New NAS + Old Drives Synology Compatibility

[Enquiries]

Hello NASCompares Team,
thanks for your work. I want to migrate from a Synology DS1520+ to a 10GbE model (ideally DS1525+) but keep my existing CMR drives and NVMe cache. I do not want to use Synology-branded drives.

Current setup (SHR):
Slot1: WD40EFRX-68N32N0 (4TB – 10k h)
Slot2: WD140EDGZ-11B1PA0 (14TB new)
Slot3: WD101EFBX-68B0AN0 (10TB Red Pro – 48k h, will be removed)
Slot4: WD10EFAX-68LHPN0 (10TB – 9k h)
Slot5: WD40EFRX-68N32N0 (4TB – 64k h – MUST be removed)

Planned new configuration (4 drives):
2x WD140EDGZ-11B1PA0 (14TB)
1x WD10EFAX-68LHPN0 (10TB)
1x WD40EFRX-68N32N0 (4TB)

NVMe cache: 2x Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB

Questions:
1. After DSM 7.3, is migration to DS1525+ safe with these non-Synology drives?
2. Can the Samsung 970 EVO Plus be reused as r/w cache without DSM warnings?
3. Would you recommend another 10GbE model like DS1522+ ?
4. Any further restictions on future Drive?

Im bit worried with the compatibility list and blocking of non Synology hardware

Thank you!

[ed]

Hi there, and thanks for getting in touch. With the recent removal of HDD restrictions on the plus series, migrating from your DS1520+ to a DS1525+ is completely fine. Your existing WD drives will mount normally and your SHR pool should come up without any issues.

Your Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe cache may trigger a simple warning that it is not on the tested list, but it should still work as read or read write cache. Synology did not remove caching support for third party NVMe modules. If for some reason DSM refuses to enable write caching, there is a small script that allows you to turn it on, and it is widely used in the community.

If you want to keep costs down, the DS1522+ is still a very capable option. It supports the same 10GbE upgrade, the same drive migration process, and offers more than enough performance for home use.

There are no future restrictions planned for the plus series regarding third party drives. You may see warnings from DSM, but there is no blocking or loss of features on these desktop models.