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Synology DiskStation 4-Bay NAS Server (Diskless): DS925+ $512, DS425+
$416
$520
20% off
+ Free S&Hat B&H Photo Video
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B&H Photo Video has Synology DS425+ DiskStation 4-Bay NAS Server (Diskless) for $415.99. Shipping is free.
Amazon has Synology DS925+ DiskStation 4-Bay NAS Server (Diskless) for $511.99. Shipping is free.
DS425+ Specs:
Amazon has Synology DS925+ DiskStation 4-Bay NAS Server (Diskless) for $511.99. Shipping is free.
- Note: Estimated delivery dates may vary by location.
DS425+ Specs:
- 4x 3.5/2.5" Bays
- 2x M.2 2280 Slots
- 2.0 GHz Intel Celeron J4125 4-Core CPU
- 2GB of Onboard DDR4 RAM
- 1x 2.5GbE
- 1x 1GbE
- 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 Ports
- RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, Hybrid, Basic, JBOD
- Sequential Reads up to 278 MB/s
- Sequential Writes up to 281 MB/s
- Hardware Encryption
- Synology DiskStation Manager OS
- 4x 3.5/2.5" Bays
- 2x M.2 2280 Slots
- 2.2 GHz AMD Ryzen V1500B Quad-Core
- 4GB of DDR4 RAM
- 2x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Ports
- 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1
- 1x USB-C
- RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, Hybrid, Basic, JBOD
- Sequential Reads up to 522 MB/s
- Sequential Writes up to 565 MB/s
- Hardware Encryption Engine
- Synology DiskStation Manager OS
Editor's Notes
Written by SubZero5 | Staff- About this deal:
- Our research indicates that DS425+ is $70 less (14% savings) than the next best available price from a reputable merchant with prices starting from $485.99 at the time of this post.
- About this product:
- 3-year warranty
- About this store:
- Don't have Amazon Prime? Students can get a free 6-Month Amazon Prime trial with free 2-day shipping, unlimited video streaming & more.
- If you're not a student, there's also a free 1-Month Amazon Prime trial available.
- Details of Amazon's return policy (here)
No longer available:
- Amazon has Synology DS425+ DiskStation 4-Bay NAS Server (Diskless) for $415.99. Shipping is free.
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
B&H Photo Video has Synology DS425+ DiskStation 4-Bay NAS Server (Diskless) for $415.99. Shipping is free.
Amazon has Synology DS925+ DiskStation 4-Bay NAS Server (Diskless) for $511.99. Shipping is free.
DS425+ Specs:
Amazon has Synology DS925+ DiskStation 4-Bay NAS Server (Diskless) for $511.99. Shipping is free.
- Note: Estimated delivery dates may vary by location.
DS425+ Specs:
- 4x 3.5/2.5" Bays
- 2x M.2 2280 Slots
- 2.0 GHz Intel Celeron J4125 4-Core CPU
- 2GB of Onboard DDR4 RAM
- 1x 2.5GbE
- 1x 1GbE
- 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 Ports
- RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, Hybrid, Basic, JBOD
- Sequential Reads up to 278 MB/s
- Sequential Writes up to 281 MB/s
- Hardware Encryption
- Synology DiskStation Manager OS
- 4x 3.5/2.5" Bays
- 2x M.2 2280 Slots
- 2.2 GHz AMD Ryzen V1500B Quad-Core
- 4GB of DDR4 RAM
- 2x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Ports
- 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1
- 1x USB-C
- RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, Hybrid, Basic, JBOD
- Sequential Reads up to 522 MB/s
- Sequential Writes up to 565 MB/s
- Hardware Encryption Engine
- Synology DiskStation Manager OS
Editor's Notes
Written by SubZero5 | Staff- About this deal:
- Our research indicates that DS425+ is $70 less (14% savings) than the next best available price from a reputable merchant with prices starting from $485.99 at the time of this post.
- About this product:
- 3-year warranty
- About this store:
- Don't have Amazon Prime? Students can get a free 6-Month Amazon Prime trial with free 2-day shipping, unlimited video streaming & more.
- If you're not a student, there's also a free 1-Month Amazon Prime trial available.
