UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus 8-Bay Desktop NAS, Intel i5 1235u 10-Core CPU, 8GB DDR5 RAM, 128G SSD, 2 * 10GbE, 2 * M.2 NVMe Slots, 8K HDMI, 2 * TBT4, Network Attached Storage (Diskless)

I will start by saying I have been in enterprise IT and software all my life, so my needs requirements and standards may vary from the average home user. That being said, I believe in bang for the buck, and the DXP8800 delivers above and beyond its competition for the price point (as long as you equip it accordingly).I have finished the burn in and testing period with this NAS and I am extremely satisfied. I purchased this to move off of my aging 6x6TB WD I7 32gb NAS cube. The UGOS Pro operating system has come a long way and as of this review it is mature and handles everything you will likely be throwing at it except for the most advanced enterprise use cases where this device as a whole wouldn't be considered.My DXP8800 setup is as follows beyond factory delivery: 96gb Crucial Ram, 6x16TB WD Red Pro Spinning Disk, 1x WD 850 2tb nvme, 1x WD 850 1TB nvme, 2x Noctua NF-12 fans. While I considered moving to TrueNAS, I have found the UGOS pro native operating system to be more than sufficient for my advanced needs. Despite what you might find in older research, UGOS pro is natively seeing all my RAM and making use of it in Cache (previously the synopsis was UGOS pro was capping at 64gb, no longer the case)Let's start with the drives: I went with WD Pro because while I primarily stream media, I stream it in 4k and this is my primary use for this NAS (plex >70% use). I also use the device for Time Machine backups which was especially easy in UGOS pro OS for setup. These drives are going to run hotter and noisier than the WD Red plus drives and equivalent because they are basically enterprise drives. My NAS is in my home networking area, so noise wasn't an issue but to be honest these drives click and grind and while you dont want to have this sitting next to your desk, the reality is a NAS of this size should not be sitting at your desk. I also appreciate the enterprise reality of things that most consumers don't consider: the WD pro drives have internal vibration controls which mitigate issues when co-habitating with other devices spinning in the same case at 7200 RPM. The DXP 8800 with these drives alone can saturate the 10gbe connection, but the additional warranty, addition of the helium barrier etc make it worth it vs the plus drives alone. It's your data, and if you are running a NAS to begin with you run a lot of it and integrity is important to you. Dont cheap out.Let's talk NVME: I run all my docker and VM's on the low speed port of the NVME side of the bus with my 2tb WD 850 nvme. I chose the versions with heatsinks for both NVME's and they fit fine so it was worth the upgrade. I also used the big thick pads provided by Ugreen to make contact with the NVME heatsinks and the case to improve cooling performance however marginal. Important to note that I chose NVME with onboard DRAM so there was less processor interaction with data compute. For this device, my research concluded that onboard DRAM would play a role and I dont regret the decision despite the extra head and +1=1.5w of additional power.I am running the 1tb NVME as a cache drive in the high speed slot, but so far have seen no utilization of cache (so consider your real needs). The large 30gb media files I am typically streaming are never going to make it to cache. I am going to leave it in place for now as I move to more smaller files and leverage the storage more across my home, but as of now I dont regret the cache purchase but am seeing no real world improvement thus far. If you are using TrueNAS you can force a more specific use of the cache, but then you are maintaining an L2ARC tuning environment that as nerdy as I am, I dont see a real-world home use for. Let's be realistic, this is a Home/SMB NAS, and a very good one. But if you are trying to throw this in your business enterprise you should be x10'ing your budget and go with something enterprise.Another thing I have come to see debated is noise levels: for the purposes of this review I will reiterate that anyone looking at an 8-bay NAS really shouldn't be parking it on their desk. That being said, lets talk real noise world statistics as noise and heat dissipation are unwisely not discussed simaltanseously : I already discussed why my drives are noisy and if you drop down to WD Red plus drives at 5400 rpm they will never make noise, that I can attest to even with my old 6TB 5400 plus drives. So let's talk fan noise: I have upgraded both fans to the Noctua industrial NF-F12 fans. With the stock fans, I was seeing ~40C per spinning disk and ~42C per NVMW idle / light load temps in the fan's "default" setting (meaning the system controls based on temperature, vs low or full fan setting). In full-fan mode, the stock fans can drop the same idle/light load temps to ~36C and the NVME's to ~40C. Not terrible, well within operating specs and I am comfortable the stock fans would carry my current setup under load so for most users esp those not using the big fat pro drives I am using, will be fine. The stock fans are impressive and not as loud as I expected running in "full" mode.I still chose to upgrade to Noctua, not only because I have been using them in most of my builds for year but also because they are the best at what they do. After the upgrade, I put the drives under load and yes these fans are very loud at "full" setting (but still below typical IT server levels). However, at heavy load with these fans cranking my drives never got above 40C and my NVME never above 47C. At idle with "full" fan setting, these fans keep the drives at 22C !!! In default mode (ie systems controlled) my spinning disks are sitting at 32C and my NVME at 36C with idle to light loads. Anyone moving towards loading this chassis beyond 5 disks should perform this very inexpensive and easy upgrade.For those interested in Plex, I have had no problems testing a down-convert (heavy) transcode of 4k to 1080p plus audio and found that pulling from an Apple TV 4K has no performance issue whatsoever. The new i5 in this machine despite being technically a mobile processor spec, holds its own better than my old system by a large margin. Unless you are transcoding 5+ streams at once (at which point this NAS is not your use case) you will not need an external GPU or anything to carry you forward in the near future. Plex performance has been monumental on this system in a docker container.As I mentioned earlier, while I am an advanced user I dont see the merit in moving off UGOS pro for SMB or Home use at this point no matter how advanced your needs are. I wish one of the big tech bloggers would let the world know how far this OS has come in a year vs what the forums represent. It supports VM's, dockers, all SAN NFS and attachment requirements now for use cases that you shouldn't even have for a device like this, but it does it and does it well. Drive sleep works great, performance is solid, backups are easy and integration and navigation for people who dont really understand remote storage like they think they do is a god send for the prosumer. You can accomplish very advanced tasks in UGOS pro without risking breaking something because you dont really know what you are doing.I cannot comment on the smaller enclosures first-hand, but I do know that Ugreen 6 bay and 8 bay are identical in terms of my use case and review. The smaller docks do make some changes, but I believe most users will see results better to if not equal to what you will get on Synology or Qnapp. I expect those vendors to pivot hard with new offerings coming in the next year, but I dont see them getting to this price point any time soon if ever.Build quality is extremely important, and Ugreen made this thing more aesthetically pleasing than it needs to be but my thanks anyways. I found it very easy to work on, well constructed and thoughtful to meet the needs surpassing what someone looking at this NAS should be using it for.Performance has met specs. There are a lot of people out there talking about network, disk etc but these are highly environmentally variable. I have not performed any advanced or undercover configs or tuning with my setup on UGOS pro and despite the zero cache utilization I can saturate a 10gbe port which lets face it is amazing at this price point. Your mileage will 100% vary on your setup, but I spent more on drives than the NAS itself: I understand my use case. FYI there is value in having 2x10gbe bandwidth available to your NAS even though your devices individually arent 10gbe, but again it varies on your use case. My Apple TV will soak a full line 1gbe if I let it streaming the right content, no problem for any network unless other things are also making similar requests.In conclusion, the is s a recommended buy: you just cant go wrong for the price/performance and whatever it is you think you might be missing you arent. If you genuinely are, this is not the hardware category you should be shopping.The below is a list of my upgrades and where to find them on amazon:FANS:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KFCRATC?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_titleRAM:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C79K5VGZ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1NVME:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B7CKZGN6?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1Hard Drives:https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-16TB-Internal-Drive/dp/B08K3VVKSW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=31QE24X27ZDJ8&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.dIpadfnImZ7C_0Kqqte1uAL9l3bBfISZMpN4Lm9RnDEI4XsNq2vZ3AKDZwyLljcoO7BXeIcKmOApaZoVB3YMBA1r3D33x5vcDCFmY3N_3y2kyw27LwYZ_-QeP0S-qgwDiRmYRbVBXSbVRttmEA4UM4wDcHPyh6p-7Icu8nIz0fTMOcKt47RdNHpiKtjXZZvvZ0deFR1dA5Fc6y8eordLZ0u1v9iFEy_6cpXbqFDWJGo.uO4pURF5JM1_nzSspjXBlnFqFI3ud5JH-W258FIWLwo&dib_tag=se&keywords=wd%2Bpro%2B16tb&qid=1753114536&sprefix=wd%2Bpro%2B16tb%2Caps%2C157&sr=8-1&th=1

The UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus is a beast of a machine, and honestly, it's probably overkill for most home users—but I couldn't be happier with it. I loaded mine with 8 x 16TB drives and upgraded the RAM to 32GB, and this thing handles everything I throw at it with ease.Right out of the box, the build quality is solid and premium. The Intel i5-1235U 10-core CPU paired with DDR5 RAM means performance is smooth even with multiple tasks running—file transfers, streaming, and virtualization all happen without a hitch. I’ve also added NVMe drives in the two M.2 slots for cache, and the speed boost is noticeable.The dual 10GbE ports were a huge selling point for me. I connected it to my UniFi 10G switch (using a compatible SFP+ transceiver), and the file transfer speeds are blazing fast. I regularly get sustained transfer rates that make working with large media files painless. The built-in 128GB SSD for the OS is a great touch too, keeping everything snappy and responsive.It also has Thunderbolt 4 ports, 8K HDMI, and tons of expandability for creative workflows—perfect if you're into video editing or heavy data tasks. While I don’t use it for 8K output, it's nice knowing it can support that level of performance if I ever need it.Overall, this NAS is a dream setup. It’s quiet, powerful, and rock-solid. If you're a power user, data hoarder, or someone who just wants the best for their home lab, this NAS is worth every penny—even if it’s a little more than you technically “need.” Highly recommended.

TL;DR: Excellent 8 bay system for use as a TrueNAS box. Very premium build quality and feel, well packaged with great features. Worth it on sale ($1199.99), but not at MSRP in my opinion.Who this is for: This is a great NAS for someone who doesn’t want to build their own NAS from parts but also doesn’t want to be locked into a pre-built OEM NAS OS. You can install TrueNAS, UnRaid or any other OS you like, it’s not locked down.It’s got a reasonably powerful yet efficient CPU, but its strength in specs is expandable DDR5 RAM, an included 128GB SSD for the OS, 2x M.2 NVMe SSD slots and an open PCIe slot for expansion. The dual 10Gb NIC’s are on board and seem to perform well.I added 96GB RAM to mine, which works great (CT2K48G56C46S5). Added 2x 4TB Klevv NVMe SSD’s for small files/app storage (in ZFS mirror) and added 8x 28TB Seagate Exo’s HDD’s to the bays in a ZFS Z2 pool allowing for 2 drive failure tolerance.I was able to use the PCIe slot to add the card included with a QNAP TL-D400S DAS 4 bay enclosure. This worked with 0 effort under TrueNAS. I put my old 8TB Seagate Iron Wolf NAS drives in a ZFS Z2 pool to use for backups/photos storage. TrueNAS see’s these as separate drives, serials numbers and all…basically works like internally connected drives thanks to using an SFF-8088 cable to connect to the PCIe SATA card.The build quality is far better than the QNAP TS-664 its replacing. Metal exterior, drive sleds while not enterprise sturdy seem well engineered and should stand up to infrequent “homelab” use. Many small engineering, attention to detail touches that feel premium. Like the included fully metal, magnetic dust filter for the back.I have it connected to a 10Gb switch and its handling things very well.What I don’t like about the NAS, and really it’s not a big deal…access to the PCIe slot is an ordeal. You have to take out all the HDD drives, remove the bottom access door to the SSD/RAM, remove the screws/feet, remove like 6 screws on the back and then like 4 more inside. Then you can slide the shell off to get to the PCIe slots. A good 5-10 minute process.I can’t speak to the included OS, didnt try it at all. I did a firmware update, let it reboot and then installed TrueNAS in place of the included OS.The only reason not to buy this if it meets your requirements is the price. At almost $1500 I think the appeal of self building really stands out. You can build a system for roughly that price, exactly as you want it with less compromises using all standard brand new parts. When the price drops $200-300 then it becomes really compelling. I managed to get it for $1199.99 during Prime sale and am happy I did. At that price you get 1 warranty/return policy covering everything.I would highly recommend it