Synology DS723+ Review – Why Previous Gen NAS Beats DS725+ AliExpress Purchase Guide

In this article, I’ll share my experience of deliberately purchasing an older generation Synology NAS.

Synology Begins Vendor Lock-in

While Synology has traditionally provided a “Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)” with recommended drives, starting around 2021 with enterprise-focused products, they began implementing restrictions on non-branded or non-certified drives.
For 2025 models (especially the Plus series), certain features are unavailable when using non-certified drives, introducing a more aggressive vendor lock-in policy.

Additionally, this issue has been covered by various news sites:

• Synology NAS restricts use of non-certified drives – GIGAZINE
• Questions about storage restrictions confronted during Synology internal visit

On social media platforms like X (Twitter), there are numerous posts saying “migrating to QNAP” or “Synology is done,” and the outlook seems to be getting worse.

Therefore, I deliberately chose NOT to purchase the latest 2025 model and went with a previous generation model instead.

Comparing the Older DS723+ with the Latest DS725+

Here’s a comparison table.

Take a close look at this table.

References:
NASCompares – DS725+ Info
Synology – DS723+ Product Page

Wait… isn’t this actually worse in some aspects? (sweat)

While the DS725+ comes standard with 4GB memory and 2.5GbE, the DS723+ can be upgraded to 10GbE via the expansion slot, and memory can be upgraded yourself without any difference.

Despite being released 2 years later, it uses the exact same Ryzen R1600 CPU. They should have at least used an R2000 series…

So basically,

“There’s no need to purchase the latest version with implemented feature restrictions”

This is the conclusion we reach.

Ordering from Overseas (AliExpress)

Alright! For those thinking “let’s buy the previous gen model!”

Actually, the moment “DS725+” was released, “DS723+” was discontinued and disappeared from the market.

Whether it was bought up in large quantities by people avoiding vendor lock-in, or Synology bought back the inventory themselves, is unclear, but there’s no stock available.

(It exists if you look hard, but at premium prices)

So, ordering from overseas was the only option.

I purchased from AliExpress, which I frequently use.

Price-wise, around 90,000 yen (~$600) would be ideal.

*This was roughly the price in Japan before discontinuation

From Purchase to Delivery

It was shipped from Hong Kong via DHL and took about 5 days to arrive.

Unboxing and Operational Check

The box looked like this. No particular difference from the Japanese version – it seems they don’t separate by region.

Well, I thought there might be a global version, but I found Chinese text.

The power plug was Type O.

However, since the other end is a standard 3-pin connector, you can use it without an adapter by purchasing a cable like the one below.

I used a random 3-pin cable I had at home.

I installed both HDDs and SSDs.

Since I wanted to install the DSM OS on an SSD, I purchased and installed the following SSD.

For the HDD, I used a spare Western Digital HDD 14TB WD Ultrastar DC 530.

This is a former HGST line and the HDD I trust most. You can’t go wrong with this series.

Initial setup went smoothly without any issues, and I was able to use it normally.

Cables are a bit messy, but here’s the final installation.

Conclusion

In this article, I shared my experience of deliberately purchasing the older DS723+. What did you think?

QuickConnect also works without any problems, so I think this was an excellent purchase.

*Note: You can purchase from Japan, but be aware of premium pricing.