- Details of Amazon's return policy (here)
No longer available:
- Amazon has Synology DS425+ DiskStation 4-Bay NAS Server (Diskless) for $415.99. Shipping is free.
Community Voting
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Score
+53
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Top Comments
Community Reviews
Synology's 4 bay DiskStation stands out for its polished DSM software, strong backup tools, and solid performance for home storage, Plex, and photo libraries. The DS925 plus brings more RAM headroom, dual 2.5 gigabit Ethernet, faster read and write speeds, and expansion support, while the DS425 plus is attractive for Plex because its Intel Celeron has Quick Sync. The main cautions are Synology's drive and SSD compatibility restrictions, higher total cost once RAM and disks are added, and the fact that the DS925 plus lacks a GPU for transcoding. It is a capable platform, but the value depends heavily on the workload and storage budget.
home users who want a big upgrade from an older Synology NAS for everyday file sharing and backups because one commenter said the DS925+ has been "working great" and was a "huge upgrade" from their DS213j.
people setting up a NAS for photos/videos and basic home file sharing (with optional VPN) who aren't planning to run Plex, Docker, or VMs because one commenter said for that kind of basic use the DS425+ "might be sufficient" and could save about $100 versus the DS925+.
Plex users who need hardware transcoding for remote access or slower connections because commenters specifically pointed out the Intel Celeron model's Intel Quick Sync and PlexPass hardware transcoding as a "massive speed increase" for serving content to remote people or bad playback devices.
buyers who want more network throughput on a 2.5GbE setup because the DS925+ has two 2.5GbE ports (vs the DS425+ having one 2.5GbE plus one 1GbE), which commenters said can matter for SMB multi-channel throughput.
people who want to start with a small number of drives and expand later for NVR/Plex because one commenter described starting with 2 drives using mirror sync (no RAID) for access if a drive dies, then adding drives later for additional uses like NVR and Plex.
buyers who plan to use third-party SSDs for caching/flash because commenters warned that Synology requires Synology-branded M.2 SSDs for caching/flash (and that third-party NVMe SSDs can't be used for caches or storage pools).
buyers who are unwilling to deal with Synology's drive/compatibility restrictions (or the extra cost of Synology RAM/SSDs) because multiple commenters said Synology restricts drive compatibility to branded drives and that you'll pay more for RAM and Synology NVMe SSDs.
people who want to use Plex/Jellyfin/Emby hardware transcoding on the DS425+ without workarounds because a commenter said DSM 7.2+ disabled kernel graphics drivers (i915.ko) and that blocks those apps from accessing hardware transcoding.
people who need a NAS for critical files without a solid 3-2-1 backup plan because a veteran commenter said this 4-bay Synology is "good for Raid5 (4 drives)" but "not recommended for critical files without a 3-2-1 backup," and warned not to depend on a 4-drive Synology without backup.
people who want to avoid any compromise on speed/reliability when accessing data outside the house because one commenter said if you access data outside your home, it "isn't going to be as fast or reliable" as Google/Apple cloud.
Common Questions (5)
AI-generated summary based on comments from the community. Updated ago
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86 Comments
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it feels like they don't care about the regular people who helped make them popular in the first place. first, they were going to hard lock their drives[1], get rid of video station[2], and now pushing more monthly subscriptions.
the OS is great, but i don't want to risk having my data hoarding stuff potentially held hostage. i'm thinking UGREEN, but how far is it off from DSM?
[1]: https://community.synol
[2]: https://community.synol
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This system is good for Raid5 (4 drives), which I don't recommend if you have critical files. There are obviously options with mirror, striped mirror, but you are limited to 4 drives. Without a good 3-2-1 backup strategy, if you are going with just a single system, 4 drives is not ideal.
Synology has the best OS and supports ECC, but their future is questionnable and I waged the battle as I had one of the CPUs on one of their early ones that went tits up due to the intel bug - they did replace it. Was one of my earliest NASs. I've had two Syns since, and will no longer buy one. They rolled back their stupid HD decision, but it still has limitations and with SSDs - and well the fact they went down that path is very concerning. I've also had a power supply die after warranty, and the cost and finding the replacement isn't great. I'm much more of a fan of a build-your-own with a standard power supply.
