A lot of NAS for «not much» money: a long-term test of the Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Plus

Martin Jud

19-6-2025

Translation: Megan Cornish

Pictures: Martin Jud

Ugreen’s NASync DXP4800 Plus is a powerful, moderately priced piece of hardware. You can «choose» its OS. The pre-installed UGOS Pro is quite good, but it’s not yet fully developed. Nevertheless, I’m impressed.

A new star’s emerging in the NAS landscape. A bright (U-)green one that was supposed to reach the mainstream market – outside of crowdfunding – in May 2024. But that didn’t happen. The launch was delayed for a year because the software needed some fine-tuning. And it was worth the wait.

Delayed market launch – I’ve been testing for over a year

I received my first version of Ugreen’s NASync DXP4800 Plus back in early 2024 – when the software was still in beta. From then on, I ran it parallel to my Synology NAS. For a few weeks now, I’ve been using a revised second version of the NAS. Ugreen has made minor adjustments to the hardware – and major adjustments to the software – for the mainstream market launch.

Strong basic equipment: better hardware for less money

Just looking at the hardware and price of the DXP4800 Plus, it’s clear that Ugreen might have hit the mark with its new NASync systems. The table below compares the features of the four best 4-bay NAS from current model series by Ugreen, Synology, Asustor and QNAP:

In terms of processor performance, according to the Geekbench 6 database, the Ugreen NAS with the Intel Pentium Gold 8505 (12th Gen, five cores) performs best in single-core tasks and second best in multi-core tasks. Asustor leads in multi-core. QNAP keeps up relatively well. However, Synology’s current model doesn’t even offer half the power.

Last but not least, apart from Ugreen, only Asustor offers 10-gigabit Ethernet – at more than double the price. At approximately 650 euros/francs, Ugreen’s mounting a real challenge.

If you look at the front, the DXP4800 Plus offers four hard drive bays with a safety lock, a power button, LAN and HDD LEDs, an SD card slot and USB-C and USB-A ports (both USB 3.2 Gen 2).

From left to right, the back panel houses the HDMI port, one USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, two USB-A 2.0, a 2.5-gigabit Ethernet port, a 10-gigabit Ethernet port, a reset hole, and a power connector.

Good compatibility: what you can add

As for hard drives, you can use both NAS and enterprise HDDs from Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital. The compatibility list (be sure to check before purchasing) currently includes various models from the following series:

• Seagate IronWolf, IronWolf Pro, Exos X16, Exos X18
• Toshiba N300, N300 Pro, MG09, MG10
• WD Digital Red, Red Plus

Bear in mind that the sweet spot in terms of price per terabyte is currently relatively high. A few weeks ago, because I needed to upgrade my own NAS and the price was right, I bought four Toshiba MG10s with 22 terabytes, which are currently being used in the retail test sample.

It’s also worth noting that hard drives with larger storage capacities tend to be louder. Similarly, the faster 7,200 rpm models clatter louder than the slower 5,400 rpm models.

If you want to reduce the hard drive racket in general, I suggest installing all NAS applications on an additional SSD volume. I’ve offloaded Plex and other applications, and since then, I’ve heard much less of the «rain on the roof» noise. You can also find the supported SSD models in the compatibility list linked above.

And RAM, too, which surprisingly accelerated my test model considerably. The Ugreen NAS caches everything to RAM as needed, as long as there’s free space. This includes data coming in via the 10-gigabit RJ45 port which can’t be written to the hard drive quickly enough. It essentially replaces the SSD write cache for me. I don’t have an SSD read cache because I run the two SSDs in RAID 1, which means one SSD can fail without losing any data.

Incidentally, there are also components that aren’t on the list but still work. For example, the list of compatible uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) only includes a single in-house model. Nevertheless, the 1,320-watt APC Back-UPS Pro – which I recently reviewed – also works.

Highly modifiable: I add SSDs, more RAM and a Noctua fan

The bottom of the case has an aluminium cover secured with two screws. Beneath it are two RAM and two M.2 slots. Eight gigabytes of RAM are already installed.

A third M.2 slot isn’t accessible through the cover, but it’s located right next to the slots shown in the photo. This slot houses a 128 GB system SSD with the UGOS Pro operating system preinstalled. It’s relatively easy to replace; all you have to do is remove a few case screws. I’ll get back to this in the last section.

For SSDs, I use two Crucial P3s with one-terabyte capacity.

Before closing the aluminium lid, I place two cooling pads – in the perfect thickness – on the SSDs. This wasn’t the case with the beta model, so I had to apply some pressure when closing the lid. The pads conduct the heat from the SSDs to the case and cool them about three to five degrees Celsius better than using a regular heat sink.

Modifying the system fan: not 100% necessary

The switch is simple. As I already replaced the fan on the beta model, I noticed that Ugreen uses slightly longer screws on the retail version. This means I don’t have to apply any extra pressure to reach the thread when tightening the fan. Everything fits perfectly.

After this hardware adjustment, everything I wanted to do on the new NAS has been done. I’m happy because now I only hear the hard drives and occasionally the CPU fan. The fan change hasn’t noticeably changed the temperatures of the HDDs, SSDs, and CPU.

UGOS Pro: works like Synology, good Docker implementation, but also missing features

What strikes me immediately with UGOS Pro is its accessibility for beginners. In fact, it even seems like a twin of Synology’s DiskStation Manager (DSM) OS. When I go into the UGOS Pro settings, I usually find options exactly where they are in DSM. It works like a slimmed-down version with a different look. When you boot up the system for the first time, a background image reminiscent of Windows comes up.

I set up a RAID 5 volume with the HDDs, a RAID 1 volume with the SSDs, create my desired folder structure, connect the retail NAS to the beta NAS via SMB and begin copying the data. My workflow’s still familiar. However, I also notice there are things that are still missing compared to Synology and others. For example, the range of native software for UGOS Pro is currently limited.

What UGOS Pro currently lacks in features

And yet, not everything’s rosy. The operating system’s new and still has some issues. However, for me, these are all things I can overlook. Based on Ugreen’s previous update behaviour, I’m confident they’ll gradually resolve the «issues» below.

The biggest problem is undoubtedly that the UGOS Pro doesn’t currently offer volume encryption. If your hard drives are stolen, your data can be accessed with little effort. As I don’t usually carry a NAS around, the chances of that happening are pretty slim. Running encrypted backups – on the other hand – is no problem.

Other points that caught my attention:

A smartphone app that can do almost anything

Using a different operating system

Important: before you can use another OS or even RescueZilla, you need to adjust the boot order of the drives in the BIOS and disable a security option tied to UGOS Pro. To do this, disable the «Watch Dog Control» option under «Advanced» > «Watch Dog Settings». After that, you’re free to use any OS, just like on a standard computer.

Martin Jud

Senior Editor

martin.jud@digitecgalaxus.ch

I find my muse in everything. When I don’t, I draw inspiration from daydreaming. After all, if you dream, you don’t sleep through life.

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