Ugreen DXP2800 GT NAS Evaluate vs NASync DXP4800 Plus

I’ve beforehand reviewed the excellent Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Plus, which I nonetheless use at this time as my most important NAS, albeit operating on Unraid relatively than UGOS.

I’ve additionally reviewed and proceed to make use of a extra reasonably priced, power-efficient Ugreen NASync DH4300 Plus,Ugreen NASync DH4300 Plus purely for backups. It backs up my cellphone photographs and makes an important Google Images different, and I take advantage of the wonderful rclone backup function to again up all my servers.

Ugreen has simply launched the GT collection, and I’ve written a separate comparability of the four-bay NASync DXP4800 GT in opposition to the NASync DXP4800 Plus and NASync DXP4800 Professional. This evaluate covers the two-bay mannequin, the Ugreen DXP2800 GT.

The DXP2800 GT is actually the identical machine because the four-bay DXP4800 GT, simply with two bays as a substitute of 4, and it drops the second 10GbE port. As a result of the internals are shared throughout the GT line, and since my daily-driver NAS is the DXP4800 Plus, I’ve made most of my comparisons in opposition to the DXP4800 Plus all through this evaluate.

When you’ve got not learn my comparability piece, the principle level to know is that the GT collection runs on an AMD Ryzen Embedded R2514 chipset. That is much less highly effective in uncooked multithreaded throughput than the Intel Pentium Gold 8505 within the DXP4800 Plus, and it makes use of older, slower DDR4 reminiscence relatively than DDR5.

On the plus aspect, the GT can settle for as much as two U.2 NVMe drives throughout its two entrance bays, and the four-bay model provides twin 10GbE networking. With the present shortage and excessive worth of reminiscence, I really regard the DDR4 right here as a small bonus, as a result of it’s significantly cheaper to improve DDR4 than the DDR5 used on the higher-spec fashions.

The result’s an uncommon product. It sits under the Plus and Professional fashions on paper in some respects, whereas quietly providing options equivalent to U.2 and ECC help that you’d usually affiliate with dearer enterprise-leaning items. The sections under work by what which means in observe.

Specification

The desk under compares the two-bay DXP2800 GT in opposition to my daily-driver DXP4800 Plus. I’ve saved the give attention to the variations that change how every unit behaves each day, relatively than each line merchandise.

A couple of factors are value pulling out of that desk.

The CPU hole is the headline distinction. The Pentium Gold 8505 posts a PassMark multi-core rating of roughly 9,372 in opposition to the R2514’s 6,728, so the Plus has round a 3rd extra combination multithreaded throughput, plus a a lot stronger single P-core that turbos to 4.4GHz. The R2514 counters with eight threads in opposition to the Pentium’s six, and as an industrial embedded half it’s designed to carry its clocks below sustained 24/7 load. For a NAS that principally shuffles recordsdata, runs a handful of Docker containers and serves media, the distinction is smaller in day by day use than the benchmark hole suggests, however it’s actual and you’ll really feel it below heavy parallel workloads.

ECC is the road that wants a caveat. My very own spec sheet initially listed ECC as “not specified” for the GT, however Ugreen’s launch supplies verify the GT collection does help ECC, offered you purchase a suitable ECC module individually. The inventory RAM within the field isn’t ECC. So ECC is offered, it simply isn’t lively out of the field and prices further to allow.

The opposite notable omission for the two-bay mannequin is the SD card slot. The four-bay DXP4800 GT ships with an SD 3.0 reader geared toward photographers, and the DXP4800 Plus has one too, however the DXP2800 GT doesn’t. Should you import from digital camera playing cards often, that may be a real downgrade in opposition to the Plus.

Unboxing / Design

The DXP2800 GT follows the identical design language Ugreen has settled on throughout the NASync vary. The entrance is a darkish, shiny panel framed by a copper-toned bezel, with the 2 drive bays labelled 01 and 02. Under the bays sits a row of front-facing connectivity and standing indicators: an influence button, LAN, DISK1 and DISK2 exercise LEDs, a USB-C port and a USB 3.2 (USB-A) port. The DXP2800 GT branding is printed alongside the underside of the bezel.

