Ugreen NASync DXP8800 Ultra: 30-second review

Ugreen has, out of nowhere, developed an uncanny habit of building the NAS you wanted, then building an even bigger one. The NASync DXP8800 Plus was the flagship of the original range, and the NASync DXP8800 Ultra has now superseded it.

The Ultra is not a redesign. The chassis, the bay count and port layout all carry over. On paper, even the dimensions are identical, at 365 x 258 x 189mm. All that’s new about the Ultra is inside.

That means the same eight SATA bays and two M.2 slots. Filled with 32TB hard drives and 8TB SSDs, it offers up to 272TB in a single box. Dual 10GbE, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an 8K-capable HDMI output, and a PCIe slot remain unchanged. The revamp includes a newer Intel Core 7 150U processor and raises the memory ceiling from 64GB to a whopping 96GB.

Those are welcome upgrades, but getting these extras over the Plus model is not inexpensive. The asking price for the Ultra is $1,779.99, making it the most expensive model in its DXP range, though less than the iDX series. Hardcore NAS users will want to know one thing. Is the outlay worth the extra over the Plus?

That entirely depends on how you intend to use this NAS. For those who just want file serving, it’s probably not worth it. But for someone using virtualisation and hosting AI, it might be an improvement they’ll pay for.

There is also good news on availability. Unlike the Plus at launch, the Ultra needs no Kickstarter campaign. It has been on sale since September 2026.

The operating system is the same UGOS Pro that runs the rest of the range. It has grown since the Plus arrived, though it remains a work in progress.

The DXP8800 Plus was a solid platform and should have been included as one of our best NAS devices, which logically implies that the DXP8800 Ultra might also be a candidate.

Ugreen NASync DXP8800 Ultra: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? $1,779.99/€1.779,99
• When is it out? On sale now in most regions
• Where can you get it? Direct from Ugreen or via online retailers, including Amazon and Newegg

Ugreen sells the Ultra directly and through Amazon, with no crowdfunding shenanigans this time. That is a relief. I have grumbled before about Kickstarter being used as a marketing exercise by numerous companies that hardly need the money, so I’m glad this product came directly to market.

The Plus model launched at an MSRP of $1,499.99, and Kickstarter backers paid as little as $974. It currently sells for $1,207.99, compared to the $ 1,779.99 Ultra direct from Ugreen. That makes the Ultra $570 more, for a machine with the same number of bays and ports.

From the Ugreen site for EU customers, the Ultra is €1.779,99. Which, given the current exchange rate of the US Dollar and Euro, makes it about 11% more expensive, and close to the equivalent of $2000 for Europeans.

At the time of writing, it isn’t stocked in the UK, but I’m told that could change soon.

So what does the extra money get you? A newer processor with a higher clock speed, slightly stronger integrated graphics and room for 96GB of memory instead of 64GB. Almost everything else is shared. That includes the power figures, which Ugreen quotes as 70.39W with the drives active and 28.99W in hibernation for both models.

That memory ceiling needs a reality check. When I reviewed the Plus, a 32GB module cost about $90. In 2026, DDR5 is far more expensive, and a 32GB kit of two 16GB modules is at least $320 even from a lesser-known brand. Filling the Ultra to its limit would cost almost as much as the NAS itself. Therefore, the 96GB ceiling is a promise few owners will rush to experience.

Competition from the usual suspects is weak in this slice of the NAS market. When I looked at the Plus, the Synology DS1823xs+ cost $1,800 for much less processing power and no Thunderbolt. The Ultra costs about the same today, has Thunderbolt 4 and a newer processor, and offers the potential for triple the memory. Synology has largely abandoned the prosumer and small-business sectors, so don’t expect a revised design anytime soon.

Against rivals, the Ultra is still strong value. Against its own siblings, it is much harder to justify.

• Value: 3.5 / 5

Ugreen NASync DXP8800 Ultra: Specs

Ugreen NASync DXP8800 Ultra: Design

• Unchanged chassis
• Room for 96GB

Since Ugreen first launched the DXP8800 Plus, I’ve been running that platform in my office, and almost nothing is wrong with the form factor or build quality. The DXP8800 Ultra inherits almost everything about the exterior and the drive bays.

