Smartmontools or install a Docker container that includes the tool.

Once Smartmontools is installed, running the command:

smartctl -a /dev/sdX

(replacing X with the correct drive identifier) will display SMART attributes, including Power-On Hours (POH). However, since bad actors can manipulate SMART data to show zero hours, users should perform an additional FARM query with:

smartctl -l farm /dev/sdX

Unlike SMART power-on hours, which can be reset, FARM values track long-term reliability metrics stored at a deeper firmware level, making them much harder to falsify. If there is a discrepancy between SMART-reported power-on hours and FARM-reported power-on hours, it strongly suggests that the drive has been used before but was manipulated to appear new.

Integrating Smartmontools into a NAS for Automated Checks

To automate drive health monitoring, NAS users can schedule periodic SMART and FARM scans using cron jobs or integrate them with the NAS system’s notification service.

1. Create a SMART Monitoring Script
   Users can create a simple script to check SMART and FARM values for all installed drives and log the results.

#!/bin/bash

LOGFILE=”/var/log/smart_check.log”

echo “SMART Check – $(date)” >> $LOGFILE

for DRIVE in /dev/sd[a-z]; do

    echo “Checking $DRIVE…” >> $LOGFILE

    smartctl -a $DRIVE >> $LOGFILE

    smartctl -l farm $DRIVE >> $LOGFILE

done

Save this script as smart_check.sh and make it executable:

chmod +x smart_check.sh

2. Schedule Automated Checks with Cron
Users can schedule the script to run daily or weekly using cron.
Open the cron editor:

How Desktop Windows users can Check and Verify the usage of the HDDs:

Desktop users can verify the SMART information and power-on hours of their hard drives using several tools, including Smartmontools 7.4+, CrystalDiskInfo, and Seagate’s Seatools. The easiest method is using CrystalDiskInfo, a free GUI-based tool for Windows that displays critical SMART attributes, including Power-On Hours (POH), Reallocated Sectors, and Drive Health Status. However, if a drive has been tampered with, its SMART data may have been reset, making further verification necessary.

For deeper inspection, users can install Smartmontools 7.4 or later, which provides advanced diagnostics, including FARM (Field-Accessible Reliability Metrics) values, which can reveal the drive’s true runtime history. To check SMART data, open a command prompt (or terminal in Linux/macOS) and run:

smartctl -a /dev/sdX

(replacing X with the correct drive letter) to view detailed SMART attributes. If the reported power-on hours seem too low or suspiciously reset, users can retrieve FARM values by running:

smartctl -l farm /dev/sdX

This command will reveal the actual power-on hours and potential prior usage, even if the SMART data was modified.

Alternatively, Seagate’s Seatools (available for Windows and Linux) can run extended drive diagnostics, check SMART status, and validate warranty details. Users can also enter their drive’s serial number into Seagate’s warranty checker tool to confirm if the drive was originally sold as part of a batch, which may indicate prior data center or enterprise use.

How Mac users can Check and Verify the usage of the HDDs:

Mac users can verify SMART data and power-on hours using Smartmontools 7.4+, Seagate’s Seatools for Linux (via a bootable drive), and third-party macOS utilities like DriveDx. Since macOS does not provide built-in SMART monitoring tools, users need to install Smartmontools via Homebrew by running:

brew install smartmontools

Once installed, users can check SMART attributes, including power-on hours (POH), by opening Terminal and running:

smartctl -a /dev/diskX

(replacing X with the correct disk identifier, which can be found using diskutil list). If the reported power-on hours appear suspiciously low, users can retrieve FARM (Field-Accessible Reliability Metrics) values by running:

smartctl -l farm /dev/diskX

This will reveal the true runtime history of the drive, even if the SMART data was manipulated to show zero or low usage.

For users who prefer a graphical interface, DriveDx is a third-party macOS tool that provides SMART data, health status, and power-on hours. However, DriveDx does not display FARM values, so Smartmontools remains the best option for deeper diagnostics.

Since Seagate’s Seatools is not available for macOS, users can create a bootable USB drive with a Linux live environment (such as Ubuntu), run Seatools from there, and check the drive’s SMART health and warranty status. Additionally, Mac users can enter their drive’s serial number into Seagate’s online warranty checker to confirm if the drive was originally part of a batch sale, which may indicate prior enterprise use.

It’s important to note that depending on your system, the directory paths and identifiers for your drives will vary significantly. So, even if 100 users all had the same hard drive model, if they deployed them in different NAS brands, desktop OSs, or even external enclosures, the directory paths and device names would be different. Keep that in mind.

Are only Seagate EXOS Hard Drives Affected?

The Exos series drives appear to be taking the brunt of the reporting here. Realistically, if this flood of dubiously classified new drives is true, then the Exos series is definitely not going to be the only drives impacted by this. Moreover, Seagate was not the only hard drive manufacturer that was pumping out large-capacity hard drives at 12TB, 14TB, 16TB, and 18TB during the peak of this particular crypto-mining industry change! I think it is only now, thanks to the correlation of reports by Heise, that any kind of through-line has been found that specifically targets one hard drive brand or model series. At best, it really comes down to the bad actors who are modifying the firmware on these drives having the financial incentive to do so on a larger scale on a different hard drive series that they happen to have their hands on. The modification process of the onboard firmware and SMART data on Seagate drives is largely identical to that of the process on WD or Toshiba hard drives, and therefore, it really once again comes down to a question of correlating reports of these fake new drives all being collected together.