It’s a smart-looking unit that might not look misplaced on a desk relatively than hidden in a cabinet, though the shiny entrance does entice fingerprints and dirt. The drive bays use lockable trays, which is a pleasant contact on a unit you would possibly go away someplace accessible.

Across the again you get the majority of the connectivity. There may be an HDMI output, a USB 3.2 (USB-A) port, two USB 2.0 ports, the one RJ45 10GbE LAN port, a recessed reset button and the DC 12V energy enter. A big mesh grille dominates the rear panel, behind which sits the one cooling fan and the Ugreen emblem. The vent space is beneficiant for a two-bay unit, which bodes properly for maintaining drive temperatures wise.

In contrast with the DXP4800 Plus, the obvious bodily distinction past the bay rely is the rear networking. The Plus pairs its 10GbE port with a 2.5GbE port, which is genuinely helpful for hyperlink aggregation, a devoted administration interface or just connecting to 2 completely different community segments. The DXP2800 GT has a single 10GbE port solely, so that you lose that flexibility.

Meeting and M.2 Slots

The 2 M.2 slots are in a distinct location to the DXP4800 Plus. On this unit they’re positioned contained in the enclosure, considerably awkwardly, to the left of the primary drive bay.

I discovered the set up a little bit fiddly. It’s darkish contained in the enclosure, and my hand inevitably blocked what mild there was whereas I used to be attempting to seat the drives and find the retaining screws. It was not a major problem, and it’s a one-time job, however it’s value setting apart a couple of minutes and a torch relatively than dashing it.

On the optimistic aspect, putting the M.2 slots close to the entrance bays and inside the airflow path ought to imply they profit from the cooling offered by the rear fan. NVMe drives can run heat below sustained load, so airflow over them is preferable to tucking them right into a sealed pocket.

The slots are M.2 2280 operating at PCIe Gen3 x2. That is sufficient to comfortably saturate a 10GbE hyperlink with a single drive, so the Gen3 x2 limitation isn’t a sensible bottleneck for this class of gadget. The place it issues is in case you intend to run an NVMe-only pool for optimum native throughput, wherein case you’re capped properly under what a Gen4 x4 slot would enable. For caching, system companies and Docker, it’s positive.

Reminiscence is accessed from the underside of the unit by a detachable panel. There are two SO-DIMM slots, one occupied by the inventory 8GB DDR4 module and one free, so upgrading is simple and doesn’t require dismantling the chassis. As I discussed earlier, with DDR4 pricing being way more wise than DDR5 in the intervening time, a RAM improve on this unit is among the cheaper methods so as to add headroom for digital machines and containers.

The entrance bays themselves help customary 3.5-inch and a couple of.5-inch SATA drives, and crucially in addition they settle for U.2 NVMe SSDs. That dual-mode help is among the extra attention-grabbing elements of the GT collection and is roofed in additional element under.

U.2 and Storage Tiering

The U.2 help deserves its personal point out as a result of it’s uncommon at this worth level. Each entrance bays on the DXP2800 GT can take both a SATA drive or a U.2 NVMe SSD. U.2 drives are enterprise components constructed for sustained learn and write workloads, with much better endurance than typical shopper SSDs and far increased throughput than SATA.

In observe this opens up a tiered storage method that the majority shopper NAS items can’t match. You may run SATA onerous drives within the entrance bays for bulk, chilly storage and archiving, change to U.2 NVMe within the entrance bays if you want a quick scratch or working pool for duties equivalent to high-resolution video enhancing, and use the inner M.2 slots for a separate high-speed pool devoted to Docker and system companies.

The real looking caveat is that U.2 drives are costly and never one thing most dwelling customers will purchase. For the goal purchaser of a two-bay NAS, that is extra of a future-proofing and adaptability function than one thing you’ll use on day one. It’s good to have the choice, and it’s a real level of distinction in opposition to the DXP4800 Plus, which doesn’t supply U.2 in its bays.

Preliminary Set-up and UGOS Interface

Setup is actually the identical because the DXP4800 Plus and the remainder of the NASync vary. You energy on, the unit walks you thru a welcome information, you create an admin account, after which you’re dropped into the UGOS Professional desktop.

