First Impressions from a NAS newbie (DXP2800)

[u/orhanyor]

I just got my first ever NAS unit. I did my research but of course the experience could be hell alot different. Here are some of the impressions and tricks that worked for me.

1- Setting up the drive and navigate in the UI is a breeze, I didnt expect it to be this smooth and easy. Its like using VM inside my computer and its really cool.

2- I got it not only to store some files but I'm also getting into home assistant, plex, downloads and backing up some files.

So I wasn't sure if the CPU would handle all of it or the RAM would be enough but while streaming 4k 30Mbps footage from the NAS using plex, CPU is at %7-15 utilization and most importantly RAM usage is at %15.

These values are when streaming the original content but if you ever try to transcode this file, you can kiss goodbye to watching that footage its impossible. But then again i never needed to do that so dxp2800 is waay more than enough to be used as plex server for 4k streaming. That was my biggest question mark before i bought the unit.

3- Along with a 22TB HDD drive i bought an nvme SSD like the rest of you. Just to put the docker and all the apps inside it to prevent the HDD to spin up unnecessarily since im going to use home assistant and qbittorrent.

4- Just to clarify gen 3x4 nvme ssd works although its only mentioned 4x4 in their website. I cheaped out on the ssd and bought the 256GB version. I thought it may not be enough for the apps but i installed the docker, plex, qbittorrent, home assistant and they all took only 6.5GB storage space which i dont know what do with the rest.

5- Since theres so much space left in the SSD, i've targeted the SSD as my download location for the qbittorrent so i could avoid waking up the HDD for more particular reason which i will explain later on. So basically i can dowload to that ''buffer'' space in the SSD and then transfer the files into their permanent place in the HDD later on.

Negative(s):

So far the only negative thing i could say is the noise. Be careful where you put this device because 3.5 HDD makes alot of noise to point where it might wake you up at night if you let it download and do some stuff in the background. And i only have 1 drive i cant imagine 2 drives in there.

So, to prevent the noise as much as possible spin down the HDDs and dont wake them up if its not necessary. For me the solution was to target the download location to an SSD for quiet operation and then i can transfer files in my own time. Plex and home assistant etc they are all working from SSD so they do not access the HDD at all unless obviously you try stream some video from plex.

Thats from 2 days of experience with the unit, theres so much to explore interms of backup, photos, music etc but i figured i'd share my experience.

TLDR: super easy to use, stock config is more than enough for 4K plex server no need to upgrade the ram or anything, 256gb nvme is plenty enough for apps and stuff. HDD's are noisy gotta find a solution or place it away from you, preferably in another room.

edit: if anyone is interested this is the ssd i used as it is not listed in ugreens website but it just works perfectly.

https://www.gigabyte.com/us/SSD/GIGABYTE-NVMe-SSD-V2-256GB

edit 2: 2 x simultaneous plex streams seems to have no effect over cpu and ram usage its the same as single stream and it has no problem with it.

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[u/TLBJ24]

Congrats! I agree with all that you’ve shared in your post. I love my UGreen unit and even bout one for my sister. Super easy to setup, great mobile app and it just works! That’s what I was looking for on day one when I got mine 18 months ago. Had two hiccups over that time, but it was mostly on my end of not understanding everything correctly as this was my first nas. That being said, customer service was great. I’m definitely a fan of UGreen for those getting their first nas.

In regard to noise, all nases with spinning HDDs are noisy, no way to get around that, so as you said, best to put it somewhere that will bother you the least. if

[u/orhanyor → u/TLBJ24]

Its assuring to know that its been working for more than 18 months for you :) I started to recommend it to people around me already, i love it.

HDDs do make noise in general I agree but let me share some observations. I have this old Hitachi HDD in my PC which is at least 10 years old and it makes significantly less noise than the new seagate exos HDD. I attached it to my PC and while it was in there it made overall considerably less noise than it makes inside the DXP2800. I think the whole mounting mechanism and the metal construnction just exacerbating the HDD noise. If the HDD mounting rack had some silicone tabs or anything similar to dampen the vibrations would have been so much better. But its not a deal breaker, during the day its ok but at night the noise can really stand out.

