UGREEN NASync DXP8800 PLUS Review

UGREEN continues to push forward with its NASync series of NAS devices and although the range is pretty broad, the device in the lineup that business/professional users are looking at as an affordable alternative to Synology and QNAP is the big 8-Bay model – The UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NAS. Pretty much the ‘top end’ model of the series, this is an 8 SATA and 2 Gen 4 M.2 NVMe SSD System, rolling out the gate with dual 10GbE connectivity, Thunderbolt 4 ports, a PCIe upgrade slot, an i5 10 Core Processor and up to 64GB of DDR5 memory. It’s ALOT. First arriving at $899 for early backers, now at $974, this system is a huge saving when compared with the $1899 Synology DS1823xs+ and $2000-3500 QNAP TVS-h874 series. But what is the catch? What compromises have UGREEN made? Ultimately, does the UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NAS deserve your money and your data? Let’s discuss it in today’s review.

Other UGREEN NAS Reviews: The DXP4800 PLUS 4-BAY NAS Review – VIDEO – WRITTEN The DXP480T 4-BAY NVMe SSD NAS Review – VIDEO – WRITTEN The DXP8800 PLUS 8-BAY 10GbE NAS Review – VIDEO – WRITTEN

Important – The UGREEN DXP8800 Plus NAS is still in the mid stages of crowdfunding. The unit provided for review by UGREEN might not represent the finished product if/when crowdfunding is concluded and eventual fulfillment begins. UGREEN is an already long-established and trusted brand, but nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that this is still a product that is initially being made available via crowdfunding and therefore an element of additional care is always advised, compared with a comparable product purchased via traditional retail outlets.

UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NASync Review – Quick Conclusion

Much like the rest of the NASync series, the UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS 8-Bay NAS is incredibly good value in terms of hardware and, if you are looking for the very best desktop NAS hardware for the price point available in the market – the DXP8800 PLUS is truly unbeatable in its specifications, build quality and overall physical presentation. Even going full ‘DiY’ and trying to build a system of this calibre yourself (case, cables, i5 embedded mobo, 2 port 10GbE card, 2 NVMe, 8 SATA, case, cooling, etc), you would struggle to beat the sub $999 of this system by a meaningful margin. Add to this the fact that UGREEN have now softened their stance on 3rd party NAS OS’ on their NAS devices having no aggressive impact on your 3-year hardware warranty has won a lot more users over, as the DXP8800 PLUS becomes the perfect TrueNAS or UnRAID NAS for users who don’t want the hassle of building from scratch, chasing multiple warranty’s and silicon paste under the fingernails! Genuinely, it is impossible to fault the DXP8800 PLUS on a hardware level (it’s not even that noisy, compared to other 8-Bay NAS in the market at least).

When it comes to software and performance, however, things are a little more complicated. The UGREEN NAS software (UGOS) is still very much in beta, and it feels likes it. The system (at time of writing) has still yet to complete initial crowdfunding and development of the software is still on-going (so we are still judging a software OS that hasn’t finished). But nevertheless, the absence of services such as 2 factor authentication, WORM, a comprehensive security monitor, volume encryption, a virtual machine hypervisor, broader 3rd party cloud sync and backup tools, etc – the absence of these (as well as inconsistencies in the software and performance, that arguably are possibly related to it’s beta status) lead to it being hard to recommend the DXP8800 PLUS on a software level. However, this system will not see physical fulfilment to backers till at least June/July at the very earliest, which is still a decent amount of time to polish the software and roll out beta’s of individual services that are promised on the UGREEN roadmap. Perhaps you are looking at the DXP8800 PLUS series for TrueNAS/UnRAID/OMV etc, or simply to set it up for local SMB storage for your backups and then use the docker app to run Plex. For those users, the DXP8800 is an absolute bargain. Just remember that we are still talking about Kickstarter and crowdfunding (still an odd move by such a big brand) and therefore this needs to be treated as such, not comparable to traditional retail! Overall, I am hugely impressed and look forward to seeing where this system, UGOS and UGREEN go in the exciting world of NAS in the next year or two. The DXP8800 PLUS is a BEAST of a NAS in terms of hardware, but the software is still WiP.

UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NASync Review – Presentation

You really do have to hand it to UGREEN. The presentation of the DXP8800 Plus is genuinely top-tier. This brand’s experience in computer accessories has clearly influenced the presentation of their NAS system, opting for glossy retail packaging that boldly showcases the system’s capabilities over a standard dull brown box.

Inside the shiny box is a well-organized shipping container, with the system secured by rigid foam and an accessory kit containing everything needed to get started. As previously mentioned, retail packaging and device protection during transit are often overlooked by brands, risking damage. Despite being largely unpopulated, except for an internal 2280 SSD for the OS, minimizing the risk of damage, the extra effort on protection is appreciated.

The DXP8800 Plus includes nearly everything needed for setup, aside from hard drives. Given the early stage of the system’s crowdfunding campaign, additional storage options may later become available.

The included kit, while basic, ensures users new to hosting their own servers have everything required.

It’s the attention to detail that impresses – from M.2 NVMe heat pads of notable quality and thickness for thermal dissipation, to the included Cat 7 network cables with high-quality gold/copper ends, differentiating them from standard cables.

Even the instruction manual, a rarity as most NAS brands now direct users online, stands out with its glossy presentation and offers more than basic setup guidance.

One thing I wanted to note (especially after reviewing the DXP4800 PLUS and DXP480T NAS systems previously) is that the DXP880 8-Bay NAS arrives with 3 years of warranty, when the bulk other devices in the series arrive with 2-Years. It’s a small but significant difference, as most users who are looking at 8-Bays of storage tend to be doing so for business-related use – so that extra year will certainly be noted and appreciated!

However, the choice of a 3rd party CWT internal power supply (PSU), though expected at this scale, given UGREEN’s reputation for high-quality power adapters and cables. While not a deal-breaker, it’s curious to see a non-UGREEN PSU used, especially when the DXP480t model reviewed elsewhere came with a branded UGREEN PSU. This inconsistency in their approach to PSUs is puzzling.

Overall, the presentation of the DXP8800 Plus from UGREEN, a newcomer to the NAS market intending to launch via Kickstarter, is exceptionally well done. Despite some accessory quality inconsistencies, the overall package is commendable for a pre-release sample. Now, let’s proceed to discuss the system’s design.

UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NASync Review – Design

At first glance, the DXP 8800 Plus appears to be a fairly standard 8 NAS enclosure, and you might be forgiven for thinking it’s just reiterating the typical case design prevalent among numerous companies. However, there’s more to its design and efficiency than meets the eye. For starters, the external enclosure is entirely metal, enhancing heat dissipation directly from the base panel housing the M.2 modules. Additionally, UGREEN has infused the design with their unique stylistic choices, evident in the presentation of individual bays and the arrangement and accessibility of various ports and connections.

The inclusion of small design flourishes, like the rear removable mesh metallic fan panel that magnetically attaches to the casing, is particularly appreciated. While such a feature is familiar to prosumer PC cases, it’s surprisingly rare in NAS designs – puzzling, given NAS systems’ continuous operation and higher likelihood of accumulating dust and debris. Despite being a relatively minor detail, this fan cover’s presence in UGREEN’s first product impresses me aesthetically and functionally.

The internal fans are two low noise standard 92mm PC fans, that can be fully controlled in their RPM by the system software manually, or left to automatically adapt to the system’s needs.

Handling individual storage bays, however, presents a mixed reaction. The bold numeric design distinguishes it aesthetically from other NAS brands that often opt for bland, nondescript bays. The tool-less, click-and-load trays that forego the need for a screwdriver for drive installation and the inclusion of individual locking mechanisms (with keys) are commendable features.

Yet, these trays feel somewhat flimsy compared to the more robust trays found in desktop solutions from Synology and QNAP. While they secure the hard drives and align with the internal enclosure runners, the internal locking mechanism doesn’t inspire confidence in its security. The trays’ perceived cheap production quality slightly detracts from the overall positive aesthetic. Despite this, the system supports the latest 22TB hard drives (testing of 24TB Seagate Ironwolf Pro HDDs in progress), which means daily interaction with these trays will be minimal.

The main storage area features a pre-constructed PCB with eight integrated SATA and power connectors. The system documentation indicates that SAS drives are unsupported, a non-issue for this system’s scale and price point.

Upon removing the base’s metallic panel, the two M.2 NVMe SSD bays and upgradable DDR5 SODIMM ports are revealed. Space constraints make heat sink installation challenging, but UGREEN has anticipated this with the inclusion of thick heat pads in the accessory kit, facilitating heat dissipation through the external casing.

UGREEN’s entry into 24/7 service storage with the DXP 8800 Plus is noteworthy, especially for a brand new to this sector. Their effort to differentiate through design and functionality is largely successful, although the storage trays’ quality could be improved. Overall, the system’s design is a strong point, and I look forward to discussing ports and connectivity next.

UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NASync Review – Power Consumption

The DXP8800 PLUS is a beefy system and although I was expecting the system to be a little greedy on the power consumption anyway, it was still arguably a pinch higher than I expected. Initially, UGREEN stated that the power consumption of the 2 and 4 bay systems would be (for general system load):

• DXP2800: Standby 16.77W (2*4TB HDD + 1*256GB SSD) / DXP2800: Standby 26.92W (2*8TB HDD + 1*256GB SSD)
• DXP4800: Standby 29.279W (2*4TB HDD + 1*256GB SSD) / DXP4800 Plus: Standby 30.608W (4*4TB HDD + 1*256GB SSD)
• DXP4800 Plus: Standby 51.437W (4*8TB HDD + 1*256GB SSD)

Now, let’s put those numbers into perspective. Below is the power consumption of the DXP8800 PLUS NAS, populated with 4x Toshiba MG 8TB Enterprise HDDs, 4x Kingston DC600M SATA 480GB SSDs and 2x Kingston KC3000 NVMes, in both Idle and Active:

Based on the figures that UGREEN provided for the DXP4800 PLUS, the DXP8800PLUS was using twice the power. On the face of it, this seems reasonable (the latter system IS twice the scale in almost every way – also using a 10 Core i5 vs a 5 Core Pentium). Nevertheless, this is quite a hungry system and users looking at an 8-Bay 10G system like this, when moving away from more modest 2/4-Bay systems should be aware!

UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NASync Review – Noise Levels

next up, the noise levels (always tough to show in a written article!). If you want to HEAR the noise levels of the UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NAS, then you can head HERE to this specific section of the DXP8800 PLUS YouTube Review. Otherwise, for the reported dBa levels of the system in standby and active, use the videos below:

Standy/Idle:

Active Use, Fans on ‘FULL’:

REALLY surprised at the noise level. Given the largely metal construction of the system, I expected it to hit the early 40’s in dBa, at the very least. But it was surprisingly low ambient volume (relative to other 8-Bay NAS of course). Then there is the fact that I used a combination of smaller 8TB HDDs and SSDs, which did reduce noise levels somewhat. If I had been using more aggressive 12-14TB HDDs, then the operational noise of these more industrial built drives would have been much different  – but then we would be measuring HDD noise and not system noise.

UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NASync Review – Ports and Connections

One of the earliest things to notice about the connectivity on offer on the DXP 8800 Plus NAS is that this system brings back support for SD cards. This may seem almost insane to the average photo and video editor, but SD card readers on NAS devices have been largely absent for almost a decade, despite enormous protestations from photo and video editors for years.

Therefore, it’s kind of impressive that UGREEN has opted to provide an SD card slot and a front-mounted USB Type-A 10Gbs connection, AND 2x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C conenctions on the DXP8800 Plus when practically every other brand in the NAS industry does not. It’s going to be a tremendously convenient feature for those wanting to ingest media directly into the system via numerous storage methods and camera systems, making it that much more convenient than many others in the market.

The front-mounted Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports can only be used with the UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS as the ‘host’ and connected devices as ‘clients’. In ‘normal speak’, that means that these ports can only be used for accessories (storage etc) that are managed by the NAS. That means that currently you cannot use the Thunderbolt 3/4 USB-C port on your PC or Mac to connect with the NAS for a ‘Thunderbolt NAS’ connection, much as you would find from several QNAP Thunderbolt NAS (Guide on this HERE) devices.

Flipping the device around, we see that the system has even more USB ports that can be utilized by the system in a host-client relationship. That means that the UGREEN NAS system will act as the host device for connected storage drives and supported peripherals. Unfortunately, this does mean that you cannot directly connect to this device using those USB ports, and the USB 2.0 connections are pretty much exclusively designed for connecting printers and office peripherals, uninterruptible power supplies, or keyboard/mouse in KVM setups alongside the visual output.

The visual output of this system is a 4K 60 frames per second HDMI 2.0 connection (8K output is possible if you scale the memory up). The software for the UGREEN NAS system is still in beta, and currently, the HDMI output is limited to command line access.

Currently, there is no graphical user interface afforded to the HDMI output, such as you would find on a QNAP or Asustor NAS system, but as this is a relatively niche feature for many, I’m not going to give them too much of a hard time over this.

Although the lack of the Thunderbolt direct connectivity will be a blow for some, the majority of users will be much ,much more impressed with the network connectivity of the DXP8800 PLUS. The system arrives with two 10GbE network ports (which is exceptional at the under $999 price tag, at least during crowdfunding).

Just to put this into perspective, the Synology DS1823xs+ is an 8 Bay NAS that has 1x 10GbE connection (and 2x 1GbE) with a 4 Core / 8 Thread AMD Emb.CPU and arrives at $1800 without TAX. Likewise, the QNAP TVS-h874T4 arrives with several versions with 10GbE and/or Thunderbolt 4 connectivity (with Intel i3/i5/i7/i9 CPUs) and that system starts at around $1999 and can reach as high as $3999). We need to factor in that the DXP8800 Plus is a crowdfunding product (so therefore hardly comparable to traditional retail as a regular over the counter purchase), but whether you purchase it at the $974 crowdfunding or intended $1499 RRP (Realistically, I imagine it will sit at around $1299-1399 at full retail) – this is a HUGE saving on hardware and for a 10GbE ready system, exceedingly hard to beat. Remember though, HAVING 2x 10GbE is not the same as being able to fully USE 20GbE – that depends on so many factors (Shared internal PCI lanes and PCIe switches, SATA and NVMe controllers internally, as well as the actual media you choose to use to try and saturate the connection.