UGOS Professional continues to be one of many higher shopper NAS working methods I’ve used. The desktop metaphor is clear, the icons are clear, and the system tray provides you reside CPU, RAM and community throughput readouts at a look. For anybody coming from a Home windows background, it’s instantly intuitive.

The Storage app handles drive setup. On first run it presents a brief welcome panel masking its most important options, together with versatile storage layouts, real-time SMART and drive well being monitoring, error alerts and exterior storage administration. Making a storage pool is a guided course of. You choose the drives you wish to embody, select a RAID sort, then create a quantity on prime of the pool.

On the two-bay DXP2800 GT, your RAID choices are restricted by the bay rely. You get Fundamental, JBOD, RAID 0 and RAID 1. RAID 1 is the wise default and is the choice UGOS recommends, mirroring your two drives in order that the failure of 1 drive doesn’t lose your information. The DXP4800 Plus, with its 4 bays, provides RAID 5, 6 and 10, which provide you with higher capability effectivity and extra resilience choices. That is merely a consequence of getting extra bays, not a software program limitation, however it’s a significant distinction if information safety throughout greater than two drives issues to you.

While you create a quantity you select between the ext4 and Btrfs file methods. UGOS describes ext4 as providing excessive stability and efficiency for large-capacity storage, whereas Btrfs provides snapshotting, copy operations, per-folder house quotas and stronger information integrity safety. For many customers who need snapshots and the additional security options, Btrfs is the higher choose, with the same old trade-off of barely increased overhead. Should you merely need most uncooked efficiency and don’t want these options, ext4 is the leaner alternative.

UGOS additionally helps SSD caching. Via the Arduous Drive part, you possibly can take an M.2 SSD and assign it as a learn or read-write cache for a storage pool, stepping by quantity choice, cache mode, cache RAID sort, SSD choice and capability allocation. The interface sensibly recommends reserving round 20 % of the cache capability to cut back drive put on. For a two-bay unit operating mechanical drives, a learn cache can noticeably enhance responsiveness for ceaselessly accessed recordsdata, though the profit relies upon closely in your workload.

BIOS Settings

Being x86 primarily based, the DXP2800 GT exposes a full American Megatrends Aptio BIOS, and you may attain it throughout boot within the ordinary method. It’s a customary text-mode BIOS with mouse help, organised throughout Most important, Superior, Safety, Boot and Save and Exit tabs. There may be extra in right here than most shopper NAS items expose, and some settings are value understanding earlier than you begin altering issues.

The Most important tab confirms the {hardware}. My unit reported the AMD Ryzen Embedded R2514 with Radeon Graphics, a base clock of two.1GHz, and 8192MB of DDR4 operating at 2667 MT/s. The CPU configuration web page lists the module as PiccasoCpu, which confirms the chip relies on AMD’s Picasso platform, an older Zen+ design with Vega graphics. That traces up with the modest CPU Mark and explains each the decrease energy draw and the weaker transcoding place mentioned above. The Most important tab additionally reveals the storage structure clearly: each inner M.2 slots (M2-KEYM1 and M2-KEYM2) registered as populated in my unit, whereas the 2 U.2 bays (U2-1 and U2-2) confirmed as empty, since I used to be operating SATA onerous drives relatively than U.2 drives.

On the CPU configuration web page, SVM Mode is enabled by default, which is AMD’s {hardware} virtualisation. That issues in case you intend to run the Digital Machine app in UGOS or virtualise below one other working system, as a result of with out it nested virtualisation and VM acceleration won’t work. NX Mode and PSS help are additionally enabled.

The Safety tab confirms a TPM 2.0 gadget is current, reporting firmware model 3.92 from AMD with the SHA256 PCR financial institution lively and the platform, storage and endorsement hierarchies all enabled. A working TPM 2.0 is beneficial in case you plan to run Home windows in a VM, or for any working system or service that expects a {hardware} root of belief.

