As someone who has never owned a NAS before, let alone any Synology product, I was jumping into this blind. I have used things like the Raspberry Pi and also publicly self-host some services like Immich, Pi-Hole and Paperless-NGX on an unused M1 Mac mini. But I had no idea that a NAS box these days could have these many features. I expected something like a Raspberry Pi software or a random Linux distro with storage attached, but I was genuinely surprised at the ease of use.
The Software
Synology calls its operating system DiskStation Manager or DSM. It is Linux-based and built for access through a web browser, as there are no display ports on NAS boxes. It is intuitive and user-friendly to a newbie like me.
Powering on the NAS for the first time, and on navigating to finds.synology.com, it does a local network search for the NAS and shows options to install and configure DSM. It walks you through all the steps of installing DSM, configuring the storage and a lot of quality of life features, like QuickConnect and Two-Factor Authentication. The steps were intuitive and have ample explanation on every step. It even helps you set up the RAID/storage type along with how much storage you will have with the configuration you have.
Apart from having a way to back up files, you can do a lot of things with the software it runs. Some of the more notable things that I am using it for are:
Synology Photos - It does what the name suggests. It enables you to store your photos in a very Google Photos-inspired layout. You can store your photos in the Photos folder in the home directory of the NAS (created as soon as you install Synology Photos). The software even organises your photos by date, faces, or location. The Synology Photos app is also present on all platforms you can think of, so you can access the photos from anywhere (remotely using QuickConnect). Moreover, since the photos are stored on the NAS itself, you get all the benefits of a built-in backup.
Container Manager - This is the analogue of a Docker container on any other platform. You can run Docker scripts as a container inside this, and it provides all the benefits of a reusable container architecture. I used this to host small Docker containers. These containers run like they are running on any other operating system. If you intend on running a lot of containers or some memory-hungry containers, keep an eye on the RAM usage, as the 4GB that the NAS box comes with might not be sufficient (but you can always expand it if needed). I am generally running low effort containers on the NAS, whereas, I run the more intensive containers on my M1 Mac Mini.
Borg Backup - I use it to automatically back up my main hosted Docker services. I have publicly hosted instances of Immich, and Paperless-NGX using Docker containers. I periodically make a backup of their data folder using Borg and store it in a Borg repo. The advantage of storing the backups in a Borg repo is that it is a deduplicating archival program. So no matter how many backups you make, it will not take any extra space than the first backup, provided nothing has changed. If there is a change, only that changed chunk is backed up, just like git. Also, you can easily encrypt and/or compress while backing up. Restoring a backup is also as easy as running a single Borg command.
Syncthing - This allows folder cloning in an encrypted and fast way between any devices that you own. It is a separate program that needs to be installed on every device on which you want the clone functionality. For data that you need on every device that you have, such as a presentation that you want access to on your local desktop as well as your laptop, this can be useful. It eliminates the steps of going to the NAS directory and searching for the file that you need, copying over the latest version, and working on that. It can also optionally maintain a versioning system for any files stored inside the folder managed by it.
Tailscale - It is a software to connect multiple devices (over the Internet) without the old, clunky VPN software. Internally, it works on WireGuard, with a little bit of their own software making the connections between devices seamless. This connection is completely end-to-end encrypted, and it enables you to access your home-lab devices like the Synology NAS remotely from anywhere as long as you have the Tailscale software running. You can manage all of your devices from Tailscale’s dashboard. It even allows you to connect to your devices with something called MagicDNS, where you can just type the device text identifier instead of the IP address, for example, ‘homenas’ instead of ‘192.168.x.x’. Essentially, it provides a DNS for the home network. I use the domain provided by it to regularly access the UI remotely.
The Hardware
Coming to a quick rundown of the hardware. The Synology DiskStation DS925+ weighs 2.26 kg and measures 166 mm x 199 mm x 223 mm. It features four drive bays, each supporting up to 20TB. So you can have a maximum of 80TB of drives (HDD or SSD, in 2.5 or 3.5 inch SATA versions) within this single NAS box (provided you don’t need any drive as redundancy). This can also be expanded with an optional separate unit, the DX525, which increases the total drive bays to nine and allows for storage of up to 180TB. Moreover, there are two M.2 SSD slots as well, which max out at another 3.2TB. You can use this SSD storage as a cache or a separate storage pool.
On the processor side, it has the quad-core AMD Ryzen V1500B running at 2.2 GHz with a max TDP of 25 W. While this processor is no workhorse, it certainly holds up when running the Synology suite of software and some lightweight Docker containers. It is paired with 4GB of RAM by default and can again be expanded to a maximum of 32GB, which enables you to run more programs at the same time. One important aspect of this RAM is that it is ECC, which stands for ‘Error Correction Code’. You can read up more about ECC memory here.
The NAS also has two Ethernet ports, with each port supporting up to 2.5 GbE. Although you’ll be limited by the maximum read/write speed of each drive (that is, if you don’t have an SSD cache). Multiple drives make the writing slightly faster, but it depends on the RAID setup that the storage volume has. There’s also a USB-C expansion port, which lets you extend the NAS functionality with an additional system like the DX525, as mentioned before. You also have two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Ports, which are multi-purpose. They let you connect an external drive and/or other accessories for the NAS, like a supported UPS data port. You can also connect surveillance cameras and import the footage directly into the disk, or connect a printer.
Conclusion
The Synology DS925+ is a good choice for anyone looking for a user-friendly NAS. There are cheaper options available, but reliability and software quality are important factors to consider when choosing a NAS.
The Synology NAS also supports adding any type of HDDs. So if you have an old HDD lying around, you will be able to expand the storage pool, but do note that if the disks are not of the same capacity as the ones already in the NAS, you might have issues in setting up some RAID types.
The Synology DS925+ otherwise offers a good package of software and hardware, and it makes sense for anyone in the market looking for a NAS with ease of use and good functionality.
Disclaimer: I won the Synology DS925+ in a contest hosted by Synology India. Synology didn't have any editorial control over my review, and the views written above are my own.
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