Nevertheless, this DXP8800 PLUS arriving with the two 10GBASE-T (Copper) connections with Aquantia controllers internally to manage it, is very appealing. But it does not stop there. The DXP8800 PLUS is one of a small % of the NASYnc series to feature a PCIe upgrade slot too. It’s a half-height slot and x4 speed (so largely going to be used for NIC upgrades), but nevertheless worked a treat.

I installed a simple, budget 2x 10GbE Intel X540 adapter from Aliexpress (found HERE) and it was immediately visible and usable in the UGREEN NAS Software:

Overall, in terms of ports and connectivity, I’m really happy with everything I found on the DXP8800 Plus, and the increased scalability in terms of improving upon the network connectivity down the line, as well as the price point of the base level of network connectivity, combined with a decent degree of functionality and modern storage expandability to boot. The lack of Thunderbolt direct connectivity is a shame, but this is already something of a rarity in the market anyway (QNAP dominate this and despite the likes of QSAN and Promise trying to emulate this previously, they have hit walls) and UGREEN do state they are investigating this at development. Overall, I am really happy with the hardware thus far. Let’s dig a little deeper.

UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NASync Review – Internal Hardware

As mentioned earlier, it’s surprisingly confident of UGREEN to launch so many different NAS devices simultaneously for their first foray into network-attached storage. Not only have they provided several different storage scales and architectures, but they are also supporting three different internal hardware CPUs in terms of CPU. The scale in terms of price and capabilities of each system varies.

The DXP8800 Plus arrived with an  Intel i5 10-core processor (2p + 8e), integrated graphics, 20 PCIe lanes, and a maximum 55W TDP. Despite its compact SOC form, this 12th generation Intel i5 processor offers substantial power, benchmarking well against the N100 and Pentium 8505 models in other UGreen NAS models. Testing this processor, especially in this early crowdfunding prototype, presents challenges. Though UGREEN have softened their position on 3rd party OS support (and it’s impact on your hardware warranty if you pursue this), it is still not the intended USE CASE of what UGREEN state this system is to be deployed in (to verify their claims on it’s performance). See video below for more information on this:

Consequently, we’re limited in our ability to benchmark using third-party OSs or reference previous benchmarks for similar architectures. The UGreen NAS’s operating system, still in beta, requires further optimization to fully showcase what the hardware can achieve.

This processor is well-equipped with sufficient PCIe lanes to manage the 8 SATA drives and 2x M.2 NVMe SSDs, offering respectable speeds through SSH (at least on slot #1 – more on that later). The main concern with this processor selection is the lack of ECC memory support, crucial for high-speed flash systems to minimize bit errors during intensive operations.

Although SOC processors that support ECC are rare, especially from Intel, using one for this system and potentially for the DXP8800 Plus could significantly impact the price and development timeline. Nevertheless, this CPU is arguably the best choice for such a compact system in 2024, balancing power efficiency, heat management, and performance capabilities.

Arriving with integrated graphics, supporting up to 64 gigabytes of memory (arriving with 8GB of DDR5 SODIMM and two slots), there is a lot to like here. It is especially surprising when you realize that the brand already provides closely priced N100 and Pentium models next to this device in UGREEN’s NAS portfolio. This processor performs exceedingly well with Plex Media Server and, thanks to those 20 lanes, also means there’s a decent spread of available hardware architecture across the whole device.

But do keep in mind that this system does not support ECC memory. Indeed, none of the UGREEN systems support ECC memory, and although they make a point of highlighting the on-die checks associated with DDR5, most experienced storage enthusiasts tend to prefer traditional ECC memory support. Nevertheless, 8GB is a good amount of memory to start with, and it’s great to know that you are not locked in with presoldered and fixed memory on the board, which is a move often used by more economical brands to save some money and dedicate lanes more efficiently. The layout of the internal architecture is still yet to be confirmed at the time of writing this review, but digging a little into the backend via SSH revealed that each of the M.2 NVMe slots on the base of this system are Gen 4 x 4.

However, further digging into the 2nd M.2 slot showed that it has been downgraded the 8GT/s x2 :

Not entirely sure what to make of this, as this IS a prototype review unit. But it does seemingly though a little initial shade on the whole ‘two Gen 4×4 slots’. I will need to investigate this further with the brand and when I get a further update on this, I will let you know by updating the article here. Meanwhile, the OS SSD bay that hosts the UGOS NAS software arrives on that Phison E13 Gen 3 SSD, that is downgraded the Gen 3×1 (SO, SUB 1,000MB/s performance – which is fine for the Operating System SSD, but does mean that data passing through it (or at least managed to a large degree) might be potentially bottlenecked.

So, how this all separates out on the system chipset and whether these are being delivered into PCIe switches to spread the architecture out for the rest of the system storage, double network connectivity, and dedicating lanes to all those available connections, is definitely an area that leaves pause for thought.

(image below from other UGREEN NAS Systems)

Which I had difficulty identifying, but I suspect is a Marvell AQtion Aquantia AQC113/AQC114/AQC114CS/AQC115Cs, comprising (from official pages) a high-performance,Scalable mGig, Ethernet MAC+PHY Controllers designed to support the following network rates: 10GBASE-T/5GBASET/ 2.5GBASE-T/1000BASET/100BASE-TX/10BASE-Te. When equipped with a PCI Express Gen 4 x4, this family of Scalable mGig Ethernet MAC+PHY Controllers easily handle the 10 GbE line-rate performance. The AQC113, AQC114, AQC114CS, AQC115C device family combines a mGig Ethernet MAC Controller with a full-reach, low-power, highperformance, multi-gigabit, single-port Gen 4 Ethernet Alaska PHY transceiver into a single, monolithic device that is designed using the latest 14nm, multi-gate, FinFET process technology.

(image below from other UGREEN NAS Systems)

The USB controller/manager appears to be an ASM1543, (from the ASmedia pages) a one Four to two differential channels mux switch with integrated Type-C Configuration Channel Logic Circuitry, using for USB3.1 type-C mux and CC detection application. The signal performance of mux switch is up to 10Gbps SuperSpeedPlus USB bus with low insertion loss and return loss, and it also supports USB plug orientation, configurable as DFP role or UFP role through the setting of strapping pins, and implementing the strapping for the setting/detection of Type-C current mode, following USB3.1 Revision 1.0 and USB Type-C Connector and Cable Revision 1.3 standard specification.

(image below from other UGREEN NAS Systems)

Next, we find a Richtek RT3624BE, (from the manf pages) a synchronous buck controller which supports 2 output rails and can fully meet Intel IMVP9.1 requirements. The RT3624BE adopts G-NAVPTM (Green Native AVP) which is Richtek’s proprietary topology derived from finite DC gain of EA amplifier with current mode control, making it easy to set the droop to meet all Intel CPU requirements of AVP (Adaptive Voltage Positioning). Based on the G-NAVPTM topology, the RT3624BE features a new generation of quick response mechanism (Adaptive Quick Response, AQR) to optimize AVP performance during load transient and reduce output capacitors. The RT3624BE integrates a high accuracy ADC for platform and function settings, such as ICCMAX, switching frequency, over-current threshold or AQR trigger level.

(image below from other UGREEN NAS Systems)

In terms of the SATA storage management, I found a ASMedia ASM116 SATA host controller(AHCI). (TBC) Which is upstream PCIe Gen3 x2 and downstream eight SATA Gen3 ports. It’s a low latency, low cost and low power AHCI controller. With four SATA ports and cascaded port multipliers, ASM1164 can enable users to build up various high speed IO systems, including server, high capacity system storage or surveillance platforms.

(image below from other UGREEN NAS Systems)

Earlier in March when I was testing the (late alpha, early Beta) version of the NAS software, system and services, the performance numbers I got were not hugely encouraging internally. However, there have been numerous improvements on the system software and I am pleased to confirm that the M.2 NVMe slot 1 was indeed 4×4 bandwidth and that some brief 1GB transfer/creation testing showed some early 5.5GB/s benchmarks on the Gen 4×4 SSD I has inside the system.

Now we cannot rule out the impact of caching internally and these tests are NOT reflective of everyday (i.e non synthetic) use, but it was definitely an encouraging sign. However, when I tried to repeatedly move 1GB of data between each of the NM,2 NVMe, the performance would drop down to 1.1-1.5Gb/s, which further suggested some lane sharing and a possible bottleneck by a controller and/or that downgrade perhaps. Again, this is a beta software/system and UGREEN repeated that this system is still undergoing optimization.

External performance over 10GbE was also an area that I really, REALLY hope this is sees significant optimization. I was hitting a bottleneck of around 650-700MB/s on upload and download (on a 10Gbe / 1,000MB/s connection). The performance numbers below were over 10GbE (with the MTU set at 1500 – As the software is currently not allowing me to scale it to 9000 MTU/Jumbo frames). Below is the tests for 4x 8TB Toshiba HDDs in RAID 5, 4x Kingston DC600M SATA SSDs in RAID 0 and 1x Kingston KC3000 Gen4 NVMe SSD.I then went ahead and conducted a windows 10GbE transfer to the RAID 5 array:

Further testing confirmed performance dips when transferring data between SSDs, indicating a shared pathway. Despite this being a pre-release sample, and acknowledging potential future optimizations, the observed SSD performance, though still faster than many market alternatives, fell comparatively short of expectations given the hardware capabilities (though still higher than the majority of M.2 SSD performance offered by other brands providing HDD SATA + M.2 solutions right now).

The UGREEN NAS’s software, still in beta, promises further insights into the brand’s direction with their NAS solution and its accompanying software and services, warranting a closer examination as development progresses.

UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NASync Review – Software

At the time of writing, the UGREEN NAS software is still in beta, with the mobile application is live now. Reviewing the software included with the DXP8800 Plus—as a final product—feels somewhat premature. The NASsync software beta reveals many baseline functions and long-term plans, detailed in the video below in our initial overview and first impressions of the UGREEN NAS software:

You can read the MASSIVE Software review (covering the Desktop and Mobile experience) HERE on the NASCompares Review Article.

Alternatively, you can watch the video version of the UGREEN UGOS NAS Software Beta Review in the video below:

The TL;DR on the UGREEN NAS software (UPDATED)

it’s on track to become a smooth and user-friendly experience, comparable to giants like Synology and QNAP, especially in terms of the web browser experience. Unlike opting for the complexity of TrueNAS or the streamlined, container-focused UI of UnRAID, the UGREEN NAS software is more akin to Synology DSM. The foundation is clearly laid out for expansion in terms of features and tools for the user’s disposal. However, there are notable absences of baseline applications such as container or virtual machine support, and a multi-tiered backup solution within the web GUI (though the UGREEN NAS mobile and desktop clients are in development, expected to preview in March). Basic services for file management, shares, user account control, and an app center—soon to be linked to a repository—are all user-friendly but present some inconsistencies, likely due to its beta status and ongoing development. The physical product may be closer to final development, but the software needs more time for optimization. SMB services were less consistent than desired, and settings changes sometimes didn’t save or recall correctly. This is common for beta software finding its footing, yet it’s important to note that the hardware feels more refined than the software at this stage, months before user delivery. In brief:

What I liked:

• Intuitive UI with services located logically and responsive controls.
• The mobile application for iOS and Android is one of the best I have ever used in NAS!
• Baseline services such as network interface management, user account control, firewall handling, and SSH interface control are all present.
• A clearly defined app center awaiting connection to an online repository.
• Helpful tips and guidance are available on most pages, aiding new users.
• Support for modern services like SMB3 multi-channel and domain services in the beta.
• Clear account and resource management accessible from the desktop, likely appealing to most users.
• The inclusion of a remote access relay service and UGREEN account creation from day one, simplifying remote access for new users with built-in firewall and domain tools.
• UPDATE 5/4/24 – The HDMI output is now full controllable via the mobile application and is intiuative
• UPDATE 5/4/24 – A Docker application has now been added with access to numerous repository options!
• UPDATE 5/4/24 – SSH is now disabled by default

What I disliked:

• Absence of two-factor authentication in the software.
• Lack of virtualization applications at this stage.
• Sporadic SMB performance.
• The Security Advisor tool is only suitable for Antivirus and Anti-Maleware protection, not to scan the system for security weaknesses and advisory actions
• The HDMI output cannot be used by the desktop/browser user to the same extent as the mobile application + cannot be used by container tools (Plex, Home Automation, etc)
• In-progress language integration, leading to occasional default displays in Chinese or error messages in Chinese despite English settings.

Improvements needed:

• Expansion of app integration and desktop client tools for easier system-client bridging.
• Introduction of a default application for device discovery on the local network, a basic service offered by many NAS brands.
• More information on UGREEN account and remote access security.

Acknowledging this is a beta, it’s fair to reserve full judgment until the software fully rolls out. As it stands, this beta is promising yet lacks some established NAS software fundamentals. Hopefully, we’ll see significant advancements as the release approaches.

UGREEN DXP8800 Plus NAS Storage Review – Verdict and Conclusion

Much like the rest of the NASync series, the UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS 8-Bay NAS is incredibly good value in terms of hardware and, if you are looking for the very best desktop NAS hardware for the price point available in the market – the DXP8800 PLUS is truly unbeatable in its specifications, build quality and overall physical presentation. Even going full ‘DiY’ and trying to build a system of this calibre yourself (case, cables, i5 embedded mobo, 2 port 10GbE card, 2 NVMe, 8 SATA, case, cooling, etc), you would struggle to beat the sub $999 of this system by a meaningful margin. Add to this the fact that UGREEN have now softened their stance on 3rd party NAS OS’ on their NAS devices having no aggressive impact on your 3-year hardware warranty has won a lot more users over, as the DXP8800 PLUS becomes the perfect TrueNAS or UnRAID NAS for users who don’t want the hassle of building from scratch, chasing multiple warranty’s and silicon paste under the fingernails! Genuinely, it is impossible to fault the DXP8800 PLUS on a hardware level (it’s not even that noisy, compared to other 8-Bay NAS in the market at least).