Two power-related settings within the Superior tab are value checking on first setup. The AC Energy Misplaced Coverage defaults to “Energy off”, which implies that after an influence reduce the NAS stays off relatively than restarting by itself. If you need the unit to come back again mechanically after an outage, which is the behaviour most individuals count on from an always-on gadget, you will want to vary this to energy on. Wake on PME is enabled by default, so wake-on-LAN fashion behaviour is offered, whereas EuP is disabled.

Essentially the most related part for tinkerers is the WatchDog Settings web page, as a result of that is the place earlier Ugreen items might journey up another working system. On earlier fashions you needed to disable the watchdog to keep away from boot loops when operating one thing apart from UGOS. On the DXP2800 GT, the WDT Swap is already set to Disabled out of the field, with the remaining watchdog defaults as follows:

• WDT Swap: Disabled
• WDT Keyboard Reset: Enabled
• WDT Mouse Reset: Enabled
• WDT PWRGD3 Allow: Disabled
• WDT KRST Allow: Enabled
• WDT Timeout: 60 seconds
• KRST Timeout: 30 seconds

As a result of the grasp WDT Swap is already off, it’s possible you’ll not want to the touch something right here to run Unraid or one other OS, which is a welcome change from the older items. I’ll verify this totally as soon as I’ve run another OS for an prolonged interval, however the default state is encouraging.

The Boot tab is the place you management boot order, and it’s informative in its personal proper. The default first boot gadget is listed as “Arduous Disk: debian (MMC – CG1051)”, which tells you two issues: UGOS Professional boots from the inner eMMC, and it’s constructed on Debian below the hood. The remaining mounted boot order runs NVMe, then USB gadget, then community, then CD/DVD. My unit confirmed a SanDisk USB gadget and, below the community entry, a Marvell AQC113 controller, which is the 10GbE community chip. The AQC113 is a identified amount and is usually properly supported below Linux, which bodes properly for anybody planning to run Unraid or TrueNAS. In addition another OS from USB, you progress the USB gadget up the mounted boot order or choose it from the boot override menu, precisely as you’d on a regular PC.

Obtainable Apps

The accessible apps are primarily the identical as my earlier Ugreen NAS opinions, accessed by the App Heart.

{The catalogue} covers the same old bases. For media, there may be Theatre, Music, Images, Jellyfin and DLNA. For backup and sync there may be Sync and Backup, Snapshot, File Model Explorer and Cloud Drives. For extra superior customers there may be Docker, Digital Machine, SAN Supervisor and qBittorrent, alongside utilities equivalent to a built-in Firefox browser, an On-line Workplace suite, a textual content editor, the SiYuan note-taking app and Residence Assistant. System instruments equivalent to Storage, Management Panel, Job Supervisor, Safety and Vault spherical issues out.

The one new addition over my earlier opinions is the Surveillance Centre, which lets you connect with ONVIF and RTSP cameras and document footage. That’s vital sufficient to warrant its personal part under.

The true limitation of UGOS, as I’ve stated in earlier opinions, is that the first-party app catalogue continues to be comparatively slim in contrast with the likes of Synology. The saving grace is Docker, which is totally supported and allows you to self-host kind of something you need. If you’re comfy with containers, the gaps within the native app record cease being an actual constraint. If you’re not, it’s possible you’ll sometimes discover UGOS lacks a first-party app for one thing you assumed could be inbuilt.

AI Options

The DXP2800 GT carries two distinct strands of AI performance: the on-device photograph recognition constructed into the Images app, and the article detection that types a part of the brand new Surveillance Heart.

Picture Recognition and Mannequin Administration

The Images app features a Mannequin Administration space that homes the AI recognition fashions, the identical suite discovered throughout the broader NASync vary. All of it runs domestically on the NAS relatively than within the cloud, which is the principle privateness benefit over companies equivalent to Google Images. The fashions accessible are:

• Individuals recognition, which identifies and teams individuals throughout your pictures and movies
• Textual content recognition, which reads and indexes textual content content material inside pictures so it turns into searchable
• Comparable and duplicate photograph recognition, which categorises near-identical and duplicate pictures to assist reclaim storage
• Pet recognition, which identifies 39 cat and canine breeds
• Delicate content material recognition, which detects and blurs express pictures mechanically
• Mannequin coaching package deal, which helps you to practice a customized mannequin to recognise particular objects from your individual pattern photographs
• Picture recognition, which powers natural-language picture search and scene or object detection

Every mannequin is proven as “Not configured” till you allow it, and you may choose and select relatively than operating every part directly, which is smart given the processing concerned.

