REVIEW – I have been a videographer and photographer for many years, but I recently decided to do less of that and work more on my social media channels. Although I knew I would need space for media storage, I did not realize how much I would need especially since my wife also has social media channels. I desperately need storage space and am excited that UGreen has come to the rescue with this UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus NAS.
What is it?
The UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus NAS is a four-bay solid-state NAS featuring multi-gig LAN connectivity and an Intel Pentium Gold CPU. Its design includes a USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, an HDMI port, 10G & 2,5 G network ports, and an SD card slot.
What’s in the box?
- UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus Network Attached Storage
- Power adapter and cord
- 2 Ethernet cables
- 2 heat sync strips for SSDs
- 2 drive bay keys
- Screwdriver and screws
- User manual
Tech specs
Design and features
On the front of the NAS are the 4 easy-access drive bays, and below the bays, there is the power button, the LED status indicators an SD card slot, a USB-C port, and a USB-A port.
UGreen provides a sort of flat spade key that locks the drive bays to prevent someone from accidentally opening them.
The toolless setup is straightforward. The hard drives slide into the caddies and then the caddies slide into the bays.
On the bottom back of the NAS are the main connectivity ports: an HDMI port, USB ports, 2 ethernet ports (2.5G & 10G), a reset button, and the power port.
There is a removable screen over the vent.
At the bottom of the NAS is a door that reveals memory slots you can use to add memory sticks. In my case, UGreen provided 2 x NVM2 1TB memory sticks that can be used as a storage pool or cache. As you will see further along in this review from the screenshots, I opted to use mine as a “read/write” cache. Adhesive heatsinks for the memory sticks were also included.
Performance
The UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus NAS is easy to get going. Once you add the drives, the next step is to connect it to your network via either the 2,5G or 10G ethernet port. I have all 10G switches so I used the 10G port. It immediately connected to my network. When I received the NAS from Julie, she had already started the setup using the recommended Raid5. I agree with that choice to support data safety and redundancy, so I finished the process by making all 4 of the 4TB drives a part of the Raid5 array and as Storage Pool 1. Julie did not assign the 2x 1TB NV.M2 memory sticks so I used them as a read/write cache rather than another storage pool. As seen in one of the software screenshots below, I installed a few necessary apps and was good to go. I also created several shared folders and assigned size limits to them based on what type of data or use case I needed. I also attached a USB drive with several of my favorite contemporary jazz concerts and I use it as a media server via the Infuse app on my Apple TV. This NAS is not necessarily intended to be used as a media server, so I had to do some work to set up the media access. The UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus NAS has an HDMI port that allows you to connect a monitor and use the app on a mobile device to play media on that monitor. I do not use this feature since my viewing screens are not near the NAS.
Software User Interface
UGreen has software that supports the major OS platforms and provides the necessary tools and support for the NAS. There are so many functions and options, that it would be impossible to cover them all in this review. The following screenshots are of the software user interface. They should give you a good idea of what is available.
Overall, it is impossible to list all of the functionality of this NAS. The connectivity, remote access, speed, and reliability are some of the main features that make it a winner for me. For the record, I copied an 8.5GB file from a mini PC with a 1 GB network card to the NAS via a 10G switch in 77.6 seconds.
What I like about the UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus NAS
- Nice build quality
- Easy and toolless drive installation
- Ease of access to the drives
- The number of ports including the great 2.5 and 10G ports
- Its operation is silent
- It is reliable
- It is accessible remotely
- The included app store
What needs to be improved?
- More functional and already integrated apps for added versatility
Final thoughts
The UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus NAS is a great execution of design and build quality, features, and function that result in a storage device with scalability that makes it capable of addressing storage needs from minor to major. Considering that UGreen is relatively new to the NAS world, they have figured out how to do it right. I would like to see a few more friendly integrated apps, but considering the price, that “novice” group of users would likely be small. However, for professionals, personal or business/corporate, UGreen storage devices have a place and reliability to stand among veterans. Very well done!
Price: $799.99
Where to buy: UGREEN
Source: UGreen provided the sample for review was provided by UGREEN. UGREEN did not have a final say on the review and did not preview this review before it was published.
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I signed up on Kickstarter and received my 4800+ a few months ago. I’ve installed 4 14TB drives, 2-1TB NVME M.2, and 96GB RAM. So far just playing with it and getting to know it.
I’ve installed Plex Media Server under Docker and copied my media library over from my old Dell Optiplex, but have yet to switch to it as my primary.
The hardware is really great for the price (esp. at the Kickstarter pricing) and the software has some rough edges, but all in all it’s pretty functional as a NAS and Plex so far.
I’d like to see a bit more control and features in the Control Panel. For example, you MUST use upper and lower case letters in passwords and no way to alter this in the GUI.
NFS server config needs additional options.
But it’s Linux under the hood and if you know what you are doing can make the necessary modifications. Just not sure if they will survive OS updates.
I like that, while not encouraged, UGreen does not block alternative OS’s. It takes a bit of effort, but the ability to run a different OS was very appealing when I first saw it.
Would definitely recommend these NAS to my techie friends.