News Synology requires self-branded drives for some consumer NAS systems, drops full functionality and support for third-party HDDs

[Admin]

Synology will no longer allow the new Plus Series NAS models, coming out in 2025, to use non-Synology or non-certified hard drives.

Synology requires self-branded drives for some consumer NAS systems, drops full functionality and support for third-party HDDs : Read more

 

[Notton]

Is this the page for Synology Plus series HDDs?
https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/drives/hdd/plus-hat#features
3yr warranty seems kinda low.

As long as they keep a vanilla model, sure why not a premium NAS for SOHO?
I half expect a reddit thread to popup with a list of HDDs that can run a modified firmware to trick the NAS into thinking they're genuine HDDs.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

It's not as terrible as it may seem. A Synology Plus series 12TB drive is $280 on B&H, whereas a Seagate Iron wolf is $260 ($250 currently on sale), and the Synology drive featured 1.2m hour rating and helium sealed, 20% longer rating than the Iron Wolf.

I'm soon to be in the market for larger capacity Nas drives, and I'll probably splurge on the Synology models for my new Synology Nas.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

Synology started recommending their own drives a while back, and hasn't added newer drives over 16TB capacity for compatibility. I've started using QNAP as replacement.

 

[Rando99]

This is a blatant scam to increase profit margins. I've used dozens of Synology NAS devices in commercial SMB environments, with officially unsupported drives with no more failures or problems than the average MTBF. I think I average one failed drive a year over dozens of devices.

As long as you're buying reliable enterprise-grade products from a reliable vendor this has never been anything more than an issue manufactured by Synology to line their own pocket.

You knew this would be coming eventually when they started doing it for their Enterprise NAS devices several years ago. Time for the market to show them just how much their sales can tank.

 

[LaminarFlow]

This past holiday season I decided to self-build my own NAS after using various commercial solutions (including Synology) for over a decade.

A R5 8500G, A620 motherboard, 32GB ram (albeit non-ECC), Jonsbo N2 case, 1TB NVME cache, and all the minor stuff add up to be ~$700, almost exactly the same as an DS923+. Hell of a lot more powerful than anything Synology offers, and TrueNAS Scale works wonderful.

Slapped 4x 14TB Seagate EXOs X18 in it. $220 each directly from NewEgg, as I have been scammed by 3rd party sellers with problematic Seagate drives. Never looking back.

 

[HyperMatrix]

It's not as terrible as it may seem. A Synology Plus series 12TB drive is $280 on B&H, whereas a Seagate Iron wolf is $260 ($250 currently on sale), and the Synology drive featured 1.2m hour rating and helium sealed, 20% longer rating than the Iron Wolf.

I'm soon to be in the market for larger capacity Nas drives, and I'll probably splurge on the Synology models for my new Synology Nas.

Yeah but hard drives go on sale. I bought WD Red Pro 22TB drives for $350 a few months back on sale. They have a 2.5M hour rating.

If I had to buy synology drives I’d just dump the system and do one of those knock off synology custom computers. I’m using official hardware right now for convenience. If the cost grossly outweighs the convenience gained then it’s useless. Especially since higher CPU models are significantly more expensive than using a custom PC as a NAS.

 

[johnb44672]

If this does indeed become the case, my 1522+ (and another 2-Bay model) will be my last Synology units -- which would be a bummer. I've even bought two Synology-branded NVMe drives for acceleration, as well as the 10Gbit add-on -- so I've given them a decent amount of money. The 10Gbit speed is a big deal for my usage, and I'm guessing that's a 'Plus'-only feature. I absolutely will NOT be locked into their HDDs though.

 

[eza]

Synology can now go on my Do Not Buy list for anti-consumer practices. I'm sure they'll have fun there with HP.

 

[snemarch]

If this does indeed become the case, my 1522+ (and another 2-Bay model) will be my last Synology units -- which would be a bummer. I've even bought two Synology-branded NVMe drives for acceleration, as well as the 10Gbit add-on -- so I've given them a decent amount of money.

Same. I bought a 1522+ for the turn-key convenience. I added (non-Synology) ram and NVMe drives to it, and I was already a bit pissed that you can't use non-Synology NVMe for storage volume, only caching. This will definitely be my last Synology purchase – hardware lock-in should be illegal. That, or a bit of... CEO adjustment.

Anyway, Synology should be afraid. TrueNAS is superior to their software, and it's pretty easy to set up these days. It's more work building a mini-server than just powering on a NAS appliance, though...

 

[Rand max]

I'm going to guess part of the reason I saw this article is because of all the searches I've been doing, as I'm upgrading and replacing my NAS. This has most definitely ruled out Synology, forever. It absolutely reeks of HP, and their printer scams.

 

[razor512]

Seems Synology got jealous of HP Printers, and decided to implement some of their restrictions in an attempt to boost profit margins from people who they can stick into buying the newer NAS products.

 

[masterviper]

With that change in their new models, I will not be getting Synology for my next nas device. I will make sure to exclude them from my search from now on. That is a bad move. The drives are almost twice the cost of a non synology branded drive.