The purpose to weigh up is processing time. On the Intel-based DXP4800 Plus, indexing a 220,000-image library for face recognition took round 12 hours, in opposition to roughly 36 hours on the slower ARM-based DH4300 Plus. The R2514 within the GT sits between these two in uncooked functionality and lacks the Intel QuickSync acceleration, so a first-time index of a giant library will take some time and can preserve the CPU busy within the background till it finishes. As soon as the preliminary move is completed, ongoing recognition of newly added photographs is way much less demanding. The accuracy of those fashions is affordable relatively than class-leading. In my expertise throughout the vary, face grouping is reliable, textual content and duplicate detection are helpful, and the broader scene and object search is extra hit or miss than Google’s equal, however the on-device, no-subscription method is the trade-off many consumers are in search of.

Surveillance Station

The Surveillance Heart is the headline new app for the GT collection and turns the NAS right into a community video recorder for IP cameras. It really works with cameras utilizing the usual ONVIF and RTSP protocols, helps automated discovery of cameras on the identical subnet, and permits handbook addition of cameras on different subnets by IP handle. As soon as a digital camera is related, you possibly can set its storage location, retention interval, capability restrict, recording mode and a pleasant title, and recording begins mechanically.

On paper it’s a succesful little bit of software program. It helps as much as eight digital camera channels, with the rely primarily based on bodily channels relatively than the variety of cameras, so a dual-channel digital camera occupies two channels. There’s a multiscreen dwell view with customized layouts, real-time PTZ management for cameras that help pan, tilt and zoom, a timeline-based playback view with a calendar for leaping to particular dates, video filtering by all recordings or occasions solely, and per-user permission controls that permit an administrator prohibit customary customers to view-only entry or block them completely.

The Surveillance Heart seemed promising initially. It detected the cameras on my community and I used to be in a position to start including them with out difficulty.

Sadly, that is the place I hit a wall. The present model is simply suitable with H.264, and all of my cameras use H.265. In consequence I’ve not been ready so as to add them or check the recording, playback and AI object-detection performance correctly. For a function that’s being positioned as a motive to purchase the GT collection, the H.264-only limitation is an actual drawback in 2026, as a result of a big proportion of contemporary IP cameras default to H.265 for its a lot better compression and decrease storage footprint. In case your cameras are older or you possibly can power them into an H.264 stream, it’s possible you’ll be positive. If they’re H.265, as mine are, the function is at the moment of no use to you.

I’ll revisit this if and when Ugreen provides H.265 help, as a result of the underlying app design is sound and the mixing into the NAS notification system is smart. Because it stands, although, I can’t advocate shopping for the GT collection primarily for surveillance till H.265 help arrives.

Efficiency – File Switch

I’ve 10GbE at dwelling, however my setup at the moment runs over SFP. I’ve an SFP adaptor in my most important PC connecting to my Ubiquiti UniFi change, after which use an SFP to RJ45 module to hook up with a server.

Once I related the Ugreen to the SFP to RJ45 module, it didn’t negotiate the complete 10GbE hyperlink velocity, which I think is all the way down to the adaptor relatively than the NAS itself. I subsequently had no choice however to check transfers at 2.5GbE.

That’s an unlucky limitation of my check surroundings relatively than the unit, and I wish to be clear about it so the numbers are learn in the proper context. At 2.5GbE, a single mechanical drive on this unit comfortably saturates the hyperlink for big sequential transfers, touchdown within the area of 280 to 290MB/s, which is strictly what you’d count on when a 2.5GbE connection is the ceiling. Small-file efficiency is decrease, because it at all times is, and is dominated by drive latency and protocol overhead relatively than the community.

