uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: speed, performance, cost

At $1,449.99, six hard drive bays in the uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra, coupled with dual 10GbE and Thunderbolt are the real draw, not its AI billing.

A NAS lives or dies on two things. One is how much it can contain, the other is how fast you can move it.

uGreen’s DXP6800 Ultra bets hard on the second. It piles on connectivity that pricier rivals often charge extra for.

The “Ultra” name and uGreen’s AI marketing invite scrutiny. The chip inside tells a more modest story.

So the real draw here is input and output. This is a fast, expandable box, not an AI powerhouse. Fortunately, it’s not priced badly based on marketing buzzwords.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: Specifications

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: Design

A six-bay NAS cannot hide what it is. This is a boxy metal tower built to hold drives.

Six lockable bays load from the front. Two M.2 slots sit inside for cache or SSD pools.

It measures about 11.6 by 10.2 by 7.4 inches. This is a device for a shelf, not a desk.

Power draw is modest for the class. uGreen rates it at 43 watts during drive access. We saw a bit more at 60W when the unit was under load, and getting slammed with I/O requests at the same time.

For the testing suite, we tested the unit with six 2TB Seagate Red drives provided by Ugreen. We also used four 24TB WD Red Pro, that retail for $1059 per drive on Amazon.

SSDs used for testing included a pair of Samsung 990 Evo Plus drives, and a pair of Samsung SSD 9100 Pro 1TB drives. You don’t need to use drives this fast. Stick with PCI-E 3.0 drives if you have them, as they’re cheaper, and still provide more than enough speed.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: The chip, and the AI question

Here is where the “Ultra” badge needs a closer look. The chip is an Intel Core 5 120U.

It has 10 cores and 12 threads, up to 5.0GHz. That is capable, but not cutting-edge.

The part is based on Intel’s older Raptor Lake design. Crucially, it has no dedicated NPU.

That matters, because uGreen markets this line on AI. On-device AI runs on the CPU here, not a Neural Engine.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: The front port selection

For photo tagging and search, it still works fine. It just will not fly like the uGreen NASync iDX6011 does, and heavy AI is a stretch. That’s fine, though.

For normal NAS duties, the chip more than beefy enough. File serving, Docker, and streaming are easy work.

As a reference, the older Geekbench 6 benchmarking suite puts it near 1,750 single-core. Multi-core lands around 6,200. For reference the M1 Mac mini has a 2191 single-core score, and a 8576 multi-core.

This is not really a handicap for the hardware class, though. Beyond file sharing, combined with 8GB of ECC RAM, as shipped, this still is a good machine for Docker, and apps natively running on the hardware.

ECC support is rare at this price. We’re not going to get into it, but the longer something runs, the more likely it is to get a bit flipped now and again from ionizing radiation, or just a random error. ECC guards against that.

Memory can be expanded to 96GB for heavier work, assuming you have the budget for it. What it ships with is ample for most SOHO Docker and virtual machine needs.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: Storage

The six bays are the whole point of a six-bay NAS. Each takes a SATA drive up to 32TB.

Two M.2 NVMe slots add fast storage. I think they’re best used for cache, but uGreen allows that, or for or a separate SSD storage pool.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: The front-accessible drive bays

uGreen lists a maximum capacity of 208TB. That combines six 32TB drives with two NVMe sticks.

RAID spans JBOD, Basic, and RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10. That covers speed and redundancy alike.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: The hatch for accessing the M.2 section

A separate 128GB SSD holds the system, and is not user accessible. It keeps UGOS Pro off your main array.

On a gigabit Ethernet network, a single spinning hard drive can and will saturate what’s available for wired bandwidth. Properly configured, and fully populated a striped RAID of hard drives will saturate a 10-gig network.

As always, we’re very pleased with uGreen network speeds. There are no artificial slowdowns and it is always external network load slowing down transfer speeds.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: Connectivity and the Mac

This is where the DXP6800 Ultra earns its name. The connectivity is generous.

There are two 10GbE Ethernet ports, not one. With the right networking hardware, they can serve fast network access. Speeds will still be limited to 10 gigabits per second per client, mostly because of client speeds.