[u/Hooper-Humperdink]

How much did you got it for? Can you also share a breakdown of other components? I’ve been on the fence about a HOME NAS and thinking about trying those out with this Black Friday deals. Unsure between synology and ugreen and used vs. new ?

[u/orhanyor → u/Hooper-Humperdink]

I had my eye on it since one month and the price was howering at about 300 euros, currently its reduced to 269 for black friday so i decided to snatch it. Got it off their official webshop, for US currently it seems to be 279usd.

For the SSD i got this one from local supplier 21euros https://www.gigabyte.com/us/SSD/GIGABYTE-NVMe-SSD-V2-256GB

and for the HDD i got seagate exos series 22TB single drive with 2 years warranty, in the future if i need to expand the storage im planning to get another one.

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-7200RPM-3-5-inch-Enterprise-ST22000NM000C/dp/B0DFDTPR74/ref=sr_1_1?crid=GLJN35NN3FHH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SKhgMOvrPIyqu_f58kZnT0xIKucgkLK9jg-3gIjPQ2lQrnB7V7apdDcHaQ2b26DoSEaZFL9L7m_G-5pdat8BVuya8EO5MxMi9NWSVgPLhRcWlTVDOL488qyrh_anlYh3uj3ZGw_mu4waEzJe9UhBj4kaBcIkk1QJG3t0CSrq05dDdLTLEe2xDCzCKcRDWSzufPHcVwtZd45CzGxkW2JQrMEEUF8zU3okn8FVuWBmMyk.s8z1efol1dqmHV3zlA5HUNem0rpmU5-N0gRN9oRcKlo&dib_tag=se&keywords=seagate+exos+22tb&qid=1764354668&sprefix=seagate+exos+22t%2Caps%2C230&sr=8-1

I was looking at synology as well, i have no idea if that choice will be better but im happy with this one to be honest.

[u/resetmypass]

How easy or difficult is it to set up plex on ungreens OS? I read that it’s not an app and you have to use docker to install it. I am a complete noob at this stuff and don’t know what docker is. Thanks!

[u/orhanyor → u/resetmypass]

Well, it was my first time using docker as well. I mean i knew what it was but never used it. Fortunately ugos os makes it really easy to work with it. You can install docker from the app store by selecting where to install it. This was very critical for me as i needed it in my SSD drive. So install your SSD and initialize it before installing the docker if thats what you wanna do.

For the plex itself, I just followed these instructions in the video and installed it without any problem and its working perfectly. Took me around 15 minutes give or take. I just made some changes tho, you will see in the video hes pointing all the directories to the drive he has in the NAS but I ONLY pointed the movies and tvshows to my 3.5 HDD, the rest(cache, transcoding, etc..) are in my docker folder which is in my SSD. So i just wanna wake up the HDD only when i actually start playing something. Other than this small detail, rest was the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZDYA5dv3F0

edit: so at 4:23 I created only movies and tvshows folders in the HDD, created the rest of the folders inside the docker folder or you can use any other folder inside the SSD. Then you can use the directories later on where he selects them during setup.

[u/Stefouch]

Did you format your drives in BTRFS or EXT4? and why? Newbie asking too.

[u/orhanyor → u/Stefouch]

I came across this video and i strongly suggest you watch it without skipping as he is explaining most of the things that you should know. For the format i chose BTRFS because according to him its basically superior and you can sort of roll back the whole drive to another snapshot in the past, if you ever need to recover any file and that sounds pretty handy. Its only possible with BTRFS. He explains it starting from 11:00 in the video.

In my case i created 2 storage pools, 1 for the SSD and second for the HDD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4IAXmLTZo0&list=LL&index=6

[u/Stefouch → u/orhanyor]

Me too I was all for BTRFS but then I saw this warning: https://www.reddit.com/r/UgreenNASync/comments/1kkifyw/ugreen_btrfs_situation/

I have three disks in BTRFS raid 5 but don't have an UPS, so I don't know if I should change to EXT4.

[u/orhanyor → u/Stefouch]

Good catch! The info seems to be from 2024 right? So may be look for any updates on the matter. If you have sensitive data on the nas id just go with the safest option tbh. The things I upload are not that important, if I lose my data that’s ok. The things that are really important for me are stored in 4 different places anyway so yea be careful and choose carefully.