UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus NAS overview – 8 bays of file storage goodness

REVIEW – Backing up your digital stuff is tremendous necessary. However most individuals don’t give it some thought till one thing goes flawed. I can’t think about shedding years of household pictures or necessary work paperwork as a result of a drive failed. That may be onerous to bounce again from. One of many best and smartest methods to maintain your information protected is with a NAS (network-attached storage machine). Final 12 months, I attempted out the UGREEN DXP4800 NAS and was fairly impressed. Now, I’ve bought my fingers on their NASync DXP8800 Plus NAS. This new mannequin guarantees extra velocity, considerably extra space for storing for information, and much more methods to maintain knowledge protected. Let’s dive in and see what it could do.

⬇︎ Soar to abstract (execs/cons)
Value: $1499.99 (common worth – at the moment on sale for a lower cost)
The place to purchase: UGREEN and Amazon

What’s it?

The UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus is an 8-bay NAS machine. NAS stands for Community Connected Storage, which is mainly a bunch of onerous drives (RAID) that’s related to your native community in order that all the gadgets in your community have entry to the information both wirelessly or by way of Ethernet.

What’s included?

• UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus
• Energy cable
• 2x CAT7 Ethernet cables
• 2x SSD Silicone thermal conduction pads
• Screwdriver and screws
• 2x Tray keys
• Person handbook

Tech Specs

Design and options

The UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus is an enormous boy, which suggests you’re going to want a spot to retailer it. Fortunately, it simply must be someplace in your house or workplace the place it may be related to your community with an Ethernet cable.

The machine itself has a premium feel and appear with an aluminum gray housing. The face of the NAS has numbered trays for every of the eight onerous drives. Every tray has its personal safety lock, and beneath the drive trays is the facility button and a row of standing LEDs that present the community exercise and onerous drive exercise (beneath, left).

There’s additionally an SD card slot, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a USB 3.2 port. Good!

If we glance in the back of the DXP8800 Plus, we’ll discover much more ports.

There’s a PCIe Growth slot on the left (I didn’t have a possibility to check this function), and on the backside, you’ll discover an HDMI port, USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, two USB 2.0 ports, two 10GbE Ethernet ports, and on the correct aspect, there’s the facility port. I discuss extra in regards to the significance of this NAS having two Ethernet ports beneath within the efficiency part.

There’s a magnetic mud mesh filter which you could take away if it wants cleansing.

Flipping over the NAS reveals a panel that may be eliminated with the inclued screwdriver.

Inside, you’ll discover two NVMe slots that you should use so as to add M.2 SSDs for much more storage or for use as learn/write cache. Putting in M.2 SSDs is optionally available and never required.

Establishing the UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus NAS

Establishing this NAS is definitely very straightforward, even for those who’ve by no means used a NAS earlier than. I don’t think about myself an professional by any means, however I had no points putting in the drives or configuring them. I solely had one query, and I’ll get to that in a bit.

Step one is to put in your drives. You unlock a tray utilizing one of many included keys.

After which you may press the underside tab on the entrance of the tray, which causes a deal with to come out.

The UGREEN drive trays don’t require any instruments or screwes for those who’re utilizing 3.5-inch onerous drives.

All it’s important to do is press the tab on the underside.

That permits the aspect of the tray to slip out to make room for the drive.

Then you definitely simply set the drive within the tray and press the aspect again in place.

Simple peasy!

When you have smaller 2.5-inch drives, you’ll have to make use of the included screws and screwdriver to mount them within the tray.

Then you definitely slide the tray again into the empty slot within the NAS. Once you’ve put in a minimum of two drives, you’re able to configure them.

Establishing the NASync DXP880 Plus with the UGREEN Software program

Now it’s time to attach the NAS to your router or community swap with one of many included Ethernet cables after which join the facility twine, energy it on, and obtain the UGREEN NAS software program. You can too arrange the NAS by way of the online, however I like to recommend downloading the consumer app on your laptop.

The software program seems to be like an working system, like Home windows or macOS, which it’s. It’s the UGOS Professional. There’s a file supervisor, management panel, process supervisor, and an app middle. Sure, you may set up apps on the NAS. I’ll discuss extra about that within the growth part.

The subsequent step is organising your storage pool and volumes. That is mainly the place you inform the NAS find out how to set up and shield your knowledge. UGREEN offers you just a few RAID choices, which is only a fancy time period for a way the drives work collectively. RAID 0 makes use of all of your drives for velocity and space for storing, but when one fails, the whole lot’s gone. RAID 1 is the alternative; your knowledge will get copied to a second drive, so that you’re safer, however you lose half your storage. RAID 5 and RAID 6 unfold your information throughout a number of drives with some backup in-built, so that you get a pleasant stability of velocity, storage, and safety. RAID 10 combines mirroring and striping, which suggests sooner entry and additional security, however you’ll want a minimum of 4 drives for it.

Selecting the RAID possibility that may be the perfect for me was the place I bought caught for a short while. I ended up going to one of many UGREEN Fb teams to ask for some recommendation, and ultimately, went with RAID 5 for the eight onerous drives and RAID 1 for the 2 SSDs that I put in. I picked RAID 5 for the max storage and redundancy possibility. RAID 5 provides an incredible stability of velocity, storage effectivity, and knowledge safety. It stripes knowledge throughout a minimum of three drives whereas spreading parity info throughout all drives, which permits it to proceed working even when one drive fails. It’s additionally extra storage-efficient since solely the house of 1 drive is used for parity, providing you with extra usable storage in comparison with mirroring. Plus, failed drives will be changed with out shutting down the system, making it a dependable and cost-effective selection for a lot of servers and storage setups.