The Ultra is built on the same thick aluminium chassis as the Plus, and it measures exactly the same dimensionally. The drive trays, rear dust filter, and dual 120mm fans all appear to carry over. Logically, if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

On the Plus, I praised the numbered, lockable drive trays and the magnetic fan filter. We regretted that the trays were plastic, and that 2.5-inch drives need screws. But in reality, most people won’t be installing drives every day or using 2.5-inch media. Most people will use 3.5-inch HDDs, and for them the tool-less trays work perfectly well.

Comparing the two machines, the ports also sit where they did before. The front panel carries the power button, drive activity lights, an SD card reader, two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port.

Around the back are the PCIe slot, HDMI, a second USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, two USB 2.0 ports and the pair of 10GbE sockets. The card reader is now listed as SD 4.0. In retrospect, I’d have preferred that the Thunderbolt ports were on the back, since I use a Thunderbolt SSD, but that’s a personal choice.

Ugreen is more forthcoming about the PCIe slot this time. It lists it as Gen 4 x4, which matches what I’d always suspected on the Plus. That is plenty for a faster network card or a storage adapter. Fitting one still means removing the case feet and rear panel, so do it before you fill the bays with drives. Or, like me, find out the hard way.

Underneath, the small service panel hides two M.2 slots and two DDR5 SODIMM sockets. The Ultra ships with a single 8GB module, so one socket is free. A separate 128GB SSD holds the operating system, which isn’t accessible without more disassembly.

That leaves both M.2 slots for your own use. Ugreen lists 96GB as the maximum, which suggests a pair of 48GB modules. For reference, an unbranded 96GB kit (2x48GB modules) is about $1400 on Amazon.

There is still no laptop-style power brick, with the power supply being mounted internally. While this is preferable, because the PSU gets cooled inside the case, it does make a fully populated Ultra a heavy thing that you probably don’t want to move on your own. Before you add drives, it’s not too difficult to pick up.

Overall, the Ultra inherits everything that made the Plus a masterclass in NAS hardware making. It is hard to fault, and just as hard to tell apart on the desk.

• Design: 4.5 / 5

Ugreen NASync DXP8800 Ultra: Features

• Intel Core 7 150U CPU
• Up to 96GB of memory
• Gen 4 PCIe slot

The Plus model ran on a Core i5 1235U, whereas the Ultra shifts to the Core 7 150U. Both are ten-core, twelve-thread mobile processors, with two performance cores and eight efficient ones. Core counts have not changed, so do not expect a massive leap in raw muscle.

What does change is the generation and the clock speed. The 150U is a 13th generation Raptor Lake part with a maximum turbo of 5.4GHz and a base frequency of 1.8GHz. The 1235U tops out at 4.4GHz and normally runs at only 1.3 GHz. The integrated graphics also grow, from 80 to 96 execution units. That should help with Quick Sync transcoding for Plex and Jellyfin, although the Plus coped well with Plex in my tests.

How much quicker is it? That depends entirely on the workload, since processing power doesn’t make SATA or the 10GbE LAN ports run any faster. As a computing platform, it’s probably 20% better overall, which might help Virtualisation and AI tasks, but the two chips are close cousins, so the 150U’s advantage is more likely to show in lightly threaded jobs.

An annoyance for those who swear by ECC memory is that neither processor supports it. For a NAS aimed at teams and small businesses, that is a shame, and some buyers will not forgive it. The specifications suggest that ODECC (On-Die Error-Correcting Code) is supported, a built-in feature of DDR5 and LPDDR5 memory chips that automatically detects and corrects single-bit errors directly inside the individual RAM ICs. But this won’t be enough for those who like the extra check bits to stored data chunks on ECC RAM.

Today, non-ECC memory is expensive enough, and ECC RAM is even more expensive, so even if Ugreen had used a platform that supported ECC, many customers might have avoided it because of the high cost.

The Ultra ships with 8GB of DDR5 and supports up to 96GB, compared with a maximum of 64GB for the Plus. To clear up some confusion I’ve seen online, the RAM supplied in my DXP8800 Ultra was Samsung-branded 5600MHz, whereas the Plus model previously used 4800MHz RAM.

The faster memory offers a slight bandwidth advantage, but it’s something to consider if you want to buy another module to pair with the pre-installed SODIMM. This chipset supports 4800MHz modules, so if you swap to a kit of, say, 16GB DDR5 SODIMMs at that speed, it should be fine.