When it comes to software and performance, however, things are a little more complicated. The UGREEN NAS software (UGOS) is still very much in beta, and it feels likes it. The system (at time of writing) has still yet to complete initial crowdfunding and development of the software is still on-going (so we are still judging a software OS that hasn’t finished). But nevertheless, the absence of services such as 2 factor authentication, WORM, a comprehensive security monitor, volume encryption, a virtual machine hypervisor, broader 3rd party cloud sync and backup tools, etc – the absence of these (as well as inconsistencies in the software and performance, that arguably are possibly related to it’s beta status) lead to it being hard to recommend the DXP8800 PLUS on a software level. However, this system will not see physical fulfilment to backers till at least June/July at the very earliest, which is still a decent amount of time to polish the software and roll out beta’s of individual services that are promised on the UGREEN roadmap. Perhaps you are looking at the DXP8800 PLUS series for TrueNAS/UnRAID/OMV etc, or simply to set it up for local SMB storage for your backups and then use the docker app to run Plex. For those users, the DXP8800 is an absolute bargain. Just remember that we are still talking about Kickstarter and crowdfunding (still an odd move by such a big brand) and therefore this needs to be treated as such, not comparable to traditional retail! Overall, I am hugely impressed and look forward to seeing where this system, UGOS and UGREEN go in the exciting world of NAS in the next year or two. The DXP8800 PLUS is a BEAST of a NAS in terms of hardware, but the software is still WiP.

PROS of the UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NAS	CONS of the UGREEN DXP8800 PLUS NAS
PCIe Expandability 8 HDDs + 2x Gen 4 M.2 in 1 box under $999 Good Balanced CPU choice 10GbE Dual Ports! An SD Card Slot (wierdly rare!) 10/10 Build Quality Great Scalability Fantastic Mobile Application (even vs Synology and QNAP etc) Desktop/Browser GUI shows promise Established Brand entering the NAS Market Not too noisy (comparatively) Very Appealing retail package+accessories	10GbE Performance was less than expected Crowdfunding choice is confusing Software (still in Beta) is still far from ready 18/4/24

Click the Link Below to find out more about the UGREEN NASync NAS Series on the brand’s official Site:

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UGREEN DXP480T NASync SSD NAS Review

What exactly IS the DXP480T? Ever since UGREEN launched their NASync range of NAS devices on Kickstarter, there has been a lot of interest in this computer accessories and peripheral company making its big move into Network Attached Storage. No doubt hoping to challenge this market’s leaders Synology and QNAP, UGREEN have revealed a 6 system series (the DXP range) and although the first 5 of them are interesting enough, it is the compact yet powerful NVMe Flash-equipped NASync DXP480T that has drawn many a hungry I.T user’s eye! Arriving with a 10 Core Intel i5 Processor, DDR5 memory, PCIe Gen 4 Architecture, 4x m.2 2280 NVMe SSD bays, 10GbE networking, Thunderbolt 4 ports and Wifi 6E connectivity – There is ALOT crammed into this tiny little box! Add to this the ‘still in development’ UGOS NAS software that is included with the system and the $479-519 price tag for early access on Kickstarter (going up to $799 RRP when it hits ACTUAL retail) and what you have here is a fantastic proposition for photo and video editors that are looking for a small footprint, low noise, but high-performance private server. But is it too good to be true? Is there too much hardware in there to stay cool? And why is a big brand like UGREEN turning to crowdfunding? Let’s discuss the DXP480T and whether it deserves your money and your data.

Note – The YouTube Review of the DXP480T NAS is Available HERE

Ugreen DXP480T NAS Review – Quick Conclusion

There is ALOT of like her in the UGREEN DXP480T Flash NAS! Right now there is little to no alternative to this product in the market. Flash/SSD NAS has been around for a long time and even M.2 NVMe NAS systems have been cropping up in one form or another for 2+ years. But desktop and home-accessible M.2 NVMe Flash NAS solutions? Barely any. Notable alternatives such as the storage-rich Asustor Flashstor 6 / 12 Pro or the performance-rich QNAP TBS-464 or TBS-h574TX have been launched in the last 12 months, but the DXP480T is more powerful than the former and less expensive than the latter. However UGREEN and it’s DXP/NASync series are still very, VERY new in the market (green?) and alongside their NAS software being still a good distance away from fully stable, the choice to launch this new series of devices on crowdfunding is still a little puzzling for 12-14 year established brand in the tech sector. The system is fantastically compact, powerful for the scale, very rich in hardware features and all of this rollout out on a price tag at both early backer Kickstarter and eventual retail RRP that is highly challenging to beat!

But this is still a product that is not finished yet and therefore we need to keep that in mind! If this NAS an unfinished game, it is not ‘Cyberpunk’ or No Man Sky’ levels of incomplete – but it is still a good 20-30% unfinished in terms of features and optimization. I will be certainly keeping an eye on UGREEN as they progress, and hopefully they will challenge the status quo of Synology and QNAP right now, but we will have to wait and see. Bottom line, the DXP480T is 100% the BEST M.2 NVMe NAS system for it’s scale in terms of hardware, it’s just the rest of the software development going through the usual beta testing that is holding it back from greatness. Recent softening by UGREEN with regard to users installing 3rd party operating systems (TrueNAS, UnRAID, Open Media Vault, Proxmox hypervisor, etc) with regard to hardware warranty has definitely resolved/calmed the apprehension by many users though, so the beta software hurdle might not even be an issue for you. The crowdfunding still at has 30 days left (at the time of writing) and 9,800 backers pledging over $4,00,000 of funding seems to indicate this! But as always, this is crowdfunding and not traditional retail, so use caution! The DXP480T is a solid and unique system and I hope to talk even more about this and UGREEN spin-offs in future!

Ugreen DXP480T NAS Review –  Retail Package

The retail kit for this system arrives impressively polished for a product still in its crowdfunding phase, featuring a well-decorated and well-presented retail package that efficiently packs a surprising amount of equipment into a modestly sized box.

Upon opening the stylish retail package, you’re welcomed by the system itself, encased in a protective matte plastic wrap. Remarkably compact for a four-bay (technically five) NAS system, it’s slightly larger than a mini PC, making it one of the smallest NAS systems reviewed on NAS compares.

The kit is comprehensive, excluding storage, including a gold-tipped Ethernet cable, thermal pads for M.2 NVMe SSD bays, extra screws, a setup manual, warranty information, and an external PSU.

Notably, the system comes with an official UGreen 140W PSU, reflecting the brand’s reputation for quality power supplies. The inclusion of first-party designed and branded components emphasizes the product’s proprietary nature, distinguishing it from rebranded hardware.

The entire retail kit’s presentation is thoroughly executed, showcasing a thoughtful design even in details like the instruction booklet—a feature many brands have phased out.

 

Every component’s quality is top-notch, setting the stage for a discussion on the DXP480T NAS’s design.

Ugreen DXP480T NAS Review – Design

At a casual glance, you might easily assume that the DXP480T is a mini PC masquerading as a NAS. Given the influx of SOC-powered mini PCs from Eastern brands at low prices, this assumption wouldn’t be far-fetched. However, the DXP480T’s design is meticulously tailored to NAS functionality, with internal components arranged to optimize heat dissipation across its M.2 NVMe slots. This compact unit measures just 17.9cm x 14.2cm x 5.2cm, yet manages to house four M.2 2280 slots and an additional internal 2242 M.2 slot for the UGreen OS, making it one of the smallest NAS systems reviewed here on NAScompares and around half a kilo in weight!

Despite its compact size, the DXP480T does not support hot swapping due to its closed physical enclosure and the nature of M.2 drives, though E1.S drives are starting to challenge this norm. The chassis design is a balanced act of 50% active airflow and 50% heat dissipation, featuring plastic outer edges and a top composed of multiple heat dissipation panels connected to the internal hardware, alongside a large heatsink base with two built-in laptop-scale fans. This design emphasizes cleanliness and efficiency, given its storage capacity.

UGreen’s branding is prominent throughout, establishing a distinctive ‘house style’ for the NASync/DXP series right out of the gate. The system’s dimensions (18cm wide, 14cm deep, and 5.5cm tall, including rubber feet) enhance its appeal, offering a streamlined aesthetic without sacrificing functionality.

The fan-assisted panel, secured by two screws, hinges off to reveal the NVMe storage and the intricately designed heat dissipation panel surrounding it. Despite the limited physical space, UGreen has ingeniously incorporated ventilation from nearly every angle, maximizing passive airflow through mesh-covered vents on four of the system’s six sides.

This setup exposes four M.2 SSD slots, distinguished by build quality and clarity in design. However, the use of external face panels for active cooling restricts the use of SSDs with their own heatsinks. UGreen includes high-quality heat pads that align perfectly with SSD chips, compensating for this limitation.

Internally, the slots are divided into two speeds, likely due to the processor’s PCI lane availability, offering Gen 4 x 4 for the first two slots and PCIe Gen 3 x 2 for the remaining two. This strategic decision, driven by necessity, positions the DXP480T favorably against competitors, even if it means accepting some compromises in SSD speeds.

The minimalistic design extends to the system’s front, featuring only a single LED for power, omitting front-mounted USB ports for local backups. This choice, likely a trade-off for internal design efficiency, may disappoint some users looking for more convenient connectivity options.

In summary, the DXP480T’s design impresses with its compact form factor, efficient heat management, and thoughtful branding. While not without its limitations, particularly in external connectivity, UGreen’s meticulous attention to detail positions this NAS as a compelling option for users prioritizing sleek design and effective thermal management.

Ugreen DXP480T NAS Review – Ports and Connections

As previously mentioned, the DXP480T’s ports and connectivity are located at the system’s rear, which results in a somewhat crowded arrangement and necessitates a few compromises.

One significant compromise concerning the device’s ports is its network connectivity. The system features a default 10GbE over a copper RJ45 connection, offering potential bandwidth of up to 1000 megabytes per second. This feature stands out, especially when considering the device’s competitive pricing compared to other NAS devices released in the last two years. However, the downside is that this is the sole physical network port, limiting options for failover or assigning service priorities to different IPs and devices.

The system compensates for this single network port to some extent with wireless connectivity.

An internal M.2 Wi-Fi card connector houses a Wi-Fi 6E network adapter and two antennas, supporting both host and client interfaces.

However, the current beta version of UGreen’s UGOS NAS software does not stably support this feature, and full development completion is still pending.

Additionally, the DXP480T offers Thunderbolt 4 connectivity via two USB-C connections. While Thunderbolt-enabled NAS devices are becoming popular in post-production environments, the DXP480T’s Thunderbolt ports are limited to host use, not supporting direct connections to Mac or Windows devices as clients. UGreen is exploring options to enable two-way communication for these ports. The device also includes USB 3 and USB 2 connections for storage and peripherals, and while direct host-client interfacing over USB is not supported, these connections add to the system’s versatility. However, the lack of a front-mounted USB port for easy local backups is a notable omission.

There is also an HDMI output, however at this time it can only be used for multimedia via the UGOS and is actioned via the mobile application (with doubles as a remote control). Unfortunately, this is not possible via the desktop/browser GUI and also HDMI access as a parallel GUI (either via an app in the docker/container app, a 3rd party media app like Plex/Emby/Jellyfin or an official HDMI GUI Portal that is comparable to HD Station from QNAP or Asustor Portal)

Despite these limitations, the inclusion of 10 GBE and basic Thunderbolt connectivity in such a compact NAS device, at a competitive price point, is commendable. However, the potential long-term system temperature remains a concern.

Ugreen DXP480T NAS Review – Internal Hardware

When it comes to any kind of NAS system that focuses on SSD media, the internal hardware and layout of the system are paramount. SSD media, when overheated, will inevitably throttle, affecting both its performance and that of the surrounding system. Essentially, heat is the Achilles’ heel of flash SSD systems, and given the DXP480T’s compact size, significant effort will need to be made to manage this.

Equipped with a 10-core i5 processor, 8GB of DDR5 memory, ample storage bays, a dedicated OS SSD, a Wi-Fi card, and a 10G controller, it’s a challenge to fit all this into such a small enclosure. Initially, removing two screws around the storage media bays reveals a plastic layer.

Within, we find each of the individual 2280 M.2 NVMe slots. We also discover the SODIMM DDR5 memory slots, one of which is populated by a Samsung DDR5 memory module. Although the system doesn’t support ECC memory, it benefits from the native DDR5 support for on-die error correction. Nonetheless, many storage enthusiasts will likely be disappointed by the lack of ECC support in a flash server system.

As previously mentioned, the system includes a Wi-Fi 6 Intel wireless adapter connected to two internal antennas that encircle the system. It’s a tidy setup, and barring an upgrade to Wi-Fi 7 in the future, there’s little need for changes. It’s debatable how many users will utilize the 1.2Gbps connectivity offered by Wi-Fi 6E; though technically faster than traditional gigabit LAN, effective use requires close proximity. Despite this, it offers a form of failover for this system with a single physical ethernet connection.

The system also arrives with the UGreen NAS software pre-installed on a 2242 Phison E13 controller SSD, set in a Gen 3 x4 slot. Choosing to install the OS on a dedicated SSD, rather than through an eMMC or USB drive, will please some and annoy others. Typically, NAS brands use a bootloader on a small internal drive to install the OS on the main storage array, affecting the system’s performance based on the internal storage media used. Opting to install the OS directly onto an SSD ensures that system services and software run independently, not impacting the performance of the storage media, allowing for operation with new disks if necessary. However, this also means the OS drive lacks backup or redundancy, rendering the system inoperable should the drive fail, potentially damaging the storage media during intense operations. There are pros and cons, but overall, it seems preferable for the system software and services to reside on their dedicated SSD or partition.

