This video critically examines Synology's new policy that restricts their latest Plus series NAS models (e.g., DS425+, DS225+) to exclusively use Synology-branded hard drives. The speaker highlights that these proprietary drives are significantly overpriced, re-labeled versions of standard third-party disks, leading to poor value. A major concern is the inability to initialize these new NAS units with non-Synology drives, effectively limiting consumer choice and value. While discussing several technical workarounds for advanced users (such as using a single proprietary drive for initial setup, volume migration from older systems, or a community-developed script to bypass the restriction), the video strongly discourages average consumers from purchasing these new Synology models due to their restrictive nature and comparatively weak hardware. It recommends exploring more capable and cost-effective alternatives like Terramaster or Asustor, and advises against Synology's lower-end "J-series" due to their insufficient performance.
Synology's Controversial Hard Drive Policy: What You Need to Know
0:00 Synology's New Policy: Synology has announced that their latest Plus series NAS models (e.g., DS425+, DS225+) will now exclusively support Synology's own brand of hard drives.
0:37 Overpriced Proprietary Drives: The speaker argues that Synology's proprietary hard drives are excessively expensive (40-70 EUR more) compared to identical re-labeled Seagate or Toshiba drives (e.g., IronWolf, N300).
1:17 Initialization Issues: A major problem is that new Plus series models will not allow initial setup or operation if non-Synology hard drives are installed, making them generally unsuitable for private users due to the lack of drive choice.
Initial Setup with Synology Drive: It might be necessary to use at least one Synology drive for the initial setup.
Volume Migration: Existing hard drive volumes from older Synology models can potentially be migrated to the new ones, as Synology's announcement mentioned support for "migrated existing systems."
Community Script: A script from the programming community (available on platforms like GitHub) can be used to modify the "Synology Disk Database" to allow the use of third-party drives.
Manual RAID via SSH: For systems where the operating system is already installed, RAID arrays can be manually configured via SSH.
2:41 Older Models Remain Compatible: Older Synology Plus series models (e.g., DS424+, DS423+, DS224+) are confirmed to still support third-party hard drives, as shown in their compatibility matrix.
3:30 Hardware and Price Concerns: The speaker criticizes the new Synology Plus models for their poor price-to-performance ratio, noting they often come with outdated DDR4 RAM and slow Intel Celeron 4125 CPUs, calling it "an absolute joke."
3:30 Recommended Alternatives: Alternatives such as Terramaster and Asustor are suggested, as they offer significantly better performance (at least twice as fast) and good software for a comparable price.
4:10 Avoid Entry-Level Synology Models: Strong advice is given against purchasing Synology's "NAS for beginners" models (e.g., DS423, DS223, and especially the "J series") due to their extremely slow CPUs and inability to handle multiple tasks concurrently.
4:04 Easy Data Migration: Users are assured that migrating data from older Synology systems to new NAS alternatives is straightforward using tools like Rsync or Rclone.
4:30 Synology's Market Shift: The speaker speculates that Synology's restrictive policies might indicate a shift in focus towards the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) sector, where dedicated drives are a more common practice.