Whereas mechanical onerous drives are nonetheless the most suitable choice for residence NAS servers, SSDs are inexpensive sufficient that they are a legit various. Most NAS servers embrace no less than two M.2 drives that provide the means to enhance conventional storage with ultra-fast SSDs, however when you do not need to trouble with mechanical drives in any respect, there’s one other alternative.
UGREEN’s DXP480T Plus is without doubt one of the most intriguing choices within the model’s fledgling portfolio. I reviewed the DXP4800 Plus a couple of weeks in the past, and the 4-bay server has the most effective {hardware} configuration in its class. With the DXP480T Plus, UGREEN is taking a special path — this NAS server is a 3rd of the scale because the DXP4800 Plus, and that is as a result of it has simply M.2 slots; there is no means so as to add an ordinary 3.5-inch HDD.
All-flash NAS storage servers are slowly gaining momentum, and with a 4TB Gen. 4 SSD promoting for as little as $226, it is not onerous to see why. SSDs are way more dependable than HDDs as they have no transferring components, and when you have a 2.5GbE or 10GbE residence community, they’ve a lot better headroom.
So if you wish to change to all-flash storage, the DXP480T Plus may be the only option proper now.
UGREEN DXP480T Plus: Pricing and availability
UGREEN unveiled its NASync collection on March 26, and in contrast to many of the model’s choices, you may’t purchase the NAS servers through its web site or Amazon. That may come later, however for now, you may have to go the crowdsourcing route; the merchandise are listed on Kickstarter, and you will get your fingers on the DXP480T Plus for $519. That is a full 35% off its $799 retail worth, and as of writing, there are 639 models (out of 1000) left at this tier.
UGREEN says it’ll begin deliveries by June 2024, and that’s according to the remainder of its NAS fashions being crowdfunded on Kickstarter proper now. There’s just one variant of the DXP480T Plus, and it comes with 8GB of RAM that may be upgraded to 64GB, 4 M.2 drive bays, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one 10 Gigabit Ethernet port, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port with 10Gbps bandwidth.
| Class | UGREEN DXP480T Plus |
|---|---|
| Inner drive bays | 4 (4TB every bay), M.2 2280 |
| Community interface | 1 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet |
| USB ports | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2, 10Gbps |
| Thunderbolt 4 | Two |
| PCIe | ❌ |
| HDMI | Sure, HDMI 2.0b port |
| CPU | 4.4GHz twelfth Gen Intel Core i5-1235U |
| Plex transcoding | Sure |
| RAM | 8GB DDR5 non-ECC, upgradeable to 64GB |
UGREEN DXP480T Plus: Design
Most 4-bay NAS servers are huge and hulking, however as a result of the DXP480T Plus does not need to take care of 3.5-inch drive bays, it has a diminutive dimension. The design is extra according to that of a mini-PC, and whereas the exterior design is made out of plastic, construct high quality is great. This can be a product that appears and feels premium, and whereas it’s considerably smaller than different NAS servers, it has nice cooling potential.
There are vents on three sides that help in passive cooling, and the underside of the DXP480T Plus has two followers that actively cool the M.2 drive bays. The followers are just like what you get on most notebooks, they usually get loud; I might have most well-liked an even bigger fan with higher cooling, however the sheer dimension of the unit limits it.
UGREEN bundles a good set of equipment within the field, together with an Ethernet cable, thermal pads to connect to the M.2 SSDs housed within the enclosure, and an set up information. Whereas it is nice to see the model bundling thermal pads — they’re important on this product — they disintegrated as I used to be attaching them to the SSDs, so I went with an aftermarket answer.
The entrance of the NAS has the facility button and the model’s tagline, Shield What You Love, highlighted. The usual UGREEN emblem would have been higher as an alternative, however that’s positioned on the high.
Accessing the M.2 slots is simple; there are two screws on the underside, and the panel comes away to disclose the 4 M.2 2280 slots. What I like concerning the panel is that the followers are housed inside, they usually’re linked through magnetic pins to the NAS.