Removing additional screws unveils the system’s core. It’s astonishing how much is packed into such a compact enclosure! The heart of the DXP480T features a custom micro-ITX board, housing an Intel i5 10-core processor (2p + 8e), integrated graphics, 20 PCIe lanes, and a maximum 55W TDP. Despite its compact SOC form, this 12th generation Intel i5 processor offers substantial power, benchmarking well against the N100 and Pentium 8505 models in other UGreen NAS models.

Testing this processor, especially in this early crowdfunding prototype, presents challenges. The DXP480T, like the rest of the UGreen NAS line-up, doesn’t officially support third-party OS installation without voiding the warranty. Consequently, we’re limited in our ability to benchmark using third-party OSs or reference previous benchmarks for similar architectures. The UGreen NAS’s operating system, still in beta, requires further optimization to fully showcase what the hardware can achieve.

This processor is well-equipped with sufficient PCIe lanes to manage the four M.2 NVMe SSDs, offering respectable speeds through SSH. The main concern with this processor selection is the lack of ECC memory support, crucial for high-speed flash systems to minimize bit errors during intensive operations.

Although SOC processors that support ECC are rare, especially from Intel, using one for this system and potentially for the DXP8800 Pro could significantly impact the price and development timeline. Nevertheless, this CPU is arguably the best choice for such a compact system in 2024, balancing power efficiency, heat management, and performance capabilities.

UGREEN DXP480T NASync NAS Tests

The Noise level of the system when in operation is very low and is genuinely only noticeable during busy periods when the twin base mini laptop style fans kick in. Here are the dB levels of the system when in idle/standby:

UGREEN DXP480T IDLE/STANDBY NOISE:

And here is the noise level of the system when the fans are in full active/use:

UGREEN DXP480T ACTIVE USE / FULL FAN NOISE:

The construction of the DXP480T flash NAS deserves high praise. Rather than modifying a mini PC case, UGreen designed a compact flash system from scratch, demonstrating considerable care and attention to component placement. The hardware is undoubtedly attractive, further emphasized by our deep dive into this and the DXP4800 Plus models. Yet, the performance and capabilities of the software remain to be seen.

Ugreen DXP480T NAS Review – Performance & Software

The performance of the UGREEN DXP480T is something of a mixed bag. Clearly, compromises have needed to balance between the hardware resources on offer here and to keep the system’s smaller scale. For example, the 2x Gen 4×4 slots are only possible thanks to the scaling back of the 2x Gen 3×2 slots. They COULD have scaled all the slots (with a decent enough PCIe switch/controller) to all be 3×2 via bifurcation, but I think I prefer the 2 higher-performing slots at least giving me the chance to hit 5-7GB/s. I do wonder what they mean for those who plan on spreading a RAID 5 on the 4 M.2 NVMes – as this effectively means you have 2 drives with more bandwidth and irregular write across the 4 disks potentially (though realistically, it will just end up capping at the speed of drives 3 and 4). The performance of the DXP480T Flash system can be broken down into 2 main areas. Internal Performance and External Performance.

The Storage manager of UGOS features it’s on benchmarking tools that can be used per drive. The initial performance when I was using an early version of the software was severely unoptimized, but regular updates for the UGOS beta has rolled out almost weekly and with each, there has definitely been improvements in the system responsiveness and the performance of the drives. At the most recent test of the software, the Gen 4×4 slots of the system (populated with Phison E18 4×4 M.2 NVMes from Seagate Firecude 530 and Addlink A95) were hitting 5,100-5,500MB/s (5.5GB/s) performance. This is still around 1000MB/s less than what these drives are capable of (factoring in the mobile SoC processor and 8GB RAM), but as the software and services are still in beta, this performance might continue to improve throughout development. Then I ran the same test on the PCIe Gen 3×2 slots on the DXP480T. These ports were populated by Teamgroup T-Force Gen 3×4 SSDs, which have a reported 3,100MB/s performance when used in a x4 slot. However, as slot 3 and 4 of the DXP480T are Gen 3×2, I wondered how this would shake out. I was pleased to see a speed of 1.5-1.8GB/S – exactly what I wanted to see!

Then I accessed the system via SSH and used putty to directly benchmark the SSDs over cl. There was definitely some internal caching taking place in the early tests, however, the performance was still averaging around 5.5-6GB/s, which was very pleasing.

However, in order to ascertain if the SSDs in slots 1 and 2 were sharing any controller/switch (maybe even a larger lane being separated into the other 2 slots) I actioned data transfer between SSD 1 and SSD 2. The speed unsurprisingly halved, but was still much, much between the 1-1.5GB/s I encountered when performing this test 2 weeks and 2 firmware updates ago! Now I was hitting 2.5-3GB/s. For internal bandwidth saturation internally on this scale, that is still pretty good.

Then I performed numerous Windows 10GbE transfer tests. The Windows transfer of 20GB of data hit a clean 1,000MB/s saturation when I was using synthetic testing, but traditional transfers on Read activity (to my Windows 10, Gen 4×4 SSD OS Client) peaked at 550MB/s, but the Write was a little under 500MB/s. This decreased fairly rapidly over sustained performance as very clear oversaturation took hold. Upon raising this with the brand in advance of this review for comment, UGREEN told me that SMB performance and transfers are still undergoing optimization. I hope this is the case!

This continued to be the performance mark when I ran an AJA benchmark.

Crystal disk was run twice (using 2 different file size scales, 64MB and 1GB) and once again Read largely saturated the connection, whilst Write was still only 50-65% saturating the available 10GbE bandwidth.

Then I ended on an ATTO Diskbenchmark test that was..frankly.. wild! It was a fairly consistent 700-800MB/s on average, but the perpetual and sustained performance of ATTO benchmarks to the system definitely revealed some of the areas where optimization is still needed and the system was quickly oversaturated (fans ramping up quickly, the memory use very high for the comparatively simple task).

There is definitely some good performance potential here in the DXP480T – as long as UGREEN continue to improve and optimize. This is a prototype review unit (i.e a review unit provided prior to crowdfunding) and certainly feels that way – but numerous software patches that arrived BEFORE the crowdfunding arrived that improved things granularly and I have no reason to  believe that this will not continue from now till when/if the system begins fulfilment at crowdfunding and eventual full retail. Watch the video below to see the tests in full (it skips ahead directly to the testing):

Click Below to SKIP AHEAD to the Performance Testing of the DXP480T NAS

At the time of writing, the UGREEN NAS software is still in beta, with the mobile application is live now. Reviewing the software included with the DXP480T —as a final product— feels somewhat premature. The NASsync software beta reveals many baseline functions and long-term plans, which you can watch in the video version of the UGREEN UGOS NAS Software Beta Review in the video below:

You can read the MASSIVE Software review (covering the Desktop and Mobile experience) HERE on the NASCompares Review Article.

Regarding Power Consumption Tests of the UGREEN DXP480T NAS

NOTE – Power consumption tests were performed on the DXP480T during an earlier software beta revision. However, 3 further software and system service updates have been issued since these power consumption tests were performed 3 weeks ago and UGREEN (and a fellow YouTube Reviewer) have stated that this has improved the power efficiency of the system. Therefore in the interests of fairness (as the performance testing was performed on this later software revision (v1.0.0.0334), I have withdrawn my power test result and will be retesting soon and presenting it here + in a later video, as time allows.

The TL;DR on the UGREEN NAS software

The software is on track to become a smooth and user-friendly experience, comparable to giants like Synology and QNAP, especially in terms of the web browser experience. Unlike opting for the complexity of TrueNAS or the streamlined, container-focused UI of UnRAID, the UGREEN NAS software is more akin to Synology DSM. The foundation is clearly laid out for expansion in terms of features and tools for the user’s disposal. However, there are notable absences of baseline applications such as container or virtual machine support, and a multi-tiered backup solution within the web GUI (though the UGREEN NAS mobile and desktop clients are in development, expected to preview in March). Basic services for file management, shares, user account control, and an app center—soon to be linked to a repository—are all user-friendly but present some inconsistencies, likely due to its beta status and ongoing development. The physical product may be closer to final development, but the software needs more time for optimization. SMB services were less consistent than desired, and settings changes sometimes didn’t save or recall correctly. This is common for beta software finding its footing, yet it’s important to note that the hardware feels more refined than the software at this stage, months before user delivery. In brief:

What I liked:

• Intuitive UI with services located logically and responsive controls.
• The mobile application for iOS and Android is one of the best I have ever used in NAS!
• Baseline services such as network interface management, user account control, firewall handling, and SSH interface control are all present.
• A clearly defined app center awaiting connection to an online repository.
• Helpful tips and guidance are available on most pages, aiding new users.
• Support for modern services like SMB3 multi-channel and domain services in the beta.
• Clear account and resource management accessible from the desktop, likely appealing to most users.
• The inclusion of a remote access relay service and UGREEN account creation from day one, simplifying remote access for new users with built-in firewall and domain tools.
• UPDATE 5/4/24 – The HDMI output is now full controllable via the mobile application and is intuitive
• UPDATE 5/4/24 – A Docker application has now been added with access to numerous repository options!
• UPDATE 5/4/24 – SSH is now disabled by default

What I disliked:

• Absence of two-factor authentication in the software.
• Lack of virtualization applications at this stage.
• Sporadic SMB performance.
• The Security Advisor tool is only suitable for Antivirus and Anti-Maleware protection, not to scan the system for security weaknesses and advisory actions
• The HDMI output cannot be used by the desktop/browser user to the same extent as the mobile application + cannot be used by container tools (Plex, Home Automation, etc)
• In-progress language integration, leading to occasional default displays in Chinese or error messages in Chinese despite English settings.

Improvements needed:

• Expansion of app integration and desktop client tools for easier system-client bridging.
• Introduction of a default application for device discovery on the local network, a basic service offered by many NAS brands.
• More information on UGREEN account and remote access security.

Acknowledging this is a beta, it’s fair to reserve full judgment until the software fully rolls out. As it stands, this beta is promising yet lacks some established NAS software fundamentals. Hopefully, we’ll see significant advancements as the release approaches.

Ugreen DXP480T NAS Review – Verdict and Conclusion

There is ALOT of like her in the UGREEN DXP480T Flash NAS! Right now there is little to no alternative to this product in the market. Flash/SSD NAS has been around for a long time and even M.2 NVMe NAS systems have been cropping up in one form or another for 2+ years. But desktop and home-accessible M.2 NVMe Flash NAS solutions? Barely any. Notable alternatives such as the storage-rich Asustor Flashstor 6 / 12 Pro or the performance-rich QNAP TBS-464 or TBS-h574TX have been launched in the last 12 months, but the DXP480T is more powerful than the former and less expensive than the latter. However UGREEN and it’s DXP/NASync series are still very, VERY new in the market (green?) and alongside their NAS software being still a good distance away from fully stable, the choice to launch this new series of devices on crowdfunding is still a little puzzling for 12-14 year established brand in the tech sector. The system is fantastically compact, powerful for the scale, very rich in hardware features and all of this rollout out on a price tag at both early backer Kickstarter and eventual retail RRP that is highly challenging to beat! But this is still a product that is not finished yet and therefore we need to keep that in mind! If this NAS was an unfinished game, it is not ‘Cyberpunk’ or No Man Sky’ levels of incomplete – but it is still a good 20-30% unfinished in terms of features and optimization. I will be certainly keeping an eye on UGREEN as they progress, and hopefully they will challenge the status quo of Synology and QNAP right now, but we will have to wait and see. Bottom line, the DXP480T is 100% the BEST M.2 NVMe NAS system for it’s scale in terms of hardware, it’s just the rest of the software development going through the usual beta testing that is holding it back from greatness. Recent softening by UGREEN with regard to users installing 3rd party operating systems (TrueNAS, UnRAID, Open Media Vault, Proxmox hypervisor, etc) with regard to hardware warranty has definitely resolved/calmed the apprehension by many users though, so the beta software hurdle might not even be an issue for you. The crowdfunding still at has 30 days left (at the time of writing) and 9,800 backers pledging over $4,00,000 of funding seems to indicate this! But as always, this is crowdfunding and not traditional retail, so use caution! The DXP480T is a solid and unique system and I hope to talk even more about this and UGREEN spin-offs in future!

PROS of the UGREEN DXP480T NAS

CONS of the UGREEN DXP480T NAS

Exceptional Hardware for the Price4 x M.2 NVMe Flash system at this scale+price is fantastic! Great CPU Power vs Efficiency in the i5-1235u 10GbE as standard is excellentWiFi 6E adds an extra and variable access method10/10 Build Quality Great Scalability Fantastic Mobile Application (even vs Synology and QNAP etc) Desktop/Browser GUI shows promise Established Brand entering the NAS Market Low Noise Very Appealing retail package+accessoriesThunderbolt 4 connectivity ensures FAST local backups The Operating System SSD does not occupy a storage bay (extra 2242 m.2 SSD included)

10GbE Performance was bit underwhelming Crowdfunding choice is confusing Software (still in Beta) is still far from ready 22/3/24 Only 1x Physical Network port means no wired failover Although 2 of the slots are 4×4 Speed, hardware lane limits mean 2 of the slots are 3×2

Click the Link Below to find out more about the UGREEN NASync NAS Series on the brand’s official Site:

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Synology DS423+ vs DS923+ NAS – Which Should You Buy

Buying your first network-attached storage device can be really intimidating! If you have spent the better part of a decade storing your personal or business data on public cloud services or in a drawer full of USB drives, but have now taken the grown-up decision to go ahead and migrate over to your own private network-attached storage (NAS). You might have done this for reasons of cost, centralization or perhaps for security, whatever the reason for your data migration, there is simply no denying that the world of NAS can be a fraction complex and confusing early doors. Like any kind of modern computer appliance, you want to make sure you buy right the first time and when it comes to choosing between two of the latest generations of Synology NAS devices, these two incredibly similar four-bay devices might be two of the most different solutions I have ever compared. The Synology DS423+ is a home and small business-focused compact NAS designed to leverage an affordable price point between reasonable hardware and reasonable software and abilities. The slightly older Synology DS923+ (by 6+ months), on the other hand, has much of a high and even in some places entry enterprise-level focus about its architecture and is needless to say the more expensive of the two. Nevertheless, both of these Synology NAS devices can be picked up for around $450 to $600 (without drives), the contrast between their pricing, are actually very different beasts. Therefore, for users that don’t quite know their AMD embedded from their Celeron integrated processors, or who aren’t sure of the benefits that ECC can bring, today I want to compare the Synology DS423+ and Synology DS923+ and help you decide which one best deserves your data!

