Our entry pick prioritizes Synology Photos and phone backup over a more powerful but less cohesive application stack.
Watch: Keep originals on a second disk or cloud target before trusting automated photo organization.
DSM 7.3 third-party drive policy; verify exact MPNCompare component stores →
DS225+ + 2 × 4TB IronWolf
A checked starting combination targeting about 4TB usable with shr / raid 1-style single-drive redundancy.
Historical price estimate$744.97Adorama + Amazon
Dated price estimate · one store$744.97Amazon
Approx. usable4TB
Historical price estimate / TB$186.24/TB
This total estimates separate component purchases using older price records. Recheck prices and stock; tax and shipping are extra.
NAS: historical price · Sep 27, 2026. Drives: recently observed · Oct 9, 2026.
One-store estimate. Estimated from separately purchased components. Confirm final prices and stock at the stores; tax and shipping are extra.
NAS: recently observed · Oct 9, 2026. Drives: recently observed · Oct 9, 2026.
Prices exclude tax and shipping · checked Sep 27, 2026
Why this exact build
The two-bay DSM build is the lowest tier that still offers coherent users, permissions, snapshots, and endpoint backup for a small office.
Watch: Keep an encrypted off-site copy and document who owns updates, alerts, and restore tests.
What the bundle contains
Capacity and redundancy
The mirror can continue after one drive fails; keep a second copy of originals outside the NAS.
Approximation: (2 − 1) × 4TB = 4TB. Filesystem formatting, system partitions, snapshots, and RAID implementation reduce displayed free space.