Ugreen is arguably the biggest contender, great specced systems but the OS has a long way to go to get to Synology levels, if they only had ECC it would be completely over. QNAP lost popularity due to the security issues, but are still great systems.
ECC is highly debated but I would say unless you have a great 3-2-1 backup strategy you want it. Personally for anything critical, I think ECC is a must.
In any case, the NAS cost is fractional to the storage and ram costs currently. If you go pre-built NAS you are going to also have to deal with sodimm ram prices.
IMO, Unraid is hard to beat. Extremely flexible, lots of build-your-own sytems, ZFS, Unraid array supports differing drives w/ dual parity support, which in todays storage cost fiasco can be great. They just annouced a partnership with 45homelab, and has a partnership with Lincplus/Lincstation - or just build your own. The cost is going to be in the storage/ram and you have much more flexibility. The OS is not as polished as Synology, but it does WAY more. Can also run Unraid on Ugreen systems.
Truenas can't leave out, by far the most bulletproof ZFS system, if you are looking for that and can stick with same-sized speced drives it is by far the least risk adversed NAS - but not for the faint of heart.
If you end up with quite a bit of storage needs you are going to be looking at shucking - again this works great with an unraid aray - get two NAS parity drives, then shuck the rest and have them at spin down saving power (depending on your needs). In my unraid server I have 3 ZFS pools as well as the Unraid array dual parity.
Whatever you do, don't depend on this 4 bay synology and use it raid5 without a backup (or any 4 drive system).
What size are you considering? I want to start with 2 drives and no raid, just mirror sync so I have access to both drives if one dies, I don't see the benefit or raid for just file storage since I won't be running any high demanding software. I might eventually add NVR 1 more drive, and 1 more drive for plex, and get a 2-drive version for only the important files with a sync off-site.
Synology still does sync over internet to another synology, right?
My main usage will be photos and videos, for Plex it will not require transcoding, since most of my files are really old mp4 rips of my DVDs, and I got 2.5gbps internet, so it's another thing to consider if anyone is looking to access over internet.
That's called Raid 1
This system is good for Raid5 (4 drives), which I don't recommend if you have critical files. There are obviously options with mirror, striped mirror, but you are limited to 4 drives. Without a good 3-2-1 backup strategy, if you are going with just a single system, 4 drives is not ideal.
Synology has the best OS and supports ECC, but their future is questionnable and I waged the battle as I had one of the CPUs on one of their early ones that went tits up due to the intel bug - they did replace it. Was one of my earliest NASs. I've had two Syns since, and will no longer buy one. They rolled back their stupid HD decision, but it still has limitations and with SSDs - and well the fact they went down that path is very concerning. I've also had a power supply die after warranty, and the cost and finding the replacement isn't great. I'm much more of a fan of a build-your-own with a standard power supply.
Ugreen is arguably the biggest contender, great specced systems but the OS has a long way to go to get to Synology levels, if they only had ECC it would be completely over. QNAP lost popularity due to the security issues, but are still great systems.
ECC is highly debated but I would say unless you have a great 3-2-1 backup strategy you want it. Personally for anything critical, I think ECC is a must.
In any case, the NAS cost is fractional to the storage and ram costs currently. If you go pre-built NAS you are going to also have to deal with sodimm ram prices.
IMO, Unraid is hard to beat. Extremely flexible, lots of build-your-own sytems, ZFS, Unraid array supports differing drives w/ dual parity support, which in todays storage cost fiasco can be great. They just annouced a partnership with 45homelab, and has a partnership with Lincplus/Lincstation - or just build your own. The cost is going to be in the storage/ram and you have much more flexibility. The OS is not as polished as Synology, but it does WAY more. Can also run Unraid on Ugreen systems.
Truenas can't leave out, by far the most bulletproof ZFS system, if you are looking for that and can stick with same-sized speced drives it is by far the least risk adversed NAS - but not for the faint of heart.
If you end up with quite a bit of storage needs you are going to be looking at shucking - again this works great with an unraid aray - get two NAS parity drives, then shuck the rest and have them at spin down saving power (depending on your needs). In my unraid server I have 3 ZFS pools as well as the Unraid array dual parity.
Whatever you do, don't depend on this 4 bay synology and use it raid5 without a backup (or any 4 drive system).
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That's called Raid 1
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