Just before we get into the meat and potatoes of this comparison, it is worth highlighting that regardless of whether you buy the Synology DS923+ or DS423+, you are guaranteed to get a system that can perform all of the following:

• Both units feature x86 processors, which allow a wide degree of app/services to run well and are a good price vs hardware balance
• Both the DS923+ and DS423+ are constructed of plastic desktop compact chassis, thereby reducing power consumption, noise and heat generated
• Both can Stream 1080p HD or 4K media, with superior performance natively and mid-range performance in Plex
• Both the Synology DS923+ and DS423+ NAS support AI-supported photo and ‘thing’ recognition supported to a very high degree from the free branded software included
• For Business users who currently enjoy the use of Google Workspace or Office 365, both of these NAS provide excellent means to backup your mass cloud accounts (as well as natively sync, dupe and configure rules on the fly)
• Both the DS423+ NAS and DS923+ NAS support snapshots, for more incremental and version protecting failsafe in efforts to protect you from Malware and Ransomware attacks, by allowing multi-versioning storage history to browse through and restore
• Both units are DLNA certified so can be accessed, browsed and played from by popular DLNA devices, such as Amazon Firestick, Alexa, Google Home Chromecast, Apple TV, Bose, Sonos, iPads, etc, as well as connectivity between these platforms with IFTTT
• Both are multi-bay, RAID enabled devices NAS devices that support JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10 (as well as Synology Hybrid RAID too for their Plus series range), though it is worth highlighting the DS923+ is the only one that supports an expansion and therefore also can support RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10 and SHR-2 over an expansion (more on that later)
• Both devices run on their own proprietary operating system that can be accessed remotely or locally. These include regular updates to the firmware, security patches, applications and more. Ranging from multimedia, home and multi-tiered backup applications, to more business end tools such as Surveillance software, Virtual Machine deployment and business-class backup and synchronization tools.
• Both the DS423+ and DS923+ use and can be accessed equally by a multitude of mobile applications such as DS File, DS Video, DS Photo, DSCam and DS Music that are created by and constantly improved by Synology.
• Both NAS are completely compatible with Windows, Android and Mac systems, as well as acting as a bring between software platforms to share and distribute files for migration and file sync]
• Both units can be used as a mail and/or business servers, providing excellent 3rd party CRM and first-party CMS systems, as well as the fantastic Synology collaboration Suite of applications Chat, Drive, Mail, Calendar, Office and Active Backup Suite
• Both systems will support DSM 7.1 or DSM 7.2 out the box, as well as support software updates (security and feature) for many years moving forward
• Both systems support the Synology Surveillance Station applications, support numerous cameras and arrive with 2 camera licenses with your purchase

But you didn’t come to this comparison page to find out what they had in common, you wanted to know what makes them different and which one best suits your needs, so let’s crack on with this comparison.

Synology DS423+ vs DS923+ NAS – Price and Value

Now, for those of you that are keeping a very close eye on the budget, it will already be clear to you that the Synology DS423+ is the lower-priced NAS of the two, by quite a considerable margin! Arriving, depending on where you are in the world, for around $449 to $499, it will immediately look more appealing to those on a tight budget when compared against the $549 to $599 of the DS923+. And that is before you’ve gone ahead and purchased any storage media too, so that’s saving of $100 to $150 could go a long way to further bolstering your network-attached storage setup. So, if the most important thing to you right now is remaining within a tight budget, then it might be worth seeing to read the rest of this article as when comparing DS423+ and DS923+, we have to look considerably more at the subject of value, not price. Price. Both of these devices arrive with the same software, Synology DSM 7.2, as well as both systems being two drive NAS solutions that support nearly identical ranges of storage media too, but more on that later. In terms of physical size, the range of components, they are pretty darn similar at a casual glance. However, it is in terms of the individual hardware components and scalability where the Synology DS923+ shows its worth, which we will cover shortly in the hardware section. But at least in terms of numerical value, the Synology DS423+ carries the lead. However, the reality isn’t quite that simple:

This is because the Synology DS923+ was released approx than half a year earlier than the DS423+ (Nov 2022 vs April 2023) and because of its wider availability and longer presence in the market, it has been featured in numerous special offers throughout that time. We saw this near $500 NAS on a few considerably impressive special offers throughout Amazon Prime day and other smaller eShop-specific events. So, yes, the DS423+ is the lower-priced NAS of the two, but do make a point of checking your local online retailer to see if the DS923+ is on special offer right now!

Synology DS423+ vs DS923+ NAS – Hardware and Connections

The hardware architecture of the DS423+ and DS923+ clearly have two very different target audiences in mind. The DS423+ has more of a home and multimedia feel about it, while the DS923+ feels substantially more like a business solution. This is reflected in numerous areas such as the distinct differences in CPU, memory specifications, and potential for growth. Even if you were to take into account the affordability of the DS423+, it has to be said that in the majority of hardware available, the DS923+ is significantly more powerful and scalable in practically every way. Here is a brief summary of the key hardware highlights of either system, side-by-side:

Synology DS423+ vs DS923+ NAS Hardware Comparison
Synology NAS
Amazon Price:	$479 (Amazon 25/02/24)	$599 (Amazon 25/02/24)
Processor model	Intel Celeron J4125 (2019 Gen)	AMD Ryzen R1600 (2020 Gen)
processor architecture	64-bit	64-bit
processor clock	4-core 2.0 (base frequency) / 2.7 (burst frequency) GHz	2-core 2.6 (base frequency) / 3.1 (max overclock) GHz
Integrated Graphics	Yes (250-750Mhz)	No
Hardware encryption engine (AES-NI)	Yes	Yes
system memory	2 GB DDR4 non-ECC	4 GB DDR4 ECC
Pre-installed memory modules	Yes	4GB (4GB x 1) via SODIMM
Total number of memory slots	1	2
Maximum memory capacity	6 GB (2 GB + 4 GB)	32GB (16GB x 2)
The maximum number of disk slots for an expansion unit	N/A	7 (DX517 x 1)
M.2 drive bay	N/A	2 (NVMe, PCIe 3×1)
Compatible Disk Type	3.5″ SATA HDD 2.5″ SATA SSD	3.5″ SATA HDD 2.5″ SATA SSD M.2 2280 NVMe SSD
Disk hot-plug support*	Yes	Yes

So first and foremost, we need to discuss the main differences between the CPUs available here. The Intel Celeron found inside the DS423+ is a four-core, four-thread processor with a clock speed of 2.0 GHz that can be burst to 2.7 GHz when needed. However, despite the age of this CPU, which was released towards the end of 2019, it is the integrated graphics of this processor that gives it a slight edge for some users in terms of NAS deployment- especially those looking at multimedia use for their system. For users that are looking at the manipulation of graphical data, or more commonly are using the NAS as a multimedia server and wish to convert dense multimedia into something more manageable locally (for example, converting a dense 4K file into a much smaller and portable version to watch on the phone whilst commuting to work, on the fly), integrated graphics allow the NAS to perform this task with much lower overall resource consumption.

Thanks to it having a more specialized tool to get this job done. The embedded Ryzen R1600 processor on the other hand, lacks the integrated graphics and is a dual-core processor instead of a quad-core. However, it substantially makes up for this by being a much more powerful dual-core processor, with four threads that allow the system to assign system resources in a similar way to that of having multiple cores. Equally, the clock speed is noticeably higher here with the DS923+ CPU having a 2.6 GHz base power that can be burst when needed to 3.1 GHz. It is true that in cases of graphical manipulation or multimedia conversion, the AMD CPU here will be far less efficient and capable. However, in practically every other way, it is superior to that of the J4125 inside the DS423+. And if you are more concerned with traditional file transfer speeds internally and externally, the DS923+ will comfortably be the better-performing NAS.

 

The CPU choices in the DS423+ and DS923+ also result in very different memory architectures in each device, which will undoubtedly result in different scalability in the long term. The DS423+ arrives with 2GB of 2666Mhz memory, soldered to the main controller board, which can be further expanded via an available SODIMM memory slot to 6 GB total. This may be a little disheartening when you find out that the CPU here is actually capable of supporting 8 GB maximum memory. However, due to that initial 2GB memory being fixed internally, you cannot officially exceed 6 GB physically. This shortfall is considerably magnified when you bring into comparison the DS723’s memory structure. It arrives with 4GB of DDR4 3200Mhz memory which can be expanded to a whopping 32 GB total across two available SODIMM slots. Additionally, the system arrives with error-correcting code (ECC) memory, which ensures that data that passes through the memory during write operations will have its integrity checked by a separate module on the memory of the system. If any irregularities or inconsistencies are spotted, that data will be repaired. This goes a long way to reassure any doubts around the integrity of long-term archival data and susceptibility to things like bit rot. This is one of the main reasons why the DS923+ is considered much more of a business solution overall.

Much like the memory choices by Synology in these two NAS devices, the ports and connections of them both are similar, but one is definitely more scalable than the other. Both systems arrive with standard gigabit ethernet connectivity, with two available ports that each will provide up to a maximum 109 megabytes per second. Both systems also arrive with USB 3 connectivity, but it is only 5GB gen 1 USB. However, it is from here onward that the DS723 massively upscales things:

Model ID	Synology DS423+	Synology DS923+
Synology NAS
RJ-45 1GbE LAN port*	2 (Supports Link Aggregation / Failover)	2 (Supports Link Aggregation / Failover)
USB 3.2 Gen 1 port*	2	2
eSATA port	0	1
USB Copy	Yes (inc. Physical Button)	Yes
PCIe expansion	N/A	1 x Gen3 x2 LAN card slot
system fan	92 mm x 92 mm x 2 pcs	92 mm x 92 mm x 2 pcs
fan mode	full speed mode low temperature mode silent mode	full speed mode low temperature mode silent mode
Front panel LED indicators with adjustable brightness	Yes	Yes
Noise value*	19.8dB(A)	22.9 dB(A)
wake on lan	Yes	Yes
Power Supply / Transformer	90W	100W
AC input voltage	100V to 240V AC	100V to 240V AC
current frequency	50/60 Hz, single frequency	50/60 Hz, single frequency
Power consumption	28.3 W (access) 8.45 W (disk hibernation)	35.51 W (access) 11.52 W (disk hibernation)

For a start, the DS923+ features an eSATA external port that is used to connect the official Synology 5-bay expansion device, the DX517. This means that while the DS423+ has a maximum long-term capacity of four SATA drives, the DS923+ allows you to expand your storage down the line by an additional five SATA bays (so 9 Bays total). This can be done gradually and this storage can either mirror the original NAS or extend the storage pool across both devices.

Scalability and expandability do not stop there though, with the DS923+ also having the option to add a network adapter upgrade module (the E10G22-T1-MINI) to increase your network bandwidth to 10GbE. This is going to be incredibly useful for users who plan on taking advantage of SSDs or plan on having a much busier network environment between the NAS and multiple users and tasks at any given time. And it doesn’t stop there! Though BOTH systems also features two SSD bays on its base for installing M.2 2280 SSD modules (which can be used for caching or as raw storage pools, depending on which drive you use), the DS423+ is a Gen 2 PCIe lane system, whilst the DS923+ is a Gen 3 system – resulting in double the bandwidth per lane (ultimately, the difference between 500MB/s max per SSD on the DS423+ and 1,000MB/s on the DS923+). This is a feature that, although growing more common across Synology’s NAS portfolio, it is still unavailable on many of their lower tier/affordable systems (such as the DS224+) and, alongside the lack of storage expansion support, the gen2 speeds on these bays will place limits the storage potential long term on the more affordable NAS.

Finally, we need to discuss storage media compatibility, as this has grown to be another thing that has changed the way in which a user can populate their NAS quite a lot in recent years. On the list of storage media that they are prepared to verify as compatible with their systems. Although technically, one could say that any SATA media drive would be compatible with a SATA NAS, there are still a few incredibly isolated examples of compatibility, durability and stability. Synology requires that all drives need to be officially checked and verified before they’re prepared to add them to their list in order to truly guarantee that a user will get the promised Synology experience from their hardware with that media. As questionable as this might sound, the result is that the list of compatible storage media for both of these devices, despite their incredible similarities, is actually pretty darn different. Take a closer look at the slideshow below of compatible HDDs from WD and Seagate on these two NAS systems (from 21st July 2023) and see if you can spot an odd inconsistency:

In the case of the DS423+, we see a smaller pool of supported storage media, as well as a lower list of larger capacity drives being featured also. The DS923+, on the other hand, seemingly has a larger pool of more high capacity drives added and available to it, as well as a larger range of Synology’s own drives available for use with that system that includes the higher end options in the HAT5300 range. Synology has clearly prioritized higher-end drives for more advanced Synology systems, but for those that like to use their system clearly and rigidly within the defined parameters of a brand to maintain their warranty/guarantee, this is going to be a little disheartening to see the smaller pool of verified compatible storage media on the more affordable NAS solution. This is something that may well change over time as more drives are added to verified compatibility lists, but Synology has not exactly been putting their foot on the gas here. Given how close these two systems have been released side by side and the large disparity between their compatibility lists, I can’t see a huge amount of change happening anytime soon. It is absolutely no surprise that the more expensive Synology NAS has a better degree of hardware options in the long term. Though, it should be highlighted that a lot of the real benefits available in the DS723 are optional extras, long-term scalability and upgrades that are not necessarily available in the default model. It could be very easily argued that you are paying for entry to then pay extra for delivering upgrades, SSD upgrades, storage scalability, and increasing your memory years from now. Nevertheless, the fact that the baseline memory is ECC and the AMD CPU is indeed more powerful in most ways, does make up some of that additional cost and ultimately mean that in terms of hardware and connectivity, the DS923+ is the better of the two.