Two Thunderbolt 4 ports sit on the front. Each offers up to 40Gbps to a connected Mac.

The Thunderbolt 4 ports are primarily intended to ingest data from other drives and store it locally. They can be used to expand storage too, if you need.

You can also use them to network over Thunderbolt with another computer, but only up to as fast as 10 gigabits. To say it plainly, the NASync DXP6800 is not a Drobo DAS replacement, which is unfortunate.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: The rear port selection

A PCIe Gen4 x4 slot adds real expansion. Few NAS boxes at this price include one. This is a major selling point for the unit.

The rest covers 8K HDMI for configuration or media playback, 10gbit/sec USB-A, and an SD 4.0 reader. There is little a creative desk would miss.

The 10GbE ports need matching network gear to shine. The faster copper networking is still rare in SOHO environments, but implementation is ticking up.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: Software and Apple features

The DXP6800 Ultra runs UGOS Pro. The software has matured, though it trails Synology.

If you need it for backups, there’s support for Time Machine, though it’s not immediately usable. We’re not going to get into the procedure here, but UGreen has a video about it. The support document is a bit better, though.

While it once wasn’t, UGOS Pro is easy to set up, easy to manage, and easy to control access.

The onboard software options are what you’d expect from a typical NAS. You have your private image album library system, your video storage and playback tools, and other productivity-centric items.

If you’re into downloading large files legitimately via Bittorrent, there’s a tool built in for just that, but you can install more if you want.

But, with all of this performance on tap, eventual users may want to do more. Thankfully, there’s Docker support, so you can install an array of different network services on the NAS.

Don’t like Docker? You can also run virtual machines on it instead.

With the performance of the chip used here, those services will be quick enough.

But remember the missing NPU from earlier. These features lean on the CPU, so temper expectations.

Docker support opens the usual self-hosting options. Plex and Jellyfin both run here. A Plex container managed to serve six concurrent 4K streams, while transcoding.

UGOS Pro is also not the only choice. The x86 hardware can run TrueNAS or Unraid instead, which is beyond the scope of this review.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: Where it sits in the range

uGreen’s NAS range has become crowded. The DXP6800 Ultra needs placing carefully.

Below it sits the four-bay DXP4800 Pro. That model has fewer bays, one 10GbE port, and no Thunderbolt.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: PCI-E expansion

Above it sits the AI-focused IDX6011 Pro. That one carries the real NPU hardware.

The choice comes down to priorities. For bays and I/O, this is the pick.

Want serious on-device AI instead? Spend more for the IDX6011 Pro.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra review: A connectivity flagship, not an AI one

The DXP6800 Ultra is easy to sum up. It is a generous six-bay NAS with standout connectivity.

Dual 10GbE, Thunderbolt 4, and a PCIe slot rarely appear together. At this price, that bundle is the real value.

The “Ultra” and AI billing oversells the hardware, a bit. A no-NPU Raptor Lake part is not an AI engine.

Judge it on storage and I/O, and it shines. Judge it on AI, and it falls short.

For a Mac creative wanting fast shared storage, it fits well. Maybe the next one can be used as direct attached storage over Thunderbolt.

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra Pros

• Dual 10GbE, Thunderbolt 4, and PCIe Gen4 expansion
• ECC memory support, rare at this price
• Six bays plus two M.2 slots, 208TB max

uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra Cons

• No NPU, despite the AI marketing
• Modest multi-core chip performance
• 10GbE needs matching network gear

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

From humble beginnings, to mature software now, unfettered by unrealistic restraints, uGreen has turned into our favorite NAS vendor. There are no drive lock-downs, there’s hardware transcoding, and an excellent feature set for the price.

And now, there’s something for everybody in the line from basic backup server to AI powerhouse, hitting every rung in between. It’s been fun to watch this product line mature since our first uGreen NAS review, and I’m extremely glad that they’re making a run at Synology for market champion.

Where to buy the uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra

The uGreen NASync DXP6800 Ultra is available from Amazon for $1,449.99 at retail pricing. Watch for sales.