What this implies for a purchaser is simple. Over a 2.5GbE community, the DXP2800 GT won’t be your bottleneck for on a regular basis file serving with mechanical drives, as a result of the community caps you first. The 10GbE port solely earns its preserve if in case you have 10GbE infrastructure finish to finish and both quick SSD storage or a striped array able to feeding it. With two mechanical drives in RAID 1, you’ll not see something near 10GbE for sustained sequential transfers regardless, as a result of a pair of mirrored onerous drives merely can’t learn or write that quick. To genuinely exploit the 10GbE port on a two-bay unit, you’d be taking a look at U.2 or NVMe storage.

That is the place the two-bay type issue and the 10GbE port sit in slight stress. For context, my DXP4800 Plus, with 4 mechanical drives in RAID 5 over 10GbE, returns sustained sequential transfers within the area of 500 to 600MB/s, and even then the drives are the bottleneck relatively than the community. A two-bay unit in RAID 1 can’t get near that, as a result of RAID 1 mirrors relatively than stripes, so writes are restricted to the velocity of a single drive (sometimes round 200 to 250MB/s for a contemporary 3.5-inch drive) and reads solely modestly increased. On the four-bay DXP4800 GT, a four-drive array has a practical likelihood of pushing properly past 2.5GbE on sequential workloads, and the twin 10GbE ports make extra sense. On a two-bay unit, the one 10GbE port is most helpful together with NVMe or U.2, or for serving many purchasers directly relatively than maxing out a single switch. It’s nonetheless a welcome inclusion, and it’s greater than most two-bay opponents supply, however set your expectations in line with the drives you set in.

I’ll replace this part with full 10GbE figures as soon as I’ve resolved the adaptor difficulty in my very own community.

Efficiency – Media Playback

Media playback is an space the place the selection of CPU has a direct impact, and it’s the place the DXP4800 Plus pulls forward.

The Pentium Gold 8505 within the Plus consists of Intel QuickSync model 8, with {hardware} decode for HEVC (H.265), AVC (H.264) and AV1, amongst others. Intel QuickSync is essentially the most mature and broadly supported {hardware} transcoding engine within the shopper NAS house, and Plex, Jellyfin and Emby all lean on it closely. In my testing on the Plus, a single 4K HEVC file transcoded to 1080p H.264 in actual time with CPU utilization barely above 20 %, and two simultaneous 1080p transcodes stayed equally low. Should you transcode a number of media on the fly, notably H.265 content material to decrease bitrates for distant streaming, the Plus is the stronger alternative.

The R2514 within the DXP2800 GT makes use of an AMD Radeon Vega built-in GPU. It does have video decode and encode {hardware}, however AMD’s transcoding help in media server software program is traditionally much less constant and fewer properly supported than Intel QuickSync. For direct play, the place the consumer merely receives the file as-is and decodes it domestically, the GT is completely succesful and the CPU barely breaks a sweat. For heavy on-the-fly transcoding to a number of purchasers, it’s extra of an unknown amount, and I might not purchase this unit anticipating QuickSync-class transcoding.

There may be one media function that’s new and genuinely helpful right here. The GT collection helps direct HDMI playback, at the moment labelled as a beta function. Utilizing the Ugreen NAS app, yow will discover a video saved on the NAS and forged it to the HDMI output, so the unit drives a related TV or monitor instantly relatively than streaming over the community. It helps H.264, H.265 and different mainstream encoding codecs for this direct playback, and outputs at as much as 4K 60Hz.

In observe, this can be a good choice if the NAS lives close to a tv, as a result of it sidesteps the community and any client-side transcoding completely, taking part in the file straight out of the field to the display. As a beta function it comes with the same old caveats. Ugreen notes that you could be want to change audio tracks if sound is lacking or out of sync, and that prime useful resource utilization, display flickering or shaky playback can happen, wherein case replaying the video or contacting help is the urged repair. It’s a promising addition, however deal with it as work in progress relatively than a completed, polished function.

In case your media use is direct playback to suitable consumer gadgets equivalent to a contemporary TV, an Apple TV, an Nvidia Defend, or a current cellphone, the DXP2800 GT will deal with it with out difficulty. Should you want a server that transcodes closely for a number of simultaneous distant customers, the Intel-based DXP4800 Plus stays the safer suggestion.