Either way, 96GB is more memory than most NAS owners will ever need. Exceptions include those running ZFS under TrueNAS with a big cache, or those with a stack of virtual machines.

The PCIe slot is listed as Gen 4 x4. Four PCIe 4.0 lanes give a faster network card or storage adapter more than enough bandwidth. That’s enough bandwidth for four 10GbE LAN ports, or a low-profile video card for extra GPU power. The only caveats to installing a discrete video card in this system are that it must physically fit, work with PCIe 4.0, and have no extra PCIe power connectors, meaning it must run entirely off bus (slot) power.

Ugreen kept the rest of the connectivity unchanged, so the new chip supports the same devices as before.

• Features: 4.5 / 5

Ugreen NASync DXP8800 Ultra: Software

• UGOS Pro
• Docker and virtual machines
• Third-party OS sanctioned

The Ultra runs UGOS Pro, the same operating system used across the whole NASync range. In an earlier Ugreen review, I called it a work in progress. But it’s evolved since then into a clean, effective NAS environment that relies on Docker to run many critical applications, rather than software compiled specifically for this platform.

The pitch for the Ultra leans heavily on a direct teamwork ethos. It lists centralised management of files, users, permissions and devices, encrypted remote access, a firewall, encryption and backup across several platforms. There is a focus on Docker containers and virtual machines, which is where the Core 7 processing power and the extra memory prove their worth.

Some old complaints deserve a recheck. When I covered the Plus model, I noted that it missed two-factor authentication and WORM volumes that ransomware cannot alter. Also missing in action were the jumbo frames needed to fully exploit 10GbE ports. As UGOS Pro evolved, it has since added two-factor authentication, along with jumbo frames. However, WORM volumes are still missing, sadly.

The lack of Hybrid RAID was another grumble, and it appears to remain. Independent coverage says UGOS Pro still offers no flexible mixed drive mode, so unequal drives waste the difference. It also has no ZFS file system option, only Btrfs and EXT4.

If Ugreen added ZFS or something equivalent, it could hit the WORM drives and hybrid RAID issues over the head simultaneously.

One area where UGOS Pro leads the pack, rather than following, is the mobile app. It does nearly everything the web interface can, plus a few things it cannot. The Ultra shares the same software, so that strength carries over.

Another strength is that from relatively early on, Ugreen championed third-party operating systems, where other brands refused to accept them. It has said that installing one does not by itself change the hardware warranty, though it will not support problems the software causes, understandably.

But anyone heading down the third-party NAS path needs to be aware that while in the past two years some plugins have been crafted to control the fans and the front panel LEDs for the DXP6800 Plus and DXP8800 Plus, these have not been tested for the Ultra models at this time.

And for those who want to use Unraid, there is a licensing gotcha: the starter $49 option covers only six storage devices. That forces the use of the unlimited license for $109, even on the DXP6800 Plus, if you want to use all the bays and slots.

I’d love to have had the time to install a third-party NAS OS and test out if the Ultra machines will work with the Plus plugins created by the community, but alas, I like to produce more than one review each month.

UGOS Pro remains a work in progress, but it has rapidly become much closer to what TerraMaster and Asustor are fielding from a platform perspective. The Plus and the Ultra share it, so any future gains will benefit both.

• Software: 3.5 / 5

Ugreen NASync DXP8800 Ultra: Performance

• Faster CPU, same network
• M.2 slots are unchanged
• 10GbE x2 without extra hardware

On the Plus, testing shows that file serving over both 10GbE ports used less than 15 per cent of the processor, and on the Ultra that’s an even smaller proportion.

But for plain file serving, the Ultra would perform much like the Plus, because the 10GbE LAN port is the limiting factor, not the compute power behind it.

The extra processing power matters when the NAS does more than serve files. Containers, virtual machines, indexing, thumbnail generation and encrypted transfers all lean on the processor and memory. That is where the Ultra pulls ahead.

The network is the real limit. That is a best-case scenario, and a single client still tops out at the speed of one port, which is typically around 980MB/s. Early reviews of the Plus measured 650 to 700MB/s over 10GbE. On my Plus model, I often push 25GB files to it and get a sustained 980MB/s over a single 10GbE link. And, in my testing, the Ultra matched those numbers with four hard drives in a RAID 5 configuration and two SSDs used for caching that volume.