Synology DS423+ vs DS923+ NAS – Software and Services

At the risk of being incredibly repetitious, both of these devices are remarkably similar in what they can do in Synology’s premium DSM software platform, but the scalability and scope provided by the DS923+ inevitably leads to that more expensive system, ultimately giving you just more resources with which DSM can utilize. In terms of the actual range of applications, services supported on either system and scope for use right out of the box, both the DS423+ and DS923+ have got more than enough to run every single available app and tool available in DSM 7.2. Despite their rather modest scale, both systems can run multiple virtual machines, host a fantastically capable surveillance solution with numerous cameras, both can provide an excellent Plex media server experience (with a slight edge to the DS423+ in terms of conversions and transcoding when needed), and in terms of backups, both systems support the full range of services from Hyper Backup and Active Backup Suite. If you are a small business or just a small group of users who are going to be interacting with either of these NAS units fairly regularly, you’re going to have a largely identical experience in either one of these two systems using the baseline default hardware. However, things will change as soon as you start moving into larger simultaneous access, more high-volume application exchanges between the system and client hardware, and the scope of each one of those individual processes growing over time. In terms of the escalation of accessing the services of DSM and long-term future-proofing of a system running at top speed, despite growing requirements and demands of the system, the DS923+ comfortably wins.

Synology NAS	Synology DS423+	Synology DS923+
Maximum single volume capacity*	108TB	108TB
Maximum number of storage spaces	64	64
M.2 SSD volume support*	Yes	Yes
SSD Read/Write Cache (White Paper)	Yes	Yes
SSD TRIM	Yes	Yes
Support RAID disk array type	Synology Hybrid RAID Basic JBOD RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 6 RAID 10	Synology Hybrid RAID Basic JBOD RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 6 RAID 10
file agreement	SMB/AFP/NFS/FTP/WebDAV	SMB/AFP/NFS/FTP/WebDAV
Maximum simultaneous SMB/AFP/FTP connections	500	1000
Maximum number of simultaneous SMB/AFP/FTP connections (with extended memory)	1500	2000
Windows Access Control List (ACL) Integration	Yes	Yes
NFS Kerberos authentication	Yes	Yes
Maximum number of local user accounts	2048	2048
Maximum number of local groups	256	256
Maximum number of shared folders	256	512
Maximum Shared Folder Sync Tasks	8	16
VMware vSphere with VAAI	N/A	Yes
Windows Server 2022	N/A	Yes
Citrix Ready	N/A	Yes
OpenStack	N/A	Yes
Media Server	Yes	Yes
DLNA compatible	Yes	Yes
Synology Photos	Yes	Yes
face recognition	Yes	Yes
Snapshot Replication	Yes	Yes
The maximum number of snapshots supported by a single shared folder	1024	1024
Maximum number of system snapshots	65536	65536
Surveillance Station	Yes	Yes
The maximum number of cameras supported (camera authorization is required)	40 (including 2 sets of free licenses	40 (including 2 sets of free licenses
Frames per second (FPS) (H.264)	1200 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 800 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 350 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 280 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) 170 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160)	1200 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 1050 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 600 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 360 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) 200 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160)
Frames per second (FPS) (H.265)	1200 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 1200 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 600 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 480 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) 200 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160)	1200 FPS @ 720p (1280×720) 1200 FPS @ 1080p (1920×1080) 1000 FPS @ 3M (2048×1536) 600 FPS @ 5M (2591×1944) 300 FPS @ 4K (3840×2160)
Synology Drive	Yes	Yes
Recommended number of clients that can sync simultaneously	350 (the number of devices that can be connected at the same time when the recommended number of stored files is reached)	350 (the number of devices that can be connected at the same time when the recommended number of stored files is reached)
Recommended number of files to store	5,000,000 (Applicable to files indexed or belonging to Synology Drive , files accessed through other protocols, please refer to the file service in the above field)	5,000,000 (Applicable to files indexed or belonging to Synology Drive , files accessed through other protocols, please refer to the file service in the above field)
Synology Office	Yes	Yes
Maximum number of users	1200	1200
Video Station	Yes	Yes
Virtual Machine Manager	Yes	Yes
Recommended number of virtual machines	2 (see more)	4 (see more)
Recommended number of Virtual DSMs (licensing required)	2 (including 1 set of free licenses)	4 (including 1 set of free licenses)
VPN Server	Yes	Yes
Maximum number of connections	40	40
Synology High Availability	Yes	Yes
log center	Yes	Yes
Number of logs received per second	800	800
Backup folders and packages	Yes	Yes
backup the whole system	Yes	Yes
Remark	Full system backup requires DSM 7.2 or later.	Full system backup requires DSM 7.2 or later.
Maximum number of Hybrid Share folders	10	10

Notwithstanding that the system has a much higher clock speed CPU that, despite only being a dual-core processor, features a four thread architecture with DSM, allowing a lot of the spreading of resources normally associated with cores to be made available with vCPU allocation (containers, virtual machines and just natively). Then there is the scope for the larger overall capacity available to be upgraded towards in terms of memory, with the rather modest 6GB of memory on the DS423+ looking quite underwhelming when compared against the whopping 32 GB maximum memory that is scalable on the DS923+. That ultimately adds up to the more expensive NAS system having a better opportunity to grow alongside a more demanding data storage network of connected devices and users over time. And we haven’t even touched on the performance benefit in DSM and all of the first and third party applications when we factor in support of Gen3 SSDs for caching or storage pools in the DS923+, both of which are going to allow much better, long-term utilization and overall, a much smoother experience for a considerably longer amount of time than that of the DS423+. Ultimately, if you think your utilization of the NAS is going to grow steadily and increasingly over time, the DS923+ is the better choice here in terms of software, in and out of DSM.

Synology DS423+ vs DS923+ NAS – Conclusion and Verdict

Unsurprisingly, what we have here is an old-fashioned case of getting what you pay for. The DS423+ is a very solid, and reliable NAS solution and is definitely more than capable of running the bulk of modern NAS hardware needs, also, remaining pretty flexible in the resources available to it on day one to get the job done. Equally, for home users and particularly those seeking a more flexible approach to multimedia, the DS423+ does bring a decent amount of bang for buck when you compare it against the bulk of other Synology solutions in the brand’s portfolio. But it just pales in comparison to the sheer scope of scalability, upgrade options and flexibility long-term that the DS923+ provides. And regardless of whether you’re a business user or a home user that may perhaps be looking to do something more aggressive with their storage down the line, the DS923+ justifies a lot of the extra expense, simply by the weight of it having that ECC memory, twice the default memory on day 1, Gen3 SSD NVMe storage options, expandability, 10G as an optional extra and the scale of how far you can upgrade the memory. As mentioned earlier, we have to at least acknowledge that a lot of these advantages that the DS923+ presents compared with the DS423+ are ones that you will only really take advantage of if you spend a little bit more money, but having the option for that scalability down the line for many users is going to be worth the investment on day one. Side by side, in most cases, the DS923+ will comfortably outperform the DS423+ even in the default model, so you still aren’t losing out just because you’re paying extra for upgrade options you may not use later down the line.

Synology NAS
Amazon Price:	Synology DS423+ NAS $479 (Amazon 25/02/24)	Synology DS923+ NAS $599 (Amazon 25/02/24)

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This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you. Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry. [contact-form-7] TRY CHAT Terms and Conditions   Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.

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QNAP TBS-h574TX NASBook – The Best Thunderbolt NAS Yet?

QNAP has quite an enviable stronghold on the entire Thunderbolt NAS market, and although a few brands have attempted to challenge their dominance in this area over the years, ever since QNAP first revealed their first Thunderbolt device back in 2017, they have gone from strength to strength and innovated wildly in this area with each iteration. The latest entry into this, the SSD-focused TBS-h574TX NAS system, is potentially the fastest and most powerful entry yet, focusing on the use of E1.S hot-swappable M.2 SSD storage and built using an Intel 13th generation core architecture. Is this TB4 and 10GbE equipped NAS the potential to wipe everyone else off the board? There are a lot of users still unsure whether this $2,000 NAS justifies its investment. So, until the full review is available, please enjoy this shorter-form review focusing on just the highlights (and the lowlights) of the QNAP TBS-h574TX NAS.

QNAP TBS-h574TX System Specifications:

• CPU: Intel® Core i5-1340PE 12C(4P+8E)/16T, up to 4.50GHz
• CPU Architecture: 64-bit x86
• Graphic Processors: Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics eligible
• System Memory: 16 GB on board (non-expandable)
• Drive Bay: 5 x E1.S up to 15mm (5x PCIe Gen3 x2), Pre-install adapter to support M.2 2280 for each slot
• 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Port: 1 (2.5G/1G/100M)
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet Port: 1 x 10GBASE-T (10G/5G/2.5G/1G/100M)
• Thunderbolt Port: 2 (Thunderbolt 4)
• USB 2.0 port: 1
• USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Port: 2
• HDMI Output: 1, HDMI 1.4b
• Dimensions (HxWxD): 60 × 215 × 199 mm (Dimensions do not include foot pad; foot pad may be up to 30mm/1.18 inches high depending on model)
• Weight (Net): 2.24 kg
• Power Supply Unit: 120W Adapter (19VDC output, 100-240VAC input)
• Power Consumption: Operating Mode, Typical 46 W
• Fans: System fan: 2 x 40mm, CPU fan: 1 x 75mm

QNAP TBS-h574TX NAS Review Quick Conclusion

The QNAP TBS-h574TX NAS emerges as an exceptional and uniquely compact yet robustly powerful system, offering outstanding performance and bandwidth capabilities. Its sleek and innovative design sets a new standard in the NAS market, particularly notable for its integration of advanced features like Thunderbolt 4 and a high-capacity 10G connection. These features are further enhanced by the utilization of cutting-edge E1.S/NVMe SSD storage, all seamlessly managed by a highly capable CPU architecture. This makes the TBS-h574TX not just a NAS, but a powerhouse of data management and connectivity. Especially appealing to photo and video editors, the NAS excels in aesthetics, portability, and functionality, making it a viable alternative to traditional portable direct-attached storage systems like LaCie or G-Tech. Its ability to support multi-user access and provide immediate local network connectivity straight out of the box adds to its versatility. Additionally, the system boasts a modest power supply and impressively efficient power consumption relative to the bandwidth it offers, highlighting QNAP’s commitment to balancing performance with energy efficiency.

However, users must note some trade-offs, such as the limitation in PCIe bandwidth for each of the SSD bays, and the fixed memory capacity. While these are necessary adjustments for its compact form, they are points for consideration. Despite these minor limitations, the 13th Gen Intel Core processor used in its configurations demonstrates QNAP’s dedication to incorporating top-tier technology, although there are more advanced CPUs in other models. This system is a testament to QNAP’s ability to innovate, offering a package that promises the high performance of larger NAS units but in a remarkably portable format. It raises the question: Is this the ideal NAS for everyone? Perhaps not. But for those seeking a high-performance, Thunderbolt-enabled NAS that combines portability with powerful capabilities, the QNAP TBS-h574TX is a formidable choice.

DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now? Qnap TBS-h574TX-i3-12G Thunderbolt Compact All-Flash | 5 x E1.S or M.2 SSD's, In Amazon UK 55.91 OFF (WAS 1851) [LINK] These Offers are Checked Daily

Reasons You SHOULD Choose the QNAP TBS-h574TX NASBook

If you are looking for a super-fast NAS, built on a powerful architecture, that’s supremely portable and supports the latest ports and connectivity, the TBS-h574TX NAS will likely serve you very well. But why specifically should you choose the TBS-h574TX NAS instead of many other devices on the market right now?

E1.S and NVMe Drive Support

The TBS-h574TX is one of the very first desktop NAS devices to feature E1.S media bays. In the last few years, we have seen a growing trend towards the use of SSDs as the primary storage media for private servers and NAS devices, with some particular standout examples from both QNAP and Asustor focusing on M.2 NVMe SSDs. However, one major downside of M.2 NVMe use is that they do not support hot swapping. This means that in the event of a drive failure leading to a degraded RAID state or the need to introduce a newer and larger capacity drive to an existing storage pool, you are required to power down the system completely. Removing an M.2 NVMe from a system that is powered on will lead it to crash and can be detrimental to the health of both the system and the storage drive. E1.S SSD bays, however, fully support hot swapping in an identical fashion to that of traditional SATA storage drives.

Additionally, the QNAP TBS-h574TX arrives with E1.S storage bays, as well as NVMe adapters that allow you to use regular off-the-shelf M.2 NVMe in these storage spaces and still have access to hot swapping. E1.S drives allow for additional storage space and taller PCB SSD space to be afforded to the storage drives, and although the gains are generally only minimal in traditional 2280 length SSDs, overall the fact that this flash NAS system supports these more flexible SSD options is always going to be desirable.

Thunderbolt 4, 10GbE, and an Intel 13th Gen CPU – YES PLEASE!