Energy Draw and Fan Noise

The DXP2800 GT ships with a 72W energy provide rated at DC 12V and 6A, which is lower than half the 150W brick on the DXP4800 Plus. That’s partly the smaller bay rely and partly the effectivity of the AMD embedded platform, which is designed for always-on operation.

For my energy testing I take advantage of a TP-Hyperlink Tapo P110M good plug with power monitoring, which is Matter-enabled and feeds readings into Residence Assistant. As a reference level, my four-bay DXP4800 Plus drew between 39W and 45W below mild load whereas transferring recordsdata, dropped to round 32W within the night with drives idle, and peaked at about 64W throughout heavier operations. That works out at roughly £84 per 12 months operating 24/7 at round 24p per kWh.

The DXP2800 GT ought to sit under these figures, as a result of it has half the drive bays and a lower-power embedded chip, and the smaller 72W provide displays that. With two mechanical drives and the system idle, you possibly can count on draw to be low, climbing modestly when the drives are lively and better once more below sustained CPU load. As ever, the drives themselves are normally the one largest contributor to a NAS energy funds, so your actual figures will rely closely on which disks you match and on the drive sleep settings, which default to twenty minutes and will be dropped to 10. I’ll add measured idle and cargo figures for the DXP2800 GT as soon as testing is full, however the design factors firmly in the direction of this being a frugal unit, and over a 12 months of steady operating the saving in opposition to a four-bay system is significant on an electrical energy invoice.

Fan noise comes from the one rear fan behind the massive mesh grille. On the DXP4800 Plus, the 140mm fan is quiet at idle and barely audible from greater than a metre away, spinning up below load with out changing into intrusive, and the drive noise is extra noticeable than the fan. I count on the two-bay GT to behave equally, helped by the beneficiant vent space relative to solely two drives. As with the Plus, the loudest element in regular use would be the mechanical drives relatively than the fan, so your alternative of disks will largely decide what you hear. The unit is quiet sufficient to sit down in a dwelling house or subsequent to a tv, notably in case you pair it with the direct HDMI playback function. I’ll verify the fan behaviour below sustained load within the replace.

Putting in / Booting into Unraid or a distinct NAS OS

Whereas I like UGOS, the native app catalogue is proscribed, as mentioned above. You may, in fact, set up nearly something you need by Docker, however I’m a long-time Unraid consumer, and Unraid stays my most well-liked NAS working system for private media, operating the same old Plex and *arr stack.

Like the opposite x86 Ugreen NAS enclosures, you possibly can entry the BIOS to change the boot gadget from the eMMC system drive to a distinct drive. As coated within the BIOS part, UGOS boots from the inner eMMC (listed as a Debian set up), so to run Unraid you merely transfer the USB gadget up the boot order or choose it from the boot override menu and boot out of your Unraid USB stick.

With the earlier Ugreen NAS items, you wanted to disable the watchdog to stop boot loops. On the DXP2800 GT the WatchDog Settings web page reveals the WDT Swap already set to Disabled by default, so it’s possible you’ll not want to vary something in any respect to maintain another OS operating. I’ll verify this over an extended check interval, however it’s a clear enchancment over the sooner items the place this step caught individuals out.

One additional encouraging element from the BIOS is that the 10GbE controller is a Marvell AQC113, which is properly supported below Linux. That reduces the danger of the community port not being recognised below Unraid or TrueNAS, which is a typical ache level with much less mainstream 10GbE chips.

The broader level is that the GT collection, being x86 primarily based, is genuinely versatile. Should you outgrow UGOS or just want one other platform, you aren’t locked in. You may run Unraid, TrueNAS or one other working system, which is among the strongest arguments for purchasing an x86 NAS over an ARM-based one. The DXP2800 GT inherits that flexibility, and the two-bay type issue fits a targeted Unraid construct or a light-weight TrueNAS field properly.

Worth and Different Choices

The RRP of the Ugreen DXP2800 GT is €509.99 / £459.99, with a ten % launch low cost accessible on each GT fashions by the Ugreen NAS official retailer and Amazon. That brings the launch worth all the way down to round £413.99.

