Synology DS925+: Four-bay NAS with DSM and dual 2.5GbE
DSM is the reason to pick the DS925+. Photos, Drive and snapshots come with it, backed by years of community guides. On the hardware side, this four-bay NAS gets dual 2.5GbE but gives ground elsewhere. The Ryzen V1500B has no graphics, so Plex and Jellyfin transcode on the CPU or not at all, and the PCIe slot from the DS923+ is gone. Third-party hard drives work again since DSM 7.3; M.2 SSDs still have to come from Synology.
Compare with similar hardware
See how Synology DS925+ stacks up against other NAS picks.
| Spec | Synology DS925+ | AOOSTAR WTR MAX | AOOSTAR WTR Pro | Beelink ME mini | QNAP TS-464 | TerraMaster F4-425 Pro | UGREEN DXP4800 Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $770 (opens in a new tab) | $699 (opens in a new tab) | $359 (opens in a new tab) | $299 (opens in a new tab) | $599 (opens in a new tab) | $595 (opens in a new tab) | $800 (opens in a new tab) |
| Running cost | $18/yr at $0.17/kWh | $27/yr at $0.17/kWh | $13/yr at $0.17/kWh | $10/yr at $0.17/kWh | $33/yr at $0.17/kWh | $36/yr at $0.17/kWh | $39/yr at $0.17/kWh |
| Power Draw | ~12W HDD hibernation, ~38W access (Synology figures) | ~18W idle with no drives; ~52W with six drives idle (measured) | ~9W idle, ~22W with four drives (measured) | ~7W idle, ~17W with six SSDs (measured) | ~22W disk standby, ~40W typical (QNAP figures) | ~24W idle (est.), peaks above 65W with drives | ~26W idle |
| Warranty | 3 years | 1 year | 1 year | 3 years | 3 years | 2 years | 2 years |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen V1500B (4C/8T, 2.2GHz) | AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS (8C/16T, up to 5.1GHz) | AMD Ryzen 7 5825U (8C/16T, up to 4.5GHz) | Intel N95 (4C/4T, up to 3.4GHz) | Intel Celeron N5095 (4C/4T, up to 2.9GHz) | Intel Core i3-N305 (8C/8T, up to 3.8GHz) | Intel Core i3-1315U (6C/8T, up to 4.5GHz) |
| GPU | None (no integrated graphics) | Radeon 780M (12 CU, 2700MHz) | Radeon Vega 8 (2000MHz, integrated) | Intel UHD Graphics (16 EU) | Intel UHD Graphics (integrated) | Intel UHD Graphics (integrated) | 13th Gen Intel UHD Graphics (integrated) |
| RAM | 4GB DDR4 ECC SODIMM, up to 32GB | Barebone; 2 x DDR5-5600 SODIMM (ECC), up to 128GB | Barebone; 2 x DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM slots, up to 64GB | 12GB LPDDR5 4800 (soldered) | 8GB DDR4 SODIMM; 2 slots, up to 16GB | 8GB DDR5 SODIMM; 1 slot, up to 32GB | 8GB DDR5 (exp. 96GB) |
| Transcoding | No - no integrated graphics | Yes - Radeon 780M (AV1, HEVC) | Yes - Radeon Vega 8 | Yes - Intel UHD Graphics (Quick Sync) | Yes - Intel UHD Graphics (Quick Sync) | Yes - Intel UHD Graphics (Quick Sync) | Yes – Intel Quick Sync |
| Form factor | 4-bay desktop NAS | 6-bay desktop NAS | 4-bay desktop NAS | 6-bay all-flash cube | 4-bay desktop NAS | 4-bay desktop NAS | 4-bay desktop NAS |
| NVMe slots | 2 x M.2 2280 (cache or storage pools) | 5 x M.2 2280 (3 x PCIe 4.0 x2, 2 x x1) | 2 x M.2 2280 (PCIe 3.0 x4) | 6 x M.2 2280 (PCIe 3.0 x1) | 2 x M.2 2280 (PCIe 3.0 x1) | 3 x M.2 2280 (PCIe 3.0 x1) | 2 x M.2 NVMe (PCIe 4.0) |
| SATA ports | 4 x 3.5/2.5in hot-swap bays | 6 x 3.5/2.5in bays, up to 24TB each | 4 x 3.5/2.5in bays, up to 22TB each | None - all-flash | 4 x 3.5/2.5in hot-swap bays | 4 x 3.5/2.5in hot-swap bays | 4 x SATA bays |
| LAN ports | 2 x 2.5GbE | 2 x 10GbE SFP+ (Intel X710) + 2 x 2.5GbE | 2 x 2.5GbE (Intel i226-V) | 2 x 2.5GbE (Intel i226-V) | 2 x 2.5GbE | 2 x 5GbE | 1 x 10GbE + 1 x 2.5GbE |
| USB-A ports | 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) | 3 x USB 3.2 (10Gbps) | 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0 | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps), 1 x USB 2.0 | 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps), 2 x USB 2.0 | 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) | 1 x USB-A (10Gbps) front, 1 x USB-A (5Gbps) rear, 2 x USB 2.0 rear |
| USB-C ports | 1 x USB-C (DX525 expansion) | 1 x USB4, 1 x USB-C | 1 x USB-C (display, 100W power delivery) | 1 x USB-C (10Gbps, data) | – | 1 x USB-C (10Gbps) | 1 x USB-C (10Gbps) front |
| SD card slot | – | – | microSD | – | – | – | SD 3.0 |
| Video output | – | HDMI 2.1 + DisplayPort 1.4 + USB-C, up to 3 displays | HDMI 2.1 + DisplayPort 1.4 (144Hz) + USB-C, up to 3 displays | 1 x HDMI (4K 60Hz) | 1 x HDMI (4K 60Hz) | 1 x HDMI | HDMI 4K |
| Expansion slot | – | None; OCuLink (PCIe 4.0 x4) for an eGPU or external drives | – | – | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x2 (half-height) | – | – |
| Wi-Fi | – | – | – | WiFi 6 | – | – | – |
| Bluetooth | – | – | – | Bluetooth 5.2 | – | – | – |
| Noise | ~21 dB(A) idle with drives (Synology) | 35-38 dB auto, 43-44 dB at full fan (measured) | 37-38 dB idle, 42 dB under load (measured) | ~31-34 dB(A) idle, up to 40 under load (measured) | ~21 dB(A) at 1m (measured); audible under load | ~21 dB(A) standby with drives (TerraMaster); fan ramps under load | Quiet at idle, audible under load |
| Comes with an OS | Yes – vendor OS | Yes – vendor OS | Yes – vendor OS | Yes – vendor OS | Yes – vendor OS | Yes – vendor OS | Yes – vendor OS |
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