The diminutive Ugreen NASync DXP480T Plus looks surprising at first glance, since it’s much smaller than most other four-bay network attached storage (NAS) devices. That’s because it uses M.2 solid-state drives for storage rather than traditional bulkier SATA hard drives. Despite the small size, it packs a lot of high-end tech, including a 12th Generation Intel CPU, four M.2 SSD slots, a 10GbE LAN port, and a nice assortment of high-speed I/O ports. It’s an excellent performer, too. But its $999.99 price is over the top, and that doesn’t even include the price of SSDs. If you absolutely must have a solid-state NAS, the $449 Asustor Flashstor FS6706T is a better choice. It’s much more affordable, it offers six drive bays instead of four, and comes with a larger selection of apps.Design: Masquerading as an Apple TVThe DXP480T Plus could easily be mistaken for an Apple TV streaming box rather than a traditionally sized four-bay NAS like the similarly named Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Plus. Its aluminum alloy enclosure measures just 2.0 by 7.0 by 5.6 inches (HWD) and lacks the physical drive bays found on traditional NAS devices that use hard drives for storage. The front of the device has a power button, while the side and back panels contain cooling vents.
All of the I/O ports are positioned around back. They include a 10GbE LAN port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, a headphone jack, and a power jack. Here you’ll also find a Reset button. To access the four M.2 slots, you’ll need to remove two screws from a panel on the bottom of the device, which holds two small cooling fans. You’ll also need to remove a screw on each slot to install and remove the drives. To make this easier, the folks at Ugreen include a small Philips screwdriver in the box, along with a user guide, a LAN cable, four adhesive thermal conduction pads (one for each M.2 drive), and a power adapter.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
As with the Flashstor FS6706T, the NASync DXP480T plus uses expensive M.2 solid-state drive modules (not included) instead of hard drives, with a maximum capacity of 16TB. To reach this maximum capacity, you’ll need four 4TB drives, which go for around $300 a pop. That means you’ll have to spend somewhere in the vicinity of $1,200 in addition to the initial price of $999.99, bringing the total cost up to around $2,200. In comparison, the $449 AsustorFlashstor FS6706T is almost half the price, although you still have to buy storage. And a traditional four-bay NAS such as the $499.99 TerraMaster F4-424 is cheaper still. It can be populated with four $70 4TB HDDs for a total cost of around $780.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The DXP480T Plus uses a 12th Generation Intel Core i5-1235u CPU, 128GB of flash storage for system use, and 8GB of DDR5 memory (expandable to 64GB). It supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, and RAID 10 configurations, as well as JBOD and Basic configurations. It also supports Btrfs and EXT4 file systems and 8K hardware video transcoding.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
You can install and manage the DXP480T Plus using a web console or with the Ugreen NAS mobile app for iOS and Android devices. They both offer the same functionality, but the mobile app lets you control things from your phone. It opens to a screen that contains eight application icons, including File Manager, Control Panel, Storage Manager, App Center, Log Center, Help Center, Task Manager, and Universal Search. With File Manager, you can create personal and shared folders, assign permissions, and create links to shared folders. In Control Panel, you can enable file services (SMB, FTP, WebDAV), invite users, configure network and security settings, update firmware, and configure hardware and power settings.Use the Storage Manager to create, extend, and delete storage pools, format the drives, and create storage volumes. The App Center is where you go to download additional apps, but as of this writing, only seven apps are available (the ones mentioned above). A Ugreen spokesperson said that more apps will be available but did not offer a date or any specifics. By way of comparison, the Flashstor FS6706T offers more than 270 Asustor-branded and third-party apps, including apps for home entertainment, database management, backup and restore solutions, web hosting, and more.
(Credit: Ugreen)
The Log Center lets you view system logs, but it only works on the web console—same with the Help Center. The Task Manager lets you view system statistics such as CPU usage and temperature, memory usage, network upload and download traffic, and which services are currently running. The Universal Search icon opens a screen where you can search for folders, files, photos, video, audio, and other types of data stored on the NAS. There’s also a More icon that displays the same application icons as listed above, grouped by category.Testing the DXP480T Plus: Simple Setup, Speedy TransfersInstalling the DXP480T Plus was fast and easy. I removed the bottom panel and each SSD screw and installed four 1TB M.2 drives that the folks at Ugreen sent along with the NAS. After screwing each drive into place, I attached an adhesive thermal pad to each drive and replaced the bottom panel. I connected the NAS and my desktop PC to the same router and powered up the NAS.Next, I downloaded the Ugreen NAS Client utility, and the device was immediately identified when I opened the program. I tapped Start, created an administrator account, and tapped Start Now to initialize the device. I then used the Storage Manager to create a storage pool and selected RAID 5 and Btrfs as my file system. This yielded 2.7TB of usable storage space. I then used File Manager to create a new shared folder for testing, and the installation was complete.We test NAS file transfer performance by moving a 4.9GB folder containing a mix of music, video, photo, and office document files between the NAS and the desktop PC and recording the read and write times. I ran the same tests on the DXP480T Plus that I ran when testing the Flashstor FS6706T, and the results were identical. For the first set of tests, I connected the DXP480T Plus and my desktop testbed to the 1GbE LAN ports on my Wi-Fi 6 router. Both devices were connected using their 10GbE LAN ports. Here, the DXP480T Plus matched the Flashstor FS6706T, with scores of 116MBps on both the read and the write tests.
I then connected the DXP480T Plus and the desktop PC to a 2.5GbE switch and received scores of 288MBps (read) and 306MBps (write). Once again, these scores were identical to what we saw with the FS6707T when we connected it to the 2.5GbE switch.In comparison, the TerraMaster F4-424 (a four-bay NAS that uses traditional HDDs and offers multi-gig connectivity) delivered 178MBps (write) and 280MBps (read) on the multi-gig test, and 83MBps (write) and 116MBps (read) on the 1GbE tests.Verdict: A Fast, Pricey NASAlthough the Ugreen NASync DXP480T Plus is among the fastest NAS devices we’ve tested, most home users won’t have the necessary multi-gig network hardware required to realize its full potential. Moreover, its $999.99 price is prohibitive, and that’s before populating the device with pricey M.2 SSD storage. You’ll get equally impressive performance with the $449 Asustor Flashstor FS6706T, which also offers two additional drive bays and many more apps.
Ugreen NASync DXP480T Plus
The Bottom Line
Ugreen’s NASync DXP480T Plus is a compact four-bay network attached storage device built for M.2 SSDs, delivering fast performance—but at a hefty startup price.
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