I cannot stress enough how good the connectivity is on the TBS-h574TX. Although it is not the first QNAP NAS to arrive with Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, it is definitely one of the smallest devices on the market to feature it. The TBS-h574TX features one Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port on the front for convenience, and an additional port on the rear. Not only can these be used to connect Thunderbolt storage to your NAS system, but more importantly, they allow a user to connect directly, point to point, from a Mac or Windows computer to the QNAP TBS-h574TX system. This opens the door to tremendous performance and, once you factor in the use of M.2 NVMe SSD storage, you are looking at some serious performance. QNAP reports the performance utilizing 5 Samsung 980 Pro SSDs in a RAID environment to hit 1700 megabytes per second for one connected device over Thunderbolt, and in excess of 3,000 megabytes per second for two connected Thunderbolt devices. That’s right, the support of Thunderbolt also allows multiple users to connect to the same storage space simultaneously, as well as the system supporting cross-platform file sharing, which allows the same storage area to be used simultaneously by both Mac and Windows users, regardless of the different operating systems in play.

Then, there is the inclusion of a 10GbE network port. This means that you can attach a third connected high-speed user over either a 10GbE network connection, or utilizing a Thunderbolt to 10G adapter available for around $150 to $200. Of course, you could use this port to connect the TBS-h574TX to a larger 10G equipped network and allow multiple users to enjoy full gigabit network saturation each, but I think a lot of portable users are going to enjoy the fact that a single area of high-speed intelligent storage can be connected to via three high-speed connections, all of which can edit on the fly. There is even an additional 2.5GbE port to connect the device to an existing network while all of this is going on, promoting network and internet shares.

All of this is made possible thanks to a very powerful Intel 13th Gen i5 or i3 CPU option, which is both highly efficient and powerful, thanks to its shrunk-down SOC mobile architecture. All of this adds up to an incredibly powerful system that is ready to reinvent the workflow of small to medium video editing workflows!

Very Compact and Portable

If you are looking for a storage device that needs to be portable, the TBS-h574TX is one of the best examples out there by this brand. Picture the scene: you and a small team of video or photo content creators are on the move, and after a long day of capturing content, you need to back up, edit, and/or distribute what you have created. Thanks to the small-scale stature of the QNAP TBS-h574TX, and its modest and small-scale 120-watt PSU, this system can be carried around very conveniently in a laptop bag and can be set up in minutes to allow multiple users to connect to either edit on the fly or back up from numerous different connected USB and Thunderbolt devices simultaneously.

That isn’t to say you can’t do that with most other NAS systems, but most other NAS systems arrive with clunky and fragile hard drives, have much larger power consumption requirements, or, more importantly, are considerably heavier. This system combats all three of these factors by being light, small, and exceedingly fast.

1TB of Free Cloud Space Included

This is something that I really wish QNAP would do with a lot more of their releases. QNAP has offered for the last year or so access to their own cloud service that allows you to back up the data on your NAS to their first-party encrypted cloud and makes remote access a great deal more convenient to back up data, as well as providing a first-party secondary backup option. Any user can gain access to 16GB of free space, but after that, you have to pay subscription costs in order to gain more cloud storage space on the MyQ9 cloud service. However, the QNAP TBS-h574TX, almost certainly because of its larger focus on video/photo editors, arrives with one terabyte of cloud storage space available on a 12-month license.

This is going to be hugely appealing to those that not only want to access, edit, and back up their data as quickly as possible, but also want a streamlined second-level backup to be integrated into their system, and one terabyte is a hugely generous sum of storage to be offered with this device. Of course, after the one-year license has concluded, you will need to either remove your data from the cloud or pay a subscription fee to maintain it there, but nevertheless, it is great that they have offered this alongside the device, and I really wish they did this more with some of their production-ready systems.

Includes QNAP QuTS ZFS / QTS EXT4 NAS Software, Services and Tools (A Whole Operating System)

The QNAP TVS-h874 NAS comes with a comprehensive software and services package, offering either QNAP QTS or QuTS (version 5.0.1) at initialization. This operating system, resembling Windows 11 and Android OS in design, supports hundreds of applications, services, and functions. It includes numerous mobile and desktop client applications for tailored data interaction. The software also features SSD-specific tools like anti-wearing for SSDs, better ZFS-HDD/SSD profiling, and options for storage, caching, or tiered storage. While QTS/QuTS is highly customizable, offering flexibility and user-friendliness, it does have a learning curve that may challenge novice users. Despite past security concerns, including ransomware attacks due to vulnerabilities in Linux and QNAP’s applications, improvements have been made in QTS/QuTS 5, making the system more secure and user-friendly.

QNAP’s TVS-h874 NAS excels in file management, security, storage management, multimedia handling, business tools, and surveillance. It offers sophisticated file management tools, improved security features with multi-layered protection, and diverse storage, backup, and synchronization options. The NAS supports a wide range of multimedia applications, including AI photo recognition and popular media servers like Plex. For business needs, it provides virtual machines, containers, and surveillance solutions like QVR Pro with extensive camera support. The TVS-h874’s software diversity, despite previous security issues, showcases a rich array of hardware configurations, services, and tools, solidifying its place as a versatile NAS solution. Further testing of its performance, particularly as a Plex Media Server and VM host, is upcoming on the NASCompares YouTube channel.

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Reasons You SHOULD NOT Choose the QNAP TBS-h574TX NASBook

As good as all of the advantages mentioned above sound, realistically, the QNAP TBS-h574TX is a rather specialized piece of equipment, and it’s fair to say that not everyone is going to see all of its hardware and architecture as positives. So let’s go through five reasons why you might want to give the QNAP TBS-h574TX a miss and look elsewhere.

Gen 3×2 M.2 Bandwidth is Disappointing

Despite the remarkably future-proof Intel 13th generation i3 and i5 processor featured inside the TBS-h574TX, the scaling down of this processor by Intel into a mobile processor form, and the requirements by QNAP to keep this system miniature yet still facilitate high bandwidth external connections, have all resulted in particular bottlenecks and compromises being made. Probably one of the most prominent compromises is in the bandwidth afforded to each of the individual E1.S NVMe media bays. Although this processor supports both PCIe Gen 4 and PCIe Gen 3, in order to get the lanes divided neatly across the system, each drive slot is limited to PCIe Gen 3 x2.

Utilizing SSD drives that make bold promises in excess of 3,000 megabytes per second, realistically each of these bays will not really be able to exceed 1500 or 1800 MB per second. In the correct RAID configuration, this should not prove to be much of a problem as you are still going to enjoy the multiplication factor of combining multiple read and write actions across each of the disks in the single RAID storage pool. Nevertheless, there are going to be users who would have hoped to see this system enjoy the PCIe Gen 4 architecture of bigger Thunderbolt devices like the H874T released in late 2023, which features a far more aggressive processor and a larger range of bays in its larger design.

16GB Max Memory (and only 12GB on the i3 Version)

I found it really peculiar that this system rolls out the gate with either 12 gigabytes or 16 gigabytes of fixed memory. The QNAP TBS-h574TX is not the first system to come out with prefixed soldered memory modules internally, and it won’t be the last! There are benefits to having memory fixed in this fashion, such as power efficiency, cost efficiency, and allowing the architecture of the processor and the number of channels it can handle to be better utilized. Nevertheless, this system is running a processor that can handle up to 64 gigabytes of memory, and because of the lack of an upgradable DIMM or SODIMM slot, you are limited to this base level amount throughout the system’s lifespan. 16 gigabytes is still a pretty reasonable amount of memory and more than enough to handle the majority of system processes, but the 12 GB of fixed memory on the i3 version just feels a bit weird and is an unusual memory quantity that feels like it was applied by design and not necessity.

$1800-2000+ Price Tag, is the QNAP TVS-h674T a Better Choice?

The price tag of the QNAP TBS-h574TX is certainly going to put some users off. Arriving at around $1800-$2000, although in the realm of Thunderbolt NAS, this is a reasonable figure, outside of that, and for a 5x10G NAS, it does seem rather high. You do need to factor in that we are talking about a specialized flash system with Thunderbolt 4 connectivity and one of the most modern NAS processors in the market, but that price is certainly going to be tough for some. However, what is probably a little bit more interesting about this price point is what else you can get for this money from QNAP themselves if you look a little broader across their range of solutions. For example, for around $100 more you can pick up the QNAP TVS-h674T – This is the six hard drive and two Gen 4 NVMe tower system.

It arrives with a very similar processor, memory that can be expanded up to 64GB if needed, the SSD slots are Gen 4 x4, it has two Gen 4 PCIe upgrade slots with one of them at x16 speed, and the system even still arrives with Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. You would lose out on the more compact nature of the TBS-h574TX system, have to spend a little more to get a 10GbE connection, and only have two SSD slots instead of five, but overall the 674T system is a better-tiered system for many and might serve as a better choice overall for some users.

Not a Silent NASBook (Unlike the TBS-464 or HS-464)

This is a very minor point, but it has to be said – The QNAP TBS-h574TX is not a silent NAS system. QNAP has rolled out several silent or near-silent systems in the last few years, some of which carried the NASBook branding as seen here on the TBS-h574TX system, unfortunately, because of the largely metal construction of the TBS-h574TX and the fact that it features two rear cooling fans and a small internal CPU fan, the system does make noise when in operation. I should stress, this is still much, much quieter than the average system but there are still going to be users that are going to look at this system and hope that it is silent when in operation. Systems such as the HS-264 and TBS-464 are both genuinely silent or as near silent as possible systems from this brand, although it’s worth remembering that these are significantly less powerful and bandwidth-rich. Ultimately, QNAP has done a great job here balancing power, scale, and portability to fit all of this into such a small single casing. Just don’t be under the illusion that they managed to make the thing completely inaudible!

Deadbolt! We Need to Talk

In 2021/2022, QNAP was one of several brands that were successfully targeted by the ransomware group Deadbolt. This resulted in thousands of systems from QNAP, Asustor, and TerraMaster being remotely encrypted, requiring payment of a ransom fee, costly data recovery services, or free but highly time-consuming data retrieval methods. You can read/watch more about it in the article HERE, but after this event, there was no avoiding that several brands were slightly tarnished with a reputation for being insecure remotely. The affected brands have all implemented numerous changes to their update and security protocols. Although the inherent vulnerabilities have never been truly identified for each individual brand, most believe it was a Linux-based vulnerability that remained unpatched, or at least a vulnerability that, if users did not update their system regularly, had been left open for exploitation. It still required a very specific range of circumstances for this exploit to be utilized by hackers, ranging from leaving network ports and router configurations open unsafely, to leaving certain SSH and administrative protocols enabled by default.

Nevertheless, after this event, QNAP, along with the other affected brands, updated how updates are delivered to the system, tightened default settings, and security protocols to ensure users would need to work harder to put their systems in unsafe states, ultimately resulting in a wake-up call for the NAS industry. This was several years ago, and although the QNAP NAS brand has improved considerably since then, it is still worth pointing out that they were impacted by this. I believe there is an important lesson to be learned here, and until at least 5 years have passed, I will mention this in every QNAP NAS review I do (as well as every Asustor and TerraMaster review too). Once again, you would need to manually place your system into a particularly unsafe state for any vulnerability to be exploited in this fashion. Additionally, a look at any of the security advisories from internet or network-connected platforms (Synology, Microsoft, Google, Apple, literally anyone!) shows that vulnerabilities on these platforms are regularly found by brands and white-hat hackers. The bottom line is, it’s important that buyers know about Deadbolt, but also keep in mind that in most instances, you would need to manually put your system into an unsafe state for particularly virulent ransomware and malware attacks to be effective.

Conclusion – Should You Buy the QNAP TBS-h574TX NASBook?

The QNAP TBS-h574TX is a genuinely unique and impressive piece of equipment, potentially one of the best NAS systems I have ever seen! For such a compact and portable system, it manages to include a phenomenal amount of both internal and external performance and bandwidth – something that the majority of systems at this price point generally need to compromise on one aspect or the other. Additionally, QNAP continues to dominate the market of Thunderbolt NAS storage, and you can clearly see their innovation and improvement with each iteration of this technology – with the TBS-h574TX being one of the sleekest and most impressive entries into this product family. The Thunderbolt 4 on this system does exactly what QNAP says it will, providing huge performance numbers to connected users via this protocol, as well as an additional thousand megabytes per second through the 10G connection. Thanks to the utilization of E1.S/NVMe SSD storage, fully saturating all these connections simultaneously is indeed possible, all enabled by an incredibly impressive choice of CPU architecture that has the muscle to keep things moving in the backend.

Equally, as this system is largely focused on photo and video editors, it is beautifully presented and highly portable. It could easily replace portable LaCie or G-Tech direct-attached storage systems used by many on-site content creators, thanks to its support of multi-user access and local network connectivity right out of the box. Add to that a modest power supply and impressively low power consumption for the bandwidth offered, and this is one of the most beautifully put-together systems by this brand. Of course, when you start miniaturizing and reducing scale, compromises inevitably need to be made for reasons of power efficiency, temperature, and space. The downgrading of the PCIe bandwidth on each of the SSD bays is a necessary but still regrettable inevitability. Likewise, although I’m impressed by the 13th Gen Intel Core processor featured in both configurations available, there are better Intel CPUs already used in other QNAP Thunderbolt systems, and whether this was the reason or logic behind the fixed 12/16 GB memory still remains to be seen. There are definitely video editors who will be completely in love with this system, and you can see why: it promises everything that the larger boxes from QNAP have been offering for years, but in a scale that you can pop in your laptop bag on the go. Is this the perfect NAS? No. Is it the Perfect Thunderbolt NAS? Maybe!

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PROs of the QNAP TBS-h574TX NAS

CONs of the QNAP TBS-h574TX NAS

Exceptionally future-proof 13th Gen i3/i5 Processor (Mid-2023 series) with high end Int.Gfx 2x Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, one is front mounted for convenience Also features a 10GbE and 2.5GbE Connection for direct editing and/or high-speed local networking High internal and external performance and bandwidth for such a compact system Compact and portable, ideal for on-site creators to share and collaborate on-the-fly Enhanced security protocols post-Deadbolt ransomware attack. Wide range of multimedia and business tools. Equipped with QVR Pro for extensive surveillance and numerous Backup/Sync tools as standard. QuTS Has numerous ZFS based advantages + QSAL Antiwear leveling Supports AI photo recognition, AI Surveillance Tools, 4K/8K Plex Support and VM Tools. Arrives with 1TB of Cloud Space with MyQNAPCloudOne for 12 months.