How Has This Happened? How Did Used Hard Drives Enter the Supply Chain?

You might not know, but when you purchase a hard drive from your local retailer, that retailer almost certainly does not directly receive their stock of hard drives from the hard drive manufacturer in question. Ordinarily, hard drives, like a lot of electrical components, have a pre-established supply chain that retailers and e-commerce websites have to follow when selling their goods. With the exception of OEM companies who can buy from further up the chain and cloud/data centers like AWS and Google who can even buy right from the top, there are technically four layers in the supply chain of hard drives.

1. The first part of the supply chain is the hard drive manufacturer itself, in this case, Seagate Technology, which manufactures the hard drives at one of its production facilities in numerous locations around the world.
2. The next step in the supply chain is the Regional Distribution Centers (RDCs). These are the hubs where the hard drive brand sends its manufactured goods to be distributed to numerous smaller distribution centers across different countries.
3. The next step is wholesalers and resellers. Sometimes resellers can also act as direct-to-end-user sales points, but the lines can get blurry depending on the quantity or device in question. Nevertheless, the majority of electronics and consumables (including hard drives) cannot be sold directly from this point to an end user and instead need to be funnelled to the final step in the chain—retail shops.
4. Which brings us to the final step in the chain—traditional retail outlets on the high street and the e-commerce websites you choose to purchase from. These are the ones you’ll be most familiar with, and unfortunately, a lot of these are the same retailers that end users impacted by these mis-sold hard drives have as their initial point of contact.

The issue is that these used hard drives, which are being falsely marketed as new, have been introduced into the supply chain somewhere between steps two and four. Seagate has not had any involvement in their reintroduction into the supply chain. Somewhere along the line, these used drives were inserted into the system, and that is what Seagate is currently investigating. The retail outlet where an affected user purchased the drive has more than likely been completely unaware that they have been selling used drives as new. In most cases, these drives would have arrived in sealed retail packaging, and the retailers would have been reluctant to open up supposedly new products for testing, as doing so would immediately devalue the product in the eyes of their consumer and business buyer base.

Therefore, it is going to take time for Seagate to find the smoking gun and pinpoint which wholesaler, reseller, or distributor allowed these used drives to re-enter the supply chain.

Is Selling Used/Refurbished Hard Drives Illegal?

The sale of used, data center-grade, refurbished, or officially recertified drives is completely legal. Although Seagate, WD, and Toshiba would probably prefer to see the used hard drive market disappear, selling used drives is not illegal.

Many online retailers, including Amazon and Newegg, actively sell recertified and renewed drives—just as easily as brand-new ones.

The problem here is that these were used drives that were fraudulently mis-sold as brand new—and that IS illegal. In short, this is fraud, and the people selling these drives could be pursued for damages if customers lose data due to these drives failing far sooner than expected. That’s why any drive that isn’t new is required to be labeled as recertified, refurbished, or renewed. This ensures clarity for the buyer when making a purchasing decision.

That said, some sellers intentionally make it hard to determine if a drive is refurbished. For example, a Seagate IronWolf 12TB hard drive sold on Amazon’s “previously owned” listings might clearly state that it’s used—but it won’t mention that it was originally manufactured in 2017, meaning it could be 8 years old and already have tens of thousands of hours of prior use. It wouldn’t be so bad if the manufacturing date was displayed at the top of the listing, but instead, it’s buried deep in the product details. Bottom line: Selling used drives is not illegal. Selling used drives under the guise of being brand new is fraud—and highly illegal.

Is This Seagate’s Fault?

In all honesty, one could argue that Seagate is responsible for selling large volumes of high-capacity, data center-class hard drives to the original cryptocurrency farmers. However, this would be no different than selling the drives to any regular SMB, just a question of large-scale volume. Seagate is not responsible or in any way officially authorizing the reselling of its hard drives under the classification of new storage media. Additionally, the official partners that Seagate chooses to sell its goods through have almost certainly sold these drives with as much authentication between them and the distributors/resellers as possible. It could be argued that Seagate should personally step in at the supply chain level further down the chain to periodically check the health and condition of drives—much like a hard drive secret shopper—but that’s really about it. Right now, as long as Seagate commits to investigating how this occurred and acts upon what they find to ensure that mis-sold drives don’t enter the supply chain again, that’s about as far as I think this can go in terms of blaming Seagate. Realistically, we can’t lose sight of the fact that it is the fault of the bad actors who modified these hard drives in an effort to recover the original money spent on them before Chia farming collapsed. Wherever the entry point was that allowed these drives to re-enter the supply chain, that is what needs to be identified and stopped.

What Should I Do if I Believe my HDD was Missold?

If you believe that the hard drive in your NAS, server, or storage system was mis-sold to you as a brand-new drive when in fact it was heavily used, you need to contact your point of sale immediately. Tools such as Seagate’s own warranty checker allow you to enter the serial number of your hard drive into their database checker. Regardless of whether your hard drive is still under warranty, it will still highlight whether this is an official drive or not. Additionally, if you purchased a single drive that was sold as new, but upon entering the details into the warranty checker on Seagate’s website shows that this drive was part of a larger batch, this would imply that the drive you purchased was originally included in a larger server system previously—not unlike how a food or drink product is labeled as part of a multipack and not for individual resale. If a single drive that you purchased as brand-new is listed as originally part of a multi-drive system, it is highly recommended that you contact your retailer and/or raise this with Seagate directly for further investigation.

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