Word that it’ll take a while for the NAS to optimize the drives after you create the quantity. I feel it took an hour or two to optimize the eight 4TB drives that I had put in within the NAS. However as soon as it finishes, you may create private, shared, and person folders in an effort to begin copying information to and from the NAS similar to it was a tough drive inside your laptop computer or desktop laptop.

You may drag and drop information out of your laptop’s file supervisor into the information window within the UGREEN app, or you may add the NAS folders to your common file supervisor, like I’ve completed with the Finder on my MacBook.

Efficiency

Earlier within the overview, I discussed that the UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus has two Ethernet ports. You may marvel why you want multiple LAN port. Probably the most fundamental manner is simply utilizing one port to attach the NAS to your router or community swap, and that will probably be fantastic for many properties or small workplaces. However for those who join each Ethernet ports to your community, you get some cool advantages like:

Quicker speeds with “hyperlink aggregation”: In case your community gear (like your router or swap) helps it, you may mix each ports so the NAS can ship and obtain knowledge via each cables without delay. Consider it like opening one other lane on a freeway—extra automobiles (or on this case, knowledge) can journey on the identical time. This implies sooner file transfers, particularly when a number of individuals are utilizing the NAS without delay.

Higher reliability: With two connections, if one cable or port fails, the opposite can maintain issues working. It’s like having a backup route in case one highway will get blocked.

I’m primarily utilizing this NAS for archiving functions of pictures, video, and paperwork, so I actually don’t have a necessity for tremendous velocity, so I solely related one cable to my community swap.

I additionally don’t have a brilliant quick community, which you’ll see above. My swap is simply 1Gbps. However even at that velocity, I’ve been more than happy with how snappy the UGREEN feels each in waking up after hours of being idle and copying information backwards and forwards. I’ve been utilizing a small two bay Synology NAS for the previous 12 months and it’s significantly slower waking and copying information. The UGREEN has been a pleasant shock.

For these of you who like velocity assessments, I used the free Blackmagic Disk Pace app to do a 5GB learn/write take a look at. The outcomes are proven above. Rather less than the 1GB velocity of my community. I attempted connecting the second Ethernet cable, however the take a look at outcomes had been the identical. I feel that’s as a result of two cables actually assist with simultaneous learn/write duties.

Different makes use of for the UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus

I discussed that UGREEN provides quite a lot of apps to broaden the utility of the NASync DXP8800 Plus. I didn’t take a look at every app that’s accessible, however I did set up DLNA service, which permits streaming video from the NAS (and hooked up exterior drives) to computer systems and TVs via the community. I put in a DLNA consumer on my AppleTV known as Infuse and was capable of watch archived video that I had saved on the NAS. It labored nice with no stuttering or lag, despite the fact that my AppleTV is just not hardwired into my community, however makes use of WiFi.

That’s the one app that I’ve examined to date as a result of my major function for this NAS is to retailer all my private pictures and movies, Gadgeteer product pictures and movies, and private and Gadgeteer paperwork. I don’t plan to make use of it for fancy Docker functions or different makes use of.

To date, I’m utterly proud of the UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus. The setup was easy, and the efficiency has been snappy. I like that I’ll most likely by no means outgrow this NAS in each space for storing and capabilities.

Safety

The UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus consists of stable security measures designed to maintain your knowledge protected and personal. It provides sturdy encryption, a built-in firewall, and a safety supervisor to guard towards unauthorized entry. You may set detailed person permissions and allow two-factor authentication for additional login safety. The system helps safe distant entry, so you may safely connect with your information from wherever. UGREEN additionally recommends finest practices like utilizing sturdy passwords, usually updating firmware, and utilizing community segmentation to spice up safety. The UGREEN NAS has been designed to satisfy international cybersecurity requirements and privateness certifications, which ought to offer you additional peace of thoughts for each private {and professional} use.

Remaining ideas

The UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus is a strong and versatile NAS that’s nice for anybody needing a dependable storage answer with loads of room to develop. Whether or not you’re archiving pictures, movies, or necessary paperwork, it provides quick efficiency and simple setup, even for those who’re new to NAS gadgets. I appreciated the considerate design, like tool-free drive trays and a powerful set of ports, plus the sleek UGOS Professional working system that makes managing information and apps simple. Whereas it is perhaps priced larger than some entry-level choices, the velocity, storage capability, and security measures justify the funding for critical customers. If you’d like a NAS that may deal with increasing wants and maintain your knowledge protected with out loads of problem, this one is certainly value contemplating.

What I like in regards to the UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus NAS

• Quick
• Good collection of additional ports
• Simple to arrange
• Highly effective OS

What must be improved?

• I truthfully can’t consider something

Value: $1499.99 (common worth – at the moment on sale for a lower cost)
The place to purchase: UGREEN and Amazon
Supply: The pattern for this overview was offered by UGREEN. They didn’t have a remaining say on the overview and didn’t preview the overview earlier than it was revealed.

Try these different NAS critiques!