High price range of $1800-$2000. Check out the TVS-h674T for similar pricing and alternative Tiering/Bandwidth allocation Limited PCIe bandwidth on SSD bays. Not a silent operation due to cooling fans.

A Guide to the Best 5/6-Bay NAS Drives to Buy Right Now

In recent years, the appeal of 5-Bay and 6-Bay NAS systems has dramatically increased, particularly since 2023/2024. Previously, home and small-business users tended to opt for either modest 2/4 Bay systems or jump to the larger 8-Bay models when needing more storage capacity. The growing popularity of 5-Bay and 6-Bay models can be attributed to two key factors. Firstly, the advent of larger capacity drives, reaching up to 22TB and soon 24TB, enables even mid-sized NAS systems to surpass the 100TB storage threshold easily. Secondly, there’s a heightened awareness of data redundancy needs and skepticism about the reliability of single-drive safety in RAID 5 configurations, compared to the two-drive failure protection offered by RAID 6. This combination has made 5-Bay and 6-Bay NAS setups, especially those using large drives in a RAID 6 array, much more accessible and desirable. NAS manufacturers have taken note of this trend, leading to an expanded range of 5-Bay and 6-Bay NAS solutions that vary in hardware capabilities, power, and price. In this context, I aim to highlight my top picks for 5-Bay and 6-Bay NAS drives to consider in 2023/2024, each standing out for unique reasons. Let’s explore the best 5-Bay and 6-Bay NAS servers that should be on your radar.

Best 5/6-Bay NAS of the Year (Honourable Mention) LincPlus N1 –$250-300 (TBC)  (Currently in Crowdfunding)  – Buy Here on Amazon (Best Value) Asustor Flashstor 6 $499 – Buy Here on Amazon – Buy HERE on B&H (Best Software) Synology DS1522+ $699 – Buy Here on Amazon – Buy HERE on B&H (Best Hardware) QNAP TS-855X $1300-1500 – Buy Here on Amazon – Buy HERE on B&H

What Have All the Best 5/6-Bay NAS Drives Have in Common?

As you explore the extensive selection of 5/6-Bay NAS drives available in 2023/2024, it’s important to recognize that their quality and capabilities vary greatly. Despite the growing number of budget-friendly options online, they often fall short of the standards set by premium NAS brands, appearing too good to be true and disappearing quickly. Whether you’re considering my top three 5/6-Bay NAS recommendations or looking at other options, the best NAS systems consistently offer certain essential features:

• Combined Hardware & Software Solution: This includes not only the NAS hardware but also a comprehensive software suite with a web browser GUI, mobile apps, and desktop client applications for backup, media, streaming, surveillance, and file management.

• Multi-OS Compatibility: All NAS systems should be compatible with and accessible by Windows, Mac, Android, and Linux operating systems.

• Warranty of 2-3 Years, Extendable to 5 Years: Look for a standard warranty period with an option for extension.

• Local and Secure Remote Network Access: The ability for local network access and secure remote access via brand-supported services, at no extra cost.

• Support for Latest Large Capacity Hard Drives: Modern NAS systems should support up to 20TB NAS hard drives, such as Seagate Ironwolf 22TB and WD Red 22TB.

• Multiple Drive Configurations (RAID): For enhanced performance and data safety.

• Regular Security and Feature Updates: Ensuring the NAS system remains secure and up-to-date.

• Cloud and Business Service Synchronization: Compatibility with services like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, AWS, Azure, and Backblaze.

• Shared Drive Hosting Capability: The ability to host a shared drive on PC, mobile, or laptop systems, synchronized with the NAS and displayed in the native file manager.

• Direct Access via Ethernet/Network Cable: For high-speed connectivity, direct access through an ethernet/network cable to the NAS is crucial.

• Backup and Sync Tools: Available for installation on local client computers to facilitate regular backups of files and system data.

Ensure that any 5/6-Bay NAS you are considering includes these features, as they are key indicators of a high-quality NAS system. Let’s now delve into the best 5/6-Bay NAS options to invest in for 2023/2024.

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Honourable Mention: 5/6-Bay NAS Drive – The LincStation N1

0-32TB M.2 NVMe + 10TB SATA HDD / 16TB SATA SSD, 4+2-Bays, 4xM.2 NVMe 2280, Intel N5105/N5095 CPU, 16GB Memory, 2.5Gbe Port, HDMI+DP 1.4 60FPS 4K, UnRAID License Inc, 2yr Warranty

Current Price/Availability on Amazon –$250-300 (TBC)  (Currently in Crowdfunding)

Hardware Review – LINK

YouTube Video Review – Watch

What I said in my review Oct 16 ’23:

When evaluating the Lincplus N1 NAS, context is paramount. Keeping in mind its price point and the brand’s objectives, as well as understanding how an SSD-centric system can fit into this mold, you’ll likely be thoroughly pleased with this NAS. For a mere $279, it offers an unmatched combination of hardware capabilities. The silent operation, bundled UnRAID software, two-tier storage, and genuine turnkey out-of-the-box deployment culminate into a device brimming with potential. It caters to both newcomers to private server ownership and seasoned home lab enthusiasts. Certain concessions were inevitable to attain this attractive price. Seasoned flash industry professionals might bemoan the absence of ECC memory, the use of a consumer-grade CPU, and limitations placed on the bandwidth and speeds for the m.2 NVMe slots. Even though the software is genuinely turnkey and the system is ready to run immediately after unboxing, UnRAID does come with its learning curve. It might be more user-friendly compared to other container-based GUIs, but there’s still a learning curve. Additionally, the default UnRAID settings could be better tailored to this SSD-driven system.

Hopefully, future firmware updates might address this. Such discrepancies are expected when the hardware is developed by one entity and the software by another. This dichotomy can lead to inconsistencies, such as those seen in drive monitoring results, raising questions about the demarcation of responsibility between the two entities. However, overlooking these minor points, the N1 stands out as a commendable alternative to a full DIY approach. It not only saves money and time but also offers a ready-to-use, compact solution. Provided you acknowledge and accept the inherent compromises, the N1 emerges as a notable midpoint in the burgeoning server market, bridging the gap between custom-built and all-inclusive turnkey solutions.

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Best Software 5/6-Bay NAS – The Synology DS1522+

0-110TB (90TB with Syn HAT5300s) , 5x SATA Bays, 2x M.2 NVMe 2280 (Pools and Caching), AMD R1600 2-Core / 4-Thread CPU, 8-32GB ECC DDR4 Memory, 4x 1Gbe Port, Optional 10GbE Upgrade, 2x Expansion Port, 3-5yr Warranty

Current Price/Availability on Amazon – $699

Hardware Review – LINK

YouTube Video Review – Watch , Before You Buy Video – Watch

What I said in my review June ’22:

The Synology DS1522+ is a good NAS drive and most business-focused users are going to appreciate what this newer configuration of hardware is able to provide. There was never any doubt in the extent to which this new NAS would support DSM7, and given its architecture, there is virtually nothing in the popular NAS software that this system cannot do. Likewise, having the option of 10GbE on a Diskstation of this scale will be hugely attractive to some, though the proprietary means with which you need to upgrade is arguably less desirable.

The R1600 CPU is a good choice of processor for file handling and simultaneous tasks, as is the 8GB of memory that this system arrives with, plus the potential to ramp it up to 32GB. After that though, the desirability of this system to home users and multimedia users is a little less compelling and with such a large audience of users who look at NAS for their media streaming, the DS1522+ not featuring a more graphically enabled chip will leave them somewhat underwhelmed. Bottom line, the DS1522+ is a solid and full DSM7 supporting system here and you cannot fault the design, internal/external performance and ease of use of this Synology NAS. However, there will always be users wondering why this NAS never arrived with an Intel chip.

 

DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now? Synology 5-bay DiskStation DS1522+ (Diskless),Black https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=dp_bc_aui_C_5?ie=UTF8&node=20941687011 USA 15% Off [LINK] Synology 5-bay DiskStation DS1522+ (Diskless),Black Amazon USA 21.37 OFF (WAS 721) [LINK] These Offers are Checked Daily

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Best Value 6-Bay NAS – The Asustor Flashstor 6 NVMe Flash Server

0-48TB, 6x M.2 NVMe 3×1 Bays, Supports 2x USB Expansions, N5105/N5095 4-Core CPU, 4-16GB DDR4 (non-ECC) Memory, 2x 2.5Gbe Port, 3yr Warranty (10GbE version = FS6712X Flashstor 12 Pro for $799 HERE)

Current Price/Availability on Amazon – $499

Hardware Review – LINK

YouTube Video Review – Watch (Flashstor 12 Pro Review HERE)

What I said in my review June ’23:

I cannot stress enough how impressed I am that the Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro are priced at $499 and $860, respectively, given the level of hardware on offer here. These are by no means enterprise-grade NAS server solutions, nor should they be thought of as such. However, given the cost of typical fully featured 4x HDD solutions from their competitors and the brand themselves, which often start at $550 and above, it is quite remarkable that the six M.2 SSD system with comparable internal hardware comes in at $499. As long as a user keeps their expectations in line with what this cost versus its capabilities, it’s really tough to argue with the price point that these two devices have arrived at on the market. The Asustor FS6712X Flashstor 12 Pro NAS presents a unique offering in the NAS market, leveraging NVMe technology to provide high-capacity, ultra-high-performance storage. The device’s design, with its rhombus-shaped enclosure and twelve M.2 NVMe slots, sets it apart from traditional NAS devices and offers a sleek and modern aesthetic.

The tool-less drive installation mechanism makes it easy to set up and expand the storage capacity. However, there are some considerations to keep in mind. The limited number of PCIe lanes provided by the Intel Celeron N5105 processor may restrict the performance of high-speed NVMe drives. The single 10GbE LAN port also presents a potential network bottleneck, limiting the device’s overall network performance. Users seeking maximum performance and network throughput may find alternative solutions better suited to their needs. Despite these limitations, the FS6712X shines as a storage solution for users who prioritize high-capacity storage, quiet operation, and low power consumption. The device’s ability to directly output 4K video, along with its range of Asustor-approved apps, makes it an excellent choice for media distribution and presentation. In terms of pricing, the FS6712X comes with a price tag of $850+. While this may appear high at first glance, it is comparable to 8 bay drive NAS SATA devices and many of those do not even include NVMe slots or 10GbE. Users looking for a more cost-effective option can consider the Flashstor 6, which offers half the number of slots and 2x 2.5GbE enabled ports for $499.

As the cost of flash modules continues to drop, and larger capacity drives become available all the way up to 8TB (even without QLC), the FS6712X provides an attractive solution for those seeking high-capacity and high-performance NAS storage. While some underlying performance relativity by the end user needs to be factored in and hardware limitations exist thanks to the use of that Celeron to remain budget-friendly, the FS6712X is a tremendously smart move by Asustor. A well-designed NAS that presents a much more confident solution demonstrating the benefits of NVMe-focused NAS devices to an audience that would have assumed such things are way, WAY outside the realms of affordability!

 

DEAL WATCH – Is It On Offer Right Now? ASUSTOR FLASHSTOR 12 Pro (FS6712X) Network Storage Amazon USA 33.32 OFF (WAS 831) [LINK] These Offers are Checked Daily

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Bet Hardware 6-Bay NAS – QNAP Triple Tier TS-855X Server

0-130TB SATA HDDs, 0-16TB SATA SSDs, 0-16TB 3×4 M.2 NVMes, 6+2+2-Bays, C5125 8-Core Atom CPU, 8-128GB Memory, 1x 10GbE and 2x 2.5GbE Ports, 2x PCIe 3×8 Slots, 3yr Warranty

Current Price/Availability on Amazon – $1300-1500

Hardware Review – LINK

YouTube Video Review – Watch

What I said in my review June ’23:

I have to say, I am INSANELY impressed by how much bang for buck is being included in the TS-855X and although it is not the most powerful device in the market (arguably intentionally, as it favours the more affordable Atom over a xeon), it is a sensible workhorse of a NAS. On the positive side, the QNAP TS-855X NAS comes with numerous strong selling points. The device offers large storage potential, especially with the ZFS file system, making it a powerhouse for data management. The choice of CPU is also sensible, providing a balance between performance and cost-effectiveness. The inclusion of the QTier tool is particularly appealing, adding a layer of efficiency to the storage management. Another big plus is the user-friendly GUI for ZFS in QuTS, making it accessible for users with varying levels of technical expertise. The three-tier storage options and support of ECC memory with a maximum of 128GB further enhance the device’s versatility and potential. Moreover, the TS-855X provides a wealth of expansion options and comes with 8 camera licenses with QVR Pro/QTS. The well-ventilated design contributes to thermal efficiency, ensuring optimal performance, while its support for the latest 22TB and soon-to-be-released 24TB drives future-proofs your investment.

However, the TS-855X is not without its drawbacks. While the two SATA SSD bays provide extra storage options, they would have been better if they were U.2 slots, which offer faster speeds. Although the device supports ECC memory, the initial 8GB memory in the base model is non-ECC, which might not be optimal for all ZFS services. The memory capacity might also be somewhat low for users with intensive data needs. Furthermore, the software can sometimes be inconsistent under heavy use, and it has a steeper learning curve compared to competitors like Synology. Finally, the pricing structure for the TS-855X is a mixed bag. While some users may find the cost reasonable given its features, others might feel it’s a bit steep for what it offers. Therefore, while the QNAP TS-855X NAS offers a plethora of attractive features and strong performance, it’s worth keeping in mind that a spend of a few hundred more dollars opens the door to Intel Core-powered NAS in the TVS-hx74 series or more powerful Xeon triple-tiered systems such as the TVS-h1288X. If you want power, but on a budget, it’s a great choice!

 

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