General, UGREEN did a terrific job with the design of the DXP480T Plus, and it is without doubt one of the smallest all-flash storage options round.
UGREEN DXP480T Plus: Ports and connectivity
The DXP480T Plus homes 4 M.2 2280 drive bays, and it holds as much as a complete of 16TB of storage — a most of 4TB every drive. There’s lots to love with regards to the ports, with the NAS providing two Thunderbolt 4 ports together with HDMI out, USB 3.2 Gen 2, and a ten Gigabit Ethernet port.
The NAS comes with 8GB of DDR5 RAM as commonplace, and it has two SO-DIMM slots that allow you to add as much as 64GB of whole storage. Nonetheless, accessing these slots is a little bit of a trouble as you want to dismantle the underside housing. That mentioned, you will not have to do it greater than as soon as.
What I like about UGREEN’s NAS servers is that the model features a 128GB M.2 2242 drive out of the field; the web-based OS is housed on this drive, and it makes configuring the DXP480T Plus a breeze.
UGREEN DXP480T Plus: Efficiency
Powering the DXP480T Plus is an Alder Lake-based Intel Core i5-1235U. It has 10 cores and 12 threads in whole, goes as much as 4.4GHz, and is a good alternative in a NAS server as you get {hardware} transcoding. You possibly can’t do a lot with that simply but, because the software program itself remains to be in beta.
UGREEN has a customized OS referred to as UGOS that powers its NAS servers, and it isn’t in a usable state as of writing. It is clear that this is the reason the model took the crowdfunding route as an alternative of releasing the NASync collection on its web site, and whereas it is simple sufficient to see that the software program has lots of potential, that is nonetheless some methods away.
The interface itself seems to be clear, and also you get an excellent set of utilities to observe storage and tweak the settings of the NAS. There is a world search function that is fairly nifty, however once more, it is not fairly dependable simply but. As such, most of my testing was performed in SMB mode, and in that regard, the all-flash storage has lots to supply. On my 10GbE community, I constantly received writes of over 540MB/s when transferring knowledge between servers, with reads of 700MB/s.
That is clearly way more than what you get with an HDD, and you’ll simply maximize the potential of multi-Gigabit connectivity with the DXP480T Plus. However close to media streaming and backing up knowledge, the NAS nonetheless has an extended method to go.
UGREEN DXP480T Plus: The competitors
ASUSTOR additionally has an all-flash storage providing dubbed the Flashstor FS6706T, and it homes six M.2 bays. It does not have Thunderbolt 4 connectivity or 10GbE, however you get twin 2.5GbE ports, and three USB ports on the again. The {hardware} is not as highly effective, with the unit rocking an Intel N5105. And coming in at $449, you do not get the most effective worth.
UGREEN DXP480T Plus: Must you purchase it?
You can purchase this if:
- You need the most effective {hardware} bundle on this section
- You desire a NAS with a diminutive design
- You want Thunderbolt 4 connectivity
You should not purchase this if:
- You need polished software program out of the field
Finally, the DXP480T Plus has the most effective {hardware} of any all-flash storage servers round as we speak. The truth that you get twin Thunderbolt 4 ports and 10GbE connectivity permits it to face out significantly, and despite the fact that it’s on Kickstarter, $519 is a steal for the caliber of {hardware} you are getting.
The Core i5-1235U is considerably extra highly effective than the greatest residence NAS servers, which normally use Intel’s N-series designs. And with 4 M.2 2280 drive bays accessible, you’ve gotten sufficient headroom for storage. The one unknown is the software program; UGREEN says it’ll ship a usable construct by the point these drives exit to backers, and I’ll replace the submit at the moment to see if the software program holds as much as established rivals.
That mentioned, UGOS has a strong basis, and when you do not thoughts ready for the secure construct to roll out, the DXP480T Plus is a standout alternative at $519. That will not be the case as soon as it hits retail availability, so if you wish to change to an all-flash NAS and wish to maximise worth, you may have to act now.