Those wanting faster transfer speeds have a few options, but these are the same ones the Plus hardware can also use. These include connecting to the NAS using the Thunderbolt port in host mode, which can establish a 40Gbps link.

Or you can use SMB to fuse the two 10GbE ports into one, with an appropriate switch. Or you could add a 40GbE LAN card to the PCIe slot, which would again need a switch capable of handling that much bandwidth.

All these things are possible with the Plus model, and remain unchanged in the Ultra.

On the Plus, M.2 slot one ran at full PCIe 4.0 speed, delivering well over 5500MB/s reads from a Gen4 x4 NVMe. Slot two managed less than half that amount, which indicated PCIe 3.0 with two lanes.

I didn’t expect this to change, because the new Core 7 150U processor doesn’t have any more PCIe lanes (20x) than the Core i5 1235U. And, predictably, inside the pocket where the RAM modules and NVMe drives live, the motherboard clearly marks one slot as Gen4 x4 and the other as Gen3 x2. So don’t mix them up, like I stupidly did.

Actually, it’s not a real issue, because UGOS Pro is smart enough to tell the module has moved and reconnect it to the system.

Eight hard drives at around 200MB/s each add up to roughly 1,600MB/s. That is close to what the slower M.2 slot throughput is, and well within reach of a pair of aggregated 10GbE ports. In practice, the drives and the network will limit the Ultra long before the processor does.

Noise deserves a mention, as Ugreen publishes no noise figure for the Ultra. Fully populated and in use, the volume was around 50 dBA, which is quiet enough for it not to be a massive annoyance.

Overall, using the supplied 8GB of RAM as a baseline, it would be hard to differentiate this from the Plus model. Those differences are only likely to surface if you have a particular workflow that involves Virtualisation, lots of Docker containers, or you are running an AI LLM locally. And, in all those situations, you will need more memory, and the 96GB this system can rock can truly come into play.

Ugreen NASync DXP8800 Ultra Final verdict

Where the DXP8800 Plus was a bolt from the blue, the DXP8800 Ultra’s arrival seems more measured. Ugreen kept everything that worked and refreshed the part that aged fastest, that being the processor, and with that change, it increased the memory ceiling.

So is it worth the extra money? For most buyers, sadly it probably isn’t. At today’s prices, the Plus still gives you eight bays, two M.2 slots, dual 10GbE, dual Thunderbolt 4 and a PCIe slot for roughly $570 less. File serving, backups, media streaming and a handful of containers run happily on either. The Ultra’s extra speed will rarely be the bottleneck unless you use it in specific ways.

That is someone running virtual machines, a large ZFS cache or a busy stack of containers, who will genuinely use more than 64GB of memory. It also suits those who expect to keep the NAS for five to ten years, where any advantage can be gained. For them, the extra headroom is cheap insurance against needing something more powerful in a couple of years.

Just budget for the memory, because DDR5 is not cheap this year. Should the RAM market return to where it was before the AI bubble, then the Ultra instantly becomes a much stronger option. And, as it’s hard to imagine that prices won’t eventually decline over time, making the Ultra a good call for the longer haul.

What’s mildly fascinating is that few alternative NAS units could even match the Plus model. The Synology DX1823xs+, for example, uses the AMD Ryzen V1780B, a four-core CPU, and supports up to 32GB of DDR4 ECC RAM, a single 10GbE LAN port, and eSATA expansion. Similarly, the TerraMaster T9-450 uses an Atom four-core processor, is also limited to 32GB, but at least has dual SFP+ 10GbE ports for close to $1200. But most 8-bay or larger options are pitched exclusively as file servers, while the DXP8800 series are something much more.

Two caveats apply. Neither the older Plus nor the new Ultra supports ECC memory, which will matter more to some businesses than any benchmark. And owners who want TrueNAS or Unraid will find the Plus better supported, at least initially.

If you are buying today, choose the Plus unless you have a clear or future use for 96GB. If street prices close the gap between this NAS and the Plus model to a couple of hundred dollars, the Ultra becomes an easy recommendation. Existing Plus owners should stay put. Nothing here justifies replacing a working NAS, and you could just be sticking your head in a bucket of bees.

If you want to save money on the NAS but don’t mind buying larger-capacity drives, the six-bay DXP6800 Ultra might be a good alternative, as it can also address 96GB of RAM.

Should you buy a Ugreen NASync DXP8800 Ultra?

Buy it if…

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