For context, the four-bay DXP4800 GT carries an RRP of €659.99 / £589.99, once more with a ten % launch low cost. The DXP4800 Plus is listed on Amazon at an RRP of £620 and has been accessible for round £527, whereas the DXP4800 Professional sits at £690 with availability round £589.

So the DXP2800 GT is essentially the most reasonably priced method into the GT collection, and at roughly £414 at launch it’s priced sensibly for a two-bay x86 NAS with a 10GbE port, U.2 functionality and ECC help. The pricing seems to be truthful relatively than aggressive. It undercuts the four-bay fashions considerably, as you’d count on, and the hole to the DXP4800 Plus is giant sufficient that the selection between them comes all the way down to what you really need relatively than a marginal saving.

The truthful comparability is that this. If you need most capability, the broadest RAID choices, the strongest transcoding and that further 2.5GbE port, the DXP4800 Plus is value the additional outlay and stays my choose for a do-everything dwelling NAS. When you’ve got solely modest capability wants, need decrease energy draw, worth the U.2 and ECC flexibility, and are pleased with two bays in RAID 1, the DXP2800 GT covers these bases for meaningfully much less cash.

In opposition to the broader market, Ugreen continues to compete strongly. The 2-bay NAS house has loads of choices from Synology, QNAP, Asustor and TerraMaster, however only a few of them mix x86 flexibility, a 10GbE port, U.2 help and ECC functionality at this worth. Synology’s comparable two-bay items are typically extra locked down and more and more fussy about drive compatibility, whereas matching the GT’s connectivity normally prices extra. That mixture of options for the cash is the DXP2800 GT’s strongest argument.

General

I proceed to be impressed with what Ugreen has been doing throughout its product vary, and the NAS line specifically. The corporate has come from nowhere to construct some of the interesting line-ups within the shopper NAS market, and in my view it has comfortably overtaken TerraMaster, which was once my favorite funds choice.

The GT collection is, admittedly, a barely odd launch. It technically sits under Ugreen’s different x86 NAS merchandise in some respects, whereas providing enterprise-leaning options equivalent to U.2, ECC help and, on the four-bay mannequin, twin 10GbE. The DXP2800 GT is the smallest and most cost-effective expression of that, and it inherits the identical character: a succesful, versatile two-bay unit with a few options you wouldn’t count on on the worth, alongside a CPU and reminiscence pairing that may be a step behind the Plus.

I think this launch has been formed partially by the present state of the {hardware} market. A rising variety of producers are transport merchandise with older {hardware} or much less reminiscence than you would possibly count on, partly as a result of the price of RAM has made it troublesome to do in any other case with out elevating costs sharply. Seen in that mild, the DDR4 and the embedded AMD chip are pragmatic decisions relatively than corners reduce, and the DDR4 specifically is cheaper to improve than the DDR5 within the pricier fashions.

The DXP2800 GT isn’t a groundbreaking product, and there are actual limitations to weigh up. The Surveillance Heart’s H.264-only help makes its marquee new app unusable with H.265 cameras like mine. The only 10GbE port is difficult to totally exploit with solely two mechanical bays. Transcoding is a weaker proposition than on the Intel-based Plus. The M.2 slots are fiddly to populate. And the two-bay mannequin loses the SD card reader discovered on its siblings.

Set in opposition to that, you get a genuinely versatile x86 platform that may fortunately run UGOS, Unraid or TrueNAS, a low-power design, straightforward and reasonably priced DDR4 upgrades, U.2 and ECC help which can be uncommon at this worth, and the identical polished UGOS Professional software program I’ve praised throughout the remainder of the vary. At round £414 at launch, it’s a sensibly priced and well-rounded two-bay NAS.

Should you want capability, heavy transcoding and extra RAID choices, spend the additional on the DXP4800 Plus. If you need a compact, environment friendly, versatile two-bay NAS and might work across the limitations above, the DXP2800 GT is a straightforward unit to advocate, notably within the context of the present {hardware} market.

I’m James, a UK-based tech fanatic and the Editor and Proprietor of Mighty Gadget, which I’ve proudly run since 2007. Enthusiastic about all issues know-how, my experience spans from computer systems and networking to cell, wearables, and good dwelling gadgets.

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